arsha vidya gurukulam · madhav babasaheb solao, trustees: ... we give up the adjective-substantive...

Arsha Vidya Newsletter - March 2015 1

Arsha Vidya PithamSwami Dayananda AshramSri Gangadhareswar TrustPurani Jhadi, RishikeshPin 249 201, UttarakhandaPh.0135-2431769Fax: 0135 2430769Website: www.dayananda.orgEmail: [email protected]

Board of Trustees:

Chairman:Swami DayanandaSaraswati

Managing Trustee:Swami Suddhananda

Trustees:Swami SantatmanandaSwami JnananandaSri Rajni KantSri M.G. SrinivasanSri M. Rajalingam

Arsha Vijnana Gurukulam72, Bharat NagarAmaravathi Road, NagpurMaharashtra 410 033Phone: 91-0712-2523768Emai: [email protected]

Board of Trustees

Paramount Trustee:Swami Dayananda Saraswati

PresidentRajashree Shrikant Jichkar,

Secretary

Madhav Babasaheb Solao,

Trustees:

Ramesh Bhaurao Girde

Avinash Narayanprasad Pande

Madhav Chintaman Kinkhede

Ramesh alias Nana PandurangGawande

Rajendra Wamanrao Korde

Arsha Vidya GurukulamInstitute of Vedanta and SanskritSruti Seva TrustAnaikatti P.O.Coimbatore 641 108Tel. 0422-2657001,Fax 91-0422-2657002Web Site : "http://www.arshavidya.in"Email: [email protected]

Board of Trustees:Paramount Trustee:Swami Dayananda Saraswati

Chairman:R. Santharam

Trustees:C. Soundar Raj

P.R.Ramasubrahmaneya Rajhah

Ravi Sam

N.K. Kejriwal

T.A. Kandasamy Pillai

Ravi Gupta

M. Krishnan

Secretary:V. Sivaprasad

Arsha Vidya GurukulamInstitute of Vedanta andSanskritP.O. Box No.1059Saylorsburg, PA, 18353, USATel: 570-992-2339Fax: 570-992-7150

570-992-9617Web Site : "http://www.arshavidya.org"Books Dept. : "http://books.arshavidya.org"

Board of Directors:

President:Swami Dayananda Saraswati

Vice Presidents:Swami Viditatmananda SaraswatiSwami Tattvavidananda Saraswati

Secretary:Anand Gupta

Treasurer:Piyush and Avantika Shah

Asst. Secretary:Dr. Carol Whitfield

Directors:Drs.N.Balasubramaniam (Bala) &ArulAjay & Bharati ChanchaniDr.Urmila GujarathiSharad & Lata PimplaskarDr.V.B. Prathikanti & SakubaiDr.Sundar Ramaswamy(Dhira) & UshaDr.L.Mohan & Vinita RaoV.B.Somasundaram and Dr.AnasuyaBhagubhai and Janaki TailorDr.Ashok Chhabra & Martha DohertyVijay and Pammi Kapoor

Associate Board of Directors:Dr.Soma & Nagaveni AvvaDr.Ravindra BathinaDr.Mahesh & Maheswari DesaiDr.Pramod & Lata DeshmukhDr.T.A.Gopal & LataDr.Kamlesh & Smita GosaiDr.Haren Joshi & Pratima TolatDr.Arun & Mangala PuranikG.S. Raman & GitaDr.Bhagabat & Pushpalakshmi SahuRakesh Sharma


Arsha VidyaNewsletter

In fearless voice maywe proclaim

The Rishi's message from all house-tops

And bring the menof different claim

To a fold of Lovewhere oneness lasts!

Arsha Vidya Newsletter - March 20152

Second MuëòakaSection 1

(Mantra 2….. continued)

Why should one say, “This snake is a rope,” and why not say, “This is a rope?”“What is rope?” if a person asks, one can show a rope and say, “This is a rope.”If one sees a snake on a rope, then that person has to be told that ‘this snake isrope.’ If one looks at the jagat as something separate from Brahman, then the çrutiis constrained to use words in sämänädhikaraëya and say, “idam sarvaà brahma, allthis is Brahman.” If one does not see the jagat as separate from Brahman, there isno need for this method of teaching.

There is another version of bädhäyäà sämänädhikaraëyam like in the sentence, ‘thispot is clay.’ Here the intention is to convey the truth of the pot as clay. The pot isunderstood as nothing but clay. In the wake of this recognition, the pot does notdisappear. It continues to be there and recognised, even though it does not haveany reality of its own. The sentence, ‘all this is Brahman, is exactly like that. Inthe wake of knowledge of Brahman, ‘idaà sarvaà’ does not go away; it refers tothe näma-rüpä, which is recognised as mithyä, since its reality is Brahman.

In a sentence, generally, sämänädhikaraëya is used only to relate words as adjectiveand substantive. Definitely the adjectives are used only to qualify a noun. If thisis so, then why do we say, “This pot is clay,” even though the clay does not havethe attributes of a pot? This is to be said because one takes the pot to be real. Whatis there is only clay. Here, we give up the adjective-substantive relationship andbring in the bädhäyäà sämänädhikaraëyam. One is looking at oneself as separate fromeverything, and hence there is confusion. The vastu is not recognised. Therefore,in the sentence, ‘idaà sarvaà brahma’ one has to go for bädhäyäà sämänädhikaraëyam.

In the sentence, ‘all this is Brahman’ the word ‘all this’ is not purely a subjectivereality, like the snake seen on the rope. One sees the snake on the rope, and thereforeit is there. But in the objective reality, ‘the object is, and therefore one sees.’ Theobject has a reality, has a colour which the eyes pick up. One cannot simply dismissthe eyes, the mind, the perception and the disciplines of knowledge and so on, assubjective. Whether one sees it or not, the object is there available for publicappreciation. There are tall mountains, there are vast oceans, there are huge plants,there is an order in everything, there is success, there is failure, there is right, andthere is wrong. How can one call all of them mithyä? It is what really bothers manypeople. All these are mithyä because they do not exist independent of satya.


The jagat that is mithyä is definitely not similar to rope-snake. It means ‘the jagatis not independent of its cause and hence it is Brahman.’ It is of a different orderaltogether. The means of knowledge and their operation also belong to the sameorder of mithyä. Even bondage and mokña belong to the same order. From themithyä bondage alone one is released. But the release is satya because after therelease what is there is satya. There is only one non-dual Brahman.

All the words of this mantra reveal the meaning of mahä-väkya.26 It is not thatthere are only four mahä-väkyas. Every upaniñad has mahä-väkyas. Four mahä-väkyashave been chosen from the four upaniñads belonging to four Vedas to prove thatall the Vedas talk about the same thing. If there are only four mahä-väkyas, thenthose who study other upaniñads have to come to these upaniñads.

Those who talk of four mahä-väkyas also talk of some gradation in them. Theysay that tattvamasi is the upadeça-väkya. It teaches, ‘You are Brahman.’ Thesentence,’ prajïänaà brahma, consciousness is Brahman’ is the lakñaëa-väkya, adefinition of Brahman. Then, ‘ayamätmä brahma, this self is Brahman,’ is anididhyäsana-väkya, a contemplative sentence. The final one, ‘ahaà brahmäsmi, Iam Brahman’ is an anubhava-väkya, a sentence of experience. There is no gradationhere, all the väkyas mean the same thing.

The words in these sentences have a väcyärtha, immediate meaning, and alakñyärtha, an implied meaning. Prajïäna means consciousness. That is Brahmanmeans it is the cause of the world. It is Éçvara. How can ätman, the consciousnessbe Éçvara? Because the truth of both are one caitanyaà brahma. There is non-difference in the lakñyärtha. Similarly, ‘ayam ätmä’ refers to the knower who isequated with Brahman, the cause of everything. There is difference in theväcyärtha, as the jéva, the knower, cannot be Éçvara. But the svarüpa of both isagain one caitanya. That alone is the truth. So too, ‘I,’ the jéva am Brahman becauseboth are satyam, jïänam and anantam. In the sentence, ‘you are that’ the word‘that’ refers to Éçvara from whom everything has come. It is the immediatemeaning of the word. No one can claim to be Éçvara. But if one knows the truthof Éçvara to be the truth of oneself, which is saccidänanda, then there is oneness.There is no difference at all whatsoever.

All the four väkyas talk about the same truth. The tätparya, purport, of allfour Vedas is to reveal the identity of the vastu alone. This meaning of mahä-väkya is there in every upaniñad. Even the sentence ‘akñarät parataù paraù’ is talkingabout the same thing.

26 Ao{fawR-baexk-vaKym! a sentence that reveals the oneness of the jéva, the individual, and Éçvara,the Lord.


ïI éÔm!Çré Rudram

Mantra 11

Åñi - Pulastyaù; Chandas - Tåñöubh; Devatä - Çanbhuù

Dhyäna- çlokaàsÚvdn< zaNt< cirtaeÖahm{fnm!,AMbya siht< Xyayet! surs’œ”EriÉòutm!.prasannavadanaà çäntaàcaritodvähamaëòanamambayä sahitaà dhyäyetsurasaìghairabhiñöutam.

