Guru-Sishya Relationship

Guru Stotram - slokam 2

om ajnaana-timiraandhasya / jnanaanjana-shalaakaya
caksur-unmilitam yena / tasmai shri-gurave namah

Salutation (namah) to that (tasmai) Guru (gurave) by whom (yena) the eyes (cakshur) blinded (andhasya) by the darkness (timira) of ignorance (agnyana) were opened (unmilitam) with the collyrium (anjana)-sharp pencil (shalakaya) of knowledge (gnyana).

Salutations to that Guru who applies the collyrium of knowledge with a sharp needle to open the eyes of those blinded due to ignorance (lack of spiritual knowledge). The purpose of approaching the Master is explained beautifully in this second verse of the Guru Stotram -
ajnana- timirandhasya jnananjana shalakaya.

Every action of ours is directed to achieve certain end-results; we are happy when we are successful and unhappy when fail to achieve the intended result. Life consists of a series of transactions intended for our sukha praapti ; but many times, there is only dukha and we feel disappointed and dissatisfied. Ramana Maharishi in his Upadesa Saram has compared this sorry state of affairs to falling repeatedly into the ocean of samsara and has suggested self-inquiry as a way out to derive permanent satisfaction in our lives. Those who need help have to seek a Guru.

By middle age, when our dissatisfaction grows and we feel lost like one blinded due to absence of the light of relevant knowledge, we approach a Guru and seek his guidance to gain gnyana drishti for leading life in a manner conducive to yield a steady, happy state of the mind which will not be easily affected by set-backs and failures.. In other words, every effort that we make is for sukha-praapti, to reach a state of satisfaction, contentment and fulfillment, but the goal is not always achieved despite our best efforts.

It is then that we realize that due to lack of knowledge, due to our agnyana, we are presently mired in this condition seeing no way out. At this stage, we proceed to seek a Guru as advised in Kathopanishad:
 praapya varaan nibodhata
The Guru stotram describes the resulting relationship between the Guru and the disciple.

The Guru is the Master who can remove the obstacle of ajnana. But it is not as simple as removing  something that is covering what is underneath. It is a very tricky process since there is nothing really to be taken out; what is required is a transformation in us that is necessary. The Guru-doctor applies the ointment (anjana) of knowledge to our affected eye and restores the sight – he grants us the gift of gnyana drishti.

The Master's role is similar to that of a sculptor, who uses his hammer and chisel to unlock the hidden potential in a stone. If the stone could communicate with us in words, it will describe the great pain it suffers with every stroke, every blow of the chisel and hammer. Finally, it seems that the torture has come to an end. The sculptor leaves the stone alone for many days. Then one day he returns and starts rubbing the surface of the stone with sand-paper to get rid of even the smallest of imperfections. The stone starts feeling, "I thought everything was done. Why is he torturing me like this again?"

But after having undergone this tortuous process, a beautiful murti emerges from the stone; the real glory of the stone is finally expressed. It is then installed in a temple. It becomes elated because it starts receiving flower garlands, it starts receiving alankara. The sculptor's vision created from a piece of shapeless stone a beautiful art-piece that is worthy of being worshipped. But to reach that state the stone had to undergo the process of chiseling, and fine refinements.

The stone acknowledges to the sculptor: "What a great opportunity you have given me to bring out the best in me!" And in all humility the sculptor replies: "I have done nothing. The potential always existed in you. All I have done is to remove that which was blocking the expression of your potential". If we substitute the words Master for the sculptor and disciple for the stone, we can fully understand the roles of the Master and his disciple.

The relationship between the two is beyond human understanding or expression in words. When we talk of the highest in love, we talk of the natural love of a mother for the children she has given birth to. The love and care of the Master for the student is born out of a deep sense of duty and responsibility that he has voluntarily accepted so that the student may reach the spiritual state in which he himself revels.

His efforts to remove the ajnana, which are so painful for the disciple in the beginning, are intended for the purpose that the student can reach and enjoy the same kind of bliss that the Master is enjoying - nothing less. For, in the field of spirituality, either there is perfection or there is nothing - nothing in the middle. The Master directs all his efforts to help his disciple reach that state of perfection.

The Master is not going to change our lives or our environment; he is not going to change the world that we live in. The Master is only changing our vision, our perception of the world in its as is state. It is not the srishti that has to be changed, it is the drishti that has to change, and the Guru is the person who takes pains in changing that drishti. Here is a person who, with all love and concern, tries to tune our body, mind and intellect and dispel the darkness that we are living in so that we can understand the truth. He blesses us with that vision, drishti, so that, staying in the same srishti, we can enjoy the bliss and glory which is an expression of the Lord.

In order to do this, the Guru has to wipe the slate of our mind clean and create a disciple out of us. Guru is thus Brahma, Guru is Vishnu, and Guru Himself is Mahesvara. Guru is nothing but that absolute truth and happiness which we are searching for. Why is the Guru called Brahma? Why is the Guru called Vishnu? Why is the Guru called Maheshvara? Because in spite of who we are, it is the Guru's mission to create a disciple out us. That is no easy task. It requires total surrender by the sishya to the Guru.

Sishya is defined as —Saasanaat sisyate yah sah sishya - the one who remains in disciplined mode, who is ready for any kind of discipline that is expected by the Master. Or, to put it in very simple words, the one who has accepted the fact that he is going to be disciplined and changed. This is where the concept of sharanagati comes into play. When the Master tells the student to do something, there should be no resistance from the student like, -- "but Sir"…absolutely no choice. It took the Lord Himself all the chapters in the Gita to create a disciple out of Arjuna whom He knew very well. It is the Master's responsibility to create that discipleship in us.

The grace of the Guru expresses itself in every seeker's life as jnana and sakti - the knowledge as well as the capacity to use that knowledge at the right moment at the right time. Jnana-sakti-samaarudah, tattva-mala-vibhushitah. A very beautiful picture of the Master has been painted here. Jnana-sakti-samarudhah, he is samarudah, he enters our life integrating these two things; he bestows upon us, he blesses us with these two things - jnanam ca saktim ca. He blesses us with knowledge and also the capacity to use that knowledge in the correct place, in the correct environment; he builds in us the awareness of the knowledge.

When we listen to Vedanta discourses, we tend to feel that we already know these principles. But knowledge lies not merely in knowing, but also in applying that knowledge, or having the shakti, the saamarthya, the capacity to do so in the right place and at the right moment.
Note:
The text above is an extract from : http://www.chinmayasaaket.org/articles/uddhav/tasmai_sri_gurave_namah.pdf  

ON MILK_ABHISHEKAM IN TEMPLES

पत्रं पुष्पं फलं तोयं यो मे भक्त्या प्रयच्छति

patram, pushpam phalam, toyam
yo me bhaktya prayacchati - Sri Krishna
 =================================

"Milk for Abhishekam in temples is a divine offering; let us ensure it is pure, derived from happy cows free to roam in green pastures, eating pesticide-free grass, not from cows confined in narrow stalls, fed high-energy grains and restaurant scraps and injected with growth hormones and  antibiotics"   -- Aparna Hasling

The following is the text of an article by Aparna Hasling in SriVidya magazine, New York :

"I would like to introduce Eco Vidya, the term I have used to identify an environmental version of Sri Vidya. In this modern  age it is ever more important to re-examine the source of  our offerings and determine which of our ritual actions may unknowingly be harmful to the Divine Mother, our Mother Earth. It is not enough to just be vegetarian; we should also consider the effect of  our purchases at the grocery store. It is time that our temple considers  using alternatives to pasteurized  milk.

