Friday, July 3, 2009
Why We Need To Overcome The Ego !
Before we discuss about ego , we should know what exactly it means..lot of meaning are there. As a spiritual point of view ego is "I".when we are in materialist this "I" will move us towards the worldly actions. In most of the spiritual giants life shows to us they overcame the EGO to attain their spiritual goal.Now things arise in our min why need to overcome that.If unmatured "I" is there in your mind , your most of the action in life will flow towards materialist. At the same time normal human beigns very difficult to destroy the ego.Only the spiritual master alone destroyed the ego without facing more obstacle. How we can overcome that..we can turn the unmatured ego into matured ego by our spiritual thoughts.WE should say I am the devotee of Ramakrishna..I am devotee of Jesus ,Alla, This "I" called matured ego. In this mindset our action would moved to Spiritual....
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Vivekananda Death Anniversary Quotes !
Arise! Awake! And stop not till the goal is reached - Swami Vivekananda
Swami vivekananda has liberated his soul from body on 4 th July 1902...he lived only 39 years.but still he lives many of us heart and awaking us to do good things for society.His life teaching us the spirituality on Kaliyuga.If you fell fear in life at any part of your life time ,read swami vivekand books and you will come know that real meaning of life and power with in us.
“Never think there is anything impossible for the soul. It is the greatest heresy to think so. If there is sin, this is the only sin ? to say that you are weak, or others are weak.”
Prayers of swamiji
Swami vivekananda has liberated his soul from body on 4 th July 1902...he lived only 39 years.but still he lives many of us heart and awaking us to do good things for society.His life teaching us the spirituality on Kaliyuga.If you fell fear in life at any part of your life time ,read swami vivekand books and you will come know that real meaning of life and power with in us.
“Never think there is anything impossible for the soul. It is the greatest heresy to think so. If there is sin, this is the only sin ? to say that you are weak, or others are weak.”
Prayers of swamiji
Monday, June 15, 2009
Concentrate On Inner For Devotional Path!
Security, everyone knows, is a major concern in life. Security concerns have many facets. One should be physically secure, free from dangers of poisonous insects, injurious reptiles and ferocious animals. One’s place of living should be protected from elements of nature such as strong wind, rain, flood, heat and cold. One should have enough food, water and clothing. There is also need for safety from thieves, robbers and other hostile forces inimical to us. When one falls sick, one should have access to medical facilities—hospital, doctors, medicines and other basic infrastructure required for treatment. One should be financially secure too, in order to meet one’s daily needs as well as have enough for a rainy day. Besides all these forms of security, there is also the question of national and international security—that complex system of protection involving state policy, defense forces, surveillance, training, education and other supportive factors.
The Security Within
While acknowledging the importance and need for all these facets of security, let us remember there is one facet of security in the absence of which all other facets of security would not be able to serve their ultimate purpose (called peace, happiness or fulfillment).This vital facet lies in being able to have inner security. Inner security or a sense of inner protection and well-being is what is needed. It is quite an irony of our times that while we seek to fortify our life from without, we just do not care a fig as to what is happening within our mind. It is an amusing fact of life that while we are so very wise and careful in matters concerning money, we are so careless and casual about matters relating to our inner life.
We forget that most problems of life have their inner origin and thus need an inner solution rather than tinkering with outer fixing. We are quick to complain, for instance, about increasing violence and unrest in the world but rarely, if ever, do we look into the violence that exists in our mind. With so much of hostility within, what else can we expect to happen outside? With so much inner poverty of purity of thoughts, of what use is our building a fabulous system of security without? While we live in spiritual slum called our impure minds, we construct impressive structures outside. But as the Bible says, ‘For what will profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life?’
