Friendship

The relationship that exists between friends is the grandest of human loves. Friendly love is pure, because it is without compulsion. ... Such pure friendship has existed between saints and between others who truly love God. If you once know divine love, you will never part with it, for there is nothing else like it in the whole universe.
Paramahamsa Yogananda.

Thapas-Penance

Tapas (penance) does not mean positioning oneself upside down, head on the ground and feet held up like a bat. Nor is it the renunciation of possessions and properties, wife and children, emaciating one’s body or holding the nose to regulate one’s breath. Physical actions, oral assertions and mental resolves—all three have to be in unison. The thought, the speech and the act, all have to be pure. This is the real Tapas. And they have to be co-ordinated not by the compulsion of duty. The effort must be undertaken for satisfying one’s inner yearnings, for the contentment of the Self. This struggle is the essence of Tapas.

Sai.

Golf Ball

When things in your life seem, almost too much to handle,
When 24 Hours in a day is not enough,
Remember the mayonnaise jar and 2 cups of coffee.

A professor stood before his philosophy class
and had some items in front of him.
When the class began, wordlessly,
He picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar
And proceeded to fill it with golf balls.

He then asked the students, if the jar was full.
They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured
them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly.
The pebbles rolled into the open Areas between the golf balls.

He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar.
Of course, the sand filled up everything else.
He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous 'yes.'

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively
filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

'Now,' said the professor, as the laughter subsided,
'I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life.
The golf balls are the important things - Family,
Children, Health, Friends, and The Lord �
Things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, Your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, house, and car.

The sand is everything else --The small stuff.

'If you put the sand into the jar first,' He continued,
there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls.
The same goes for life.

If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff,
You will never have room for the things that are important to you.

So...

Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.
Play With your children.
Take time to get medical checkups.
Take your partner out to dinner.

There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal.

'Take care of the golf balls first --
The things that really matter.
Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.'

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented.

The professor smiled.
'I'm glad you asked'.

It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem,
there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee ot tea with a friend

Ekam Sath

Even Bad things, Griefs,
sorrows and cursing

are a naughty myth
the single truth
being
even this shall pass away.

Krishnamachari Santhanam

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.

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

Karma Yoga

Karma Yoga

The Bhagavat Gita says, “ Surrender the fruit of action”. Yes we agree but does the karma yogi get the fruit ? even if he has surrendered it?
The answer is Yes. Maybe he will get the beneficial fruit multi fold if he does not aspire for it. The story of Mahalakshmi goes to prove it. The ocean of milk was churned and out of it came Mahalakshmi, the mother of all auspiciousness. The devas who had studiously avoided all the other entreaties of Uchisravas and iravatha fell pray to the charm of moha incarnate and stood in line to be chosen as bridegroom. But Mahalakshmi chose Narayana as bridegroom who was totally detached and watching the entire proceeding with amusement! This is what happens to the karma yogi. He surrenders the fruit of action and the onus is on the Creator to measure and dispatch the fruits and his measure is always bountiful!!

Also love your work. That is the secret of happiness and avoiding boredom. Let us take an example. A man grows up the rank and becomes C.E.O. But he gets job dissatisfaction soon as he has learnt all that has to be learnt and gets disinterested and distant. But his wife who does the same cooking and cleaning gets about her work with a cheerful demeanor and starts every day as if it is a new routine. This is so as she does the act of cooking and cleaning lovingly and dedicates every routine to the welfare of her family.

Bhavna or feelings behind the act gives the currency the stamp for it to be valid.
That is why no amount of worshipping routine without the genuine love and aspiration for GOD will be fruitful. It will remain a routine! This also explains why inspite of various temples being destroyed in India the murthis could never be destroyed, as the murthis have their form in the hearts and the image of Rama and Krishna and the qualities they stand for could never be destroyed and the pure feelings of devotees have made the images purer. This is why Ganga can be H 2 0 or the destroyer of all sins as per the bhavna one has. If one has the remembrance of the origin of the Ganga and how it flows through the matted hair of Shiva and washing the holy feet of Narayana then one can wash his sins by bathing in the Ganges but one considers it purely as two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen he could catch a cold!

