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d Hindus as henotheists, that is, people who
worship their God but do not deny the existence of other gods. Every Hindu
worships some god, but it may not be the same god worshipped by every other
Hindu either. As Radhakrishnan puts it: ‘God is more than the law that
commands, the judge that condemns, the love that constrains, the father to whom
we owe our being, or the mother with whom is bound up all that we can hope for
or aspire to.’
3 God is all that, and infinitely more
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The two great Hindu epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, tell stirring
stories accompanied by digressive meditations on values, morals and principles.
They are polycentric and fundamental texts about such key issues in society as
what constitutes ethical conduct; how a just society is made and sustained; and
the duties and obligations of kings, counsellors, warriors, women and sages.
They deal with great moral dilemmas and issues of right conduct, justice and
fidelity, violence and redemption; they give voice to a range of actors and
concerns; they provide models for social and political action; and because they
are told and retold as stories, they have embedded themselves in the popular
consciousness of Hindus
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Hindus trust the Vedas, but most do not see them as immune to analysis or
criticism; it has been axiomatic in Hinduism that what was valuable to its
forefathers might be valuable to us today, but each generation is allowed to
enquire into its own spiritual patrimony. The Vedas have a sanctified place in the
Hindu consciousness, but the Upanishads, the Puranas, the epics, and other
works of spiritual and philosophical enquiry are also counted among our most
basic scriptures. The three prasthanas or divisions of the Vedanta—the
Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras (555 aphoristic verses attributed to Badarayana
and written down some time between 450 BCE and 200 CE, which summarise
the spiritual and philosophical ideas in the Upanishads) and the Bhagavad Gita
—correspond roughly, according to Hindu philosophers, with the three stages of
faith, knowledge and discipline. Each has value and each can be understood and
practised alone or in combination with the others.
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I'm a warrior to the core. Adversity is my middle name and there isn't a bit of it I can't over come. At least not yet. I've been fighting since day 1 and on the days where I feel like there can't be any fight left in me I keep going. Fighter. Warrior. Victor.
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AB YOGI
A blaze of illumination came over me with possession of the amulet; many dormant memories awakened. The talisman, round and anciently quaint, was covered with Sanskrit characters. I understood that it came from teachers of past lives, who were invisibly guiding my steps. A further significance there was, indeed; but one does not reveal fully the heart of an amulet.
How the talisman finally vanished amidst deeply unhappy circumstances of my life; and how its loss was a herald of my gain of a guru, cannot be told in this chapter.
But the small boy, thwarted in his attempts to reach the Himalayas, daily traveled far on the wings of his amulet.
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MAYA LILA COSMIC JOKE
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g. If the
soul is permanent and the body is not, it makes sense that the soul sheds bodies
and keeps returning to earth until it has attained moksha; from this flows the
doctrine of punarjanmam (reincarnation), the idea that one will be reborn until
one has attained that level of self-realisation.
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The historical evolution of Hinduism testifies to its adaptability. The Vedas
gave birth to an excessively ritualistic and formalistic religion; the Upanishads
then lightened the practice of Hinduism through a spiritual movement based on
philosophical enquiry. When the Upanishadic religion itself became mired in
disputes over dogma, Buddhism preached a message of simplicity and morality
that contrasted with a Hinduism mired in ritual and abstruse disputation. And
then Adi Shankara travelled the length and breadth of the country, leading a
moral and religious reawakening. Shankara and Ramanuja restored Hinduism to
pre-eminence and popularity as the principal religion of India. Sages like
Madhvacharya, Chaitanya, Ramananda and Basava (whose followers, the
Lingayats, now want to be classified as a separate religion altogether, like the
Sikhs); Kabir, Mirabai, Tulsidas, even Guru Nanak, who founded Sikhism, but
whom many Hindus, notably Swami Vivekananda himself, see as a H reformer—the names of those who rose to reform, revive and rejuvenate the
beliefs of the people in this ancient land are legion. As early as the Gupta period,
when Hindu religious revival first occurred in response to the rise of Buddhism,
Hinduism came up with creative evidence of its adaptability through its
emphasis on the doctrine of avataras. The doctrine is clearly stated in the
Bhagavad Gita: ‘When religion declines and evil-doers are to be destroyed, I
shall be born at different periods,’ says Krishna. Some avataras were
worshipped as such even in the time of Panini, but it is with Krishna that we first
have the idea of an avatara of God and not merely a deified human being, a
doctrine that was handily adapted to the Buddha himself. Hinduism has never
been uniform or unchanging, immovable or unalterable. It is a religion that has
abjured the immutable revelation for the growth of human consciousness
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SS SAI BABA
AHAMKARAM X MAMAKARAM
How can one earn freedom in life and be liberated? Bhagawan explains to us today, so that we may march towards freedom, living peacefully and joyfully!