It is quite an interesting statement of facts about human nature that while we have numerous black or yellow ‘cats’, trained sniffing dogs, sophisticated metal detectors and well-tuned radar systems to spy out enemies without, we fail to detect what is happening within our own mind. Sri Ramakrishna used to tell of a farmer who would irrigate his fields with great care but would find, to his great dismay, that water has not reached the plants at all. Worried and anxious, when he searched for the reason for this, he discovered big rat-holes through which all the water in the field drained out. As in the case of the farmer, we too, though strengthened by so many types of security, remain unguarded from within. Someone has rightly remarked that in these days of modern advancements we have a strange blend of ‘guided missiles and misguided men.’
Guarding the Inner Chamber
To know what is happening in our minds, we need to develop inner detectors and radars. Protecting oneself from within requires a sharp mind, ever-vigilant and alert. Sri Ramakrishna used often advise people to guard their ‘inner chamber.’ He would tell people to be always alert so that there is no ‘theft in the inner chamber’ (bhave ghar churi).Let us try to understand what this inner chamber is and the theft that it suffers mean.
‘Inner chamber’ is man’s deepest thoughts and convictions. It is not what we profess to be but we really are. What we are deep within only we know. Inner chamber consists of not only our deepest thoughts and convictions but also our intentions, expressed or unexpressed. Before anything happens and affects us on the outer level of life, it happens in the inner chamber first. Inner chamber is the purest core of our being, free from our social or group conditioning. When we are established in it, we are open, honest and kind. But once we allow this inner, pristine purity of our being to be eroded by some motive for selfish gain or enjoyment, we begin to make convenient adjustments and, often unknown to ourselves, become dishonest and untruthful. Since an inner corruption of our being takes place, which often goes un-questioned, we begin to make compromises in our life. Says Swami Vivekananda:
‘Nine-tenths of our life’s energy is spent in trying to make people think us that which we are not. That energy would be more rightly spent in becoming that which we would like to be.’2
One requires a refined mind to detect what is happening within the mind. This is why all spiritual masters lay so much emphasis on purity of mind. The purer a mind, the greater is the possibility of understanding and controlling it. Impure mind is a past master in creating false grounds for continuing its present state of being. Impure mind, for instance, tries to put up a show of spirituality for public consumption while remaining loyal to profanity in all its varied forms. Sri Krishna calls this as hypocrisy.3
Mundakopanishad speaks of God experience as an experience in which ‘all the knots of heart are cut asunder.’4 These knots are the complexes that are formed within us through repeated thoughts and action. A psychological knot is made of a thought intertwined by obsessive emotions. One may be so obsessed by a desire that one may not be even aware of its long-term consequences. Sometimes we may be aware of the consequences but we still want to fulfill that desire. Sri Krishna terms this a difficult situation wherein our senses abduct or carry away the intellect (the power to make right decisions) as a wind carries away from its course a boat on the waters.5
Hypocrisy makes one decidedly very vulnerable to all the evil elements of life. If a person is honest about his weaknesses, he is clear about where dangers lie. He either admits his weakness or feels that one day he may overcome it, whereas a hypocrite compounds his problem by trying to hide his weakness while he is being haunted, as it were, by the unexpressed cravings within.
When we are trapped by our hypocritical ways of thinking, we are more likely to explain our action by the influence of environment and our resultant helplessness. Simultaneously, when we trace a similar thing in others, we want to underplay the impact of environment in their case and instead blame them, attributing it to their innate characteristics. This leads to liberty in judging oneself but a strict measuring yardstick in understanding and evaluating others. We thus fail to see that we have the same faults which we condemn in others. This is the game of self-deception we play with ourselves.
Guarding the Inner Chamber
Protecting the inner chamber consists of not getting attached to strong likes and dislikes which come our way. These likes and dislikes, in the present context, refer to some deeprooted selfish desire. For we like or dislike something with regard to some happiness or unhappiness that an object brings. Rising above these pairs of strong likes and dislikes is essential to protect one’s inner chamber. For our likes and dislikes make a slave of us but if we want to protect our inner treasure, we must be free enough to make decisions in the interest of our self-protection.
