Freewill!

Freewill involves a selection Process driven by Ego. By Ego I mean nothing derogatory, I mean as a bundle of Likes and Dislikes. Divine will permeates everything including Freewill. Herein lies the catch 22. Then do we have Freewill at all? Hmmm, I thought I would test it out.

Micro is always a true representative of Macro. That way our likes, dislikes in social Media like FB clearly indicate our preferences and dance of Ego. Even if the like or post is a pretence, that too indicates our ego tilt ,right?

I did a simple test. Let me abstain from Liking or commenting on FB, for an extended period of time.
The results were simply amazing!

1. In the thousands of Friends? hardly a few truly interact and get to know you. Rest are passing time, the same applies to me.

2.When I do not post , it does not matter to the world. Nothing at the end of the day is original. IT exists in some form or the other in the Universe, and we are just replicating it. Only the Creator does the original creation. Even if we replicate splendidly it is a poor representation at the most.

3. Even desisting from commenting or Liking takes a tremendous amount of control, then what to say about real life? If I can apply the same in real world, I would truly be a Yogi. How often we opine on others, many times without a basis and how often we carry our own box and try to fit everything in it having no concern for the shape and size of the object we are trying to control by fitting it in our box of likes and dislikes.

4. All Politicians are Chameleons and changing color only varies in intensity from one to other. Better not to waste time on them. So one elimination of subject from FB.

5. Religion has always been a divisive factor, so why do a religious post? Does not serve any purpose! Another Subject gone!!

6. Spirituality is universal and has many hues and no hue at the same time. Trying to define it in a post is a wasteful expenditure of time!! Another subject gone!

7. Bingo! The most non political posts on FB! Cats and Dogs!! I do not have any, so there goes another subject!

8. There are people who daily post pictures of their Breakfast and Dinner! I loathe it, so can not pull myself to do it. There goes another subject!

9. Some post daily pictures of them having a good time in a Bar or a casino! I do not wine and dine and so not eligible to post it either.

10. Ha! How about this? Many post their picture (mostly Selfiies of course) with their favourite deity  or in a particular shrine, or with their current favourite Guru! I shiver! Can not give such pose. I suck at that!!

11. How about posing a meditative picture on the banks of Ganges in Gangothri or some such sacred place? Well it is tempting but can not drag myself away from work to be there. Maybe i can try photoshop.

12. Kids!! Yes that is it! But i have no small kids and the grown up ones I have do not like intrusion in their privacy!

13. Maybe I should learn to sulk and be caustic, like a few of my friends. I comment something positive about their posts and they always learn to distort it! I can go for a crash course on that and then maybe I can post!

14. Sickness, half my friends post on their illness, breakage of bones or insomnia and that is not funny at all and that too on periodic update!

A few friends out there who are original and creative. I still love reading their posts. Some are artists and their creations are so pleasing. Many healers who heal broken hearts. Some are gems to keep but it is those who drop out of FB! Maybe this is the shape of things to come and we will be left with only those narcicists who keep posting their selfies!

So my Friends i will post when I have a flash of inspiration, until then Adieu!

Krishnamachari Santhanam

Finding Joy

We think we find joy in External objects, but that is seldom the case. The joy is within us. It wells up at each instance giving us a feeling that the external object is giving us joy. In the countryside we find village folk hiring a bamboo basket to ply the river and the boatman gives them an extra rush of adrenalin by giving the basket a twirl now and then. In cities you find huge monstrous Giant wheels operated by electricity giving the same apparent joy. The adolescents may prefer a roller coaster or preferably a static drive in a three dimensional sphere. I once had a drive in such a cabin in Universal studio in Florida. The cabin was not moving but a giant screen in the front and a 3-D projection did all the magic. You felt as if you were being catapulted along with Spiderman down the empire street building. 

The world is such. There is nothing happening inside the field of relativity. We fail to remain as a witness and chose to be participants in the Roller coaster drive. Just as a dog which chews a bone licks and sucks its own blood dripping from its jaws , chose  to believe that the bone is giving all the joy and clings to it we also choose to cling to the objects of the extraneous and truly believe that it is giving us joy and get attached to it. If that is true the external object should be giving us joy always. Is that the case?

Today's apple of our eye is tomorrow's eye sore.

Be a witness and watch what happens around you or be a participant and throw up now and then in the roller coaster of life.

Krishnamachari Santhanam.

Be Still and Know that I AM.

However much we might decry "Doing",Alas! this beingness is felt after much Doing. Then the awareness dawns ,"Oh! that was not necessery!". This is the paradox.  Simple truth of the matter is that even the searching or doing was predesigned. We can not avoid it by will as it was predestined- programmed to the FINIS.

 Be still
and know
That I am

~ Ramana Maharshi...

Awareness.

Life may reveal itself to you at the foot of a living mountain, by the side of a holy river, at the piercing of the first ray of sunrise. It may choose to whisper its secret at the strangest of places and at the oddest of hours. It could happen on the potty at your most relieved moment or in the shrine of the most fabled temple sanctum.



It all depends on how aware you are at the moment. The opulent universe does not like mysteries. It reveals its core all the time in the cosmic movement of the universe and the constant hum of its hub. It is us who choose not to listen in our eternal quest of the quandary.



He speaks to us all the time in silent whispers and caresses our heart with his gentle fingers but we are so much lost in the glitter and gold we fail to feel.



