Friday, January 26, 2007

In Praise of India - Famous Quotations


On Occassion of India's Republic Day, I present to you what authors, historians, authors have to say about India. Top Quotations from Will Durant, Mark Twain, Albert Einstein, Max Mueller and others.


1.Will Durrant - American Historian "India was the motherland of our race and sanskrit, the mother of europe's languages, she was the mother of our philisophy, mother through the arab of much of our mathematics, mother through the Buddha of ideals embodied in Christianity, mother through the village community of self government and democracy. Mother India is in many ways the mother of us all"


2.Mark Twain - American author. "India is the cradle of the human race, the birth place of human speach, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend and the great grand mother of tradition. Our most valuable and most instructive material in the history of man are treasured up in India only"


3.Albert Einstein - American Scientist "We owe a lot to the Indians who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made"


4.Max Mueller - German Scholar" If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed some of its choicest gifts, has most fully pondered upon the greatest problems of life, and has found solutions, I should point to India"


5.Romain Rolland - French Scholar " If there is One place on the face of earth, where all the dreams of a living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, It is India"


6.Mark Twain - American Author "India has two million Gods and worships them all. In religion all other countries are paupers, India is the only millionaire"

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

The Importance of Devotion or Bhakti


According to the Gita


The Bhagwad Gita the greatest and the holiest of hindu scriptures, emphasizes the importance of bhakti or loving devotion to God,"Bhakti" says the Gita is the only way to realize God


Arjuna's Question to Lord Krishna

"My Soul is oppressed by a sense of frustration, my mind is unable to determine what is right, I am requesting you definetly to tell me what is good for me, I am your pupil. Teach me I have surrendered myself to you"


Krishna's Answer

"Let your mind be constantly directed towards me, be devoted to me, dedicate all your actions to me, prostrate yourself before me, over and above the claims of all dharmas (duties) is complete surrender to me and me alone"

"It is not possible to see me as you have done through the study of Vedas, or by austerities, or gifts or by sacrifice, it is only by one pointed devotion (bhakti) to me and me alone that you thus see and know me as I am in reality and ultimately reach me. It is he alone who dedicates all his notions and actions to me with a knowledge of my superiority, my devotee with no attachment and who has no enmity to any living being, that can reach me". Bhakti therefore is the only way to the true knowledge of God and the surest way to reach him.


Bhakti : unwavering devotion and love for God

Bhakti, according to Gita is love for God and love reinforced by true knowledge of the glory of God, It surpasses the love for all things worldly, the love is constant and is centered in God and God alone and cannot be shaken under any circumstances wether in prosperity or in adversity

The Three Modes of Material Nature of a living entity


The Material nature of a human being consists of three modes

Mode of Goodness

Mode of Passion

Mode of Ignorance

When a living entity comes in contact with nature, he gets conditioned by these three modes. From Mode of Goodness, real knowledge develops. From Mode of Passion grief develops and from Mode of Ignorance, foolishness, madness and illusion develops

In Mode of Goodness one develops knowledge but they become conditioned by the concept of happiness, one becomes wiser than those otherwise conditioned, a person in the mode of goodness is not so much affected by material miseries and has a sense of advancement in material knowledge.

In Mode of Passion one develops hankering for material enjoyment, he wants to enjoy some sense gratification, he wants to have a family, children, wife, house, property, these are few example products of the mode of passion and to achieve all this he has to work hard and there he becomes associated with the fruits of his activities and thus is bound by such activities. Modern civilisation is considered to be advanced in the standards of modes of passion. When there is no liberation for those in the mode of goodness, what of those who are entangled in the mode of passion?

In Mode of Ignorance, a living entity practices madness, indolence and sleep and all this binds the conditioned soul, mode of ignorance is just the opposite of mode of goodness, every one under the spell of mode of ignorance becomes mad, such people are very reluctant to make advancement in spiritual knowledge and do not want to understand what is what, such people are lazy, they are not even active like the person in mode of passion, normally a person in mode of ignorance sleeps more than is required, such a person you will notice is always dejected and is addicted to intoxicants and sleeping, these are few symptoms of a man in mode of ignorance.

Sometimes the mode of passion becomes prominent, defeating the mode of goodness and sometimes the mode of goodness defeats passion and at other times the mode of ignorance defeats goodness and passion. In this way there is always a competition for supremacy - Lord Krishna

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Monday, January 22, 2007

The Perfect Person



The Human body is composed of following:



  • Soul
  • Intelligence

  • Mind

  • Working Senses

  • Dull Matter


If placed in the above given order, it makes a man a perfect being, the dull matter has to be controlled by the working senses and working senses are to be given direction by the mind, intelligence should be in charge of the mind and the Soul above intelligence.