One way of doing this is to remind oneself repeatedly the goal of human life.Indian spiritual tradition tells us that Selfrealisation is the goal of human life. Let us remember that no other goal of life is permanent and ultimately more fulfilling than the goal of Self-realisation. Not that other things that we seek in life are wrong but that man’s need or capacity for joy and fulfillment is so enormous that it cannot be quenched by anything except by obtaining or experiencing the infinite source of peace and joy called his own divine being. If ever he makes mistakes in this regard, he is soon reminded of it by the dissatisfaction and a sense of want that accompanies all sensory gratifications.
Remembering the goal is itself a great form of spiritual practice. We forget the ultimate goal of life because we get involved in many relative goals of life. Of course we need to keep working for fulfilment of relative goals—this is a bare necessity for our mundane life. But unless this is related to an ultimate goal of life, it becomes irrelevant and a trap in
itself. This merits a little more discussion.
What should be the goal of life? Going to heaven? Says Swami Vivekananda:
‘Living in heaven would not be very different from life in this world. At best, it would only be a very healthy rich man’s life, with plenty of sense-enjoyments and a sound body which knows no disease. It would be this material world, only a little more refined and we have seen the difficulty that the external material world can never solve the problem. So no heaven can solve the problem.6 . . . .[Heaven is] the idea of happiness minus unhappiness. That is to say, what we want is the joys of this life minus its sorrows. . . . . but. . . . there is no such thing as absolute good, nor any such things as absolute evil.’7
If heaven is rejected as the goal of life, what should be then the goal of life?
The Security Within
While acknowledging the importance and need for all these facets of security, let us remember there is one facet of security in the absence of which all other facets of security would not be able to serve their ultimate purpose (called peace, happiness or fulfillment).This vital facet lies in being able to have inner security. Inner security or a sense of inner protection and well-being is what is needed. It is quite an irony of our times that while we seek to fortify our life from without, we just do not care a fig as to what is happening within our mind. It is an amusing fact of life that while we are so very wise and careful in matters concerning money, we are so careless and casual about matters relating to our inner life.
We forget that most problems of life have their inner origin and thus need an inner solution rather than tinkering with outer fixing. We are quick to complain, for instance, about increasing violence and unrest in the world but rarely, if ever, do we look into the violence that exists in our mind. With so much of hostility within, what else can we expect to happen outside? With so much inner poverty of purity of thoughts, of what use is our building a fabulous system of security without? While we live in spiritual slum called our impure minds, we construct impressive structures outside. But as the Bible says, ‘For what will profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life?’
It is quite an interesting statement of facts about human nature that while we have numerous black or yellow ‘cats’, trained sniffing dogs, sophisticated metal detectors and well-tuned radar systems to spy out enemies without, we fail to detect what is happening within our own mind. Sri Ramakrishna used to tell of a farmer who would irrigate his fields with great care but would find, to his great dismay, that water has not reached the plants at all. Worried and anxious, when he searched for the reason for this, he discovered big rat-holes through which all the water in the field drained out. As in the case of the farmer, we too, though strengthened by so many types of security, remain unguarded from within. Someone has rightly remarked that in these days of modern advancements we have a strange blend of ‘guided missiles and misguided men.’
Guarding the Inner Chamber
To know what is happening in our minds, we need to develop inner detectors and radars. Protecting oneself from within requires a sharp mind, ever-vigilant and alert. Sri Ramakrishna used often advise people to guard their ‘inner chamber.’ He would tell people to be always alert so that there is no ‘theft in the inner chamber’ (bhave ghar churi).Let us try to understand what this inner chamber is and the theft that it suffers mean.