Milk abhishekam has been a divine act of devotion for thousands of years within the Hindu  tradition. Our ancient scriptures explain that milk is amritam from a divine being, and so it is respectful to pour it on a deity. But those words were written in an age when milk was pure and cows freely roamed  green pastures and ate pesticide-free grass.Today, the milk we buy comes from  agribusinesses,  places that house thousands of cows in confinement dairies, where stalls are sometimes welded shut, where cows are fed high-energy grains and restaurant scraps, and are injected with growth hormones and  antibiotics. Cows are not permitted  their natural grass diet; they are fed only to maximize milk production and minimize cost. These mistreated cows are subject to frequent illnesses and infections; the milk they produce reflects their own health in that their milk must be sterilized before it is sold for human consumption. The FDA (Food and Drug Administration of the United States) demands that milk be pasteurized. This modern technique was not needed when cows were healthy. In 1888 Louis Pasteur  invented a system of heating milk in order to kill bacteriaâ€"but it killed the potentially harmful bacteria as well as the healthy bacteria needed to bolster the immune system.

The cow on the left lives freely in Devipuram, where it is allowed to roam around and graze. Many private, family farms in North America allow their cows the same natural life. But factory farms (like the one on the right) keep their animals in cruel conditions, where they sometimes don't even have enough room to move their legs or sit down.

This technique started as a temporary solution to the problem of contaminated milk in overcrowded cities without refrigeration or adequate sanitation. Raw milk was understood by all parties to be preferred, but unfortunately the focus has never turned back from heating diseased milk to producing and distributing healthy, raw milk.By purchasing hundreds of gallons of pasteurized  milk, we are using our consumer dollars to empower these harmful practices. It is as if we are saying --yes, we want cheap milk at any cost. Agribusiness then responds to our demands by putting more cows on smaller plots, and tormenting them in unspeakable ways to produce more milk. It is our responsibility to advocate for the sisters of Nandi.

The milk-giving cow is the most sacred animal in Hindu religion. She is often understood as the symbol of sustainable life, as well as of the cosmos: her legs are compared to the four Vedas, her eyes to the sun and the moon, her horns to the mountains, and her udders to the oceans. Milk from healthy cows is extremely nutritious for children and is said to delay the aging process in adults. From milk, we make butter, ghee, and yogurt. Even the dung a healthy cow produces can be beneficial and contains ammonia which can eliminate pathogenic bacteria in the home. It can also be burned for cooking fuel instead of timber.

The cow is a symbol of sustainable life. For millennia, the Indian culture has relied on the sacred cow, and now she needs our help.Yes, milk abhishekam has been a divine act of devotion for thousands of years. But it is time to rethink our basic ritual formulas. Please offer abhishekam with anything except milk from cows raised on factory farms: - raw milk, diluted coconut milk, fruit juice, turmeric water, rose water or river water. In doing so, the temple will make a bold statement and serve as an example for the community to become advocates for our Divine Mother Earth."
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My comment:
We take care to prepare Prasadam-offerings like pongal etc with madi in madappalli to ensure purity and respect to the temple deity. Sabari tasted the fruits before offering to Sri Rama. Why don't we examine the milk for fitness to offer it with Bhakti to the Lord? - This is also the theme of the famous Bhajan:

Krishna Govinda Gopala Gaate Raho
Krishna Govinda Gopala Gaate Raho

Log kehte hai bhagwaan aate nahi …
Draupadi ki tarah tum bulate nahi…
Krishna Govinda Gopala gaate raho

Log kehte hai bhagwan khaate nahi…
Shabari ki tarah tum khilate nahi…
Krishna Govinda Gopala gaate raho

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The Metaphysics of Nothing

Gita - Ch.II Sloka 16

नासतो विद्यते भावो नाभावो विद्यते सतः।
उभयोरपि दृष्टोऽन्तस्त्वनयोस्तत्त्वदर्शिभिः।। 2.16 ।।

nāsatō vidyatē bhāvō nābhāvō vidyatē sataḥ.
ubhayōrapi dṛṣṭō.ntastvanayōstattvadarśibhiḥ..2.16..

The unreal hath no being; there is non-being of the real;
the truth about both has been seen by the knowers of
the Truth (the seers of the Essence). - Swami Sivananda

The verse from the Bhagavad Gita (2:16) is part of the argument that Krishna makes to Arjuna for the immortality of the self. As with Parmenides, the point is that something cannot come from nothing or become nothing. We do not get any consideration, however, why a person does not disappear in the same way that wood can be burned into ash and smoke. For that, we need the background of the Upanishads and Vedânta, that the world itself is only a content of consciousness, the consciousness of the ultimate Self, Brahman. As the Chândogya Upanishad says,
Tat tvam asi , "Thou art that."

In death, as in sleep,
"it is not the self that goes away into oblivion, it is the world."

Above is an extract from:  The Metaphysics of Nothing

---

Gita-slokam commentary by Swami Sivananda:

The changeless, homogeneous Atman or the Self always exists. It is the only solid Reality. This phenomenal world of names and forms is ever changing. Hence it is unreal. The sage or the Jivanmukta is fully aware that the Self always exists and that this world is like a mirage. Through his Gnyanachakshus or the eye of intuition, he directly cognises the Self. This world vanishes for him like the snake in the rope, after it has been seen that only the rope exists. He rejects the names and forms and takes the underlying Essence in all the names and forms, viz., Asti-Bhaati-Priya or Sat-chit-ananda or Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute. Hence he is a Tattva-darshi or a knower of the Truth or the Essence.
What is changing must be unreal. What is constant or permanent must be real. -- Sivananda

Positive Thinking & FAITH

 

QUOTES

On Positive Thinking

The Universe is constantly listening to our thoughts.

We must learn to maintain positive thoughts in our mind,
if we want the Universe to help us.

*

When you have come to the edge of all the light you have
And step into the darkness of the unknown
Believe that one of the two will happen to you:
Either you'll find something solid to stand on
Or you will be taught how to fly.

*

When all your efforts end in failure,
it means that you are being taught the lesson
that, not your own efforts,
but God's Grace alone can bring success.
And you should seek His Grace.

On FAITH:

Faith is the nearest English equivalent to the Sanskrit word Shraddha;

it endows us with great value in life.

It is the set of values, axioms, prejudices, and pre-possessions
that colours our perceptions, governs our thinking,

dictates our responses, and shapes our lives generally

without our even being aware of its presence and power.

Shraddha is not an intellectual abstraction;

it is our very substance.

*

Bhagavd Gita - Chapter17 slokam 3:

श्रद्धामयोऽयं पुरुषो यो यच्छ्रद्धः स एव सः।।17.3।।

"As a person's faith is, so is he"

     The Bible, using similar words, says:

     "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he."

*

There is nothing passive about Shraddha.

It is full of potency.

For it prompts action, conditions behaviour, and

determines how we perceive and thus
respond to the world around us.

*

The power to heal or harm is inherent in our ideas of ourselves.

Yet Shraddha is not brute determination or wishful thinking.

Our lives are an eloquent expression of our beliefs of

what we deem worth having, doing, attaining, being.

What we strive for shows what we value.

We back our Shraddha with our time, our energy, our very lives.

Thus Shraddha determines destiny.

*

As the Buddha put it:

"All that we are is the result of what we thought.
We are made of our thoughts,

We are moulded by our thoughts."

*

As we think, so we become.

yat bhaavam tat bhavati

On: - the News Report report about the death of a famous singer, age 27:  

Today’s Metro Plus section of ‘The Hindu’ carries on its front-page the news of the death of Amy Winehouse, brilliant UK artist and Grammy award winner at the young age of 27.

http://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/metroplus/article2292982.ece

Presumably, her drug, alcohol and marital problems were responsible for the tragic death. She became one of the most acclaimed young singers of the past decade, selling millions of albums, winning five Grammy Awards and starting a British retro-R&B trend that continues today. Yet, almost from the moment she arrived on the international pop scene in early 2007, she appeared to flirt with self-destruction. Strangely, she seemed to be 'frustrated with success'. In time, the notoriety from Ms. Winehouse’s various drug arrests, public meltdowns and ruined concerts overshadowed her talent as a musician, and her career never recovered. On Saturday, as the news of Ms. Winehouse’s death spread, many musicians wrote with sadness, but no surprise. She seemed unable to deal with her great succes early in her life, affirmng Oscar Wilde's wise observation: "There are only two tragedies in life: One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.”

