Two Ways of Liberation

1. Ant's way (pipeelika marga): -- retain 'I' ness --> practice some discipline --> and involving in satsangs --> to only know the futility of this world and 'I' ness --> drop 'I' ness and liberate
2. Bird's way (vihanga marga): -- question 'I' ness --> believe strongly that you are already liberated and are not what you think you are

As it comes to mind that Bird's eye is the fastest way to achieve liberation, but it needs strong urge to liberate and earnestness. Bird's eye is also known as 'Vihanga marga'. Know more about it through yourself.

Being now and here

Liberation is being now and here.

Think about it.

Ask

Ask who is God and I assure you that you will find him one day

Ask who am I and I assure you that you will find yourself one day and also God

Ask who is asking these questions and I assure you that you will see no questions inside of you one day

Ask what is time and it's relation with you and I assure you that you will find a timeless being one day

Ask yourself, only you have answers

Don't expect answers to come from outside

Even if they come, it is only you who is answering

When you realize this truth

You will one day question that silence that will visit you

Answer to that will again be only silence

That silence will dissolve your question along with your being

Then you become question and also answer to that question

Such an immense power that mighty silence holds

Trust that silence

Know that

Become that

That 'It Is'

Obvious

Eternal light shines behind the obvious

What you take for granted, lies there the key to your supremeness

Problems lies where your attention usually is

Ignorance is where your curiosity is

Mirage is where miracle is

Supreme is where simplicity is

The person whom you thought is retarded has an inner eye

The one whom world ignores is God

Can you ignore me?

When I met you once, you ignored me
When I met you again, you ignored me
Do you really think you can ignore me?
We have been meeting always
We have known each other always
You are not ignoring me, you are ignoring yourself
When you ignore me, you ignore yourself
More you go away from me, more you go away from yourself
I am your source, which always existed
I am that, you are that
That 'It Is'

Present and it's reality

Try to be in now and here. What do I mean by "now" and "here". I mean this moment and this location. If you strictly focus on "now" and "here". You will observe that you are not present. Mind and body both do not exist. This is to be experienced and cannot be taught. 


This fact gives birth to the famous meditation technique, which is "wall gazing". Great masters like "Bodhi dharma" used to practice this technique. Don't try to find this in ancient scriptures, you will only find what they did but you won't find why they did. Explanation for "Why" comes from yourself. Wait for it. 

Bullshit

Qualities, behaviour, conduct, discipline, blah blah blah have nothing to do with realization. If someone tells you that a realized person does so and so and behaves in a certain way. Do not subscribe to such thoughts, it is plain bullshit. External behaviour etc etc have nothing to do with inner state. Now do not argue that realized person may be a mass murderer and all, how come he is a realized person? Again bullshit, without being realized don’t jump on to conclusions. First realize and then let the world know what it is and what did you do. Realized person does nothing internally, although he is doing everything externally. That doesn’t mean he will engage himself in everything outside, he lives every moment afresh and situations cannot pressurize him whatsoever. He will do what is needed at that moment. Now do not argue that, what if that particular moment he kills someone. Again bullshit, realized person is aware that he cannot kill consciousness, because it’s him eternal, timeless and perfect being! How foolish it is to involve in such actions. These negative things are  in your head, you created them, you have colored your world. Realized person’s world is perfect, he will never get any situation where he does something and then feels guilty. Guity, happy, sorrow, good, bad, right, wrong blah blah are your own concepts. They all are false concepts and mind’s creation. He is silence and in silence, no one does anything. That exists in itself.

Conclusions are false. The moment you conclude something it is not true. The state which points to nothing and points to everything at the same time is eternal, timeless and perfect state. Do not identify yourself with any thought that points to something. Nothing is right in this world, and nothing is wrong at the same time, they both are related and hence they are false. The moment you reject something religiously or follow something religiously then you are blind. State where you cannot conclude anything, state which is indescribable using words and experience itself! is eternal, timeless and perfect! No words can explain the truth. You need to experience it, and moreover you need to experience that experience. You need to be aware of awareness, conscious of consciousness.