‘Inner chamber’ is man’s deepest thoughts and convictions. It is not what we profess to be but we really are. What we are deep within only we know. Inner chamber consists of not only our deepest thoughts and convictions but also our intentions, expressed or unexpressed. Before anything happens and affects us on the outer level of life, it happens in the inner chamber first. Inner chamber is the purest core of our being, free from our social or group conditioning. When we are established in it, we are open, honest and kind. But once we allow this inner, pristine purity of our being to be eroded by some motive for selfish gain or enjoyment, we begin to make convenient adjustments and, often unknown to ourselves, become dishonest and untruthful. Since an inner corruption of our being takes place, which often goes un-questioned, we begin to make compromises in our life. Says Swami Vivekananda:
‘Nine-tenths of our life’s energy is spent in trying to make people think us that which we are not. That energy would be more rightly spent in becoming that which we would like to be.’2
One requires a refined mind to detect what is happening within the mind. This is why all spiritual masters lay so much emphasis on purity of mind. The purer a mind, the greater is the possibility of understanding and controlling it. Impure mind is a past master in creating false grounds for continuing its present state of being. Impure mind, for instance, tries to put up a show of spirituality for public consumption while remaining loyal to profanity in all its varied forms. Sri Krishna calls this as hypocrisy.3
Mundakopanishad speaks of God experience as an experience in which ‘all the knots of heart are cut asunder.’4 These knots are the complexes that are formed within us through repeated thoughts and action. A psychological knot is made of a thought intertwined by obsessive emotions. One may be so obsessed by a desire that one may not be even aware of its long-term consequences. Sometimes we may be aware of the consequences but we still want to fulfill that desire. Sri Krishna terms this a difficult situation wherein our senses abduct or carry away the intellect (the power to make right decisions) as a wind carries away from its course a boat on the waters.5
Hypocrisy makes one decidedly very vulnerable to all the evil elements of life. If a person is honest about his weaknesses, he is clear about where dangers lie. He either admits his weakness or feels that one day he may overcome it, whereas a hypocrite compounds his problem by trying to hide his weakness while he is being haunted, as it were, by the unexpressed cravings within.
When we are trapped by our hypocritical ways of thinking, we are more likely to explain our action by the influence of environment and our resultant helplessness. Simultaneously, when we trace a similar thing in others, we want to underplay the impact of environment in their case and instead blame them, attributing it to their innate characteristics. This leads to liberty in judging oneself but a strict measuring yardstick in understanding and evaluating others. We thus fail to see that we have the same faults which we condemn in others. This is the game of self-deception we play with ourselves.
Guarding the Inner Chamber
Protecting the inner chamber consists of not getting attached to strong likes and dislikes which come our way. These likes and dislikes, in the present context, refer to some deeprooted selfish desire. For we like or dislike something with regard to some happiness or unhappiness that an object brings. Rising above these pairs of strong likes and dislikes is essential to protect one’s inner chamber. For our likes and dislikes make a slave of us but if we want to protect our inner treasure, we must be free enough to make decisions in the interest of our self-protection.
One way of doing this is to remind oneself repeatedly the goal of human life.Indian spiritual tradition tells us that Selfrealisation is the goal of human life. Let us remember that no other goal of life is permanent and ultimately more fulfilling than the goal of Self-realisation. Not that other things that we seek in life are wrong but that man’s need or capacity for joy and fulfillment is so enormous that it cannot be quenched by anything except by obtaining or experiencing the infinite source of peace and joy called his own divine being. If ever he makes mistakes in this regard, he is soon reminded of it by the dissatisfaction and a sense of want that accompanies all sensory gratifications.
Remembering the goal is itself a great form of spiritual practice. We forget the ultimate goal of life because we get involved in many relative goals of life. Of course we need to keep working for fulfilment of relative goals—this is a bare necessity for our mundane life. But unless this is related to an ultimate goal of life, it becomes irrelevant and a trap in
itself. This merits a little more discussion.
What should be the goal of life? Going to heaven? Says Swami Vivekananda:
‘Living in heaven would not be very different from life in this world. At best, it would only be a very healthy rich man’s life, with plenty of sense-enjoyments and a sound body which knows no disease. It would be this material world, only a little more refined and we have seen the difficulty that the external material world can never solve the problem. So no heaven can solve the problem.6 . . . .[Heaven is] the idea of happiness minus unhappiness. That is to say, what we want is the joys of this life minus its sorrows. . . . . but. . . . there is no such thing as absolute good, nor any such things as absolute evil.’7
If heaven is rejected as the goal of life, what should be then the goal of life?
