Advaithic simplicity

To be frank all this advaitha talk without a deep conviction of the truth behind it can be the worst bane. There are many who just read JK and Uk and don't understand a fig about the reality behind it , so it becomes a play of words like there is no you, no me everything is bliss etc., Major waste of time.

My Master explains Advaitha simply by way of this parable.

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa taught through simple stories and parables, the loftiest truths for an easy grasp of it.

One such story was about a clever villager. One of the common trades in the Indian villages in those days was dyeing. One takes a white cloth to a dyer and has it dyed in the desired colour by having the cloth dipped in the mixture of the respective vat.

One day a dyer who travelled from place to place set foot in the village. However this dyer sought to a strange way of dyeing. He just had one vat but produced multiple colours according to the preference of the villagers. It was supposed to be a magical tub in which he soaked the cloths. People were amazed with the same tub producing different colour cloths. One clever villager approached the dyer with his piece of cloth and asked him to colour the cloth according to the colour of the dye in his tub!

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa using the above story said that God gives everyone different things according to their preference. However if one would want to know Him, one would have to be intelligent like the clever villager.

God has no Name Or form or Colour. He does not belong to any relegion,caste or creed. He can not be known by the intellect or dissected by the mind. He is pure consciousness,Awareness and bliss.

You can feel him and grasp him. If you try to know him through your mind alone you will fail. That is why even great seers like Ramana Maharishi kept the fire of devotion intact in them as without that the heart will not have the mosture of Love for the seeds of Advaitha to germinate.

Anger Management

The teachings of great masters help one to rise from base behaviours to become a balanced individual. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the great Indian master illustrated an event to his disciples to handle anger.


Once the great master was standing by a river in the company of His disciples. As they stood there, the master pointed out to a boat that was advancing upstream. The boatman was shouting out to another boat that was moving down stream in the opposite direction to avoid collision. When the boat in the opposite direction rushed closer, the boatman realised that it was an empty boat with no one to monitor its movements. Hence he just changed his course of movement and avoided the danger.


Ramakrishna Paramahamsa then explained to the devotees that the boat man neither tried to change the course of the other boat nor did he continue to yell. All that he did was to steer around the on rushing boat. Ramakrishna compared, the boat without a boatman to a person who is angry. Hence when one is confronted with the anger of another person it is wise to move away like the boatman who avoided the onrushing boat. He taught not to indulge in flinging abusive words in return. When when retorts back in anger, his case is also like that of a boat without a steerer

Self

On a day when the clouds are black
and the thunder strikes
I want to be with myself.

On a night when the silver moon shines
and the stars are bright
I want to be with myself.

On a noon when the white sun scorches
and the dogs rest under the tree
I want to be with myself.

On a rainy day when the rainbow strikes
and the wet grass shines
I want to be with myself.

Birds fly and the bee hums
cats peacefully lick its paws
I am in myself.

The waves roar and the wind howls
the trees waves its branches
I am myself.

Silence is heavy and the breathing is heard
Footsteps fall
and i feel the self.

See a rose slowly unfolding
and the bee sits on its throne
I sip the nectar and self remains.

Om

As I played the surrenders song on the Golden harp the player disappeared,the harp disappeared, the heart disappeared, the song disappeared.Pure joy remained and the song of surrender vibrated from the Being and I could just hear it nay feel it as OM

As you slip into silence

As you silently slip into silence

The warmth of Love envelops you

The Light footsteps of the guy who steals your
heart is heard

The chiming bells of the temple and the church
starts fading ever so slowly

and the ripple it creates expands your awareness
All that was unheard and unseen gets heard and seen

and you would not want to see and
hear it either.

Heart opens slowly and each petal as it unfolds gives
a vision of the unknown
and the unknowable to the physical world that is.

The breathing slows and i doubt if one breathes
and the sound of the even thin life force
is heard as the raging wind

World around you is seen in slow motion
and sky sheds a tear or two in joy

at the ever expanding consciousness which gives
it company.

If only it is possible to capture that tiny moment
into the capsule for eternity

That is one capsule i would like to be buried with.


Krishnamachari Santhanam

Just Be

To know the self through intellect or the mind is impossible. This self-knowledge is pure awareness,does not come with the reading. Reading and punditry may in fact boost the ego and become an impediment. Just Be and that being will swell and rise to be the ocean. Be one with it.

Even rituals that we do will at best be cleansers which can lead to chitha suthi. Can not give deliverance.
The mantras we chant, until we have the bhava we are chanting can at best give an ambiance and vibration which leads us God ward but can not give vision of the Divine. Unless of course the Japa becomes Ajapa Japa and gets into the core of our being and we unknowingly chant it day in and day out, sleep with it and arise with it then the mantra becomes us and the devatha verily will reside in us.

My Guru's analogy of the pole vaulter always stays imprinted in my mind. Mantras and rituals are the pole which the pole vaulter uses to reach his destination.But once the destiny presents itself unless he lets go of the pole which he used for crossing over he will fall short of the target. Most of us are like the vaulters who refuse to let go.

The understanding has to be clear that Bondage is a Bondage even if the chain is made of Gold. All the physical attractions we develop are iron chains and the rituals and external applications are the golden chains.

So better to be just be, this just being is not an advocacy of idleness! Our body can be involved in any number of activities but mind and awareness has to be steeped in the Atma. A being thus soulfully engaged in any activity in facts excels at it. There will be no mediocrity.

Just Be and Be Joyful.

Krishnamachari Santhanam