Karma yogi’s action unites him with the cosmos and this leads to cosmic consciousness. For example the simple act of watering the tulsi plant before taking food creates a bond of love between us and the lower order of nature. This simple karma makes one have a pang of empathy and love and hands stretch automatically to water the tulsi before our own mouth has a morsel of food!

Karma yogis have a great preceptor- the Lord himself. They just have to picturise the kurukshethra war and how when all the tired souls after a long and hard day’s battle have gone to rest Krishna himself would be busy untying the horses and washing and feeding them and applying medicine to their wounds. Thus he would be last to bed and first to rise because of the love of the karma of charioteer which he chose.

Repetitive action is like a Japa, and when done with feeling it becomes worship and one’s action transforms the mind and elevates the consciousness. The story of Tuladar and jajali, Sena the barber and Gora the potter goes to prove it.

All the farmers know a simple axiom- Sow deep but sow moist. Similarly the Karma yogi’s action should be based on deep faith and moistened with the love of GOD.

When mind stand united with action it is Vikarma. This is true in Bakthi as well as Karma yoga. Activity outside should be accompanied by meditation( Japa) inside. Dwell close while in austerity( Upa Vasa). When mind does not meditate outer form of austerity is a waste. Tantra must be accompanied by mantra- action by meditation! Here Swami’s 3hv principle needs to be applied. For example if body is fasting but mind is thinking of food then mind is feasting! This disparity in thought word and deed can be disastrous. Take the action of a mother stroking a child. Because of the bond of love and empathy the simple act of stroking becomes a Yoga and gives bliss to both the souls-mother and child. If a person watching it bewitched thinks if I stroke the child downwards 10 cms and repeat the same motion upwards 10cms thrice it will create bliss-How stupid it sounds? The bhavna is again the key- unless the mind is united with the action bliss can not surface.

Akarma= Vikarma+ Karma. (inaction in action). Because purity of thought creates disinterest in action or desirelessness and this in turn can make a simple act of karma as akarma. Take the action of a mother beating a child out of love for its well being. The child goes back to the mother as if nothing happened. But if we do the same??

We can not learn akarma from books . We can learn only by moving with saints and serving them. We would learn in their speech of silence all the clarity.

Whether the man who is naked or clad
Is a matter, which bothers only the other
As a mad man’s mind is not in his apparel.

So let us keep our mind unattached to the various apparels of Maya.

Waste Paper Basket

All that we know is nothing, we are merely crammed waste-paper baskets, unless we are in touch with that which laughs at all our knowing. ~D.H. Lawrence

Well, My basket was brimming with crumpled thoughts. One day I decided enough is enough and emptied the full basket. By the time i put it back i already noticed one or two crumpled sheets.Bend to pick it up. Tring..Tring Phone rang Who My Mother? by the time i finished the conversation and came back the basket was full again. I was tired, emptied it again and this time resolved not to look into the basket as i place it back. proverbial Ostrich... Anyway got into FB and started my connections. I came to know of my close friend's child not faring well, my other friend was down with pharyngitis and one was going to Maldives. My mind and heart were filled with concerns and emotions and by the time my tired eyes asked me to shut the laptop i idly glanced at the basket and i could see no basket ,it was covered with papers.

Now I am not emptying the basket anymore. I am on the lookout for the rascal who fills the basket so ever stealthily. Please put a note on FB if you find him.


Krishnamachari Santhanam

Life

My daughter asked me How long does a butterfly live? I heard it is only a week? It made me think. Looked up at WIKI. It said depends on the species,might range from a week to a year perhaps. That set me thinking. How long does it stay at the caterpillar and larvae level? Such a bane our mind is,It started questioning the wisdom in spending so much time at a incubatory level to have a short span of life.