May one meditate upon the Lord, who has a serene smile, who ispeaceful, who is the divine bridegroom accompanied by Pärvaté, andwho is praised by the host of devas.

Result (for chanting of the eleventh mantra): Absence of quarrel withimportant people, winning their favours and winning the enemies within andoutside oneself. One gains puraçcaraëa-siddhi by repeating this mantra tenthousand times for three nights along with observance of a descipline calledcaru-bhojana. Thereafter, one must also circumambulate a çiva temple tenthousand times.

ivik?ird/ ivlae?iht/ nm?Ste AStu Égv>,yaSte? s/hö‡?he/tyae/Nym/SmiÚv?pNtu/ ta>. 11.viki×ridaÞ vilo×hitaÞ nama×ste astu bhagavaùyäste× saÞhasrað×heÞtayoÞnyamaÞsmanniva×pantuÞ täù (11)

vikirida - the vanquisher of all the päpas; vilohita - one who is pure;namaù - salutation; te - unto you; astu - be;bhagavaù - O Lord who is endowed with six forms of wealth!;yäù - which; te - your; sahasraà hetayaù - thousands of weapons;anyam - other people; asmat - than us; nivapantu - destroy; täù - they

O vanquisher (of all päpas)! O the pure one! O Lord endowed with sixforms of wealth! Let our salutation be unto you. Let the thousands of


weapons that you have, destroy other people (deserving destruction),not us.

He vikirida135 — O the one who condemns! Those who hurt or destroyus in many ways are vikirayaù. Things that harm unfold themselves in termsof experiences such a diseases, loss of property and so on. The one who destroysthem is vikirida, the Lord.

He vilohita — O the one who is pure! Lohita means red colour and itstands for rajas as a guëa. The one from whom the lohita is gone is vilohita.He is of the nature of purity. He bhagavaù, my salutation to you who is endowedwith six forms of limitless aiçvarya in terms of wealth, overlordship, knowledge,freedom from want, glory and power.

Yäù sahasraà hetayaù täù asmät anyaà nivapantu — You have thousandsof weapons; let them not destroy us, but the wrong doers. There weapons ofthe Lord are all over in different forms; some of them are in our own bodyand mind in the form of ulcer, terminal cancer and so on and there are othercauses for affliction, päpa. Therefore anyaà nivapantu means päpaà nivapantu,let your arms destroy the päpas.

Mantra 12

Åñi - Närada; Chandas - Anuñöubh; Devatä - Çanbhuù

Dhyäna- çloka

svRpaphr< dev< svaRÉr[ÉUi;tm!,svaRyuxxr< dev< svRlaekmheñrm!.sarvapäpaharaà devaàsarväbharaëabhüñitamsarväyudhadharaà devaàsarvalokamaheçvaram.

May one meditate upon the Lord who destroys all the causes ofsuffering, who is adorned with all ornaments, who holds all weaponsand who is the Lord of all the worlds.

135 vividhaà kiranti hiàsanti iti vikirayaù tän dyati khaëòayati iti vikiridaù — those who harm indifferent ways are called vikirayaù, the one who condemns them is called vikiridaù.


Result for chanting of the twelfth mantra: Removes all minorobstacles in one’s pursuits. One gains mantra-siddhi by first observing thediscipline called kåcchra for a month and thus having gained the eligibilityto chant, one chants this mantra one thousand times.

s/höa?i[ shö/xa ba?÷/vaeStv? he/ty?>,tasa/mIza?nae Égv> pra/cIna/ muoa? k«ix.12.

saÞhasrä×ëi sahasraÞdhä bä×huÞvostava× heÞtaya×ùtäsäÞméçä×no bhagavaù paräÞcénäÞ mukhä× kådhi (12)

sahasräëi - (there are) thousands; sahasradhä - of countless varieties;bähuvoù - in both hands; tava - of you; hetayaù - weapons;täsäm - of them; éçänaù - the wielder; bhagavaù - O Lord!;paräcénä - away from us; mukhä (mukhäni) - faces; kådhi - make(turn)

O Lord! There are thousands of weapons of countless varieties inyour two hands. May you, the wielder of those weapons, turn them awayfrom us.

The Lord who wields countless varieties of weapons is requestedto withdraw all of them. The weapons are of different types. Everyaffliction is weapon. There are many ways to fall down and there arehundreds of ways to get hurt. These weapons are in the form of peoplewho hurt while talking to you. The whole life is full of upadravas,afflictions, and hence the weapons are looked upon as manifold, sahasradhä.May you make them turn away from us. Make them sukha-pradäna, giverof happiness.

Bhagavaù heténäm éçänaù mukhä paräcénä kådhi ——You are the Lordof all weapons. Even if you have used them, you can take them back.Let their face not be directed towards me. Withdraw all of them as youare éçäna, the Lord of them.


Understanding the Unconscious

Swami Dayananda Saraswati

Edited excerpt from Intelligent Living, ArshaVidya Research and Publications, Chennai, 2006

To be objective is what I call intelligentliving. I need to be objective in many areas.And it is not enough that I understand thisin general, vaguely. I must look deeply intocertain areas that need to be understood,ventilated, in order to live a life ofobjectivity. There is a world available forpublic appreciation, but I live in my ownworld of fears, anxieties and projections.Everybody is living in a bubble. We haveto prick this bubble and breathe fresh air.Let us understand first the reason for thissubjectivity; then we will look into what ittakes to be objective.

Ignorance can be one factor involved insubjectivity. Generally, that is the factor weaddress when we teach Vedanta. We teach‘what is’ so that you get clear knowledgewith reference to certain realities. This isone thing. There is another factor, which ispsychological and cannot be dismissed.Anyone who does not wish to address hisor her psychological issues because they arevery painful, dismisses the psychologicalfactor as merely psychological. Therefore,we are going to address it.

Addressing the psychological factor

When one is born, there is totalhelplessness. A human child is not assimple as a calf. A calf is born, it strugglesand stands on its four legs. A human baby,perhaps, was very safe and secure onlywhen it was not yet born. The baby’s body,connected to the mother, having its own

heart, happily moving and floating inside,was totally secure, perhaps for the onlyperiod of time in its entire life. It is bornto start an independent life. What a start toan independent life! To live independentlyone must have everything that is necessary.At least one must be able to beg. Thenewborn baby cannot even beg, but it isstarting an independent life. The baby wassafe a minute before. It is unsafe now,helpless, totally, since the cord is alreadysnapped. It has to start its journey, anindependent journey. Nothing is known.The eyes are still closed, not yet open. Itstarts its life with absolute trust in theperson whose hands pick it up. It is one’shundred percent trust. Maybe, vaguely,while prenatal, the baby had heard thevoice of the mother. It hears the same voicenow. Perhaps there is a small disturbanceinside if the voice is different, because thebaby is given to somebody else. Only asmall disturbance, for it cannot afford toquestion the person who nourishes it. It hasto completely deliver itself to this personbecause it does not have the wherewithalto survive. As an organism it isprogrammed to survive; it has got thatinstinct. It is the only goal in the beginning.There is no other goal. If you were to askthe baby, “What is the goal of life?” and ifit could answer, it would say, “I want tosurvive.” It has no other goal. It is not goingto say, “I want to become the president ofthis country.” Survival is the organism’suntold story. It is the story of everyorganism.


A child’s total trust

The baby is helpless. It cannot even turn,much less does it have any resources tosurvive. It delivers itself to what I call trust.Do you know what kind of trust? It is total

trust. You can have total trust only insomeone who is all-knowing. You cannotplace absolute trust in a person who isfallible, bound by time, bound by ageing,bound by disease and death. You cannottotally trust that person who can create, butcan create only small things, and who alsosays he cannot do anything else; much lesscan you trust a person who can create butcannot maintain what he creates. Perhapsa person can create, can keep it going, butcannot withdraw, cannot stop like somepeople who do not know when to stoptalking. Well, that person you cannot trust.One hundred percent trust in such a personis not possible. You can only trust thatperson who does not have any limitationwhatsoever, in terms of knowledge and interms of sakti, power. Whichever way youlook at that person, he or she has to havetotal capacity; that person alone you cantotally trust.

However, innocence on the part of the childmakes total trust possible. Total trust isnecessary for that baby. It cannot afford todistrust; it has got to trust and trust totally.Total trust means trust that the trustedperson will nourish, will take care. Thatperson becomesIshwara, God, for that childand on the lap of that person, it relaxes; itgoes to sleep. To the voice of the personwho rocks the cradle, or on the moving lap,the child goes to sleep because it is safe. Inits awareness there is safety because of totaltrust. Safety comes from trust.Gradual erosion of the child’s total trustA mother is trustworthy until her mobilerings. Once upon a time the door wasknocked upon. Once upon a time thetelephone rang. That was all ‘once upon atime’. Now the mobile rings and you are

away from the child. The child feelsdeprived because there is inconsistency.You are not around all the time. I want youto understand this thoroughly. We cannotafford to be ignorant of a few things. Weneed to know. Inconsistency causesdisturbance to the child. In its awareness,the mother has to be around. As the babygrows, it also recognises the other familiarvoice of a different frequency that washeard while it was pre-natal, sometimes inthe morning and evening. Sometimes it isheard after ten days. Even that is a soothingexperience and gives a sense of security.Well, this consistency on the part of amother makes the child feel secure. She maynot be a working mother. This ‘workingmother’ is a new expression, as though theother mothers do not work. They work inthe kitchen, go to the market; they work athome. As long as the mother is not awayin the child’s awareness, the child feelssecure. As long as the mother does not fallill, the child is secure. As long as the motherdoes not share the attention with anotherbaby, the child is secure. As long as themother does not raise her voice, the childis secure. As long as the mother does notargue with the other frequency-voicedperson, the child is secure.