Can you own all the knowledge in this world? No!
Can you find out answers to all the questions you have? No!
You know what, we are afraid of state where we come from. If I say that I will send you to a state where you cannot learn anything, cannot create opinions, cannot judge things, cannot conclude anything, cannot question anything, cannot think anything, cannot reason about any concept, you will be afraid to go there. That fear is ignorance, and that state is purest, eternal, timeless and perfect.

Oh my realized friend

Why do you think sages do not go out and announce that they are realized? The moment they try to explain it to others, words limit them, how can infinite define itself using finite medium? Next moment, silence which is an infinite medium draws them in and gives them shelter for eternal. Why does silence come in to picture here? Because the moment you try to explain your state to others, you instantly realize about the foolishness that you are trying hard to explain your own state to yourself. The moment you come across contradictory state, silence comes and unites with you and you merge into eternal which never tries to explain itself to itself, it is on it’s own, it is content, it is that. That ‘it is’.

Congratulations friend, your search is over and now you have seen and became that light or aware of that light. Be very careful about false forces that try to make you hungry for praise and recognition for what you have achieved. Be still in the truth that there is no one to praise, now because you have seen that light, you have actually become that light, there is no one to praise you, only you exist, consciousness in you is complete, pure and eternal. It doesn’t need any praise which is just a concept of mind. These false forces will ask you to serve people, and when you show no interest, these forces will try to create guilt in you, they will say “If you are realized, what have you done to the humanity?”. They fail to understand that it is their world where there are problems and concepts like humanity and in-humanity. They fail to understand that being a single wave they are talking to the Ocean itself which treats every wave equally and doesn’t color or tamper with them. Let objects shine with your light, do not worry about the reflections and objects illuminated, they cannot change light, which is you. Don’t worry, now that you have reached the source, great silence is with you, it will take you to your source whenever needed without your effort, and will show you time to time that it is you and you are that. Rest in peace, what you have seen is not delusion, delusion changes with time, truth doesn’t. You know it, you know that, you are that. That ‘It Is’.

Indian Philosophy and Practicalities

Note: Everything in this post is based on my own observations and experiences. I am not expert in any school of philosophy. Kindly forgive me if I mis-represent something unknowingly.

In this post I will mainly talk about two schools of vedantic philosophy, their practicality and convergence

Advaita: 

Once you go through some fair number of scriptures and advaitic interpretations of them. You will be familiar with following concepts:

• Brahman, Atman, Ultimate Bliss, Non-duality, True Self, No Fear, Equilibrium State, Sat-Chit-Ananda, Vairagya, No Desires, Self Illumination, No Doubts, Mind, Subsidence of Mind, Thoughts, Ignorance, Maya, Moksha, Turiya, Fourth One, Sleep, Deep Sleep, Waking State, Conciousness, Infinite Conciousness, Ego, I, I-ness, Right Attitude, Dispassion, Non-attachment, Action, Actionlessness ..... so on so forth 

Reading scriptures will let you know that few things exist and we are extremely lucky even to know that they exist because this information directly comes from the experiences of great masters who have reached the states of perfection and equilibrium. As said by great saint Yogananda Paramahansa "Read less, Meditate more and Experience bliss all the time". He is indicating that, reading should be limited and secondary, whereas personal experience is the foremost in spiritual upliftment. We should find out ways to practically experience the concepts that are mentioned in our ancient scriptures. Before that it is extremely important to have faith in these scriptures. Without unconditional faith in something, there is no initiation. For example: baby trusts it's mother, feels safe in her hands and then mother gives it extreme care and makes it a successful being. Similarly the case with scriptures, scriptures are like mother, keep faith in her and she will nourish you spiritually. It is said and I personally have experience that, while you read these scriptures with extreme faith, reader can experience the concepts then and there. For example: when Advaitic scripture talks about non-duality by giving different analogies and talks about unlimited potential that you possess as a true self, it makes you experience the concept by programming your mind by giving different convincing analogies and examples. You can experience extreme bliss and peace for a limited time till mind again traps you in it's web of thoughts.