‘The Hindu’ in the article titled ‘Broken Flower’ has stated:

“Winehouse dies at the age of 27, which is the same age when musical legends such as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain and Jim Morrison passed on. But even as conspiracy theorists welcome another member to ‘Death club 27', one can establish another clear link between all the pioneers. Despite their superior musical dexterity, a strong temptation made them deviate and become careless wrecks. Winehouse too, treaded this path and now leaves behind a legacy of music that thematically delved on everything her life was — painful yet ecstatic, but without regrets.” 

Why would many talented artists find difficulty and frustration in dealing with the fame and success they richly deserved and achieved? Is there a lesson for all of us from these failures to deal with success, which Oscar Wilde noted as being a weakness in human nature? Is there a strategy to counter this?

Perhaps, our sages have the answer in the lessons they have prescribed for practising Karma Yoga — the mental attitude to Work. In this context, there is great relevance in Ramana Maharishi’s advice in his Upadesa Saram slokam:

ईश्वरार्पितं नेच्छया कृतम् । Ishvaraarpitam na ichchayaa krutam

चित्त शोधकं मुक्तिसाधकम् ।। Chittha shodhakam mukti saadhakam

Actions consecrated to the Lord without attachment to the results, purify the mind and point the way to liberation, freedom from the binding mind. Bhagavad Gita too warns us in sloka VI-5 that our mind can be our best friend and also our worst enemy.

Taking credit for success boosts the ignorant ego (mind) and leads to self-destruction.

Self-confidence should mean confidence in the Higher Self, not in the ego-self created by us and uninitiated into true knowledge of the real purpose of this life, hence termed ignorant. The Kathopanishad advises us to hand over the reins of our Indriyas to the wise Self residing within us, instead of the uninstructed ego-mind:

Atmaanam rathinam viddhi shareeram rathameva tu

buddhim tu sarathim viddhi manah pragrahamevaca

indriyani hayanyahur vishayansteshu gocharaan

Atmendriya manoyuktam bhoktetyahur maneeshinah

Consider the body as a chariot with the Spirit (Atman) sitting in it as the passenger, the intellect as the driver who controls the horses (the Indriyas – organs), with the mind as the reins. When the mind (ego) acts in accordance with the instructions of the Atman, true knowledge dawns and harmony prevails in the travel along the life-path (sat-chit-anand). Only the mind liberated in this manner will be able to deal effectively with both success and failure. 

Govinda! Govinda! Govinda!

The holy-chant: Govinda! Govinda! Govinda! is all-pervading in Tirumala Kshetram. While chanting Sri Vishnu Sahasranama Stotram, we meet with this holy Nama in

slokams 20 and 58. Readers of this Blog may be interested in the significance and meanings given by commentators on the Govinda Nama. The following extract is from

the Sahasranamam web-page in http://kirtimukha.com/chinnamma/sahasra/index.html 

Govinda-Nama in Sri Vishnu Sahasranamam

Slokam 20:  Govindah

maheshvaaso maheebhartaa srinivasah sataamgatih

aniruddhah suraanando govindo govidaampatih   -20

a) One who is praised by the gods (for His help).

b) One who dug out the Earth from the depths of the Ocean.

c) The protector of cows.

d) One who confers the veda-s

Om govindAya namah.

go in samskRt means "Earth", "cows", "speech", or "veda-s" - gaur-vANI, dharA, dhenurvA. From this we derive gavAm, gAm, etc. vid - lAbhe to get, to find, to feel is the root from which vinda is derived.

a) gavAm vindah govindah - gavAm - praise, vindah - recipient. He is govinda because He is the recipient of praise by the gods for the help He renders as outlined in the previous nAma.

b) Another interpretation is gAm avindat - One who retrieved the Earth from the depths of the Ocean.

The following is from Santi parvam in mahAbhAratam -

nashTAm vai dharaNIm purvam avindam vai guhAgatAm

govinda iti tenAham devair-vAgbir-abhishTutah    (Santi - 330.5)

"I first rescued the earth which was carried away and hidden in depths of the Ocean (by an asura); hence I am praised by the appellation Govinda by gods and scriptures". The significance of this is pointed out by the dharma cakram writer: BhagavAn is the One who truly understands the world and all its subjects.

c) gAvo vedavANyo yam vindanti labhante, yatra vA avatisThante sa govindo bhagavAn vishNuh - One who is reached by vedic chanting, or One who is the abode of the veda-s, is govinda or vishNu. In harivamSa we have the following -

gaureshA tu yato vANI tAm ca vindayate bhavAn

govindastu tato deva! munibhih kathyate bhavAn!   (harivamSa 3.88.50)

gau means worlds.
You pervade all worlds giving them power. Sages, therefore, call you govinda.

d) The protector of the cows - again supported from harivamSa -

aham kilendro devAnAm tvam gavAm indratAm gatah

govinda iti lokAstvAm stoshyanti bhuvi SASvatam    (harivamSa 2.19.45)

"I am indra, leader of deva-s. You have attained the leadership of the cows. So in this world men praise you always addressing you as govinda". He is the protector of the cows and played the part ofgopAla in gokulam. SrI satyadevo vAsishTha points out that the leadership of cows also suggests the importance of milk, ghee, etc., in worship, yaj~na etc., and how these also play a key role in thenourishment of the world.

An author by name ananta kRshNa Sastri, who has translated SrI Sankara's vishNu sahasranAma vyAkhyAnam, gives 10 meanings for the combination go+vid - 1) go -svargam - He transcends Heaven.

2) arrows - He knows all the weapons. 3) cattle - He is the leader of cows. 4) Speech - He is to be known by the veda-s. 5) Thunderbolt - He has the vajra marks on His feet. 6) Quarters - He is known in

all quarters. 7) Eyes - He is the seer in every person. 8) The Sun - He is in the orb of the sun. 9) Earth - He recovered the Earth from the Ocean. 10) Waters - His seat is in the waters

Vishnu Sahasra Namam: Sloka-58

mahaavaraaho govindah susheNah kanakangadee

guhyo gabheero ahano guptashchakra gadaadharah  58

 govindah

a) One who is praised by the gods (for His help).

b) One who dug out the Earth from the depths of the Ocean.

c) The protector of cows.

d) One who confers the veda-s

e) He who rescued the Earth.

f) He who is known by vedic sentences.

g) He who is responsible for all things that move.

om govindAya namah.

This nAma occurred earlier in sloka 20; the detailed explanation for (a) to (d) were given under Slokam 20.

SrI BhaTTar gives interpretation for  (e) thus:  a variation of explanation (b) under the current nAma viz. bhagavAn is govindah because He rescued the Earth from the rAkshasa.

SrI Sa'nkara gives the interpretationfor (f) under the current nAma: "gobhih - vANibhih vindate" - He Who is known (vid) through words i.e., vedic sentences. SrI Sa'nkara gives the reference from vishNutilaka -

gobhireva yato vedyo govindah samudAhRtah -

"You are named govinda as you are to be known through scriptual texts".

SrI satyadevo vAsishTha derives his interpretation starting from the root gam - gatau - to go (gacchati iti gauh),and gives the meaning "to possess" to the word vid (vid - lAbhe - toget), and thus derives the interpretation (g) above. His explanation is that anything that moves, including our mind, our indriya-s, the Sun, etc., are His possession, and so He is called govindah. He gives this interpretation for the nAma "govidAm patih" also. He supports his interpretation based on"gacchati iti jagat" - BhagavAn is present everywhere as seen by the movement of everything in this world. The life in all things that live is associated with movement, and He is the One who is behind this movement -govindah.