You can understand now that as the childgrows, the insecurity also grows. It beginsto see the fallibility, the inconsistency.Where is the total trust? The total trust getsviolated, gets eroded all the time.

In a joint family the child always had a lap,an empty lap. It sat on the empty lap of a

grandmother or of an aunt. Now there areno empty laps; even if a lap is empty, thereis a laptop on it. Where is there an emptylap? There is no empty lap available, so thechild grows insecure, and remains insecure,constantly seeking the same safety, the samesecurity that it had experienced before itwas born.


This particular experience of the child,which remains throughout its life, is whatis called the unconscious. Every adult hasthe responsibility to process this insecuritywith which one cannot live. To liveintelligently, to live objectively, one has tounderstand this unconscious verythoroughly. The unconscious interpretseverything. It vitiates every experience. Itdistorts everything. Nothing is seen as it is.We need to become conscious of thisunconscious. We will.

We have an equivalent word ‘Kashaya’ inSanskrit for the term unconscious. ‘Kashaya’

controls one’s life; one has no control overit. The nature of ‘kashaya’, the unconscious,is such that you cannot have any say overit, inasmuch as it is something that you arenot conscious of. Really speaking, ourmechanical behavior comes from thisunconscious. Scriptures, such as theBhagavad Gitaand the Upanishads , alsoaddress the problems caused by theunconscious. The word ‘atmavan’ of thescriptures, means the one who has atma.Everybody has an atma. Atmahere is thewhole karya-karana-sanghata, our bodymind-sense complex. Atmavanis the one who hasa say over the ways of one’s mind. It revealsour Sastra’s recognition that one needs toaddress one’s kashaya. In fact the wholeHindu sanskriticulture recognises this as anissue to be addressed.

Let us understand this kashaya, theunconscious. The human child, the survivor,wants to have its gods always on its side.Obviously it does not want to lose them ortheir grace. The child expects the parents tobe totally free from any form of limitation.Where is the possibility? Knowledge-wise,power-wise, health-wise, longevity-wise,consistency-wise, the mother has to be freefrom limitation, but the fact is that themother has limitations. As for the father, hehas many more, not fewer. Therefore, as thechild grows, the total trust that the child

enjoyed gets violated. The helplessness ofthe child continues. The two-year-old ishelpless. It has discovered its own ego, butbegins to

discover more and more limitations in theparents without verbalising them. Thenonverbal recognition of the limitations thatviolate trust is deadly. This is the pain that

forms the unconscious. The child cannotafford to have this pain. It will die of pain.

Therefore, in nature, let us call it ‘nature’for the time being, there is a provision forthe child to put this pain under the carpet,the carpet of the conscious mind. It is theflip side of the ego, the shadow part ofoneself, which we call the unconscious.

Impact of nursery school on the child

In these days of competition, we send thechildren to school even before they are twoyears old. I saw in a nursery school, inBhavnagar (Gujarat), a child of just eighteenmonths old. I asked for its mother but themother was not there. The person who runsthis school, and who happened to be myhost, was very happy, joyous, that in herschool there was a child of one and one halfyears. She said, “You know, Swamiji, thischild is only eighteen months old.” It wasa complete and deadly violation of thechild’s trust. It was blatant. Already, thereare some violations that a parent cannotavoid. The mother has to go here and there;in between there are some quarrels, thereis some headache, there is some shoutingand so on. This is a mortal’s lot, which itselfcauses enough problems for the child. Theseare the normal problems of people. If a oneand a half year old, a two-year old or athree-year old is sent to a school, separatingit from the mother, it is the cause forneurosis.

In the awareness of the child there is nopresence of the mother. In fact, the childfeels banished when it is sent to the school;


the mother has vanished from itsawareness. The child feels that the all-knowing, almighty mother, the trusted one,cannot commit a mistake. So, it concludes,“Something is wrong with me; that is whyI am being sent away.” People say that thisneurosis is a contribution of the society. Thesociologists talk about this. It is allignorance, nothing but sheer ignorance. Thiscontribution is only made by the parents.They have banished the child to the school.

The parents question, “How will they learnsocial etiquette, social skills?” What socialskills? Do we not have social skills?Everybody has social skills. You can teachall about social skills in just two days; itdoes not take time. What we need are stablepeople. The parents also argue, “How willmy child later compete in this competitiveworld if it does not go to nursery school?Further, these elementary schools will notgive admission unless I have a nurseryschool certificate.” That is another problem.We need to change this.

These nursery schools destroy the stability,the sanity of the future generation. Thecurrent generation itself comes out of that.Later on, we push these children to scoreninety-seven percent, ninety-eight percent,ninety-nine percent and so on. The fatherscored just seventy percent; the motherscored seventy two percent. If we go by thegenetic average, this child should score onlyseventy one percent. How will he or shescore that ninety-nine? Genetically it isillogical. Therefore you constantly push thechildren until they have a break down. Ifthey do not have a break down, you willnot know what they will do later on.

Do not send the children to nursery school.You send the children to school from classone when the child is five year old. Thatis the correct thing to do.

A need for a re-look at nursery schools

If one sends the child to a nursery school,then someone must accompany the child

from home. Therefore, I say, let us havenursery schools where the mother alsocomes to the school.“Swamiji, every mother cannot come.”“Then, why should she become a mother?”“What Swamiji, she wants to be a mother.”“But then let her be a mother.”“No, she is a mother in the morning, amother in the evening.”“What is she in between?”“She is a working woman.”Even at the work place the feeling of amother is always there. You cannot be amotherin the morning, a mother in the evening,and smother the mother in between. It isimpossible. You are a mother always, evenwithout the child. However, if the child iswithout the mother, it is not right.

We have started two schools now inChennai where mothers accompany thechildren. In fact, we should start such aschool in every locality. Ask the children tocome with their mothers and start oneschool. Do away with all the nurseryschools once and for all or make them dowhat they ought to do. It is important thatthey do this because nobody has the rightto destroy a life. All evidence says that itis not good for the child, for the wholesociety, for our culture, for our country.When someone goes against the evidence,then that person has not really understood.

I appeal now to the sanity of the people.We need to be very gentle to our children,sensitive to their needs and never beresponsible for separating a child from itsmother, from its gods. Never come inbetween a child and its gods in the nameof schooling. In our culture, you cannotcome between a husband and his wife. Youcannot even walk in between them whenthey are talking to each other. You cannotwalk in between a mother and a child. Youcannot walk in between a teacher and hisstudent. You should never come in between


the child and its gods. This is veryimportant.

Vedic system of education

In ancient times, we did not have this kindof a situation. When we read the ChandogyaUpanishad we find that Uddalaka, the fatherof Svetaketu, sent Svetaketuto a gurukulamwhen he was twelve years old. We have tolearn from the Veda; a child is sent to agurukulamonly after it is twelve years old.Until then the child has to learn at home.It means that the teenage years are spentin the gurukulam. It is a wonderfularrangement for the parents because theyare free from the children’s teenageproblems. The teachers at the gurukulamwilldeal with the teenage problems. Until he orshe is twelve years old, the child has toremain with the parents and study. It is avery sane arrangement. After all, MadamMontessori’s system came within the lastfew years. We can change it again withina few years. Ms. Montessori was a goodwoman. She thought she was contributingsomething to the growth of the child. Shenever knew that she was causing neurosis.This neurosis makes the child feel, “I amno good, that is why my mother sent meaway.” The worst thing is the mother tellingme, “Swamiji, my child is different; sheloves school. She comes back and tells meall about school and how she enjoyed it.”The more the child loves school, the moreis the pain underneath. The child seems tobe happy because she wants to win hermother back. The more the child expressesits great admiration for the parents, thegreater is the pain underneath. Theunconscious gets loaded day after day. Bythe age of four and a half the unconsciousbuild-up is over, and then there is aconscious build-up. The conscious build-upconfirms the unconscious anyway. So,during one’s entire life there is this feelingthat ‘nobody likes me, nobody wants me’and a sense of loneliness. In this crowded

jagat, there is loneliness. Think this over.When you look up, there are stars. Whenyou look around, there are people andpeople. If there are no people, you haveenough bugs at least. You do not lackcompany at any time. How can anybody belonely? It is only a sense.

Besides this, the child also has an intrinsicsense of its own worth, its own goodness.So the child also feels that it is notunderstood. It thinks “I have not doneanything wrong. Why should I be sentaway? Why should I be banished, punishedlike this? It is not my mistake. And yet,because the parents are gods, “Maybe thereis a mistake because I am banished. Myparents cannot be wrong, but at the sametime, I have not done anything wrong.”Thus, the innocent child is really confused.The confusion remains during the entirelifetime of the person; it makes his or herreaction to every situation subjective insteadof objective.