Discovering the inner Self. For this Self is the source of eternal joy and peace and fulfilment,what we seek in life through various ways and means. Since heaven has a beginning, it has an end also. Only our Divine Core within has no beginning or end. When one accepts this ideal of Self-realisation as the ultimate goal of life, this brings a remarkable transformation in the way a person lives his life. He is thus willing to undergo all the moral and ethical purification one requires to pursue this ideal.All forms of spiritual practices are acceptable then.
Protecting the inner chamber of one’s being is a primary pre-requisite for remaining true to the goal of life. This means keeping one’s intentions pure and being integrated in what one thinks, speaks and does. In his homely expression Sri Ramakrishna calls this as the ‘oneness of mind and mouth.’ About protecting this inner chamber, a popular verse says:
‘Of all the treasures, the greatest treasure is the
treasure of [purity of] heart. If that is protected,
everything else is protected.’
The Inner Enemies
The Gita speaks of the guarding the inner treasure as the honesty of purpose (bhava samshudhi).8 This means purity of resolve.Bhava means mental disposition. One must keep one’s mental disposition free from all evil tendencies. Countless saints and mystics speak of the inner enemies. Lust, greed, anger,jealousy, pride and delusion are inner the enemies (shad-ripus). When one has right inner disposition, one becomes emotionally secure.The more our inner enemies are defeated and kept under control, the more emotionally secure we become. Faith, patience, kindness and strength are the inner assets that one develops when one subdues the inner enemies.
The main reason for hypocrisy is the shifting of our faith. When we lose faith in spiritual matters, we develop more importance for worldly values. There is an interesting story to illustrate what happens when we lose track of our inner goal orientation.
Once an ascetic went for his usual round of begging in an Indian village. On the way a stray buffalo hurt him and this upset him very much. He went to the village and directed all the villagers not to use the buffalo milk then onwards as the buffalo belongs to the mahishasuraclan (the demon whom Divine Mother killed). Some of the learned people in the village, however, objected to his directive saying that one needs buffalo milk while performing the annual offering to the ancestors (shraddha ceremony), and hence the buffalo milk cannot be considered unholy. Annoyed and infuriated, the ascetic wanted to prove those learned men wrong and hence went away to Varanasi to learn Sanskrit in order to prove his point. There he had to give up his customary spiritual practices and life style in order to earn money to sustain him and to pay for the tuition charges. His life thus underwent a complete change. When one of his ascetic friends happened to meet him in Varanasi, he asked him why he was living like this, leaving behind his spiritual practices. ‘All for the sake of a buffalo!’ he replied with a sense of remorse. One may also recall the well-known parable of Sri Ramakrishna about an ascetic whose life underwent a change ‘all for a loin-cloth’.
Likewise one must be careful in not losing sight of the goal and get caught in the numerous hidden landmines that come laid in the way. There is a worldwide movement about eradicating landmines laid by terrorists and people with violent plans. There should be equally a movement or awareness to remove the hidden enemies like lust, anger,greed and jealousy which lay booby traps in our consciousness, often catching us unawares and destroying our spiritual aspirations. Our inner guard, our honesty of purpose, must be always on high alert.
Protecting the inner chamber of one’s being is a primary pre-requisite for remaining true to the goal of life. This means keeping one’s intentions pure and being integrated in what one thinks, speaks and does. In his homely expression Sri Ramakrishna calls this as the ‘oneness of mind and mouth.’ About protecting this inner chamber, a popular verse says:
‘Of all the treasures, the greatest treasure is the
treasure of [purity of] heart. If that is protected,
everything else is protected.’
The Inner Enemies
The Gita speaks of the guarding the inner treasure as the honesty of purpose (bhava samshudhi).8 This means purity of resolve.Bhava means mental disposition. One must keep one’s mental disposition free from all evil tendencies. Countless saints and mystics speak of the inner enemies. Lust, greed, anger,jealousy, pride and delusion are inner the enemies (shad-ripus). When one has right inner disposition, one becomes emotionally secure.The more our inner enemies are defeated and kept under control, the more emotionally secure we become. Faith, patience, kindness and strength are the inner assets that one develops when one subdues the inner enemies.