Question is how to retain this experience 24/7 ? My answer to this is to find ways in our life to practice by changing or following few little things that we do in our day to day life. Let me tell you few examples:


Concept: "Attachment causes sorrow, non-attachment frees you from material sorrows". -------- Attachment to material things results in sorrows, because this world is constantly changing and everything is ephemeral. The thing that you get attached to will not be forever with you, someday, sometime it will go away, then your mind starts punishing you by trapping you in a deadly web of poisonous thoughts disabling you completely with the feeling of losing something badly. Why should we experience this sorrow unnecessarily? We are of nature "ultimate bliss (sat-chit-ananda)", this sorrow doesn't belong to us. Did we ask for this sorrow? Why should we experience something that we don't ask for? Practicing non-attachment is the only way to free ourself from this sorrow.

• Practical Technique: "Whenever there is opportunity, give away one thing that you like the most currently, or fancy the most, and that which by giving away doesn't affect your life drastically".  --- This practice will slowly train the mind to not getting attached to little material things and helps you to not unnecessarily getting troubled when it goes away. Eventually, you will develop an attitude where you will not be troubled even when you experience biggest loses in life. You will stay strong like a mountain that stands still even when there is rain, wind, lightning etc. Currently we lack this attitude and sad thing is that in a single day we go through so much of fluctuations in emotions and get disturbed every other minute with a feeling of "losing or lost" something. Do we deserve to get this punishment without any reason? Do not allow the mind to trouble you. 

Concept: "Duality doesn't exists. Everything is one. Non-duality is the ultimate truth -- Advaita Vedanta"

• Practical Technique: "Whenever you come across great adversities, recollect the fact that everything is one. Non-duality is only real" --- Just by remembering this and reasoning about this, you will see immediate improvement in your mental condition and you will gain immense confidence. This confidence will give you new outlook and show you the way to handle your current situation. This works amazingly well like a lightening bolt. You just need to close your eyes and imagine yourself as one with this universe and experience that you are nothing but the supreme Self. There is nothing in this world that can affect you, all the adversities are for the mind and the body, not for you. You are the whole and infinite and pure consciousness. When you meditate on this, within seconds you will be freed from your sorrows and all the mental bondage that holds you. Let me tell you a small application where we can use this technique very often. Many-a-times we meet people and spend time with them, but when we go away from them, we sometimes feel bad and then we start to miss them very badly. That mental condition is horrible, doesn't let you do anything. Then we should meditate on the supreme Self, just tap in to your inner consciousness and then tap into infinite consciousness with the help of your own thoughts. When you expand your horizons from "me" and "mine" to "everything" and "everyone", you no longer feel lonely and you will not miss anyone, because the sense of completeness will make you realize that you are not different from the person you are missing badly. You are part of same consciousness. 

Concept: "Personal self - ego = Supreme Self,  that means losing your ego will lead to liberation and you will become ever aware of your supreme Self"

• Practical Technique: "Become a biggest critic of yourself" --- When you become biggest critic of yourself, there no way others can hurt your ego by insulting you. Your ego becomes very thin, but it will not disappear. Again here I am only talking about one dimension of ego. Saying "this is mine" is also an ego, and to avoid/minimize this ego we have discussed the first concept above.  

Methods of Chanting Vedic Mantras

I think I can't do justice to this question more than what C. Sri Vidya Gopalan has done by giving a brilliant answer to this question. I just want to link this question to his reply here:

http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090306075642AAdtVE7

Pouring Milk In Snake Mould -- Blind Faith

It is widely believed in India that if we pour milk in snake mould during festival times then one will get Punya (there is no English word for it) or will bestowed with good luck, riches etc.

This is a purely a blind faith.