One projects things that are not there.Simple things are converted into problems.For instance. somebody, who is very dearto you was trying to sneeze, and that wasexactly the time you asked the person, “Doyou still like me?” The person was tryingto sneeze and was making such contortionsthat his face looked as though he wasfrowning. Since his face was ‘frowning’, itwas taken to be an answer, a negativeanswer. Even body language becomes avery big problem.

Need for communication at home

When there is no communication at home,people walk on eggshells. Parents tell me,“Swamiji, we never quarrel in the presenceof our children.” Do they really believe thatthe children do not know that they quarrel?Well, the children always sense thatsomething has happened. Later, when theparents return laughing, the child sees


something wrong in that extra laughter andwalks on eggshells in the house. In theWest, such a home is called dysfunctional.You can understand what a dysfunctionalhome is. Between the parents there is nounderstanding, no amity and there is no joy;so the child is always in a panic. This isbefore the child is four and a half years oldand even after that the panic continues.

Structured society was a blessing

Long ago, the Indian mind was consideredto be solid and secure because people livedin a highly structured and predictablesociety. If the father were a priest, the sonalso would be a priest. Therefore, therewere no worries about what one would doin life. The son would be a priest. He maybe a better priest, more informed, highlyeducated and a scholar. Thus, in the veryprofession itself excellence wasaccomplished. Because it was secure andstructured, there was some sanity in thesociety. I do not want that kind of a socialsystem to come back. I do not care for that,but I care for sanity and we cannot barterit away for anything. Why are wesacrificing emotional stability?

Happiness is accepting oneself totally asa person

A part of Indian society is the person whois happy just sitting under a tree. He doesnot have anything. This is something to tellthe whole world. A person with a mereloincloth is blessed when he is happy andcontented, kaupénavantaùkhalubhägyavantaù. Itis not that all loin-clothed people areblessed, but there are people who are happybeing what they are, even if they do not

have anything. After all, what is it that onewants to accomplish? You need to acceptyourself as a person totally. If you havetotal acceptance inside and outside, youhave made it. Until then, you seek theapproval of others, approval of the society.You want to prove yourself to besomebody. It is a constant struggle.

Stability in a structured society and home

We say this is a progressive society.Honestly speaking, India had a sanity thateveryone admired. Even today, there is areality that we better recognise. I do not sayit as a credit to us. What is that reality?Every one of the post-war independentcountries, countries that becameindependent from the colonising countries,has had coups. Even in our neighbouringcountry, which was a part of this country,a country carved out of our country, therehave been coups, one after another. Then,how come there has not been a single coupin India? Is there something wrong with us?Did not India have situations where thereshould have been a revolution? Were thereno occasions for a coup? There wereoccasions, but then, a coup never took place.It is our culture; there is sanity and thereis stability. I do not want to think that itis a left over of our past culture. It has notcompletely disappeared; it is still alive. Ina structured society there is stability. In astructured home there is stability. When thehome is not structured, when what happenstoday and what will happen tomorrow arenot very clear, the home becomesdysfunctional. The children are always ina panic.

…. To be continued

Page sponsored by:

Sri Ramachandra Trust, N.Ramachandran,5, Devadi Steet, Mylapore, Chennai 400004


How to Teach the Value of the ValuesSwami Viditatmananda Saraswati’s talk to teachers

at Pürëa Vidyä Teacher’s Training Camp, August 2014Arsha Vidya Gurukulam, Pennsylvania USA

(… continuation of 4th and final part)

I may have performed an act of dishonestysuch as stealing, because there is somematerial advantage in that. But as a result,it creates in me a sense of guilt because itis quite contrary to what I expect frommyself, meaning that I was not able to liveup to my own expectation of myself andwhen I cannot live up to my expectation ofmyself, I feel unhappy with myself. I feeldissatisfied with myself. I feel I am notgood enough. I’m not worthy. This is themain problem. My own dissatisfaction withmyself, the judging of myself as not worthy,is the cause of my sadness.

Why am I saying it? Because the time maycome when I may not expect it from myself.Because you can make an argument:“Swamiji, what about a cold-bloodedmurderer who doesn’t feel any guilt? Thereis no rule that you feel guilty. The thiefdoesn’t feel guilty. He is deliberate. Heplans his action very well and then commitsthe theft and feels very happy about it. Isit not so?” So, there is no rule that you feelguilty when you violate the values. Thereare people who do not feel guilty at all.Many people just tell lies right and left andfeel nothing at all because that is the wayto do things. It’s convenient. Is it not so?There are people who kill hundredsofpeople, just blowing them off and theyfeel they have done something right. Sosomeone can argue that there is no guiltfeeling always.

Is it good to have no guilt? Someone says,“I think it is against the purushartha of

dharma.” It is against dharma, that is true,and that it comes under the law of karmaalso is true, but for the person, if ourargument is that following a value isrequired because otherwise we feel guilty,there are people who do not feel guilty atall in violating right. So there are exceptionsto the rule. If there is an exception, then therule is broken. The thing is that if you keepon abusing your freewill, if you keep ondeliberately doing something that is wrong,the time comes when you stop feeling. Youhave lost the sensitivity. The idea is that byrepeatedly abusing your freewill, you losethe sensitivity. Therefore, to feel guilty theremust be sensitivity. One has to be sensitiveto know that what I have done is wrong.If the sensitivity is not there, like a catdoesn’t have that sensitivity, doesn’t feelthat there is anything wrong in killing amouse, so when I don’t feel wrong inkilling somebody, what does it mean? Itmeans that I have deteriorated to the levelof being a cat. I am no more a human being.

Is it good? No it’s not good, becausesensitivity is what enables you to enjoythings. If you place a nice flower before acow, what will it do? What a beautifulflower! What a color! No. At the most it willeat it. Can I call it enjoying a flower? No.For a cow the flower is perhaps a kind offood. For you, a flower generates lots ofemotions. Why? Because you are a sensitiveperson. When there is sensitivity, it givesus the capacity to enjoy things, to contactsomething at a subtler level. A flower of


course is food at one level, but it has color,it has fragrance, it has beauty. To reachanother level requires a greater sensitivity.Thus, by abusing freewill we keep losingsensitivity and are sacrificing our capacityto enjoy things. Then for the same level ofenjoyment people who abuse the freewillrequire many hard things like alcohol. Ifyou look at the private lives of these people,they are bound to be addicts; they arebound to be pursuing only hard kinds ofpleasures, because they have no capacity toenjoy anything that calls for sensitivity.Therefore, it is a great damage that one doesby abusing freewill. In some way you haveto communicate this to your children bygiving examples. As they say in Gujurathi,reading Bhägavatam to someone withoutsensitivity is like reading Bhägavatambefore a buffalo. What does the buffalounderstand? Nothing. So if I allow myselfto be convinced into thinking like a buffalo,I will sacrifice millions and millions of yearsof evolution. From the level of a buffalo wehave evolved to the level of human beings,which has taken I don’t know how manymillion years. All that is compromised,therefore, next time when I am born, I willbe born a buffalo. I will be born as aninsensitive creature because I have alreadybecome that. Even though I am in a humanform, I have already become a buffaloinside, meaning insensitive. Therefore, mynext birth will be like that.

People sometimes ask a question, “Swamiji,if you were born a human being does itmean that you will be born as a humanbeing?” Not at all; it depends on how Iconduct myself. We create our own destiny.We don’t need a third agent, God etc. to dothis, we do it ourselves. So byusing thisfreewill, or abusing the freewill, a humanbeing is creating his or her own future. Thishas to be communicated in order to createa value for sensitivity. With this sensitivityyou can enjoy music, and there are so manycategories of music. When it comes toclassical music I dose off because I don’t

have that sensitivity. If you present a Picassobefore me, I wonder “what is this?” I lookfor shapes and order and harmony and Idon’t find that. You need a different kind ofsensitivity to appreciate what that is.

Therefore, sensitivity is the name of thegame. One has to be sensitive to be able tofollow the values. I should be sensitive toyour feelings. If I am not sensitive, withoutany intension I will wind up doingsomething that hurts your feelings. “Oh, Idid not mean that!” You did not mean it,but you did it anyway. How did you do it?It’s because you are not sensitive. Sotherefore, following values like non-violencerequires us to be sensitive people. Thesensitivity is about the feelings of others.They have a right to live, a right to be free,a right to be respected. Just as I want to berespected, everyone has a right to berespected. Therefore, everybody should berespected. A child should be respected. Wesee in our upanishads also that the greatteachers respected their students. Not onlythe students respect the teacher, the teacheralso respects the students.

In Kathopanishad we saw how the greatteacher Dharmaraja, the Lord Death, praiseshis disciple Naciketas: “How great you are!”“You are even greater than me,” at onepoint he says. “I wish I had students likeyou.” So, respect for everybody, whoever itis, is a basic value. PujyaSwamiji says thatyou should respect your audience. Don’tthink that they don’t understand.Sometimes the speaker says, “These fellowsdon’t understand anyway.” Don’t say that.Everybody understands. Not only that, butit is the duty of the teacher to see that thelisteners understand and not to dismissthem because you think that they don’t liveup to some intellectual expectation. Theteacher should be able to communicate tothe student at the level where the studentis. When children are growing, you have tobe particularly sensitive to their feelings.How will they interpret what I am saying?How will they feel?


