Experience is the best teacher.

One day, Brighu, the son of Varuna approached his father and asked him: "Father! Will you enlighten me about Brahman?" Sage Varuna replied endearingly: "Son, none can enlighten anyone on Brahman. One has to experience through meditation. Go and do meditation and carry on self-enquiry. I bless you."

Brighu went into a forest and sat for meditation. He used to carry on self-enquiry too. He used to contemplate on several questions related to the spiritual world. One day, he thought: 'What is the most essential thing that is necessary for the existence of all living beings in general and man in particular? It must be food', he decided. Man lives, grows and works only because of food, the most essential thing for life is food, so food is Brahman." He ran to his father and said: "Father, I know what is Brahman. Food is Brahman." Varuna replied with a smile: "No, my son, food is not Brahman. Go and meditate."
Brighu went to the forest and continued his tapas for some more time. One day he thought, 'food may be essential, but unless there is energy, how can the food be digested? What is that energy? It must be prana (vital air) so prana is Brahman.' So, he went to his father and said: "Father, I know what is Brahman, Prana is Brahman." Varuna replied: "No, my son, go and meditate for some more days."
Brighu obeyed his father's command. He continued his meditation. One day he thought, 'Food is essential, prana is essential, but what is more essential? Unless one has desire to live and to eat, of what avail is food and prana? The seat of desire is mind. So Manas is Brahman' he decided. Brighu reported about his discovery and said: "Father, Manas is Brahman." Varuna smiled and said: "Son, no, Manas is not Brahman. Go and do tapas for some more days."

Brighu continued his meditation. One day he thought 'Food is essential, prana is essential, manas is also essential, but what is still more essential? Unless one is able to distinguish and discriminate between good and evil, of what use is this life? What is the seat of this discriminating faculty? It is intellect, vijnan.' So vijnan is Brahman", he decided. Brighu went and told his father: "Father, vijnan is Brahman". Varuna once again said: "Son, no, vijnan is not Brahman. Go and do tapas for some more days."

Brighu once again continued to do tapas. One day he thought, 'Food gives strength, parna energises, manas causes desires, and vijnan endows man with discrimination (viveka). But, I must find out what is the ultimate goal of man's life. I have to experience it'. Having thus resolved, he went into deep meditation again.

One day, he experienced an ineffable joy and he sat utterly unconscious of the outside world. That day, Varuna came to the forest in search of his son. He was happy to see his son in samadhi. From the effulgence which shone on Brighu's face, he knew that his son had realised that 'Bliss is Brahman'.

In the upanishadic age, parents and preceptors used to encourage their pupils to ask questions, yet they would not give them immediate answers. They would advise them to carry on self enquiry and find out the answers for themselves.

Experience is the best teacher.

Dip in the Ganges

As per the scriptures we are to take the scriptual bath before any ritual. But say we are in a flight where this may not be possible. Scripture provides for the ritual bath by invoking the manasa ganga and by mindfully bathing in it can proceed with the rituals. The ida and the pingala act as the carrier for the yamuna and the Ganga and the unseen saraswathi is in the sahasradhara. When you dip in this ganges, or you dip in the ganges of the guru or dip in the mother ganges physically.. it is upto each...But dip we must.. No use in floating on the surface.

Namasthe.



Krishnamachari Santhanam

Releasing the Cows.

One day the Buddha was sitting in the wood with thirty or forty monks. They had an excellent lunch and they were enjoying the company of each other. There was a farmer passing by and the farmer was very unhappy. He asked the Buddha and the monks whether they had seen his cows passing by. The Buddha said they had not seen any cows passing by.

The farmer said, "Monks, I'm so unhappy. I have twelve cows and I don't know why they all ran away. I have also a few acres of a sesame seed plantation and the insects have eaten up everything. I suffer so much I think I am going to kill myself.

The Buddha said, "My friend, we have not seen any cows passing by here. You might like to look for them in the other direction."

So the farmer thanked him and ran away, and the Buddha turned to his monks and said, "My dear friends, you are the happiest people in the world. You don't have any cows to lose. If you have too many cows to take care of, you will be very busy.

"That is why, in order to be happy, you have to learn the art of cow releasing. You release the cows one by one. In the beginning you thought that those cows were essential to your happiness, and you tried to get more and more cows.But now you realize that cows are not really conditions for your happiness; they constitute an obstacle for your happiness. That is why you are determined to release your cows."

Krishnamachari Santhanam

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.

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.

Ekam Sath

Even Bad things, Griefs,
sorrows and cursing

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

Krishnamachari Santhanam

Mind

Mind is an obstacle in realising the self. Rituals and other kriyas can be a serious deterrent to realise the self at the later stages of sadhana. God/Self/Nirvana/Realisation whatever you may like to label it can not be known with intellect neither with the mind. It has to be truly experienced and felt and all this talking and writing will only lead to confusion as words are but thought forms and there are so many dimensions to the one reality.

Krishnamachari Santhanam.

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

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

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

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

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