We should never pour milk into a snake mould. Reason is that it will do no good to the snake living inside mould. This is because, when you pour milk, protein in it invites ants and once ants occupy the place then snake will be attacked by them and killed. This will result in a sarpa dosha or serpant's curse according to shastras.

So please remember, never pour milk into a snake mould.

Agama Shastra

Coming up .....

Why Do We Do Milk Abhisheka To Idols?

There may be moments when you had pondered, why do we do milk abhisheka to idols. It's just a stone, why there is a need to waste so much milk on a piece of stone? 


Firstly, if we refer to Shastras, when idol is made, prana pratishta is done. That means, inviting the divine/positive energy to reside in the stone, in other words inviting god in to it. So, its no more a stone. Secondly, to retain the physical property of that stone it needs to be protected. 


Main problem with stones is that, they can easily develop fissures or cracks if left unattended. 


Cracks in stones can be caused by many different problems. A stone may begin to crack due to the soil underneath and around it settling over time. Moisture will be able to gather in this crack, and when the moisture freezes, the crack will be forced open wider. As more and more settling occurs, and the freeze/thaw cycle continues, the crack will continue to grow and become worse.


Milk has a protein in it which forms a protective layer on the surface of any body it is applied to, that's the reason most of the cosmetics are made out of milk, it protects our skin from getting dry. Similar goes for stones, by performing milk abhisheka, we pour milk on the stone and it creates a layer of protein on stone which prevents the stone from developing crack and fissures on it. 


This is the reason you see that stone idols in temples remain shining and appear new for hundreds of years together. Whereas if you see idols in abandoned temples, they are in bad condition with lots of fissures and cracks on it.


For more information, refer to Agama Shastra.

Urulu Seva, Kukke Subramanya (Faith or Blind Faith)

Recently there have been agitation by media channels that this ritual must be stopped. According to them it is just a blind faith and should not be followed.

Urulu Seve: This is a ritual involves people rolling on the plantain leaves left by other devotees after their meal. 


Belief: Devotees believe that by taking up Urulu Seva, they will be freed from diseases and dosha (sorrows).


Media: Media agitation is about stopping this ritual, as media thinks it has no meaning and is a pure blind faith.


As far as I know, according to Shastras (when I say Shastras I am referring to scriptures like Yoga Vasishta and other Upanishads) egotism creates bondage and it creates false notions and conditioning of mind blocking all the ways to liberation. Egotism takes the form when mind creates false notions such as "I", "This is mine", "I am great", "I am something" etc. So thing to understand is mind and egotism created by mind is the whole and sole reason of sorrows (both physical and mental). If we are able to break this ego or "I-ness" then we will be liberated and no sorrow can touch us. One who has ego or "I-ness" will never take part in Urulu Seva or rolling on plantain leaves left by others after their meal. His ego will never allow him to do that. But one who determines to do it, have to leave his ego and take part. Hence, Urulu Seve is a very smart ritual or custom that provides a way of breaking once ego, hence freeing devotees from sorrow and pain they suffer because of terrible goblin called mind.


I hope you have understood the subtleties that are encoded in this ritual. Hence, it is not a blind faith.

Before Eating Food

This post is just to revisit the ancient practice of chanting a mantra before having food. Following are the two mantras that can be chanted.


अन्‍नं ब्रह्म रसो विष्‍णु: भोक्‍ता देवो महेश्‍वर: ।
इति संचित्‍य भुंजानं दृष्‍टिदोषो न विद्यते ।।

Meaning: One who eats food with the firm belief that food (anna) is Lord Brahma, the taste of food is Lord Vishnu and the one who consumes it is Lord Shiva is not affected by the ill-effects due to casting of an evil eye.


One can also chant:

Aham Vaishvanaro Bhutva
Praninam Dehamasritah
Pranapana Samayukta
Pachamyannam Chaturvidham.

Meaning: I am present in all beings in the form of digestive fire. United with the Prana (exhalation) and Apana (inhalation), it is I who consume the four kinds of food.