The Rainbow - Thoughts of the day !

[devotee]

Namaste forum members,

This thread has been started to post inspiring thoughts on God, religion, morality, Advaitic thoughts, or anything you feel you want to contribute which would help spiritual uplifting of Truth-seekers.

Though contribution from any Hindu sect is welcome in this thread, please try to be respectful towards all sects of our great Hindu Dharma and not try to show supremacy of one w.r.t. others. This thread has been opened in Advaita forum purposefully as from Advaitic point of view all Bhkati paths lead to the same goal i.e. God and therefore, there is no conflict in the minds of Advaitins regarding different paths. Advaita SAdhanA doesn't exclude God but seeks God's blessings for being able to tread the path successfully. So, no bhakti path is in contradiction to Advaita unless it tends to become dogmatic.

In addition to spiritual thoughts, you can very well post Hindu wisdom found in innumerable writings by various Hindu saints, philosophers etc.

Brief discussions are expected in the thread but it should be limited otherwise, the main purpose of the thread will be defeated.

Hope to benefit from your contributions.

OM

[devotee]

Monday, the 21st October (In India) :

What is God and where does he reside ? Lord Krishna says in Bhagwad Gita :

"Aham AtmA gudAkesha SarvabhUtAshaya sthitiah"

===> I am the Self staying in the heart of all beings.

"MayA tatam idam sarvam jagat avyakta murtinA"

===> This whole world is pervaded by me through and through in my unmanifested form.

God is called Ananta i.e. Infinite beyond which there is nothing and that is why IsAVAsya Upanishad says :

"IsAvAsyam Idam sarvam"

====> All this (the entire world) is pervaded by God.

Hindus believe everything divine. There is nothing in this world which is not a manifestation of God. We are merged in Infinite Ocean i.e. God from both outside and inside.

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If that is so, why don't we see God ? Why don't we feel the presence of God ? Why do we need any exercise at all including Murti-worship, chanting Mantras or meditation to "call God towards us" or to "move towards God" ? If the above is true, then these terms "Calling God" or "moving towards God" become meaningless. When God is everywhere and we are all soaked in God's infinite presence, is it not foolishness to call through any means ? Why call anyone who was never separated from you ?

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My views :

We don't see God only due to disturbances in our minds due to tendencies and impressions of minds. It is like trying to see one's image in water while disturbing the water with our violent activities within water. God is like that. It is we who is responsible for distorting the image of ever-present God within us. Our mind is restless all the time except in deep sleep and that is we don't see God but only the distortions created by mind. In deep sleep, we are not aware of anything. If we can bring mind to calmness of deep-sleep even when awake, we can see God.

How can we bring mind to calmness/stillness ? Through silent-Bhakti, meditation, Yama, Niyama, breath-control or PrANAyAm, detachment from the sense-objects and developing even-mindedness in all circumstances. Also, meditation and even-mindedness is not possible without the grace of God/Guru.

OM

[hinduism♥krishna]

Hello Devotee, my questions to you ..

Does lord Krishna know he has form which is human like?

And can Ishwara change the fate- laws of prakruti? If yes how this is possible ..


Brahman is without any attribute. So it's something, it feels something, it thinks something, these all are invalid ideas and signs of something different from Brahman.

Thanks

[Anirudh]

Namaste Devotee ji

Here is a list of quotes of Swami Chinmayananda. Each quote is a gem.

I am giving the link but I would request interested readers to save the quotes into their local storage media.

www.mychinmaya.org/index.php?id=res_gdquotes

[hinduism♥krishna]

Namaste Devotee,

In Uddhava GitA, Lord Krishna has taught true knowledge - Advaita. Below is the one of the greatest quotes of lord Krishna, confirming everything as one self, one Lord.



"The Lord, the Atman is Himself what is created as the Universe and the creator as the Atman only, one with it, by whom it is coming into existence. He protects it, it is protected by Him as Vishwatma, the All-pervading God, and He also sums up and withdraws it in Himself. Therefore there is nothing else but Atman, described to be Reality. All these things coming, existing or ending – the three states only falsely appear on the true base of Atman."


"Even though there is no reality in the worldly life, it cannot be negated easily. Just as one is afraid of disasters in the dream, there is great fear of dangers if there is attention paid to objects in this (though unreal) world. (13)


"A man established in the self, no longer cognizes his perishable body, by means of which he has realized his self,-as risen or settled, gone out or come back by chance. This is similar to the man under the influence of wine who is not aware whether his garment is in place or has fallen therefrom. (36)

"With his intellect thus established, he sees me in himself and himself actually merged in me, like an individual light in the element of fire."

"A seeker will not suffer so much by keeping company with other persons as he will suffer from contact with woman or with men who are crazy about women! (30)




I'd like to post here various nectar like philosophical and devotional quotes of shri Krishna.

Thank You

[devotee]

Namaste HLK,

Does lord Krishna know he has form which is human like?

"Krishna" is Omniscient and therefore, knows everything. So, he must know that we have perceived him in a certain form. Now, is that the "real" form of Lord Krishna ? From Advaitic point of view and also from what various scriptures say, "Lord Krishna cannot be limited to any form." Why ? To prove this, let's assume that Lord Krishna has a definite form. This means that He must be confined within form --- otherwise, the form attributed to Lord Krishna would not be the "real" one as it is not limited to that form. If that is true then God cannot be the soul (AtmAn) in the hearts of all beings as claimed by him in Bhagwad Gita. If that is so then God cannot be omnipresent and Infinite as he is described in scriptures. If that is true then God cannot be omniscient too as whatever is not omnipresent cannot be omniscient. This violates the concept of God and therefore, our first assumption that "Lord Krishna has a definite form" must be wrong.