This set me thinking. My widom told me never question the creator's wisdom. The conditioning of academics made me do it anyway. My spiritual conditioning made me say Look at Adi Sankara and Swami Vivekananda,what they achieved in 30 plus years we could not even assimilate their wisdom in twice the number of years!

When there is an earnest quest, God sends his angels to aid.

I got this status from a dear friend on FB.

"What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset." - Crowfoot, Blackfoot warrior and orator...

This made me think again. Flash.. and the angel started doin its work, did not stop with just giving me the status message. Another angel friend commented yes,true perhaps at physical level.

Bingo- the bulb flashed and wisdom dawned.At a spiritual level Life flows on meandering through crevices and gorges and hills and dales ceaselessly and the water takes countless shapes. Why does this Maya evelop us in a jiffy and we tend to think lifetime as a span of time in human terms. Amazing idocy! Anyhow good to be an idiot with a thirst for truth than a self-professed sage steeped in Idiocy.

Krishnamachari Santhanam

Sermon to the birds

My sister birds, you owe much to God, and you must always and in everyplace give praise to Him; for He has given you freedom to wing through the sky and He has clothed you... you neither sow nor reap, and God feeds you and gives you rivers and fountains for your thirst, and mountains and valleys for shelter, and tall trees for your nests. And although you neither know how to spin or weave, God dresses you and your children, for the Creator loves you greatly and He blesses you abundantly. Therefore... always seek to praise God.

St.Francis of Asissi.

Understanding

We speak to be understood
We write to be understood
We sing to be understood
We play to be understood
.......................

Just Love and you will be understood loud and clear.♥

Love is the universal language. All other languages speak from mind to mind..Love speaks heart to heart.

Though some might complain that though Love is the language of the heart and that it is heard only if the other heart is open, But true Love conquers all. Over a period of time even the tightest of heart squeeze open to the incessant ray of love.