When a prisoner is taken from place to place, he’s accompanied by two constables, isn’t it? When man, who is a prisoner in this jail, moves from one place to another, he too is accompanied by egoism and attachment (ahamkaram and mamakaram). When you move about without these two, you can be sure that you are free, liberated from prison. Now that I have referred to jail and jail life, let Me tell you more! You are all under sentence of imprisonment in this jail. There’s no use hoping for reward when you work in jail; you work because you are ordered to, and you must work well too. You can’t argue that rewards are not distributed justly and you are not entitled to desist from allotted tasks! If you do so, your sentence will be extended or you will be transferred to another jail. On the other hand, if you quietly accept the sentence and go about your work without clamouring or murmuring, your term is reduced, and you are sent out with a certificate that ensures a happy life, unpestered!
- Divine Discourse, Feb 20, 1964.
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Pirates have no redeeming traits. If fact, they exemplify sociopathic behaviour.
Why do we keep their culture in the forefront of our entertainment? What is it that hooks us? What it does is that it minimises the suffering of others, doing a disservice to ourselves, and our society. The fact it is presented to young children in such a light manner is insidious.
As a physician, I witnessed deep suffering every day. There is nothing light about it.
A major step in reprogramming your nervous system is being aware of how becoming desensitized affects your connection to the pain of those around you.
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PRMHNSA YGANANDA
Norman, who was inclined to be moody, once lamented to the Master, "I don't think I have very good karma, Sir." "Remember this," the Master responded immediately, and very seriously: "It takes very, very, VERY good karma even to want to know God!" How easy it is for even one desire, once fulfilled,
How easy it is for even one desire, once fulfilled, to lead to others! They come in an unending procession, and tempt man to seek his fulfillment outwardly through the senses. One may wander as long as he elects to do so. How many mistakes get committed on the way, all of which end in broken dreams! How long it takes for an individual to realize that what he was always seeking was his own Self: the God-self within!
Yet it needn't take any time at all! As he said also to the disciples, "I don't want to hear any of you moaning in despair, `When will I find God?'-as if your own answer to that question were, `Never!' You have Him already! You need only to live in that consciousness."
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As a reform movement, the Arya Samaj advocated the equality of all human
beings and the empowerment of women; it opened its doors to all Hindus
irrespective of caste or sect, performing simple marriages according to the
prescriptions in the Brahmanas of the Yajur Veda. It also created a conversion
ritual called shuddhi, complete with formal certification, for non-Hindus wishing
to enter the faith, something which had never existed before and which seemed
to have been inspired by Christian practices of baptism. In his The Discovery of
India Jawaharlal Nehru describes the Arya Samaj as thus having introduced
religious proselytisation to Hinduism. (Non-Hindus marrying Hindus have found
that if they wish to adopt their spouse’s faith, the only way they can do so is
through the Arya Samaj’s conversion route.)
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In a different speech to the same Chicago convention, Swami Vivekananda set
out his philosophy in simple terms: ‘Unity in variety is the plan of nature, and
the Hindu has recognised it. Every other religion lays down certain fixed dogmas
and tries to compel society to adopt them. It places before society only one coat
which must fit Jack and John and Henry, all alike. If it does not fit John or
Henry, he must go without a coat to cover his body. The Hindus have discovered
that the absolute can only be realised, or thought of, or stated through the
relative, and the images, crosses, and crescents are simply so many symbols—so
many pegs to hang spiritual ideas on. It is not that this help is necessary for
everyone, but those that do not need it have no right to say that it is wrong. Nor
is it compulsory in Hinduism.’
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SARVA DHARMA SAMBHAVA - SW VVKA
t his vision—summarised in the
Sanskrit credo ‘sarva dharma sambhava’—all religions are equally worthy of
respect—is, in fact, the kind of Hinduism practised by most of India’s Hindus,
whose instinctive acceptance of other faiths and forms of worship has long been
the distinctive hallmark of Indianness, not merely in a narrow religious sense,
but in a broader cultural and spiritual sense too.
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