Thus, non-violence, the basic value, requiresus to be sensitive people, sensitive to thefeelings and the emotions of others. Butstill, we find ourselves violating the valueof non-violence. You can hurt somebody bya physical action; you can hit somebody.That’s the very crude violence that is wellknown. You can hurt the plants by pluckingleaves. Sometimes people do that; justabsent mindedly they keep plucking leaves.If you are not careful when walking on theroad, you might be crushing some creaturesparticularly in the monsoon season. That’swhy in India, you see that the sädhus arealways parivrajaka, meaning that they arewandering monks. He is aniketa, he has nohouse. He has no kitchen, therefore abhikshu. But the sadhus during the monthsof monsoon will not travel. During thecaturmasya, the four months (they call itcaturmasya, but actually it is two months),they camp in one place because travellingin those days along the road there wouldbe creatures coming out because the watergoes into the houses and they allcome out,poor fellows. And quite possibly you mightinjure them. This is physical injury. Youshould be careful.

Then, in our culture vegetarian food isrespected because its basic value is non-violence. Eating meat requires killing livingbeings, animals and other creatures, andthat is a great deal of violence. When youteach like this, the importance of vegetarianfood from non-violence and health pointsof view etc., you should equip yourself withall this understanding before you go to theclass. In order to teach the topic, there mustbe statistical data, some stories, some otherresearch information should be there. Butthen, they will ask you a question.“Swamiji, you say that eating meat isviolence, but then you say that the plantsand vegetables also are life. Whether youare a vegetarian eating plants andvegetables, what is the difference betweeneating egg and eggplant? Egg is life,eggplant also is life. Pumpkin is life and a

chicken also is life. What is the difference?You are eating a live organism anyway.”

There are a couple of ways of answeringthat question. One way of answering thequestion is, look at the process of evolution.How does the evolution take place? It startsfrom a unicellular organism and hascompleted its process by becoming a humanbeing, the most evolved organism. Inbetween there are millions of organisms anddifferent levels of evolution. How youdetermine that a given creature is moreevolved as a creature depends upon theconsciousness and sensitivity. The humanbeing is the most evolved because a humanbeing is a self-conscious and sensitive being.A cat is less evolved, having lessconsciousness and less sensitivity. Amosquito is even less evolved. A plant iseven less evolved. So now you have achoice between a plant, like eggplant, andfish. Which is more evolved eggplant orfish? How many million years does it takefor an organism to evolve from being aneggplant to being a fish? Is it not so? Sowhen you consume an eggplant, you areconsuming a certain amount of nature’sresources, when you consume a fish you areconsuming much more work on the part ofnature, because it has taken so many millionyears to evolve and therefore, killing a fishis much more violent than consuming aneggplant. Both involve violence, butconsuming vegetarian food involves theminimum violence. Consuming fish wouldinvolve more. Consuming chicken wouldinvolve more. A goat involves more. A cowinvolves even more, because they are of agreater category of evolution. Amonganimals, a cow is the most evolved animalas compared to the wild carnivorousanimals. Herbivores are more evolved thancarnivores like tigers, lions and so on. Sokilling a lion may be less violent thankilling a cow. And a lion is more evolvedthan perhaps lower forms of animals.


Thus, when consuming vegetables, we areconsuming the minimum resources ofnature. That s why it is true that when weeat vegetarian food we are involved to acertain extent in violence. hat is the nature,you can’t help it. Even if you want, youcan’t eat rocks. Can you eat pebbles? If youcould eat pebbles it would be no violenceat all. But anyway, the rule isjivojivasyajivanam, one life form supportsanother life form. One life form requiresanother life form to survive. Every life formrequires live food. That is why we eat livefood. So plants, fruits andvegetables, arealive, otherwise we can’t eat them. That’swhy they say to eat them when they arealive. The way Indians cook, by the timeyou are finished with cooking most of thelife is gone, because of frying, spicing, andso on. Live food is raw food. That’s whynaturopathy prescribes that you should eatonly raw food.

Another argument is that vegetables andfruits do not have the feeling to protectthemselves. They don’t move away whenyou pluck them or eat them, whereas evena small insect will move away when it seessomebody coming. A vegetable has muchless consciousness than an insect has. Theless consciousness you have, the less thereaction is. The more the consciousness is,the more the reaction is. But somebody willsay that just because it doesn’t have muchconsciousness, doesn’t mean you can kill it.Therefore, jivojivasyajivanam, every lifeform requires live food.

Also, protection of the environment is muchgreater when people eat vegetarian food,than when people eat animals. Moreresources of nature are involved insustaining the animals. Even though thecow is considered sacred in India and mostpeople do not kill the cows, the cowscontribute to the greenhouse gases effect.There are more cows in India than in USA,but at least they are not bred for food. So,

we have to keep open minded and keeplearning and be willing to change.

The more sensitive a person you are, themore likely you are to get hurt becausemore faults come to your notice. So, thenext value is kshama, acceptance. You canbe a non-violent person if you are also anaccepting and forgiving person. You havea two-step response. When a person hurtsme, my immediate response is to hurt back.That is called a one-step response. A two-step response is that I step back and thenI see my feeling. In a one-step response, nofeeling is involved. So, in stepping back Irecognize that this person hurt me and askmyself, why did this person hurt me? HaveI done something? Then I have time tothink and I can respond to the person ratherthan to the behavior. So, this person hasdone something by which I am hurt, butthat person is in pain and does not knowhow to manage the pain. I happen to behere, and therefore, he is unloading his painon me. Thus, seeing that a person is in painmay arouse your sympathy and it may bepossible for you to accept that person’sbehavior and not react to it.

Question: What about the dialog thatArjuna had with Lord Krshna about killingthe respected people in his own clan?

Often this basic question is asked, in theBhagavadgitaisn’t Lord Krishna tellingArjuna to fight? So, one commoninterpretation of Gita is that Lord Krishnaisteaching violence to Arjuna. He was askinghim to kill. But no, Lord Krishna is notasking Arjuna to kill. Lord Krishna is askingArjuna to perform his dharma, his duty.Arjuna is a kshatriya and the duty of akshatriya is to protect dharma. So ideallyArjuna and the Pandavas represent dharmaand the Kauravas representadharma. Thisis a conflict between dharma and adharma.So, Lord Krishna says to Arjuna, “Your


duty is to protect dharma; why don’t youdo that?”

So, perhaps we have to interpret this as theactive resistance against evil. Duryodhanarepresents evil. If you do not resist that, itwill spread throughout the whole society.If one limb is rotting, someone has toremove the limb and it is violence. But thatis to protect the rest of the body. Similarly,all those Kauravas in the battlefield of theMahabharata, called Kurukshetra, aresupposed to represent the evil that hadaccumulated on earth. Therefore, the wholething was designed to bring an end to them,to eliminate that evil. So Arjuna who askednot to fight, has to perform his duty. Andmost important now, for your information,in the second chapter Lord Krishn says,t a s m a d u t t i s h t o k a u n t e y a y u ddhayakrtanishcaya (ii). Therefore, heyKaunteya, uttishto, arise, and return to fight.But before you fight, what state of mindshould you have? Sukha-dukhe samek r i t v a l a b h a - a l a b h h a u j a y a -a j a y a u t a t o y u d d h a y a y u j y a s v a n a ivapapamavapsyasi (iii ).Then afterwards,Arjuna engages in the battle. Before that,create the state of mind. What is it? Sukha-

dukhe same kritva, be even-mindedtowards pleasure and pain. Labhalabhhau,be even minded towards gain and loss.Jayajayau, be even-minded towards victoryand defeat, meaning that you are fightingthis battle, not for victory, but for protectingdharma. If escaping is your goal, you willperhaps compromise dharma. Therefore,being even-minded means being non-violent. But how can you even fight a battlebeing non-violent? If you have the rightattitude, you can. So violence is an attitudeand non-violence also is an attitude. Non-violence is not to give up action. No, it isan attitude. Sometimes outwardly, it mayinvolve a violent action. But inwardly theintension is to bring about the good of alarger number of people. Just as a surgeonamputates a limb, it is for the wellbeing ofthe body. Therefore, Lord KrishnaaskedArjuna to perform his duty on thebasis of non-violence. In the 18th chapterhe says, hatvapisaimanllokannahantinanibadhyateiv. Yasyanahaikatobhavobuddhiryasyanalipyate, It is free fromahankara, that I am doing it. And one willhave no attachment to the outcome. You aredestroying all these people and are notincurring any sin, because the attitude isnon-violence.

Concluded

i Bhagavadgita, Ch 3, 21. Whatsoever an important person does, that alone the otherpeople do.

ii Bhagavadgétä, Ch 2, 37. Therefore, Kaunteya (Arjuna)! get up, having resolved to fight.

iii Bhagavadgétä, Ch 2, 38. Taking pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeatto be the same, prepare for battle.

iv Bhagavadgétä, Ch 18, 17. The one who has no doership, the one whose mind is notaffected, he, even killing these people, does not kill, nor is he bound.