Krishnamachari Santhanam

Divinity is Love

The highest type of Love sees the Divine shining in all and never wanes. It does not see men as belonging to different faiths or nations or classes or castes; it sees all as embodiments of Divinity.
Cultivate Love; sow the seeds of Love in all hearts, shower Love on the desert sands; let the green shoots, the lovely flowers, the luscious fruits, the sweet harvest of nectar be earned by mankind.
Love and you will be loved in return. Promote love, look upon all with Love and hate will never be your lot. If you want to attain the Lord, cultivate Love. This is the one lesson I teach always and that is My secret too.
Love lives by giving and forgetting. Self lives by getting and forgetting.
The highest type of Love sees the Divine shining in all and never wanes. It does not see men as belonging to different faiths or nations or classes or castes; it sees all as embodiments of Divinity.
Cultivate Love; sow the seeds of Love in all hearts, shower Love on the desert sands; let the green shoots, the lovely flowers, the luscious fruits, the sweet harvest of nectar be earned by mankind.
God is Love – Live in love.
Start the day with love
Fill the day with love
End the day with love
That is the way to God.
There is only one caste and that is the caste of humanity. There is only one religion and that is the religion of Love. There is only one God and that is the religion of Love. There is only one God and that is the Omnipresent God. There is only one language and that is the language of he heart. Hence Love is God.
Without cultivating Love for others, you can never cultivate Love for yourself.
Prema or Love is the awakening of the Soul and the blossoming and expansion of the heart and spontaneous outpouring of Love towards all. It springs from intuitive awareness and perception of the Divine as abiding in all.
Love is sweet like ice-cream
Love is joy like ice-cream
Love is cool like ice-cream
And love is pure like white ice-cream
Once you fill your heart with Prema, it really does not matter what path you adopt. It will become possible for you to reach the destination.
My message is this: Be embodiments of Prema: Do not hate anyone or fear anyone. Develop Love towards all; understand the grief and the joy of all; be happy when others are happy; don’t exult when others are in misery
Love is to become patent as selflessness; self, if it is thrust forward become patent as lovelessness.
Without cultivating Love for others; you can never cultivate Love for yourself.
Love is like sugar, you can mix it with any material. But the essence of sweetness in sugar consists of divinity only. Without this value of love, we cannot develop other values.
Love should not be rationed on the basis of caste, creed or economic status or the intellectual attainment of the recipient. It should flow full and free, regardless of consequence, for it is one’s nature of Love; one cannot but pour out Love, one cannot but seek out the dry, dreary wastes in order to water them with the spring of Love and make them yield a harvest of Love.
A farmer ploughs his land and irrigates it to grow the crop of his choice. The bhakta is the cultivator for the field of his heart. He must irrigate the field of his heart with the water of Prema, manure it with Sadhana, sow the seeds of the Divine name, fence it with spiritual discipline.
Performing your daily work sincerely, filling your hearts with Love, and feeling the presence of divinity amounts to true surrender.
You are Messiahs. You are all children of God. Live in Love. Be God. Be Love…..and freedom will be there waiting for you.
The transforming power of Love is boundless. St. Paul, who was originally an inveterate critic of Jesus, was transformed by Christ’s Love into the greatest apostle of Jesus.
Love is God. Live in Love.
Divinity is embodied in all creatures and this fundamental truth should be exemplified in practice by man. He must extend the field of his Love until it encompasses the entire creation. It is only then that he will deserve to be a worthy recipient of God’s Love.
The religion of the people of this country and the endeavor of its people has always been to sow the seeds of Prema, to promote Prema and love between the fellow human being. This indeed has been the aim and objective of the culture of this country.
Unless you have Love, you cannot claim kinship with the votaries of God; mere ritualistic exactitude or pompous adoration, or loud acclamation will not entitle you to enter the portals of Go-loka. They are as tin and trash before the treasure – chest of love. Love is the bridge which helps passage from birth to deathlessness, from death to birthlessness.
When you rise from the Jiva-sense to the Deva-sense, human-ness to God-ness, then there is no more birth or death. Liberation happens when you Love every being so intensely that you are aware of only ONE. Soak your heart in Love, soak your acts in righteousness, soak your emotions in compassion; then you attain God soonest.
God as Love dwells in your heart and therefore the kingdom of Heaven is within you. When you know that God who is Love, dwells within you, when you realize this truth in the freshness and beauty of the immortal spirit then your life will sing the music of Love.
Without love you live in death. Love is life. All are one; be alike to every one. Inquiry is of great importance. Who am I? No reply No. ‘I’ am ‘I’
Duty without Love is deplorable. Duty with Love is desirable.
The end of wisdom is freedom; the end of education is character; the end of culture is perfection; the end of knowledge is Love. Self-confidence is the basis of faith in God also.
Cultivate love; sow the seeds of love in all hearts; shower Love on the desert sands; let the green shoots, the lovely flowers, the luscious fruits, the sweet harvest of nectar be earned by mankind.
Love is the path. Start the day with love. Spend the day with Love. Fill he day with Love. End the day with Love. This is the way to God. Expansion is Love, not contraction and selfishness, not ‘my’. Such practices as meditation, Japa, mantra, Bhajan are like soap. Without water soap is not used. The water is likened to love. It is the water that is important.
You should fill your hearts with Prema. That is the only way in which you can reach the eternal truth of God. You should work with a determination to fill your hearts with Prema and reach this goal.
Where there is Faith, there is Love; where there is love, there is peace; where there is peace, there is God, and where there is God, there is Bliss.
Love liquidates the blows of fate. Love is Truth, Truth is Love, for it is only when you Love that you have no Fear. And fear is the Mother of falsehood. If you have no fear, you will adhere to Truth.
Prema makes you humble; it makes you bend and bow when you see greatness and glory.
Love all; revere all; help all to the best of your ability. The words that you utter will be as holy as the scriptures. His Sadhana will lead you to realization.
Prema can be truly called Prema only when it recognizes the Divinity and only when it realizes that we should love the divine. That kind of Prema alone can deserve to be described as true Prema.
Best Sadhana is Love all serve all.
Do not walk in front of Me; I may not follow you. Don’t walk behind Me; I may not lead you. Walk beside Me and be My friend." If you attempt to walk in front of Me, you may be taking the
wrong path. If you walk behind Me, you may possibly desert Me. Walk abreast of Me. Then there is no chance of your going astray or away from Me, because I am with you.
SAI.