The main reason for hypocrisy is the shifting of our faith. When we lose faith in spiritual matters, we develop more importance for worldly values. There is an interesting story to illustrate what happens when we lose track of our inner goal orientation.
Once an ascetic went for his usual round of begging in an Indian village. On the way a stray buffalo hurt him and this upset him very much. He went to the village and directed all the villagers not to use the buffalo milk then onwards as the buffalo belongs to the mahishasuraclan (the demon whom Divine Mother killed). Some of the learned people in the village, however, objected to his directive saying that one needs buffalo milk while performing the annual offering to the ancestors (shraddha ceremony), and hence the buffalo milk cannot be considered unholy. Annoyed and infuriated, the ascetic wanted to prove those learned men wrong and hence went away to Varanasi to learn Sanskrit in order to prove his point. There he had to give up his customary spiritual practices and life style in order to earn money to sustain him and to pay for the tuition charges. His life thus underwent a complete change. When one of his ascetic friends happened to meet him in Varanasi, he asked him why he was living like this, leaving behind his spiritual practices. ‘All for the sake of a buffalo!’ he replied with a sense of remorse. One may also recall the well-known parable of Sri Ramakrishna about an ascetic whose life underwent a change ‘all for a loin-cloth’.
Likewise one must be careful in not losing sight of the goal and get caught in the numerous hidden landmines that come laid in the way. There is a worldwide movement about eradicating landmines laid by terrorists and people with violent plans. There should be equally a movement or awareness to remove the hidden enemies like lust, anger,greed and jealousy which lay booby traps in our consciousness, often catching us unawares and destroying our spiritual aspirations. Our inner guard, our honesty of purpose, must be always on high alert.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Osho Explaining The Meditation !
Osho : "In Buddha's time, dynamic methods of meditation were not needed. People were more simple, more authentic. They lived a more real life. Now, people are living a very repressed life, a very unreal life.
When they don't want to smile, they smile. When they want to be angry, they show compassion. People are false, the whole life pattern is false. People are just acting, not living. Many incomplete experiences go on being collected, piled up inside their minds.
"Just sitting directly in silence won't help. The moment you will sit silently, you will see all sorts of things moving inside you; you will feel it almost impossible to be silent. First throw those things out so you come to a natural state of rest. Real meditation starts only when you are at rest."
All the dynamic meditations are preparatory to real meditation. They are just basic requirements to be fulfilled so that the meditation can happen. Don't treat them as meditations; they are just introductory, just a preface.
The real meditation starts only when all activity has ceased -- activity of the body and activity of the mind.
Source: "The Discipline of Transcendence, Vol. 2,
When they don't want to smile, they smile. When they want to be angry, they show compassion. People are false, the whole life pattern is false. People are just acting, not living. Many incomplete experiences go on being collected, piled up inside their minds.
"Just sitting directly in silence won't help. The moment you will sit silently, you will see all sorts of things moving inside you; you will feel it almost impossible to be silent. First throw those things out so you come to a natural state of rest. Real meditation starts only when you are at rest."
All the dynamic meditations are preparatory to real meditation. They are just basic requirements to be fulfilled so that the meditation can happen. Don't treat them as meditations; they are just introductory, just a preface.
The real meditation starts only when all activity has ceased -- activity of the body and activity of the mind.
Source: "The Discipline of Transcendence, Vol. 2,
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Buddha Teachings Always alive !
To ask why the Buddha's teaching spread so rapidly among all sectors of northeast Indian society is to raise a question that is not of merely historical interest but is also relevant to us today. For we live at a time when Buddhism is exerting a strong appeal upon an increasing number of people, both East and West. I believe the remarkable success of Buddhism, as well as its contemporary appeal, can be understood principally in terms of two factors: one, the aim of the teaching; and the other, its methodology.