=======================================

Read also:   http://www.tirumala.org/ptv_tm_varaha.htm about the traditinal custom of offering worship to Adi Varaha swamy first and proceeding to Sri Venkatshwara temple only there-after:

Sri Varahaswami Temple in Tirumala is to the north of the Sri Venkateswara Temple, on the banks of Swami Pushkarini.  According to legend, Tirumala was originally Adi Varaha Kshetra (the home of Sri Adi Varaha Swami), and it was with his permission that Lord Sri Venkateswara took up residence here.

According to the Brahma Purana, pilgrims should first offer naivedyam to Sri Adi Varaha Swami, before visiting the Sri Venkateswara Temple. According to Atri Samhita (Samurtarchanadhikara), the Varaha avatara is worshipped in three forms: 

·                     Adi Varaha

·                     Pralaya Varaha

·                     Yajna Varaha 

The idol of Sri Varahaswami in Tirumala is that of Adi Varaha, as it resembles the description of the Adi Varaha murti in Vaikhanasa Agama texts.

The genesis of Sri Varahaswamy Avatarm is given in Canto 3 Chapters 16 - 19 of Srimad Bhagavatam.

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Rajaji's song "kurai onrum illai govinda", sung by MS, chants the glory of Govinda who is present as Archa Murti on the Tirumala hills: ( http://kirtimukha.com/KuraiOnrumIllai.htm )

Kunrin mel kallāki nirkinra varadā

kurai onrum illai, Maraimūrthi kanna!

Manivannā! Malaiyappā! Gōvinda!

Gōvinda! Govinda!Govinda!

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Kurai Onrum Illai Kanna

"Kurai Onrum Illai marai murti Kanna" sung by Smt. M.S. Subbulakshmi is broadcast many times by the TTD on their SVBC TV Channel. The song composed by (late) Chakravarti Rajagopalachari is rich in philosophical content which his grandson Gopal Gandhi has lucidly explained in his article reproduced by Wikipedia at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurai_Onrum_Illai; pl also view the article at my web-site where  I have reproduced the Wiki article and also embedded YouYube links to the soulful music by MS.,

Rajaji has used the words 'kuRai onRum Illai' which have been translated by Gopal Gandhi as 'I have no regret'.  kuRai in Tanil means a lack that is felt by us, generally leading to a desire and action to remove the lack. But such a situation does not arise since all the needs of the devotee are fulfilled by Kannan/Govinda, as stated by Rajaji in the next verse:

Vendiyadhai thandhida Venkatesan enrirukka,
Vendiyadhu ver illai maraimūrthi kanna-

When Venkatesa is there to fulfil our needs
there is nothing else that we need, O Kanna

A heart filled with devotion (bhakti-bhaava) to Govindaa has no kuRai what soever; the devotee sings His praise soulfully and declares: kuRai onrum illai kaNNa, Govinda.

The Loving Bond

The kite-flier's attitude is a good illustration of loving-caring for the child. The loving bond that does not bind is the thread; pulling and leaving, we succeed in sending it higher in the free atmosphere. We still hold one end of the thread and keep communicating with the kite, feeling the tightness/heaviness as the air keeps pushing the kite up. We don't hold the kite restricted yet the kite flies free -
-- an ideal relationship described by Khalil Gibran thus in his book Prophet:

Your children are not your children.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and
He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as he loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Who am I? Where am I?

http://bhagavan-ramana.org/ramana_maharshi/books/letters/letter073.html

....... an Andhra gentleman questioned Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi:
“You say the important thing to do is to enquire and find out who I am,
but how is one to find it out? Are we to do japam saying, ‘Who am I? Who am I?’
or should we repeat, ‘Neti’ (not this)? I want to know the exact method, Swami.”
After waiting for a while Bhagavan said,
“What is there to find out? Who is to find out?
There must be some one to find out, mustn’t there?
Who is that someone? Where has that someone come from?
This is the thing to find out first.”
The questioner said, again, “Should there not be some sadhana to find out who one’s self is? Which sadhana will be useful?”
“Yes, it is that that has to be found out. If you ask where to see,
we should say, look within, what is its shape, how was it born, and where was it born;
that is what you have to see or enquire,” said Bhagavan.
The questioner asked again,
“If we ask where this ‘I’ is born, the ancients say, it is in the heart.
How could we see that?”
“Yes, we have to see the heart itself. If you want to see it; the mind must get submerged completely. It is no use doing japam with the words, ‘Who am I? Who am I?’
nor by repeating the words ‘Neti, Neti’,” said Bhagavan.
When the questioner said, that was exactly what he was unable to do,
Bhagavan replied, “Yes, that is so. That is the difficulty.
We always exist and are in all places.
This body and all other attendant things are gathered around us by ourselves only.
There is no difficulty in gathering them. The real difficulty is in throwing them out. We find it difficult to see what is inhering in us and what is foreign to us.
See, what a great tragedy it is,” said Bhagavan.
Some time ago, when a Bengali youth asked similar questions, Bhagavan explained to him at great length. His doubts not being cleared, that youth asked, “You say that the Self is present at all times and at all places. Where exactly is that ‘I’?”
Bhagavan replied with a smile, “When I say you are present at all times and at all places and you ask where is that ‘I’, it is something like asking, when you are in Tiruvannamalai, ‘Where is Tiruvannamalai?’
When you are everywhere, where are you to search? The real delusion is the feeling that you are the body. When you get rid of that delusion, what remains is your Self. You should search for a thing which is not with you but where is the need to search for a thing which is always with you? All sadhanas are for getting rid of the delusion that you are the body. The knowledge that ‘I am’ is always there: call it Atma, or Paramatma or whatever you like. One should get rid of the idea that ‘I am the body’. There is no need to search for that ‘I’ that is the self. That Self is all-pervading.”
*******************
As an illustration of this, I give hereunder the words of Bhagavan in “Unnadhi Nalupadhi”:
Without the Self where is time and where is space?
If we are the body, we have to be bound by time and space. Are we the body?
We are one and identical now, then and always; here, there and everywhere.
So, we are existent, without time and space.” (Reality in Forty Verses, verse 16 )
==========
What are the marks of the Guru’s grace?
It is beyond words or thoughts.
If that is so, how is it that it is said that the disciple realises his true state by the Guru’s grace?
It is like the elephant which wakes up on seeing a lion in its dream.
Even as the elephant wakes up at the mere sight of the lion, so too is it certain that the disciple wakes up from the sleep of ignorance into the wakefulness of true knowledge through the Guru’s benevolent look of grace.
How can there be a connection between the Self which is
pure knowledge and the triple factors which are relative knowledge?
This is, in a way, like the working of a cinema.
The Cinema:
1) The lamp inside (the apparatus) = The Self.
2) The lens in front of the lamp = The pure (sattvic) mind close to the Self
3) The film which is a long series of separate photos = The stream of latent tendencies consisting of subtle thoughts.
4) The lens, the light passing through it and the lamp, which together form the focused light = The mind, the illumination of it and the Self, which together form the seer or the jjva.
5) The light passing through the lens and falling on the screen = The light of the Self emerging from the mind through the senses, and falling on the world
6) The various kinds of pictures appearing in the light of the screen = The various forms and names appearing as the objects perceived in the light of the world
7) The mechanism which sets the film in motion = The divine law manifesting the latent tendencies of the mind.
***

Just as the pictures appear on the screen as long as the film throws the shadows through the lens, so the phenomenal world will continue to appear to the individual in the waking and dream states as long as there are latent mental impressions. Just as the lens magnifies the tiny specks on the film to a huge size and as a number of pictures are shown in a second, so the mind enlarges the sprout-like tendencies into treelike thoughts and shows, in a second, innumerable worlds. Again, just as there is only the light of the lamp visible when there is no film, so the Self alone shines without the triple factors when the mental concepts in the form of tendencies are absent in the states of deep sleep, swoon and samadhi. Just as the lamp illumines the lens, etc. while remaining unaffected, the Self illumines the ego (Chidabhasa) etc., while Itself remaining unaffected.