And can Ishwara change the fate- laws of prakruti? If yes how this is possible ..

Ishvara is the master of Prakriti and therefore he has the power of showering grace on His devotees. It is not against the laws of Karma/Nature. It is within it. It is just like special powers granted to the President of India by the Constitution. Usually, God doesn't interfere in the laws of Karma but sometimes, in rare circumstances, He does. This is my opinion.

Brahman is without any attribute. So it's something, it feels something, it thinks something, these all are invalid ideas and signs of something different from Brahman.

Brahman without any attribute perceived by mind is only in fourth state of Existence. In three relative states of existence i.e. three MAyic states he has all (mental) attributes. When we say that Brahman has no attributes that doesn't mean that He is completely devoid of all qualities (yes, He doesn't have any quality perceived by mind) in fourth state. If Brahman was devoid of all qualities then It could have been described and perceived as that but MAndukya Upanishad negates all mental concepts in fourth state. If we say that water is colourless ... it is some attribute (mental) of water. If we say that Brahman is without any attribute then also, it can be perceived by mind. However, there is no mental concept which can describe Brahman and therefore saying that Brahman is without any attribute is also a false concept because it can be perceived by mind.

OM

[devotee]

Here is a list of quotes of Swami Chinmayananda. Each quote is a gem.

I am giving the link but I would request interested readers to save the quotes into their local storage media.

www.mychinmaya.org/index.php?id=res_gdquotes

Beautiful and inspiring quotes ! Thanks.

OM

[Anirudh]

Ishvara is the master of Prakriti and therefore he has the power of showering grace on His devotees.

It is not against the laws of Karma/
Nature. It is within it.

It is just like special powers granted to the President of India by the Constitution.

Usually, God doesn't interfere in
the laws of Karma but sometimes, in rare circumstances, He does. This is my opinion.

Namaste Devotee ji

Without diverting the theme of this thread, may I ask / add the following;

#1. What are scriptures to be studied to understand the law of karma?

#2. Faith and prayer play a major role in the ways events / future unfold. If not, one can roughly assume prayer as something meant only for a self realized or spiritually evolved oerson.

Consider this :

If an ordinary person driven by various forces acting upon him is firmly instructed that the prayers wouldnt alter the flow of events why would he even attempt to pray? We discussed a lot about in the need of daily sadhana thread.

My view about Karmic laws and Bhagwan's involvement to change its course us like the flow of a river. On a hard surface only big boulders can change its course while if the earth is loose the effort is less.

#3. I understand you were just trying to drive home the point. How ever, I would like to stress that those powers to alter the course of Karmic laws can't / shouldn't be understood as special powers. Instead they are the basic qualities that differentiate us from Bhagawan.

So kindly don't underplay the wisdom that you shared as meek opinions. Probably from the Advaitic angle my statements aren't correct. So hopefully I haven't derailed the theme.

Thanks...

PS : If you permit may I explain those Swami Chinmayananda quote by citing some real life examples. It is a general feeling, people fail to learn unless a real life example is attached.

In we can associate real life incidence this thread will be active for few months. We at HDF are the first agree in unison to disagree ;-)

Analyse the possibilities and let the members know because many can participate..

[devotee]

Namaste Anirudh,

#1. What are scriptures to be studied to understand the law of karma?

I can't remember anyone scripture which alone can be prescribed. My understanding is based on studying various scriptures and what I learnt from my Guru.

#2. Faith and prayer play a major role in the ways events / future unfold. If not, one can roughly assume prayer as something meant only for a self realized or spiritually evolved oerson.

Consider this :

If an ordinary person driven by various forces acting upon him is firmly instructed that the prayers wouldnt alter the flow of events why would he even attempt to pray? We discussed a lot about in the need of daily sadhana thread.

My view about Karmic laws and Bhagwan's involvement to change its course us like the flow of a river. On a hard surface only big boulders can change its course while if the earth is loose the effort is less.

That is a good understanding.

#3. I understand you were just trying to drive home the point. How ever, I would like to stress that those powers to alter the course of Karmic laws can't / shouldn't be understood as special powers. Instead they are the basic qualities that differentiate us from Bhagawan.

Of course, God is special as He is the controller of the both MAyic states and also origin and end of all beings within creation. He is the master of MAyA. He is not bound by the limitations of MAyA.

If you permit may I explain those Swami Chinmayananda quote by citing some real life examples. It is a general feeling, people fail to learn unless a real life example is attached.

This thread is created to share such thoughts and wisdom. We will be happy if you share your valuable thoughts here. Everyone on this forum is invited to this thread for sharing and discussing valuable thoughts/wisdom.

OM

[devotee]

November 07, 2014

Different practices of Dharma --- How do we reconcile

In Hindu Dharma we find many practices widely varying with each other and we always wonder which one is the right way. How do we follow our Dharma ?

a) Some worship God's Murtis and indulge in his praise in the form of Mantras, chanting bhajans, offering prayers etc.

b) Some perform vrata by keeping fast on certain days and worship God

c) Some go on pilgrimage by different modes for having darshan of the deity of the holy place.

d) Some chant mantras/indulge in special rituals to earn siddhis (special powers)

e) Some offer donations to the poor/BrAhmans and involve in social charity

f) Some meditate on a thought / form of God / Mantra and try to attain oneness with the Supreme

g) Live a disciplined life, keeping sense organs in control etc.

Great saints tell us that all of us are going towards the same goal. How can that be ? When the paths are different, the destinations also should be the same. If we are moving towards the same destinations then there must be some common component of the all spiritual actions. What is that component and how much is that important ?

I will reflect on these questions in my next post.

OM