True Love

This is a true story that happened in Japan.

In order to renovate the house, someone in Japan tears open the wall.

Japanese houses normally have a hollow space between the wooden walls.
When tearing down the walls, he found that there was a lizard stuck there
because a nail from outside hammered into one of its feet. He sees this,
feels pity, and at the same time curious, as when he checked the nail, it
was nailed 10 years ago when the house was first built.

What happened?

The lizard has survived in such position for 10 years! In a dark wall
partition for 10 years without moving, it is impossible and mind boggling.
Then he wondered how this lizard could have survived for 10 years without
moving a single step--since its foot was nailed!

So he stopped his work and observed the lizard, what it has been doing, and
what and how it has been eating. Later, not knowing from where it came,
appears another lizard, with food in its mouth.

Ahh! He was stunned and deeply touched. For the lizard that was stuck by
nail, another lizard has been feeding it for the past 10 years...

Such love, such beautiful love! Such love happened even with these tiny
creatures ... What can love do? It can do wonders! Love can perform
miracles!
Imagine! it has been doing that untiringly for 10 long years, without
giving up hope on its partner.

Imagine what a small creature can do that a creature blessed with a
brilliant mind can't.

I was touched when I heard this story and started wondering about
relationships between family members, friends, spouses, brothers, sisters.

As information and communication technology advances, our access to
information becomes faster and faster. But the distance between human beings
. . . is it getting closer as well?

Change

Everything in this physical world undergoes change. There is nothing which is static. The only permanent thing is change itself!

What is a change? There can be a change when actually the molecular properties change like in age!as we all know. There can also be a change which involves dimension or perceiving. For instance your friend feels that you have changed though there might be no base to this apparent feeling. This involves a perception. So a change can be uni-directional or multidimensional.

A change can be tangible or intangible. The subject may be constant but the attribute of time and place vary and its veracity thus bringing about a change in its status. This applies even to great truths and dictum and even commandments! For instance during the thretha, Dwaparaa and the Kali yuga the commandment and practices vary drastically. So even great spiritual practices undergoes change. This is evident in fundamentalist relegions who insist on sticking to the word on a dogma dictated by a scripture aeons ago. This can not be valid. Of course there are certain fundamentals which are sanathana-eternal but if you analyse them they are broad spectrum dictates like being good,seeing good and doing good. They dont change under any circumstances.

This is the reason I advocate a value based system be it Relegion or education. The rest are hocus pocus. Today you find more and more relegionist than spiritualists. People think that by flashing relegious insignias on themselves and branding themselves like cattle they are holier than others. Nothing can be farther from the truth! By saying this i am not decrying the whole creed. Yes there are some who don these but dwell depper in the ultimate reality. Blessed are these people and twice blessed are those who have even given up these external symbolisms and dwell on the eternal reality ever. There are now many tigers garbed in sheep skin. The instance of the missionary who kidnapped people in Haiti and the numerous blood sucking pseudo sanyasins in India who take gullible people for a ride are just the tip of the iceberg. The real hypocrats and sycophants are those who attend relegiously their respective churches,mosques and temples but are aethists at heart as they wilfully do precisely what their relegion prohibits them from doing. I will be happier in the company of a true aethist than with these charlatans.
I am sure this will be a very hard truth to swallow for many of my relegious friends but it is time we turn spiritual in the true sense rather than felling warm in the cocoons of relegion and its roto.

Krishnamachari Santhanam