Oprah, Elie Wiesel, problem of God Evil

Oprah's interview with Elie Weisel, published in oprah.com is reproduced below. An extract, in which Wiesel reiterates his acceptance of God, inspite of his traumatic experience:

Oprah: Where are you and God with each other these days? Elie Wiesel: We still have a few problems! But even in the camps, I never divorced God. After the war, I went on praying to God. I was angry. I protested. I'm still protesting—and occasionally, I'm still angry. But it's not because of the past, but the present. When I see victims of a tragedy—and especially children—I say to God, "Don't tell me that you have nothing to do with this. You are everywhere—you are God."

If we read our Puranic stories, we notice that God took avatars (literally - came down to earth) *after* atrocities by evil tyrants had happened. In the famous Gita Slokam "*yadaa yadaa hi dharmasya glaanir bhavati*" Krishna assures only that whenever Adharma prevails over Dharma, He comes down to restore the balance in favour of Dharma. There is no explanation as to why adharma was allowed to prevail, in the first instance.
The problem baffling all genuine seekers (not those who merely question to satisfy their intelligent ego), is the obtrusiveness of evil and the absence of a logical explanation for its power and its existence in an universe that owes its origin and existence to God, who is portrayed/postulated as omnipotent and benevolent. One such seeker was British author C.E.M. Joad who was a strong believer in Atheism until about age 40; in his earlier writings, he had denied that an omnipotent God could exist because of the dominance of evil and its power to vanquish good. During World War II, a change came over him and he felt the need for the existence of a power to resist evil since, by oneself, one was powerless. He expressed his views in his new book "God and Evil". The particular events which caused this change in him were the cruel killing of five million defenseless Jewish men, women and children in gas-chambers by Nazi Germany and the many horrors of World War II including the total destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki cities with atom-bombs that killed almost the entire civilian population of the two cities.
In the first part of this book, he argues elaborately that every logical explanation to reconcile the two positions was bound to fail and then proceeds to Part II of the book commencing with the statement: ".... the conclusions of the intellect deny that the orthodox God of the religious hypothesis - omnipotent and benevolent, could have been the creator of the world; and deny it precisely because of the fact of evil. But if the intellect denies what the heart demands, what then?”

He answers: “...perhaps the deadlock is a sign of, perhaps it is even a punishment for, intellectual arrogance...The considerations which have set my mind working again on the problems of religion are of an emotional order .....the emotions are those connected with inadequacy. The life that lacks religion lacks, so I have come to feel, fullness and roundness, and the desire to find that true which I have always believed to be false, to know something of that which I have thought to be unknowable grows as the years pass by. One is dismayed by the evil at large in the world and in oneself, depressed and humiliated by the inadequacy of one's efforts to cope with it, humiliated then by the inadequacy of one's own self. It is from precisely such a feeling of humiliation that, religious writers have often urged, the search for and need of God, take their rise. What is more, the seeker who is inspired by such a mood may not be wholly without hope of succeeding in his quest. For alienated by intellectual pride, they have assured us, God draws nearer to those who approach Him in humbleness of spirit."
====================================

From Oprah Winfrey's web-site: http://www2.oprah.com/omagazine/200011/omag_200011_elie_b.jhtml

OPRAH'S CUT WITH ELIE WIESEL

He's one of the people I most respect: Elie Wiesel. After I first read his memoir *Night* seven years ago, I was not the same—you can't be the same after hearing how Elie, at age 15, survived the horror of the Holocaust death camps. Through his eyes, we witness the depths of both human cruelty and human grace—and we're left grappling with what remains of Elie, a teenage boy caught between the two. I gain courage from his courage. The story—and especially that number, six million—numbs us: A Jew hater named Adolf Hitler rises to power in Germany, the world goes to war in 1939, and when the showdown is over six years later, the tyrant has slaughtered six million Jews. Six million. Inconceivable. We see footage of the concentration camps, the gas chambers, the gallows.Yet words like Holocaust and Auschwitz are still abstractions—seemingly impossible until we see photos of someone who was there: a Face, Eyes, Hair, Prison numbers tattooed into an arm, a real person like Elie Wiesel who, 55 years ago, made it through the atrocity.
"How could you live through the Holocaust and not be bitter?" I ask Elie. At 72, he emanates quiet strength; with his strong handgrip, it's as if he's saying, "I assure you—I am alive." We sit across from each other at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan, where hundreds come to see evidence of what happened to the Jewish people. Thousands already know Elie Wiesel's name—he is a prolific writer, a professor at Boston University and an activist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986—but I want him to take me back to the time when living to tell the story was the last thing that mattered to him. I wanted to know: "What does it take to be normal again, after having your humanity stripped away by the Nazis?"

"What is abnormal is that I am normal," he says. "That I survived the Holocaust and went on to love beautiful girls, to talk, to write, to have toast and tea and live my life—that is what is abnormal." "Why didn't you go insane?" "To this day," he says, "that is a mystery to me." and a miracle. After he was liberated from Buchenwald in 1945, he and other orphans were sent to France. There, he lived in an orphanage, then later supported himself as a tutor and choir director—and he decided that he wanted to live again. He studied literature, philosophy and psychology at the Sorbonne, and in 1952 he became a reporter for a newspaper in Tel Aviv. For ten years after his release, he vowed not to speak of his experience. "I wanted to be sure that the words I was going to use about this event were the proper words," he has said.
In our time together, Elie and I talk about how it is possible that he can still believe in the sovereignty of a force bigger than himself, why he has no explanation for his survival in the death camps, and what, five decades after Auschwitz, brings him what he calls real joy.

Oprah: There may be no better person than you to speak about living with gratitude. Despite all the tragedy you've witnessed, do you still have a place inside you for gratefulness?
Elie Wiesel: Absolutely. Right after the war, I went around telling people, "Thank you just for living, for being human." And to this day, the words that come most frequently from my lips are ‘thank you’. When a person doesn't have gratitude, something is missing in his or her humanity. A person can almost be defined by his or her attitude toward gratitude.

O: Does having seen the worst of humanity make you more grateful for ordinary occurrences?
EW: For me, every hour is grace. And I feel gratitude in my heart each time I can meet someone and look at his or her smile.
O: Did you ever hate your oppressors?
EW: I had anger but never hate. Before the war, I was too busy studying [the Bible and the Cabala] to hate. After the war, I thought, What's the use? To hate would be to reduce myself.
O: On your first night in the camp, you saw babies being thrown into the flames. Can you ever forgive those who killed the children?
EW: Who am I to forgive? Only the children themselves could forgive. If I forgive, I should do it in their name. Otherwise, it is arrogant.
O: By becoming a voice for those who are suffering, are you doing what the world did not do for Jews during the Holocaust?
EW: I've gone everywhere, trying to stop so many atrocities: Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia. The least I can do is show the victims that they are not alone. When I went to Cambodia, journalists asked me, "What are you doing here? This is not a Jewish tragedy." I answered, "When I needed people to come, they didn't. That's why I am here."
O: Is it our indifference and arrogance that makes us Americans feel that we are the center of the universe—that a mother's pain after losing her child in Bosnia or Nigeria isn't as important as our own pain?
EW: I wouldn't generalize. There are people in America who are so sensitive. Whenever I meet young Americans abroad, they are there to help. A doctor in New York read a quote of mine that sparked her involvement. Somebody had asked me, "What is the most important commandment in the Bible?" and I said, "Thou shalt not stand idly by." So she packed up her office and went to Macedonia—I met her there... We cannot free all the prisoners in the world or save all the victims of AIDS, but we can at least show them that we are with them.
O: You and the others in the camp were forced to march by three people who were hanged. And somebody behind you whispered, "Where is God?"
EW: A voice in me said, "God is there."
O: Where are you and God with each other these days?
EW: We still have a few problems! But even in the camps, I never divorced God. After the war, I went on praying to God. I was angry. I protested. I'm still protesting—and occasionally, I'm still angry. But it's not because of the past, but the present. When I see victims of a tragedy—and especially children—I say to God, "Don't tell me that you have nothing to do with this. You are everywhere—you are God."
O: Did you come out of the horror of the Holocaust with your ability to love intact?
EW: After my liberation, I fell in love with every girl—consecutively. But I would never dare tell a girl that I loved her, because I was timid—and afraid of rejection. I missed so many opportunities because I was afraid to say what I felt. I needed to love more than I needed to be loved. I needed to know that I could love—that after all I had seen, there was love in my heart.
O: Do you remember the day you were released from the camp?
EW: April 11, 1945. The Americans were close by, and a few days before that, on April 5, the Germans had decided to evacuate all the Jews. Every day, they would evacuate thousands—and most were killed upon leaving. I was in a children's block with other adolescents, and we were left until the end. [But every day we marched to the gate anyway.] I was near the gate more than five times before I was released, and each time, the gate closed just before I came to it.
O: How do you explain that you survived the camps?
EW: I have no explanation.
O: You—someone who has studied the Talmud, the Cabala—have no explanation?
EW: Believe me, I have tried to know, but I do not. If it is God, I have problems with that. If he bothered to save me, why couldn't he have saved all the others? There were people worthier than I.
O: Don't you think your survival has something to do with who you've become and what you've said to the world about the Holocaust?
EW: No, no, no. The price is too high. Because I survived, I must do everything possible to help others.