Satsang with Swami Viditatmananda SaraswatiArsha Vidya Gurukulam

Prayer, Japa and Spiritual Progress

Question: If God is within us, why should wego to the temples? Should we not pray toourselves? Please explain the importance ofworship at the temple. Are all the ritualsnecessary?

Answer : When we worship Ganesa orLakshmi or other deities, we are in fact,worshipping saccidananda in a given a form.If you recite the hundred names of Ganesaor Lakshmi, any of these will refer tosatyamjnanamanantam brahma. If God ismanifest as the whole universe, then let allthe actions performed be in the spirit ofworship. To facilitate that worship, we havethe temples. We have the same saccidanandaGod who is given a form to which we canrelate to. This is a very beautiful thing wehave in our Vedic culture: that God is givena form, which enables us to establish apersonal relationship with the Lord. That ishow temples provide us an excellentopportunity to be able to directly worshipGod. Worshipping the Lord througheveryday actions is easier said than done.When you interact with the world, raga-dvesasor likes and dislikes are involved.Ganesa does not push these buttons. He doesnot mind anything. He is always predictableand always smiling. When you come to atemple, therefore, you feel safe and secure,and accepted easily because you can alwaysrelate to the Lord. Coming to temples andworshipping becomes an excellent trainingground for our own feelings and our ownhearts. Eventually you become matureenough to worship Ganesa as saccidananda.Before that, you worships that samesaccidananda, but in a particular form withwhich you can relate. Therefore, the templesand the altars in our homes are very

important, because they allow us to invokethe devotee from within us; that is the processof purification of our hearts, and we becomemore and more mature. So worshipping andparticipating in festivals is extremely useful;I should say extremely needed in invokingthe devotee within us and making us mature,so that some day we stop making contractswith God and become less and lessdemanding and more and more offering.Then you will be ready to worship Godbeyond these forms.

Question : Should prayer be performed in aspecific or formal way?

Answer : It is not necessary for prayer to beperformed in a certain language or in acertain structured form. The point is if youwant a specific result or outcome, a structurehas been given and then you may have toperform a specific prayer in a specific way.If I desire the heavens, progeny, health, fameetc., then I should perform specific prayersthat can bring about these specific ends.However, if your prayer is not meant for aspecific outcome but for the purification ofyour mind or just for God’s grace, prayer canbe informal also. It is the same in the mattersof the world also. If I have a specific goal,then I must function in a specific way. If Iwant a specific dish, I have to prepare it ina specific way. You can pray in an informalway in any language or in any form. You canalso pray to any God. Specific rituals areprescribed to bring about a certain kind ofoutcome. But you do not have to do onlythose rituals to get those outcomes. It is notthe only way. You can also keep repeatingLord’s name and ask for a certain result. Itwill work.


Question : How is japato be done?

Answer : Doing japais repeating the samename of the Lord in your mind. If it is donefor a certain length of time, it becomes partof your being. At that stage it is called a japa,meaning that the name gets repeated in yourmind, without any effort on your part. Thatis what happens, if japa is done in the depthsof the mind. If you do it at a superficial levelof your mind, then you need to put in effortto repeat that name. In course of time, if youare able to reach that depth of the mindwhere the japa takes place, it will keep ontaking place without you having to do that.How do we get to this stage? There is noother way than by doing japa and developingmore and more concentration till that depthof the mind is reached. Thus it is by practiceonly that it can happen. Devotion is helpfulin enabling me to acquire that tranquility ofmind.

Question : What is bhava?

Answer : Bhavais devotion. In presence ofGod, the devotee is invoked in me, and thisspirit of devotion which gets invoked is calledbhava.

Question : How can one make progress inspirituality?

Answer : One cannot become betterspiritually, unless an attempt is made. Thereis a scheme in the creation, such that you willbe given enough lessons in life and enoughopportunities to learn from these lessons. Thecapacity to learn is given. Therefore thepotential of recognizing the need for spiritualgrowth is there; and the means for thespiritual growth are also given. It is not thateveryone will grow spiritually. But with thehelp of freewill one has to recognize it andinitiate it.

Question : How do you convince a non-believer of the journey within God?

Answer : There is no question of notbelieving. Can you not believe in your ownexistence? God is the harmony, the order andthe unity in life. We must understand this,

not believe it. When we give thought to ourlife, we understand our purpose. As long asa nonbeliever is a thinking person, he willunderstand it; unless he has decided not tobelieve for some reason of his own. If themind is open, the thinking person willunderstand this. If the whole universe iscentered on this harmony and this universalprinciple, then why should my life be notcentered on this? It is easy to make a personsee this. It is right here and evident. If we aretalking about a God in the heavens, then youneed to be convinced; then it is a matter offaith. But the God we are talking about is nota matter of faith, and any open-mindedperson can understand it.

Question : How do we know when we aregetting into a commercial activity with God?How do we avoid trying to please God inorder to get what we want?

Answer : Our worship evolves, as LordKrishna explains in the Bhagavad Gita. In thebeginning, a person remembers God indistress; it’s all right—he still is a devotee.Later, the person approaches God where thereis a need, when he wants something. It is likea contract or a business transaction. Then itevolves to the third level — the person wantsto know God. Now the only agenda isknowledge, and you know God in His truenature. So in the beginning it is a commercialrelationship, but it is all right. If you stretchyour hand out seeking somebody’s favor, itmay as well be for the favor of the Lord. Therelationship will mature in the course of timeand the person will be enlightened.

Question : What is the Vedanta view ofapocalypse?

Answer : In Hinduism, we have the conceptof avataras. The creator responds to situationswhen there is a difficulty. The universe wascreated such that it can run smoothly. Whenthere are some digressions, avataras arecreated to correct the problem.

Transcribed and edited by Anjali Bhat, AparnaModi, JayshreeRamakrishnan

and KK Davey


Meditation

Meditation is one of the spiritual disciplineswhich occupies an important position inmost of the spiritual traditions. Therefore,a proper understanding of its role isnecessary for every spiritual seeker. Now-a-days, Meditation is recommended forphysical and mental health, personalitydevelopment and better performance also.Hence, a clear understanding of meditationis useful for all, whether one seeks spiritualenlightenment or not.

The Upanisadsvedanta point out that Self-Knowledge is the only means of liberationand that Self-enquiry guided by theVedantic teachings is the only means ofSelf-Knowledge. So, Self-enquiry occupiesprimary position for a spiritual seeker.

Meditation is prescribed neither for Self-knowledge nor for liberation. It is meant forpreparing the mind to receive andassimilate the vedantic teachings.Accordingly, Meditation can be broadlyclassified into two types, VIZ., Preparatorymeditation, which is to be practised beforeone exposes oneself to vedantic teachingand Assimilatory meditation which is to bepractised after one exposes oneself tosystematic vedantic teaching consistently fora length of time.

One has to develop different mentalfaculties to receive the Self knowledge.Accordingly, Preparatory meditation can besubdivided into four types. This is based onthe faculty to be developed.

Preparatory Meditations

(1) Relaxation - meditation

In this, you learn to relax at all levels. Inany posture consciously relax every part ofthe body from head to toe. When the bodyis totally relaxed, you feel bodiless. Then,observe the breathing. This will help inmaking the breathing-process smooth andeven. Next, relax the mind. The followingmethods can be used to relax the mind:

! Imagine you are seated in a natural setuplike beach, garden, mountain, riverbankor Asram.

! Consciously unload all your mentalburden at the feet of the Lord(in the formof your favorite deity) (Ista-devata).

! Repeat to yourself: “I am confident offacing any situation in life, now that theLord is there to share my burden. I haveno worries now. I am relaxed. Use anykey word like “Santih” to invoke andenjoy the relaxation, ignoring all otherthoughts.

(2) Concentration - Meditation

While the previous meditation is for simple,deep relaxation, this meditation is todevelop the faculty of focussing.

The following methods can be used todevelop this faculty:


! Perform a Puja to the Lord mentally. Itcan be a simple one offering a fewflowers or an elaborate one involvingritualistic steps. Alternatively, you canvisualise a Puja done by another personin a temple, Asram etc.

! Mentally chant the prayers you know inany language. Be conscious of youchanting.

! Mentally repeat any one name of theLord or the words “Om Santih”. Beconscious of every letter.

(3) Expansion - Mediation

All the time, being obsessed with personalor family life, one develops a narrow, frog-in-the-well mind. To break this, one has tomeditate on the totality which expands themind and makes the individual and familyproblems insignificant. Try the following:

! Mentally see the sky, stars, moon, earth,oceans, mountains, etc.

! Appreciate the cosmic processes ofsunrise, sunset, planetary movements,flow of rivers, flight of birds, etc.

! In short, tune yourself to the naturalrhythm, the cosmic orchestra. Learn toenjoy the cosmic dance of the cosmicLord.

(4) Value - Meditation

This meditation is very important. This willhelp in internalising the values. This willbring about a transform in transactional life.