He sends us his chosen so we may emulate, but we choose to emulate the tinsel town and its heroes. The Hero is one who has renounced everything, but even as kings we choose to be beggars.



The mother of the universe is eternally kind and packs milk in the bosom as we are born, the seeds are sprouting as we eat the first morsel, the fruits are ripe as we care to pluck, we in our greed pick more than what is needed and waste in our audacity of the pompous,"I".



If only we choose to listen more to the energy coursing through our veins, it will be verily the Ganges and its streams. If only we raise the energy to its summit it will be verily the Mount Kailash. If only we energize the chakras it would be microcosm of the movement of the universe. If only we manage to cognize the chith the humble idol in the temple does speak.



As we recognize the unity in diversity the disparity in a stone and a sugar candy does disappear. If only the awareness with which we gain atma vidya or the knowledge of the soul is managed to be retained constantly, nothing needs to be learnt, nothing to be practiced, nothing to be done and just BE.



Krishnamachari Santhanam.

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

Sarvam Vishnumayam Jagath

Let the eye see
Let the nose smell
Let the tongue taste
and the ears hear
and the skin feel
I am in a rented house
and this is the rent I pay to the land LORD.
Sarvam Vishnumayam Jagath.

Krishnamachari Santhanam

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

Allah is Vishnu

Allah is Al-Ahad or The One and Vishnu is called Eka, The One. It’s curious
but there are striking similarities between the many names of Vishnu and
those of Allah.
The Vishnu Sahasranamam (the thousand names of Vishnu) was composed by
Ved Vyas and incorporated in the Mahabharata. The sahasra here is not meant
to be a finite digit; it is in fact the opposite. ‘Thousand’ is meant to
suggest infinitude. The poem is a tool for meditating on God, the Formless
One, avyakta, of multifarious forms, anekamurti. Names connoting these two
opposite aspects follow one another in the poem: first the name, then the
counter-name. Because, the intention is not to define, but rather to convey
the futility of definition through a surfeit of definitions. The names
listed in the Sahasranamam are not all nouns: they are mostly adjectives.
They are attributes of God, juxtaposed to create a dhvani or suggestion of
the all-inclusive, all-surpassing, definition-defying Being.
The countername does not cancel the name; rather, it illustrates that
every name, every murti, is equally correct and incorrect: it is both iti
(so) and neti (not so). It is futile, likewise, to think of adding up the
names to arrive at any algebraic ‘finality’. Among the thousand names of
Vishnu are also Shoonya (zero) and Ananta (infinity). The movement of a
seeker after truth, as Swami Vivekanand put it, is not from error to truth,
but rather from one truth to another, until he reaches the end of all
knowledge, vedanta, to arrive at a consciousness of truth and bliss. This is
sat-chit-ananda: the state of truth-consciousness-bliss. This is Godhood.
One who realises it cannot define it; he can only point towards it or
suggest it — through sahasranama.
The Gracious Names Of Allah lists the various names of Allah occurring in
the holy Qu’ran. It is interesting how similar the names or appellations of
Allah are to those of Vishnu in the Vishnu Sahasranamam. Allah, as the
Paramatma, is Al-Ahad, The One or Eka. He is Al-Quddus, the Holy One
(Pavitram), Ar-Rahman, The Beneficent (Varadaya), Al’Maalik, The Lord
(Prabhu), Al’Aziz, The Mighty One (Mahaveera), Al’Alim, The All-knowing
(Sarvagya). He is Al’Khaliq, The Creator (Srishta) and Al’Musawwir, One who
fashions all things (Vishwakarma). He is Al’Hakam, The Judge (Vidhatre), who
is Al’Adl, The Just (Nyaya). Al’Latif, The Subtle One (Sookshma), Al’Kabir,
The Great (Mahaan).
Allah is also Al’Matin, The Firm One (Sthir), and As-Samad, The Eternal
One, The Absolute (Achyuta, Sthavar). He sends down distress as Ad-Daarr
(Bhayakrat), and deals death as Al’-Mumit (Yama). Himself is Al-Muhaymin,
The Protector (Rakshan). God is An-Nur, The Luminous One (Prakash), and
Al-Hakim, The Wise One (Mahabuddhi). He is An-Nafi, The Propitious One
(Mangala). He is Dhul-Jalal-Wal-Ikram, The Bountiful (Srinidhi). As in the
case of Vishnu, contradictory names apply equally perfectly to Allah. For
example, He is Al’Muqaddim (The Expediter) and also Al’- Mu’akhkhir (The
Delayer).
What is the significance of reciting all these names? The Sahasranamam
uplifts; it expands thought to include everything and every nonthing. If all
is the One, where is room for malice? The Phalshruti (Fruits of Recitation)
of Vishnu Sahasranamam promises to rid the devoted reciter of anger, malice,
greed and evil thoughts. One is also rid of the fear of birth, death, old
age and disease (janma-mrityu-jara-vyadhi). All these are the results that
follow the highest form of positive thinking. Similarly, reciting the names
of Allah, too, is bound to bring lasting benefit to the devout.

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

Consciousness

The sweetness is the nature of sugar; but that sweetness is there only so long as the sugar is present. Once the sugar has been consumed or thrown away, there is no more sweetness. So this knowledge "I am," this consciousness, this feeling or sense of Being, is the quintessence of the body. And if that... body essence is gone, this feeling, the sense of Being, will also have gone. This sense of Being cannot remain without the body, just as sweetness cannot remain without the material, which is sugar.

Nisagradatta Maharaj