Ashram Bats

On my visit to the Ashram this year,and while waiting in the Darshan line I saw new visitors whom I had not seen in years-fruit bats. They were hanging upside down and all over the trees. The last I had seen these fruit bats was in Luna garden in Sydney. So many of them... and as usual they taught me a lesson or two.

They came swooping and with one leg clung to the tree. Till they find a comfortable branch they moved with the small,"V" formation in their wings as hands and moved around. Once they found the comfortable branch they spread their wings and took all the cool air they needed to regulate their blood temperature. Once done, they wrapped first one wing, then another around them and immediately was lost to all the happenings around them and was lost in meditation. What a marvel? They are veritable sages lost in meditation. Probably they are. The divinity in these creations amazed me. Wish I could as easily settle into meditation and be immersed in it.

Lesson one- Fly high and get the highest branch-in terms of spiritual mentor.
Lesson two- Move around only till you get the bare necessary comfort.
Lesson three- Stay rooted.
Lesson four- Spread your wings, only to unspread later.
Lesson five- Once the Drishti is closed Srishti vanishes. ( Once Physical eyes close manifestation ceases).

Only consciousness remains.

Krishnamachari Santhanam.

Bumble Bee

There was in this huge forest, a sylvan area which was dotted with bamboo trees swaying in the breeze gently and could be seen as far as the eyes reach nearly touching the sky. Some of the bamboos were soft and green and some hardened through persistent sadhana of being still in the baking sun.

A pond green with the shade of the bamboo forest was home to a variety of lily and lotuses which competed with each other through the sunlit mornings and moonlit nights. The aroma of the flowers was heavenly and even the deer which came to graze stood silently lost in the heavenly aroma and even their ears forgot to twitch. A variety of squirrels zipped up and down through the bamboo trees and there were many small rabbits and foxes which rested under the green umbrella of rich foliage.

The realised ones among those inhabiting this place was of course the bumble bees which constantly was chanting the omkar and their mmmmmmmmmmm filled the space, the wide akasha seems to reverberate this holy chant. The namasmarana the bees do had given them immense strength and they could bore through the toughest of bamboos with their sharp front claws.

But even the hardest could be conquered by Love isn't it? The Hardy bumble bee met its match in the delicate lotus. The aroma of the nectar in the lotuses drew bumble bees from all corners of the forest and they came valiantly boring through the hard bamboos which were stubbornly guarding the sacred pond. They drilled their way through those stout trunks and arrived at the heavenly pond.
The ambrosia in those lotus sent them a silent invite and they glided around and settled on the sweet lotuses to sip its nectar.

The Bees drink the intoxicating nectar, and falls into a stupor, overwhelmed by the elixir. The sun starts setting and the lotuses start to close its petals ever so slowly and the bumble bees which were strong enough to bore a hole through the bamboos offer no resistance and allow to be captured by those tender petals.

The bee is imprisoned in the softness, with no strength to bore through the tender, velvety veil. Just like the bumble bee Let the mind imbibe the nectar of the Name, let it taste the elixir of the Lotus Feet of the Lord, it will be incapacitated, rendered ineffective and incapable of harm. A powerful mind thus anchored in the divine will cause no harm and in fact will become the golden key which opens the doors of realisation.

Krishnamachari Santhanam.

There was a king who wanted to know if there was anybody in his kingdom who is independently acting,without the prompting of his wife. He himself was henpecked. He called the citizens and asked them to stand - who follow what wife says to the left and others to the right.
All men were in the left only one to the right. The King was very happy,When asked the man said my wife told not to stand in a place where there is crowd.

Oneness

The best religion is To Be Good, See Good and Do Good. The rest are all superficial.

Religious bigotry has been the cause for most of the wars in history. This Oneness has great spiritual truth. It is the oneness which runs through animate and inanimate beings. Some call it chith, some consciousness,some awareness,some mindfulness,some Christ consciousness,some Krishna prema. Labels are many and confusing but the underlying oneness is one.

Chith is shakthi or energy. Now science says E=MC2. Ancient Vedanta said it thousands of years ago. Energy is converted to matter and similarly matter can be converted to energy. Ancient alchemists who had realised their state of oneness did this conversion as a normal process which became a miracle for others!

Chith or Prana is the innate consciousness which pervades all beings. So in a realised state one sees all as blobs of energy which is of the same nature of its source. That is Chith.

That is the oneness which IS.

IS Chith the life force for all?
I follow no organised religion. In this search I explored Christianity,Islam,Tao,Hinduism,Vedanta and found that all of them recognise the oneness some directly, some in an oblique way. In some organised religions, the religious bodies cover this oneness for their benefit.

I strongly believe that Chith is the life force. If as scientist say oxygen is the life force , then if they pump oxygen to a dead body it should function with consciousness. is it not? So it should be something beyond that, which we call as chith or Tao might call it chi.

Krishnamachari Santhanam

Rituals.

In India Sathya Narayan Vratha is celebrated every full moon day. On this day Lord Vishnu is worshipped as Sathya Narayana.
The traditional offering for this varatha is Milk and a choice of 5 fruits. The story of Sathya Narayana Vratha is read with devotion and these offerings are made and partaken.

Now in This village there was a family which celebrated the vratha very faithfully,but they had a problem. There was a black cat which used to come before the puja and slurp the milk. The milk became unclean and hence the puja used to suffer. So the father used to find the cat and put it under a basket and then go ahead with the puja. This happened for years. Parents died and the sons and daughters-in-law knew that this was the usual happening. So without understanding the reason behind why it was done they were doing it blindly to such an extent that when the cat died they used to roam around the village looking for a black cat to put under the basket! his is the beautiful story told by Sai .

This explains two things. Many rituals when they are formed had a logic behind it. Ritual by the force of habit survives the logic and becomes obsolete. Man in his ego of knowledge sometimes throws away the Knowledge behind rituals along with the rituals as the proverbial baby in the bath.
Krishnamachari Santhanam

South Indian Meals.

A typical South Indian meal is served in three main courses: sambar sAdam, rasam sAdam and more (buttermilk) sAdam. Sambar is also known as kuzhambu in Tamil, a term that literally translates to 'get confused'. Paramacharya explains how these three courses are related to the three gunas of spirituality: the confusion of sambar is tamo guna, the clarified and rarified flow of rasam is rajo guna and the all-white buttermilk is satva guna. Our meal reminds us of our spiritual path from confused inaction to a clear flow of action and finally to the realized bliss of unity.

Paramacharya of Kanchi

Ego gives a Bear Hug

There was a river which swelled during monsoon and started swallowing all low lying villages. In one such village there was a man who took asylum on the tree top! In the swollen river below he saw a bulk of black and brown floating.He thought he could jump on it float and be saved. He jumped and hug the log and to his horror found that it was a bear being washed away. The bear willingly hugged him in return gratefully and took him to his watery grave.

ego could be the bear your vasanas mislead you to think of it as log and you hug it. In turn the ego gives you a bear hug and there you go to the next birth. If the man the jiva on the tree of knowledge had used his viveka-the discrimination and been on self-inquiry all would have been well.

Krishnamachari Santhanam