! Take up any value like confidence,patience, compassion, etc. Mentally see

how important they are for a life ofpeace and progress. Bring to your mindany person who enjoys that particularvalue and appreciate him/her.

! Take the opposite trait like diffidence,irritation, rudeness, etc. Mentally seehow they spoil the peace of yourself andothers around.

! Look at yourself as one endowed withthat particular value.

! The above four types of meditation canbe practised by anyone. One need not bea seeker of spiritual enlightenment forpractising these. These meditations willbring about a deep transformation isone’s personality which will give innerpeace. Peace does not depend on whatone has but on what one is.

(5) Assimilatory (Vedantic) Meditation

The seeker of spiritual enlightenmentshould not stop with the practise of theabove mentioned meditations. Self-enquirywith the help of a Guru and the scripturesis a must. Consistent and systematic studyof scriptures for a length of time under theguidance of a traditional master will leadto Self-discovery. To assimilate and own upthis wisdom, one has to practise Vedanticmeditation as follows:

! Mentally dwell on the Truth of yourselfas revealed by the scriptural teachings.

! Mentally dwell on the Truth of the lordas revealed in the scriptures.

! Mentally dwell upon the nature of theworld to which your own body andmind belong.


Obstacles and Remedies

(1) Sleep

This is the most common obstacle. Oneneed not feel guilty about it. The solutionto this will vary from individual toindividual. Some general methods can betried by all:

! Meditate after a bath or atleast afterwashing the hands, feet and face withcold water.

! Meditate when the stomach is neither toofull nor too empty.

! Choose any part of the day when you arealert.

! Give a strong autosuggestion, “I will bealert”.

! Don’t meditate after tiring activity.

! Don’t meditate when there is a backlogof sleep.

! Have short sessions of 15 to 20 minutesonly initially.

(2) Distraction

This is the second common obstacle. Oneneed not feel guilty about it. The followingmethods can be adopted to avoid this.

! Learn more and more and more aboutmeditation and its value. Mind enjoysdoing what it values.

! Reduce your likes and dislikes which arethe root cause of disturbance anddistractions

! Give up all anxieties by taking Lord asyour partner in life.

! Give a strong autosuggestion, “I-have anappointment with myself. Let me die toall my wordly roles”.

(3) Dullness

Sometimes the mind becomes dull. It isneither asleep nor restless. It this happens,nothing can be done. One has to hope andwait for clearance. However, one can try toavoid this situation by the followingmethods:

! Don’t have suppressed feelings (whichwill create a loaded unconscious). Shareyour feelings with someone.

! Write your feelings (and tear-off thepaper if you don’t want to keep it).

! Express your feelings openly to the Lord,your Istadevata.

(4) Tasting the Tranquility

The withdrawal and quietitude inmeditation create a sense of wellbeing.Many mistake this temporary experience ofwell-being as spiritual fulfillment and tendto enjoy it more and more. This is thesubtlest form of obstacles. This can besolved only by applying Vedanticdiscrimination properly.

Conclusion

Everyone can practise the first four formsof meditation. It will be very usefulwhatever be one’s field of activity. If oneis a spiritual seeker, they become all themore important. One does not require anyspecial initiation to practise these four formsof meditation.

Om Tat Sat

Transcribed talk ofSwami Paramrthananda


Maha Sivaratri Puja at AVG

Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati blessedthe MahaSivaratri Puja at AVG, Anaikattion Feb 17, 2015 by his presence andblessings.

NITYA PUJA: Regular puja at LordMedhaDaksinamurthy shrine and LordNarmadesvara shrine begun early in themorning.

AKHANDA NAMA JAPA:AkhandhaNamaJapa of pancaksarimantra”OmNamahShivaya”was performed from 7 AMto 3 PM at the satsangh hall. PujyaSwamijiled the japa for some time. SwamiAtmatriptananda, Swamis, Swaminis,students and guests led the non-stop relayjapa. The holy chant vibrated in theatmosphere and in the minds of theparticipants later for many more days.

EKADASA RUDRA ABISEKA:Ekadasarudraabiseka was done at the shrinesof LordMedhaDaksinamurthy and LordNarmadesvara from 4 PM to 8 PM. The 11rudraabhiseka done at both the shrines.

PUJYA SWAMIJI’S ANUGRAHABHASANAM:PujyaSwamijiin his anugrahabhasanamexplainedthe meaning of the popularvedamantra “ Triyambakamyajamahe..”from Sri Rudram. On Sivaratri, the day ofspiritual commitments, vows anddisciplines, PujyaSwamiji prayed forinvoking the Lord’s grace for everyone.

RATRI JAPA&PUJA:The Swamis, Swaminis, students and gueststook part in the bhajans and chants with lotof enthusiasm. The participants remainedawake for the whole night with chant of theLord’s name.

Ratri puja was done at 12 midnight at theshrine of Lord Narmadesvara. Laterardhajama puja was done at 3 AM. The lastkala puja was done at 6 AM of the followingday, concluding the Sivaratri puja.

Report by N. Avinashilingam

Acarya rendering Japa AkandanamaBajan by Swamiji andSwaminis


Lord Dakshinamurthi Lord Narmadeshwara

Ekeadasa Rudra Japam Pujya Swamiji's Anugraha Bhashanam

Swaminis, Students and other participants


Long Term Course at AVGduring February - March 2015

A summary of the Vedanta classes heldduring February - March 2015 is presentedbelow:

CLASSES ON GENERAL TOPICS BYPUJYA SWAMI DAYANANDASARASWATI

Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati gaveinsightful talks on various topics requestedby the students:

SANNYASA: Sannyasa is total renunciationof this world, other worlds and everythingin between. Total renunciation implies justbeing under the sky with no crutches. Sucha person may not have an address, keepsmoving and is happy with what comes hisway. Teaching is a sadhana as one gainsnistha by teaching. Internal renunciation bychange of attitude is important. BhagavanSankaracharya emphasizes on sarva-karma-sannyasa for moksha. A Sarva karmasannyasi understands that he is atma andas atma, there is no doer-ship. He isuninvolved with anybody or anything.

ANGER: Anger is born of some painalready existing in the person. People andsituations only play as trigger points. Eachone has erroneous zones, like inability tohandle criticism in some areas like beinglooked down regarding one’s ability,understanding, etc. Each one has differenttrigger points. When that point is touched,the potential anger becomes manifest.

Pujya Swamiji explained the verses fromBhagavad Gita Chapter 12 describing aJnani:

JNANI: Jnani is pleased just by beinghimself and does not depend on personsand things. He doesn’t look for security orpleasure, knowing that he is of the natureof security. He is free from hold of likes anddislikes. His happiness is not denied by anunhappy situation. Everything is acceptablein his vision as Isvara’s order. All hisemotions are sublimated. Grief does notaffect him. He treats everyone includingfriends and foes in the same manner. He isnot affected by praise or criticism. Heaccepts the pairs of opposites withequanimity. He has a say over his words.He does not go looking for things, is justhappy with whatever comes his way. Hisdaily life is just pure unfoldment ofprarabdha. His fullness is manifest ashappiness, love and compassion.

The words used to present a Jnani becomea sadhana for a mumukshu.

VEDANTA SADHANA: Sravana, Mananaand Nididhyasana are the sadhanas. Thereis no mysticism involved. It is knowledgeall the way. Sravana involves the study ofVedanta. It is pramanavicara. Study ofbhasya is for clarity. Study of Sanskritgrammar helps in the understanding.Grammar helps to know from which rootand how the word has been derived. In


manana, all doubts are cleared. Even if onedoes not have doubts, bhasya raises thedoubt and clarifies. Nididhyasana iscontemplation and is for understandingfully that “I am the asanga sat chitanandapurnaatma”.

SVAKARMA: All that is here is Isvara.My svakarma is my offering to Isvara.Whenever I do, what is to be done, I feelgood. It helps me become qualified forgaining atmajnana. Afterwards, there is nodelay in getting atmajnana.

MODERN VEDANTA – COMMONERRORS: The vision is not there in manyareas due to non-understanding. A fewpopular mis-understandings are:

! Self inquiry on “Who am I?” is theway to know the atma. (Guru andSastra as pramana are not understood)

! How to become Brahman? (You arealready Brahman is not understood)

! I know I’m satchitanandaatma. Now, Ineed to experience it. (Atma is self-evident and only knowledge isrequired is not understood)

! The self can be known through anyone of the four yogas - bakthi yoga,karma yoga, jnana yoga or hatha yoga.(Knowledge is possible only throughjnana yoga is not understood)

! One should exhaust all vasanas toknow the self. (Karma is mithya is notunderstood, only jnana can destroy thekarma accounts).

! Neo Vedanta dismisses Isvara;without appreciation of jiva-Isvaraconnection, the vision is not complete.

EMOTIONS: One cannot master emotions.One can only neutralise emotions bybringing in Isvara. One accepts all emotionsas Isvara’s order. One contemplates that Iam in Isvara’s order, whenever emotionsarise.

TEACHING TRADITION: Atma Jnanais through Vedas or sabdapramana byunderstanding lakshyaartha of the words. Ithas to be handled by a shrotriya and brahma-nisthta Teacher. This knowledge can behanded over to another person withoutentropy. It is a privilege to be part of thetradition.