A few relevant Quotes:

We might well pray for God to invade and conquer us, for until He does, we remain in peril from a thousand foes. We bear within us the seeds of our own disintegration. The strength of our flesh is an ever present danger to our souls. Deliverance can come to us only by the defeat of our old life. Safety and peace come only after we have been forced to our knees. So He conquers us and by that benign conquest saves us for Himself.-A. W. Tozer

Whatever be our conception of the universe we must, it is obvious, start somehow; we must begin with something; and the something with which we begin, from the very fact that we do begin with it, must itself be without explanation, since, if something else were invoked to explain it, then the "something else" must needs be logically prior to that which it is invoked to explain. Thus the "something" being explained by a logically prior "something else" could not have been ultimate. -- C. E. M. Joad, in God and Evil

Some day you will read in the papers that D. L. Moody of East Northfield, is dead. Don't you believe a word of it! At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now; I shall have gone up higher, that is all, out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal -- a body that death cannot touch, that sin cannot taint; a body fashioned like unto His glorious body. I was born of the flesh in 1837. I was born of the Spirit in 1856. That which is born of the flesh may die. That which is born of the Spirit will live forever. ... Dwight Lyman Moody

If we consider the lives of people who believe in God, we so often find that they make good sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, employers, and employees -- they have many individual virtues; but they have no way of life other than that which has been imposed upon them by their environment. It is their sociological conditions, their social class, their neighbourhood, their national characteristics, rather than their spiritual faith, which determine their outlook and values: they are an overwhelming demonstration that it is the economic conditions and background of one's life which determine what one is and what one will think. This is an intolerable condition, and so long as it persists we shall not be able to make any impact on the world, because it will be abundantly clear that it is the world which is making its impact upon us.
... Douglas Rhymes, in "The Place of the Laity in the Parish"

When anger enters the mind, wisdom departs. -- Thomas à Kempis

Khalil Gibran

ON GOOD AND EVIL

From: ‘PROPHET’ by Khalil Gibran:

Of the good in you I can speak, but not of the evil.
For what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst?
Verily, when good is hungry it seeks food even in dark caves,
and when it thirsts, it drinks even of dead waters.

You are good when you are one with yourself.
Yet when you are not one with yourself you are not evil.
For a divided house is not a den of thieves;
it is only a divided house.
And a ship without rudder may wander aimlessly
among perilous isles, yet sink not to the bottom.

You are good when you strive to give of yourself.
Yet you are not evil when you seek gain for yourself.
For when you strive for gain you are but a root
that clings to the earth and sucks at her breast.
Surely the fruit cannot say to the root:
"Be like me, ripe and full and ever giving of your abundance."
For to the fruit, giving is a need,
as receiving is a need to the root.

You are good when you are fully awake in your speech,
Yet you are not evil when you sleep while your tongue staggers without purpose.
And even stumbling speech may strengthen a weak tongue.

You are good when you walk to your goal firmly and with bold steps.
Yet you are not evil when you go thither limping.
Even those who limp go not backward.
But you who are strong and swift,
see that you do not limp before the lame,
deeming it kindness.

You are good in countless ways, and
you are not evil when you are not good,
You are only loitering and sluggard.
Pity that the stags cannot teach swiftness to the turtles.

In your longing for your giant self lies your goodness:
and that longing is in all of you.
But in some of you that longing is a torrent rushing with might to the sea,
carrying the secrets of the hillsides and the songs of the forest.
And in others it is a flat stream that loses itself in angles and bends
and lingers before it reaches the shore.
But let not him who longs much say to him who longs little,
"Wherefore are you slow and halting?"

For the truly good ask not the naked, "Where is your garment?"
nor the houseless, "What has befallen your house?"

Khalil Gibran

INDIAN Rip Van Winkles

"A call to wake up" - for all of us.

India too, like USA in early19th Century, is rapidly changing, but the political parties are still clinging to their old ways and not keeping in-step with the rest of the Country. What will it take to wake up these Rip Van Winkles who are pretending to be asleep?

A critical appreciation of Washington Irving's 'Rip Van Vinkle':
From: http://www.delanceyplace.com : Jun 16, 2011 -
http://www.delanceyplace.com/view_archives.php?1708

The story of rip van winkle

In today's excerpt - Rip Van Winkle, who was author Washington Irving's vehicle for conveying the lightning pace of change in early post-Revolutionary America. During this period, Americans became the first people to expect and to prize change, and business and profit became more honored than in any other country in the Western world:

"During the second decade of the nineteenth century, writer Washington Irving developed an acute sense that his native land was no longer the same place it had been just a generation earlier. Irving had conservative and nostalgic sensibilities, and he sought to express some of his amazement at the transformation that had taken place in America by writing his story 'Rip Van Winkle.' Irving had his character Rip awaken from a sleep that had begun before the Revolution and had lasted twenty years. When Rip entered his old village, he immediately felt lost. The buildings, the faces, the names were all strange and incomprehensible. 'The very village was altered - it was larger and more populous,' and idleness, except among the aged, was no longer tolerated. 'The very character of the people seemed changed. There was a busy, bustling disputatious tone about it, instead of the accustomed phlegm and drowsy tranquility' - a terrifying situation for Rip, who had had 'an insuperable aversion to all kinds of profitable labour.' Even the language was strange - 'rights of citizens - elections - members of Congress - liberty and other words which were a perfect babylonish jargon to the bewildered Van Winkle.' When people asked him 'on which side he voted' and 'whether he was Federal or a Democrat,' Rip could only stare 'in vacant stupidity.'

" 'Rip Van Winkle' became the most popular of Irving's many stories, for early nineteenth-century Americans could appreciate Rip's bewilderment. Although superficially the political leadership seemed much the same - on the sign at the village inn the face of George Washington had simply replaced that of George III - beneath the surface Rip, like most Americans, knew that 'everything's changed.' In a few short decades Americans had experienced a remarkable transformation in their society and culture, and, like Rip and his creator, many wondered what had happened and who they really were.

"Before the Revolution of 1776, America had been merely a collection of disparate British colonies composed of some two million subjects huddled along a narrow strip of the Atlantic coast - European outposts whose cultural focus was still London, the metropolitan center of the empire. Following the War of 1812 with Great Britain - often called the Second American Revolution - these insignificant provinces had become a single giant continental republic with nearly ten million citizens, many of whom had already spilled into the lands beyond the Appalachian Mountains. The cultural focus of this huge expansive nation was no longer abroad but was instead directed inward at its own boundless possibilities.

