It is She who gives the power or Shakti to reach the Absolute. It is She, as Katyayani, who brings the gopis closer to Krishna. It is She, as Mahalakshmi, who is the gatekeeper to Vishnu’s heart and Grace. It is She, as the Kundalini Shakti, who awakens us to Shiva nature. It is She as Mahamaya, who brings forth the manifestation and She as Parameshwari, who is an expression of the Absolute. As Sri Ramakrishna said, Kali is Brahman Itself.
To unlock even one Name can take lifetimes, the revelation of its mystery being the culmination of all sadhana. And perhaps this is why the Lord has so many names – knowing even one fully, renders it unspeakable.
The way the awakened energy moves in our human body is in the form of the Kundalini serpent – the electrical charges that open up our consciousness and extra-sensory perception.
For the spiritual seeker, there are two main aspects that the snake represents – Stillness and Sensing.
The Guru is a form of Grace that has come to lead you back to Itself. With all other things in the world, we accept partially – there is always a part of us that holds back and doesn’t consent fully. A guru is just someone with whom your acceptance became Total.
If we really want to learn from the Gita, then we need to understand that it has chosen to put before us that basest of human actions, violence, so that we really get the point about acting in yoga. If we really want to extract from the Gita, a wisdom we don’t ordinarily find in the world, we should ask – how can a war be fought without hatred?
“जरा रंग सांची प्रेम की, और रंग हैं झूठ।”(Jara rang saanchi prem ki, aur rang hain jhooth) The true colour is the colour of Divine Love, all other colours are false. – Kabir das This is a topic I have not written about before although it has been with me for some years now and…
As Yoga sees it, male and female are biological genders but masculine and feminine are energies that every individual carries. One may call it the head and heart or Yin and Yang. And so simply having a female leader does not mean that we have empowered the feminine because the female leader could even be more masculine in her approach than a male!
The Feminine expresses more evidently in art, aesthetics, emotion and spirituality. As an example, we may build a house using our masculine energy but it is our feminine energy that makes it a “home”.
Bharat and Sanatana Dharma is marked by stories that are eternally true. And not only that, stories that relate intimately to our experience as conscious beings on this planet. Being woven into the fabric of the land, these stories are ever present both physically outside us, as well as within. The story behind the Kumbh mela is such a one.
The spiritual traditions in Bharat include thousands of stories relating to events that happened over tens of thousands of years. However, these stories don’t intend to bind us or keep us stuck in history. They intend to show us how things happened (iti-h-aas), as is relevant for us presently. The beauty of Sanatana Dharma is that while the stories do relate to actual events, they also relate to subtle understandings and often metaphorically explain to us certain truths about our human condition and how to transcend ignorance.
The Gita spends a considerable amount of time – the entire first chapter – ‘setting the scene’. Notably, this is in contrast to other important scriptures of similar gravitas like the Brahma Sutras or the Yoga Sutras which begin with rather abrupt statements announcing that the topic of the text will now be discussed; or the Upanishads which again, don’t consider it important to describe context or background.
In my view, the Gita deliberately takes pains to draw attention to the example and metaphor of battle, to later, show the opposite of it or the transcendence of it and expatiate on the attainment of absolute peace.
Sanatana Dharma means the eternal law which is the basis of Existence itself. It is not something conjured up by the mind of a human being, but is the way that the cosmos functions. To be in tune with that movement and functioning is to follow Sanatana Dharma. To achieve this, myriads of methods and paths arose in Bharat and still exist today, reflecting the fact that each individual is unique, the way he seeks is unique and the way he perceives what he finds is also unique.
Those who follow the path of bhakti to the Saguna form of Brahman i.e. Brahman with attributes, will say that there is some intrinsic desire in the human being to know and feel the Infinite here, on Earth. To know the Infinite in form and present to our human experience.
Some interesting data by the Global Footprint Network regarding the ecological footprint of countries in terms of ‘number of Earths shows that India is the only country within the G20 economies that is making do with the planet as it stands; the rest are all living as though we have the resources of more than one planet Earth available!
The Earth can support natural human growth and progression but not psychologically dysfunctional consumption.
The focus of sustainability should be an alignment of human lifestyles towards harmony with our environment – this is the essence of Dharma.
“Surely he was the greatest man who ever lived. He never drew a breath for himself. Above all, he never claimed worship. He said, “Buddha is not a man, but a state. I have found the door. Enter, all of you!”
– Swami Vivekananda
It is an unfair exchange with God. Perhaps that’s why they say, God is not for trading with. Keep your transactions out of it. But what if you do end up in such an exchange?
It is bound to be unfair. You give a little, He will give a lot. This is in gist, what Akshaya Trittiya is about.
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