01/23/2004
Here is a benediction from Rigveda: Aa no bhadraah kratavo yanthu vishwathaha. ( Let noble thoughts come to us from every side ). So may it be. Now to Fri-Call.
Many saints and sages from times immemorial have trod upon and sanctified the land of Bharat with their expositions of the elevating and enlightening concepts from its ancient scriptures, revealing so lucidly the inter-relationship between the Supreme Godhead, the manifest external universe, and the various sheaths of the individual self. There came a dozen centuries back one who was a great luminary, a beacon of knowledge and wisdom, Adi Sankara, who having realised the Truth, travelled extensively over the entire vast country by foot, extolling eternal values, and, establishing the supremacy of the monistic philosophy, and, even founding great centres of knowledge in the four corners of the country. Many more saints, composers and celebrities followed later. While there were some enlightened Souls, repositories of the eternal Truth, who travelled thousands of miles to western countries to render glimpses of the spiritual treasure bequethed in India's ancient scriptures, there were also such others who consigned themselves to blissful solitude.
In that long chain of Realised Souls, the most recent one had lived till the middle of the previous century, so recent as that. A lad in teens, in South India, who had not even finished schooling, and, who was neither seriously exposed to any spiritual knowledge, nor had any spiritual preceptor, one fine day while studying, just fell into a reverie with a unique experience that he came out of his body and was visibly seeing it. The young lad was Venkatraman. There came the spark which later grew into a bright dazzling glow ! The young lad went to Arunachala temple (Thiruvannamalai), meditated, and after Self-Realisation, became Bhagwan Ramana Maharshi. Born 30 Dec 1879 and breathed His last on 14 Apr 1950. Thiruvannamalai became a holy centre of piligrimage, and, Ramanasramams sprung up the world over. Those in Bay Area (California) are fortunate to have one such in Santa Cruz under the name of SAT (Society for Abidance in Truth).
I had the good fortune of being at Thiruvannamalai over two decades back when, sitting in the Hall of Meditation, experienced an indescribable inner peace, and later composed the following poem
AT RAMANA'S FEET
Poem: (from 'Random Musings)
Oh, Sage of Arunachala !
When I come to Thy Altar
And sit to pray in Thy
Silent Hall of Meditation,
Should I open my floodgates
Of unfulfilled desires,
And batter my worship
For some earthly gains ?
This little selfish self
Packed with mundane wishes,
Craving for ephemeral joys,
Seeks every opportunity
To quench its insatiable thirst
To feed its ever-growing appetites,
And goes on asking ever
For the little things of life.
Oh Lord ! Let not I fall a prey
To these beasts of desire.
Let me be not enmeshed
In the sticky webs of samsara.
Let my grossness evaporate
As camphor at touch of flame.
Let the Divine Light dispel
All gloom, doubt and despair.
Oh, Master Divine !
I have nought to ask of Thee
Save, pardon me, one wish ---
Let me merge with Thee
As doth the river with Sea.
Musings
Now, some of my thoughts from 'Pearls of Wisdom' and 'Random Musings' :
One must be: gentle without being docile, firm without being fanatical,
bold without being reckless, compromising without being subservient,
humble without being slavish, dignified without being vainglorious,
self-respecting without being egotistic, and,
fearless without ever a thought of it !
* * *
What you think to be right, may perhaps be right; but to think that what you think alone
to be ever right, is not right !
* * *
Any activity that you are engaged in, whereby something becomes better than
what it was earlier, or, someone is enabled to feel or know better than before,
is indeed a good activity.
* * *
Be not like the slender blade of grass that swings hither and thither with every whiff of
the slightest breeze. Be like the imperturbable mountain that stands still and steadfast,
braving the mightiest of the winds and storms !
* * *
Is an individual ever fettered and shackled by some unknown Destiny, and has no independant
capability whatsoever ? The individual has it in one sense, and has not in another ! It is like a
pet animal bound to a pole by a few yards of rope. Within a certain limit, the freedom of
movement and action exists. But, beyond that it does not.
* * *
On the occasion of one's birthday, an optimist exults at the crossing of one more milestone in the march of life, whereas a pessimist despairs at being one more step nearer to the other end !
* * *
The six Ds for good life: Dedication, Devotion, Discipline,
Discrimination, Dispassion, Determination.
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