"By 1815 Americans had experienced a transformation in the way they related to one another and in the way they perceived themselves and the world around them. And this transformation took place before industrialization, before urbanization, before railroads, and before any of the technological breakthroughs usually associated with modern social change. In the decades following the Revolution America changed so much and so rapidly that Americans not only became used to change but came to expect it and prize it.

"The population grew dramatically, doubling every twenty years or so, as it had for several generations, more than twice the rate of growth of any European country. And people were on the move as never before. Americans spread themselves over half a continent at astonishing speeds. Between 1790 and 1820 New York's population quadrupled; Kentucky's multiplied nearly eight times. In a single decade Ohio grew from a virtual wilderness (except, of course, for the presence of the native Indians, whom white Americans scarcely acknowledged) to become more populous than most of the century-old colonies had been at the time of the Revolution. In a single generation Americans occupied more territory than they had occupied during the entire 150 years of the colonial period, and in the process killed or displaced tens of thousands of Indians.

"Although most Americans in 1815 remained farmers living in rural areas, they had become, especially in the North, one of the most highly commercialized people in the world. They were busy buying and selling not only with the rest of the world but increasingly with one another, everyone, it seemed, trying to realize what Niles' Weekly Register declared 'the almost universal ambition to get forward.' Nowhere in the Western world was business and working for profit more praised and honored."

Author: Gordon Wood Title: Empire of LibertyPublisher: OxfordDate: Copyright 2009 by Oxford University Press, Inc.Pages: 1-2Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815 (Oxford History of the United States) by Gordon S. Wood. Published by Oxford University Press, USA

---

··· The 100 Dollar Bill
A well known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $100 bill in a room of 200 people, and asked, "Who would like this £100 bill?" -- Hands started going up.
He said, "I am going to give this $100 bill to one of you, but first let me do this." He proceeded to crumple the $100 up.
He then asked, "Who still wants it?” Still the hands were up in the air.
"Well".....he replied, "What if I do this?" and he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty. Now who still wants it?" he asked. Hands still shot up!
"My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the bill, you still wanted it...because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $100 to you."
Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt, by the decisions we make, and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you never lose your value!
Dirty, clean crumpled or finely creased you are still priceless to those who love you. The worth of our lives comes not in what we do or who we know, but by WHO WE ARE.
You are special; don't ever forget it.

Count your blessings. NOT your problems.
•Author Unknown

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Seeing the Value of a Value
A value, any value, universal or situational, is a value for me only when I see the value of the value as valuable to me. Me – the comfortable me – is the source of my values. I fail to follow a universal value only when I do not clearly see its value to me. I make expedient situational choices only when I think such choices will make me feel good.
-- Swami Dayananda

THE ROLE-MODEL IN SOCIETY

Why has our country earned the reputation of being one among the most corrupt Nations of the World? The Bhagavad Gita states that this happens when eminent, prominent persons in Society who are supposed to lead peoperly, themselves commence to adopt corrupt practices to enrich themselves. Sri Krishna has this answer in Slokam 21 Chapter III of the Bhagavad Gita:
**************************************************************
Bhagavad Gita Ch.3 Slokam 21
यद्यदाचरति श्रेष्ठस्तत्तदेवेतरो जनः।
स यत्प्रमाणं कुरुते लोकस्तदनुवर्तते।।
yadyadācarati śrēṣṭhastattadēvētarō janaḥ
sa yatpramāṇaṅ kurutē lōkastadanuvartatē
यद्यत् whatsoever, आचरति does, श्रेष्ठः the best, तत्तत् that, एव only, इतरः the other, जनः people, सः he (that great man), यत् what, प्रमाणम् standard (authority, demonstration), कुरुते does, लोकः the world (people), तत् that, अनुवर्तते follows.
Whatsoever a great man does, that the other men also do; whatever he sets up as the standard, that the world (mankind) follows.
================
Man is a social animal and an imitating person too. He takes his ideas of right and wrong from those whom he regards as his moral superior. Whatever a great man does, the same is considered as an authority by his followers. They try to follow him. They endeavour to tread in his footsteps.
=======================
For the protection of the world, all acts that are appropriate to one's station and stage in life must always be performed by an eminent man who is distinguished for his wisdom. Otherwise, the evil generated from the ruin of the large masses of the world (who neglect their duties by following his example), will bring him down, even if he were a follower of pure Jnana Yoga. – Sri Ramanuja
Whatever the superior person upholds as pramanam, authority, be it Vedic or secular - an ordinary person follows; i.e., he accepts that very thing as authoritative. (Hence, Krishna advises Arjuna who stands confused about his dharma in war, to follow his (Krishna’s) advice.) – Sri Sankara
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In the present context, the श्रेष्ठः śrēṣṭhas are the leaders in power, governing the country. When they fail in their duty to practice dharma, we need a Krishna to appear as promised by Him in "yadaa yadaa hi dharmasya glaanirbhavati" to make a course-correction and guide the country and lead the people back on to the right path. Let us pray that such an avatara-purusha comes to restore Bharatavarsha to its pristine glory. May the Lord's spirit empower him to act properly and effectively.

GITA Ch.3 - Arjuna's confusion

Gita Chapter III: Krishna's reply in Slokam-3

Purify Mind thro' Karma Yoga, practise Jnana Yoga, gain Atma Jnana and achieve freedom from bondage (moksha)

Desiring for the fruits of actions initiated for fulfillment of one's desires creates pain/pleasure and an ever-repeating cycle of 'action-reaction-action' known as samsara saagara. It is also the cause of rebirth. We take a new body repeatedly to experience karma phalam. If, however, we perform actions with Ishvara bhaava in fulfillment of His purpose without desire for fulfillment of the desires of the ego-self, we cross the samsara sagaram and are released from the bond of repeated births, attain to the blissful state of the immortal abode. Sages who possess stitha pragnya dedicate the fruits of their actions to the Vasudeva Kutumbam, not for personal 'enjoyment'. The buddhi referred to in the three verses 49, 50 and 51 of Gita Ch. II is the wisdom of the Sankhyas, i.e., the knowledge of the Self, Atma-Jnana which dawns when the mind is purified by Karma Yoga.

Chapter III opens with Arjuna expressing his confusion: Yoga of Knowledge or Yoga of Action? Krishna instructs him that self-less action through Karma Yoga cleanses the mind and prepares the sadhaka to receive atma gnyana, knowledge which takes him to the Goal. Ramana Maharishi described the nature of such action as: Ishvaraarpitam na icchayaa kritam, chitta shodhakam mukti saadhakam - that action which is dedicated to the Lord and is not initiated to satisfy the mind's ego-based desires for power, possession and pleasure but action for the benefit of the samudaayam, society at large and public weal. Such action, Karma Yoga, leads to the Jnana Yoga path and the ultimate goal of sat-chit-ananda, bliss-experience.