Many times we notice that the above order is disturbed and at times it becomes like:

  • Soul
  • Mind
  • Intelligence
  • Working Senses
  • Dull matter


Many times we notice it becomes like:

  • Soul
  • Mind
  • Working Senses
  • Intelligence
  • Dull Matter

And at times its like:

  • Soul
  • Working Senses
  • Mind
  • Intelligence
  • Dull matter


thus sometimes working senses become more superior in control and sometimes intelligence takes over and at times the mind takes control of intelligence and working senses.

Well we may realise that every living entity has the mind but all are not intelligent or all donot wish to utilise there intelligence.





Sunday, January 21, 2007

Transcend / Overcome the three modes of material nature


When the embodied being is able to transcend these three modes of material nature, ie. mode of goodness, mode of passion and mode of ignorance, he becomes free from birth, death, old age and their distresses and can enjoy nectar even in this life.


One who does not hate illumination, attachment and delusion when they are present, nor longs for them when they dissapear, one who is seated like one unconcerned, being situated beyond these material reactions of the modes of nature, who remains firm, who regards alike pleasure and pain and for whom a clod, a stone and a piece of gold is one and the same, who is wise and holds praise and blame to be the same, who is unchanged in honor and dishonor, who treats friends and foe alike, who has abondoned all fruitive undertakings - SUCH A MAN IS SAID TO HAVE TRANSCENDED THE THREE MODES OF NATURE, and thus comes to the level of Brahman.

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It can work - if one can truly transcend the modes of nature, it seems possible thus to attain ultimate happiness.

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Transcendental Knowledge


In the above image : Lord Krishna instructing the imperishable science of yoga to the Sun-God

The Lord said : "I instructed this imperishable science of yoga to the sun-god - VIVASVAN, and Vivasvan instructed it to MANU, the father of mankind, and Manu in turn instructed it to his son Iksvaku."
Herein we find the history of the Bhagwad-gita tranced from a remote time when it was delivered to the royal order, the kings of the planets.
In this millennium, the sun-god is known as Visvasvan, the king of the planet sun, which is the origin of all planets within the solar system.
THE HISTORY OF BHAGWAD-GITA CAN BE TRACED AS FOLLOWS:
IN THE BEGINNING OF THE TRETA-YUGA (MILLENNIUM) THIS SCIENCE OF RELATIONSHIP WITH SUPREME LORD WAS DELIVERED BY VIVASVAN TO MANU, MANU BEING FATHER OF MANKIND, GAVE IT TO HIS SON MAHARAJA IKSVAKU - THE KING OF THIS EARTH PLANET AND FOREFATHER OF THE RAGHU DYNASTY IN WHICH LORD RAM APPEARED.
AT PRESENT MOMENT WE HAVE JUST PASSED THROUGH 5000 (FIVE THOUSAND YEARS) OF THE KALI-YUGA WHICH LASTS 432,000 YEARS. BEFORE THIS THERE WAS DVAPARA-YUGA (800,000 YEARS) AND BEFORE THAT THERE WAS TRETA-YUGA (1,200,000 YEARS) . THUS SOME 2,005,000 YEARS AGO, MANU SPOKE THE BHAGWAD-GITA TO HIS DISCIPLE AND SON MAHARAJA IKSAVAKU. THE AGE OF CURRENT MANU IS CALCULATED TO LAST SOME 305,300,000 YEARS OF WHICH 120,400,000 YEARS HAVE PASSED. ACCEPTING THAT BEFORE THE BIRTH OF MANU, THE GITA WAS SPOKEN BY THE LORD TO THE SUN-GOD, A ROUGH ESTIMATE IS THAT THE GITA WAS SPOKEN AT LEAST 120,400,000 YEARS AGO. IT WAS RESPOKEN BY THE LORD AGAIN TO ARJUNA ABOUT 5000 YEARS AGO, THAT IS THE ROUGH ESTIMATE OF THE GITA, THE KNOWLEGE IS SUPER HUMAN
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Saturday, January 13, 2007

krishna on krishna

I am the self, seated in hearts of all creatures, I am the beginning, the middle and the end of all beings.
Of lights I the radiant sun, of stars I am the moon, of all rudras I am Lord Shiva, I am the lord of wealth.
Of bodies of water I am the ocean, of vibrations I am the transcendental OM, of immovable things I am the himalayas.
Among men I am the monarch, of weapons I am the thunderbolt, I am proceator God of Love, I am Yama the lord of death.
Among subduers I am time, among beasts I am Lion, of fishes I am shark, of flowing rivers I am the Ganges.
Of Science I am the spiritual science of the self, and among logicians I am the conclusive truth, Of letters I am the letter 'A'
Of months I am November and December, Of seasons I am flowering bearing spring, I am also the gambling of all cheats, of splendid I am splendour.
I am Victory, I am adventure, I am the strength of the strong, I am all de-vouring death and I am the generator of all yet to be.
Among women I am fame, fortune, speech, memory, intelligence, faithfulness and patience, Among Pandavas I am Arjuna.
Of secret things I am silent and of wise I am wisdom. There is no being - moving or unmoving - that can exist without me.