ATTITUDE OF HINDUS: For a Hinduevery square inch of his mother land issacred. All places like Himalayas,Badrinath, Kedarnath, Ayodhya, Madura,Kasi, Kanchipuram, Rameswaram,Kanyakumari, Puri and Dwaraka areconsidered very sacred. Ganga, Yamuna,Narmada, Sindhu, Cauveri and all riversare sacred. It is a vedic country. Land,trees, animals and people are worshippedas manifestation of Isvara. People walkalong the river as Ganga parikrama. Every 12years there is a kumbhamela where millionsconverge. There are temple chariot festivalswhere people assemble together. India is theonly place where Hindus can claim that itis their own country. Unfortunately themedia is biased against the Hindus. Indiais a religious country. Any change iswelcome, retaining the religiosity and senseof belonging and not destroying thisculture.

VALUE OF VALUE: No one is ignorant ofvalues. Preaching is not required. Value isgained by education. Loss of telling a lie is,one creates a split person within oneself.When the core person is disturbed, even


with all external comforts, the person is notavailable to enjoy.

CLASSES ON GITABHASYAM BYSWAMI SADATMANANDA

CHAPTER 2: Bhagavan Sankaracharyabegins his commentary on the versesstarting from Verse 11 of Chapter 2, becausethe teaching begins from that verse. Arjunasurrendered to the Lord Krishna andrequested him to teach him what is Sreyas-moksha.

The Lord tells Arjuna that Wise peoplegrieve neither for the departed nor theun-departed. Whereas, Arjuna wasgrieving after those who are not tobe grieved after, like a confused personeven while speaking words of wisdom.(BG 2-11)

Bhasyakara explains further that: From thebody standpoint, once born, its death isimperative. From the stand point of Bhismaand others being jivas, they are of nobleconduct and hence will go only to higherlokas. From the absolute level of atma, theyare timeless and exist in all the threeperiods of time. (BG 2-12). Therefore, fromall standpoints, Bhisma and others need notbe grieved after.

Atma does not undergo any change whenthe body undergoes change from childhoodto youth to old age. Similarly there is nochange for the atma even during theattainment of another body. (BG 2-13)

Contact of the sense organs with senseobjects produce experience of cold and heat,pleasure and pain which are all temporary.One should understand and accept themas Isvara’s order. (BG 2-14).

One who is not agitated by pain ordisturbed by pleasure is fit for gainingmoksha. (BG 2-15).

Pairs of opposites like cold and heattogether with their cause do not have realexistence. Only atma has real existence. Thistruth is understood by wise people.

There is no being for asat (mithya) andthere is no non-being for sat. (BG 2-16)

That which has independent existence is satand that which has dependent existence isasat.

This is established by Bhasyakara by takingthe example of a clay pot. A pot does notexist apart from its cause, clay. Pot doesnot exist before its origin and also does notexist after it is destroyed. Even clay doesnot have existence apart from its cause.

By extension, on account of every objectbeing non-separate from its cause and thecause itself being an effect of its cause, thewhole world of cause-effects is asat.

Objection: If all effects are negated, it willlead to sunyavada or absence of everythingi.e. Nihilism.

Reply: In every existent object cognition,there are two cognitions: Pot cognition andexistence (‘is’) cognition. When we say “potis”, we cognize asat which is the objectcalled ‘pot’ and we also cognize sat by theword ‘is’. The cognition of pot, which is asatis subject to change whereas the cognitionof ‘is’, which is sat remain changelesseven when the pot is destroyed.

Objection: When pot is destroyed, alongwith pot cognition, existence cognition alsogoes.


Reply: No. Even if a given pot cognitiongoes, there is “Is-cognition” with referenceto other things like cloth and survivingpots.

Objection: Real and unreal things cannotexist in a common ground.

Reply: No. Unreal water and the real sandwhich appears as ‘idam’ are in a commonground.

Brahman is the only existing reality. Pairsof opposites like cold and heat are mithya.Hence the seeker should endure the pairsof opposites.

May you know this indestructible realityby which everything is pervaded. No oneis capable of bringing about thedestruction of this indestructible reality.(BG 2-17)

Brahman pervades everything like spacepervading pot. It cannot disintegratebecause it is partless. It cannot be destroyedby external factors as nothing is connectedto it. Even the Lord cannot destroyBrahman, as the same entity cannot be thesubject and object.

These bodies belonging to everlasting,indestructible, unobjectifyable, embodiedself are said to be subject to end. ThereforeArjuna, fight. (BG 2-18)

Bodies in dream and magic have their end.There are two types of destruction like thebody reduced to ashes and the bodytransformed due to disease. Brahman is nothaving these two types of destruction. Self

is not unknown to anyone. But the qualitiesthat do not belong to the self, superimposed on the self are removed by theScriptures. Brhadaranyaka Upanisad 3.4.1declare that Brahman is that which is directand immediate, which is the innermost self.As the self is timeless and changeless,Arjuna was advised not to withdraw fromthe battle, which was his duty.

Gita teaching is for removing grief anddelusion which are the cause of samsara.It is not to induce action.

CLASSES ON KATHOPANISADBHASYAM BY SWAMISADATMANANDA

CHAPTER I VALLI I

Naciketas story is for glorification of self-knowledge.

Vajasravas having a desire for svarga,peformed Visva jityajna, where he gaveaway all his wealth as daksina. At the endof the yajna, old and unproductive cowswere given as daksina. When his sonNaciketas, a young boy, saw this, he feltthat his father would go to the undesirableworlds by offering such cows to the priests.He felt that instead of the unproductivecows, he could be given as daksina.Naciketas asked his father to whom hewould be given as daksina. He nagged hisfather by asking this second and third time.The irritated father told him that he wouldoffer him to Lord Yama.

Report by N. Avinashilingam


Horns of a DilemmaBy Ganesh Krishnamurthy

The Book

The story deals with a problem that manyof us commonly face. At a decision pointin life, both (indeed, all) paths available leadto undesirable results. The main protagonistis a simple lady, Visalam, from a lowermiddle class family in Kumbakonam, whoalso faces such a dilemma. It leads her toa search for understanding why thesehappen to us and for ways to handle them.She learns many things from her guru,Swami Atmananda.

She herself eventually becomes a source ofstrength to many people, including threeother characters in the book – anEnglishman, an American and a MiddleEasterner – each of who also faces his owndilemma.

Most of us will be able to easily identifywith the characters and situations, eitherthrough our own experiences or throughthose of others close to us.

The Author

Ganesh has met all success, as defined bythe world (IIT, Delhi, MBA from a Harvard

Associated school, both as topper,recognition, financial success etc.)

However, he has been seeking answers tosome fundamental questions all of us haveasked of ourselves some time or the otherin our lives. In pursuance of his quest, hejoined the last 3-year course at Anaikattiunder PoojyaSwamiji, discarding asuccessfully running consulting business.

Today, he continues to study and to teach,in addition to being an author.

Pujya Swamiji releasing the book

Sri Ganeshan


Shri Gurubhyo Namah

In line with Poojya Swamiji’s aajna of conducting Home Studycourse of Bhagavad Gita, every Saturday, Satsang is beingconducted under the guidance and presence of SwaminiSvatmabodhananda Saraswati and Swamini BharatyanandaSaraswati between 6 PM and 7 PM since February 2013, atMalleswaram, Bangalore. Sri Vishnu Sahasranama is chantedin full, followed by Gita chanting and other selected slokaschanting. Recently, the hundredth week of Satsang wascelebrated in the holy presence of both the Swaminis.


Pearls of Wisdom

One who wants to change the world tofulfill his own needs and desires is anegoist. If all that is needed is a change,change yourself. That has to be initiatedby you alone, because the love forchange is in you.

If the problem of seeing myself as awanting person is centered on me,then the solution also must becentered on me. If the solution iswithin the problem, then lookingoutside of myself will not work, norwill any amount of effort produce thesolution. Knowledge alone will revealit.

Whether gaining self-knowledgeis seen as a religious pursuit, aspiritual pursuit, or justapursuit, it is an all-consumingpursuit. Self-knowledge is not apart-time effort, nor is it aspeculative effort. It is an all-consuming effort with theknowledge of the self as its end.Therein lies the solution.


Arsha Vidya NewsletterAnnual Subscription: Rs.180/-

Published by V. SivaprasadTrustee, Sruti Seva Trust, Anaikatti, Coimbatore 641108

Edited byS. Srinivasan - 0422-2657001

Printed by B. Rajkumar,Rasi Graphics Pvt. Ltd.,

40 Peters Road, Madras 600014. Ph. 28132790, 28131232

A knowledge gaining which allforms of knowledge gain meaning,and without which all of them aresubject to perpetual correction andsublation is indeed pramana,which we gain through Vedanta.

Knowledge is the only means toliberation or freedom. If bondagewere real, there would be no releasefrom it. If it were unreal, it wouldnot be a problem at all. But if it issomething in between – neither realnor unreal – it must be purely dueto ignorance and error, and soknowledge is required to dispel it.

arsha vidya gurukulam · madhav babasaheb solao, trustees: ... we give up the adjective-substantive...

Documents