God created the world, with many dedicated, determined people who can and are willing to work for establishing harmony in the world; these are the karma-yogis, aware of the duty entrusted to them by the Creator. They motivate people like Arjuna to join them in their work for God. Perhaps, that is the reason for the last slokam in Bhagavd Gita (18.78):
yatra yogeshvarah krishno/ yatra partho dhanur-dharah/
tatra shreeh vijayo bhootih  dhruvaa neetih matirmama 
Swami Chinmayananda has explained the significance of this picture of the togetherness of Krishna and Arjuna lucidly thus:

 यत्र योगेश्वरः कृष्णो यत्र पार्थो धनुर्धरः।

                     तत्र श्रीर्विजयो भूतिर्ध्रुवा नीतिर्मतिर्मम।।18.78।।

"ARJUNA, READY WITH HIS BOW (Paartho-Dhanurdharah) --- Paartha represents here 'the confused, limited, ordinary mortal, with all his innumerable weaknesses, agitations and fears.' When he has thrown down his "instrument" of effort and achievement, his bow, and has reclined to impotent idleness, no doubt, there is no hope for any success or prosperity. But when he is "READY WITH HIS BOW," when he is no more idle but has a willing readiness to use his faculties to brave the challenges of life, there, in that man, we recognise a 'PAARTHA READY WITH HIS BOW'. Now putting these two pictures together --- Lord Krishna, the Yogeshwarah, and Arjuna, the Dhanurdharah --- the symbolism of a way-of-life gets completed, wherein, reinforced with spiritual understanding, man gets ready to exert and pour in his endevours, to tame life and master prosperity (shreyas). In such a case, there is no power that can stop him from success. In short, the creed of the Geeta is that spirituality can be lived in life, and true spiritual understanding is an asset to a man engaged in the battle-of-life.

In modern, day-to-day lives we will be taking the first few steps if we work towards maintaining harmony between the husband and wife, ourselves learn and practise ethical/moral values and inculcate values in the children, keeping a check on our own egoistic behaviour. As Rajaji defined: Culture is restraint. Gita instructs us in many ways how to be successful in this art. Let us make a beginning in this janmam, the present life. - krishnaswamy
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Commentary on Gita Ch.III-Sloka 3 from GitaSuper-site

Sri Ramanuja's Sanskrit Commentary
English translation by Swami Adi-devananda

3.3 The Lord said -- You have not properly understood what I taught you before. In this world, full of people with varying degrees of qualifications, I have taught in the days of yore two ways, that of knowledge (Jnana Yoga) and that of works, according to the qualifications of aspirants. There is no contradiction in this. It is not possible for all people of the world in whom the desire for release has arisen, to become capable immediately for the practice of Jnana Yoga. But he who performs the worship of the Supreme Person without desire for fruits and thereby gets completely rid of inner impurities and keeps his senses unagitated --- he becomes competent for the path of knowledge.That all activities are for performing the worship of the Supreme Person will be taught in the Gita verse, 'He from whom the activities of all beings arise and by whom all this is pervaded --- by worshipping Him with his duty man reaches perfection' (18.46). Earlier also performance of activities without any attachment to the fruits is enjoined by the verse beginning with. 'You have the right to work alone ...' (2.47). Next for those whose intellect has been redeemed by this kind of discipline, is enjoined Jnana Yoga by the words, 'When a man renounces all the desires ...' (2.55).Consequently, firm devotion to Jnana Yoga is taught only to the Sankhyas, i.e., those persons who are competent to follow the discipline of the knowledge of the self, and Karma Yoga to Yogins, i.e., to those competent for the path of work. Sankhya means Buddhi and those who are endowed with the Buddhi (intellectual or mental disposition) having only the self for its object, are Sankhyans. Therefore those who are not fit for this are qualified for Karma Yoga. Those who are possessed of Buddhi which is agitated by objects of the senses, are the persons qualified for Karma Yoga, whereas those whose Buddhi is not thus agitated, are qualified for Jnana Yoga. Therefore nothing contradictory and confusing is taught.It is said in the next stanza that Jnana Yoga is difficult to practise all at once, even when the desire for release arises in any worldly person.
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Sri Sankaracharya's Sanskrit Commentary
English translation by Swami Gambhirananda
3.3 anagha, O unblemished one, O sinless one; This word of address suggests that Arjuna is qualified to receive the Lord's instruction. dvividha, two kinds of ; nishTha, steadfastness, persistence in what is undertaken; asmin loke, in this world, for the people of the three castes who are qualified for following the scriptures; proktaa, were spoken of; maya, by Me, the omniscient God, who had revealed for them the traditional teachings of the Vedas, which are the means of securing prosperity and the highest Goal; puraa, in the days of yore, in the beginning the creation, after having brought into being the creatures.Now then, which is that steadfastness of two kinds? In answer the Lord says: The steadfastness jnaanayogena, through the Yoga of Knowledge-Knowledge itself being the Yoga Here jnaana, Knowledge, refers to the knowledge of the supreme Reality, and Yoga is used in the derivative sense of 'that (Knowledge) through which one gets united with Brahman'.-; had been stated saankhyaanaam, for the men of realization-those possessed of the Knowledge arising from the discrimination with regard to the Self and the not-Self, those who have espoused monasticism from the stage of Celibacy; itself, those to whom the entity presented by the Vedantic knowledge has become fully ascertained (see Mu. 3.2.6)-,the monks who are known as the parama-hamsas, those who are established in Brahman alone. And the steadfastness karma-yogena, through the Yoga of Action-action itself being the Yoga Yoga here means 'that through which one gets united with, comes to have, prosperity', i.e. such actions as go by the name of righteousness and are prescribed by the scriptures. had been stated yoginaam, for the yogis, the men of action (rites and duties).

This is the idea. Again, had it been intended or stated or if it will be stated in the Gita by the Lord-and if it has also been so stated in the Vedas-that Knowledge and action are to be practised in combination by one and the same person for attaining the same human Goal, why then should He here tell His dear supplicant Arjuna, that steadfastness in either Knowledge or action is to be practised only by different persons who are respectively qualified? If, on the other hand, it be supposed that the Lord's idea is, 'After hearing about both Knowledge and action, Arjuna will himself practise them (in combination); but, to others, I shall speak of them as being meant to be pursued by different persons', then the Lord would be imagined to be unreliable, being possessed of likes and dislikes! And that is untenable. So, from no point of view whatsoever can there be a combination of Knowledge and action. And what has been said by Arjuna regarding superiority of Wisdom over action, that stands confirmed for not having been refuted; and (it also stands confirmed) that steadfastness in Knowledge is suitable for being practised by monks alone. And from the statement that they (Knowledge and action) are to be followed by different persons, it is understood that this has the Lord's approval.

Noticing that Arjuna had become dejected under the impression, 'You are urging me to that very action which is a source of bondage', and was thinking thus, 'I shall not undertake action', the Lord said, 'Na karmanaam anaarambhaat, not by abstaining from action,' etc. Or:-When steadfastness in Knowledge and steadfastness in action become incapable of being pursued simultaneously by one and the same person owing to mutual contradiction, then, since it may be concluded that they become the cause of attaining the human Goal independently of each other, therefore, in order to show-that the steadfastness in action is a means to the human Goal, not independently, but by virtue of being instrumental in securing steadfastness in Knowledge; and that, on the other hand, steadfastness in Knowledge, having come into being through the means of steadfastness in action, leads to the human Goal independently without anticipating anything else-,the Lord said.
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Commentary by Swami Sivananda
The path of knowledge of the Sankhyas (Jnana Yoga) was described by Lord Krishna in chapter II, verses 11 to 38; the path of action (Karma Yoga) from 40 to 53. Pura Prokta may also mean "In the beginning of creation the twofold path was given by Me to this world." Those who are endowed with the four means and who have sharp, subtle intellect and bold understanding are fit for Jnana Yoga. Those who have a tendency or inclination for wok are fit for Karma Yoga. (The four means are discrimination, dispassion, six-fold virutes, and longing for liberation. The six-fold virtues are: control of the mind, control of the senses, fortitude (endurance), turning away from the objects of the world, faith and tranquility.) It is not possible for a man to practise the two Yogas simultaneously. Karma Yoga is a means to an end. It purifies the heart and prepares the aspirant for the reception of knowledge. The Karma Yogi should take up Jnana Yoga as soon as his heart is purified. Jnana Yoga takes the aspirant directly to the goal without any extraneous help. (compare: ch.V.5).
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(Individuals like Ramana Maharishi who have cleansed their mind in previous births are born ready to continue their travel on the spiritual path, to practice Jnana Yoga and realise moksha. - krishmaswamy)