As to the aim, the Buddha formulated his teaching in a way that directly addresses the critical problem at the heart of human existence -- the problem of suffering -- and does so without reliance upon the myths and mysteries so typical of religion. He further promises that those who follow his teaching to its end will realize here and now the highest happiness and peace. All other concerns apart from this, such as theological dogmas, metaphysical subtleties, rituals and rules of worship, the Buddha waves aside as irrelevant to the task at hand, the mind's liberation from its bonds and fetters.
This pragmatic thrust of the Dharma is clearly illustrated by the main formula into which the Buddha compressed his program of deliverance, namely, the Four Noble Truths:
(1) the noble truth that life involves suffering
(2) the noble truth that suffering arises from craving
(3) the noble truth that suffering ends with the removal of craving
(4) the noble truth that there is a way to the end of suffering.
The Buddha not only makes suffering and release from suffering the focus of his teaching, but he deals with the problem of suffering in a way that reveals extraordinary psychological insight. He traces suffering to its roots within our minds, first to our craving and clinging, and then a step further back to ignorance, a primordial unawareness of the true nature of things. Since suffering arises from our own minds, the cure must be achieved within our minds, by dispelling our defilements and delusions with insight into reality. The beginning point of the Buddha's teaching is the unenlightened mind, in the grip of its afflictions, cares, and sorrows; the end point is the enlightened mind, blissful, radiant, and free.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Thirumangai Azhvar One Of The Great Saint Of Lord Vishnu
The Ashtakshara mantra — Om Namo Narayanaya — is simple to utter, but potent in power. All the Azhvars have stressed the importance of the name ‘Narayana,’ said Ilampirai Manimaran. In Andal’s Thiruppavai, the name Narayana occurs in the very first verse.
Thirumangai Azhvar, in the first 10 verses of his Peria Thirumozhi, writes of the potency of the Narayana nama. He laments that he spent his early days in wasteful activities. He was fretful, unhappy, burdened with sorrow, until he discovered the delight of reciting the Lord’s name. He says that we should recite the Lord’s name even when we are asleep, when we are in sorrow and when we have no sorrow. How is it possible to recite something when we are asleep, we may wonder. If we utter His name when we are awake, our mind will take over and do the job of reciting His name, when we are asleep.
The story of how Thirumangai Azhvar discovered the beauty and power of the Lord’s name is interesting. He took to robbing travellers because he had run out of funds, but still wanted to keep his promise to his wife Kumudavalli that he would feed Vaishnavites everyday. He kept his promise to her, but lost all his wealth, and he had to take recourse to robbery.
One day, he tried to rob a rich man and his bride, who were, in fact, Lord Narayana and Goddess Lakshmi. But he was unable to lift the sack of jewels, however hard he tried. Then the Lord, in the guise of the rich man, whispered the Ashtakshara mantra in the Azhvar’s ears and the warrior-turned-robber became an Azhvar and he saw a whole new dimension of Divine power. No wonder he sang with so much feelings of the power of Lord Narayana’s name.
Thirumangai Azhvar’s words melt one’s heart, for he pours out his anguish at having wasted so much time in needless pursuits when he could have uttered the Lord’s name.
And what does the Lord’s name do? It confers all kinds of boons on us, and gives us more comfort and consolation than a mother’s affection does. It is Lord Narayana who directs our lives, and without His will and blessings, we can do nothing.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Sri Krishna Sayings For Our Spiritual Life
“Delusion arises from anger. The mind is bewildered by delusion. Reasoning is destroyed when the mind is bewildered. One falls down when reasoning is destroyed.”
“There is neither this world nor the world beyond nor happiness for the one who doubts.”
“One who has control over the mind is tranquil in heat and cold, in pleasure and pain, and in honor and dishonor; and is ever steadfast with the Supreme Self.”
“There is neither this world nor the world beyond nor happiness for the one who doubts.”
“One who has control over the mind is tranquil in heat and cold, in pleasure and pain, and in honor and dishonor; and is ever steadfast with the Supreme Self.”
