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[Shri C Bala Krishna Murthy asked a question “How Upanishads frequently say that Atman (Self) is Paramatman (God)?”]
Swami replied: How do you take the word Atman as self? The word Atman means that which pervades. The awareness pervades all over the body and hence, it is called as Atman. Since the body also pervades in space, it is also called Atman in Sanskrit language. Therefore, the word Atman stands either for the soul or for the total human being. Suppose, you say that the Prime Minister is in house. Does it mean that he is in your house? Does it mean that he is in every house? It only means that the Prime Minister, who is out of his residence on tour, is now present in his residence, which is a specific house. Similarly, Atman means a specific soul like Krishna...
For Scholars Posted on: 01/02/2009No example can be given from the world to explain the unimaginable generation of imaginable world from unimaginable God. We have to select imaginable items only to explain the concept. God creates, controls and dissolves the world like the awareness (soul) creates, controls and dissolves its imaginary world. To understand the concept, you have to place the soul in the place of God and the imaginary world in the place of the world. This does not mean that the soul is God and the world is imaginary world. If a son asks his father about the way in which he is his son, the father says that he is his son just like his grandson is the son of his son. To explain this effectively, the grandfather asks his son to keep himself in the position of the grandfather...
[Shri R Parthasarathy asked a question: “the Gita says that we should do the action without aspiring for its fruit. How is it possible? We do any work expecting some fruit only”.]
Swami replied: Arjuna came to Kurukshetra to fight with enemies in order to get back his kingdom. He thought that the war was his case and Krishna was helping him in his case like an advocate helping the petitioner in his case filed in a court. Arjuna thought that since he was the owner of the case, he could withdraw the case whenever he liked to do so. If the petitioner is not interested to fight the case, the advocate will have no interest to argue it. Arjuna thought that it was not proper to kill his grandfather and teacher for the sake of wealth. His point was also justified. But, Krishna turned the tables diagonally opposite by enlightening Arjuna through the Gita...
[Vaikuntha Ekaadasi] Today is Vaikuntha Ekaadasi and devotees see Lord Narayana through North gate. This is our tradition. Tradition is always action or karma. Karma generates samskara or feeling. Devotion is feeling about God. Therefore, tradition aims at the development of devotion in devotees. Karma generates Samskara and this Samskara again generates karma. The quality of stealing leads to the action of stealing. While doing stealing, the quality of stealing gets more and more developed. Both these mutually contribute to each other. Therefore, the tradition set up by our ancient sages is always with good aim. Today, tradition says that you should take bath...
People take the word Satsanga to mean a meeting of a few devotees who sit together and enquire about God and other aspects related to God. If all people who are born blind sit together and discuss about the sun, their conclusion is that the sun is black because they always experience darkness alone and do not see even a trace of light. They can never ever turn to the right direction in spite of intensive and very long discussions. If a person having eyes that are in good condition gets associated with them, then alone can they understand something about the sun. At least by his preaching, they can understand that the sun is not black. Of course, they cannot experience light even after his preaching. Hence, he will not speak about light...
[on the Eve of Christmas] Every religion says that its God created the entire earth and entire humanity. But, unfortunately there is only one earth containing this humanity. Due to one earth, there must be one God only and hence, all the religions are calling the same God by different names. Since God is completely unimaginable, all the names indicate that unseen and unimaginable God only. This unimaginable God is mediated by energy. Such mediated God is also one and the same because energy is also one and the same for all religions. This mediated God is called as Brahman by Hinduism, Jehovah by Christianity and Allah by Islam. The absolute unimaginable God as well as the medium (Energy) are one and the same and hence, there is no difference...
For Scholars Posted on: 24/12/2008[In the below given discussion, Swami is Defendant, Misconceived Advaitin is the Petitioner and a keen follower of discussion is the Mediator. Shankara used to present the knowledge in this dialogue format.]
Petitioner: God is awareness because the Brahma Sutra (Eekkshateh…) says that God is not any inert item since the Veda says that God wished to create this Universe (Tadaikshataa…). If God is inert, He cannot wish at all.
Defendant: The Brahma Sutra certainly establishes that God is not inert. But, at the same time, the Sutra does not say that God is awareness...
[Datta Jayanti] Jnanam, Gaanam, Dhyanam and Daanam should be clearly understood on this day. Jnanam is the spiritual knowledge related to intelligence (Buddhi) represented by God Brahma. Gaanam is the expression of knowledge and devotion related to words (Vaak) represented by God Vishnu. Dhyanam is the devotion or meditation related to mind (Manas) represented by God Shiva. Daanam is the donation or service related to action (karma) represented by God Datta. The first three constitute the theory and the last constitutes the practice. Theory should lead into practice. This point is represented by Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva becoming Datta by union before the sage Atri. It is also said that Atri got three sons: 1) Chandra, representing Brahma; 2) Dattatreya, representing Vishnu and 3) Durvasa, representing Shiva...
There are three points in the spiritual path. The first point is about yourself. If you know that you are not God and also that God is not in you, the first point is over. You are only on the support of God since you are part and parcel of the creation and the whole creation is supported by God. Again here, the contact of the support also does not exist as in the case of a table supporting an object standing on it. The creation stands just by the will of God. The direct support of the creation is the will, which is a mode of awareness. In this way, you can say that the divine awareness is the support of this universe. By this, you should not think that awareness is an independent support and therefore, awareness itself is God...
Shri Ramana Maharshi snored in His deep sleep. A disciple asked Him about His ignorance in the deep sleep since snoring indicates intensified deep sleep. Shri Ramana Maharshi replied that He was quite aware of His deep sleep since He also heard His own snoring similar to His observers. This means that in deep sleep, the awareness of God exists because of the existence of God with continuous awareness. This indicates that He was the human incarnation. This is true because Vaasishta Ganapati Muni declared Him as the human incarnation of Lord Subrahmanya. But, in the case of any human being, this is not true because nobody hears his or her own snoring in deep sleep. Since God does not exist in every human being...
God gives value for the spiritual knowledge contained in the religion. Religion is the external cup and spiritual knowledge is the internal material supplied to the customer in the hotel. The customer pays for the internal material and not for the external cup. The sweet Payasam in the cheap ceramic cup will have high payment. The cheap drinking water given in costly golden cup has no payment at all. The customer takes the material only and not the container. Similarly, the spiritual knowledge alone follows the soul from birth to birth and not the religion. When the external body is left over here, the soul raises up in a new energetic body. The soul in the new energetic body is associated with the spiritual knowledge...
For Scholars Posted on: 14/11/2008[Crystal Clear Demarcation of three philosophies i.e., Advaita, Vishishtadvaita and Dvaita] Shankara preached Advaita Philosophy to four disciples directly and those four disciples must have understood His philosophy to the best because they heard Shankara directly. Those four disciples must have become God (Brahman) and should not have served anybody as slaves because God will not serve anybody since He is served by all. But, the four disciples served Shankara like slaves. When Shankara asked Padmapada (one of the four disciples) to bring the washed and dried saffron clothes from the other bank, Padmapada obeyed the order of Shankara more than a slave and walked across the river without fearing death by drowning...
Each limb of the elephant in its figure is contributing to the totality of the diagram. But at the same time, the limb has limitations of its size and should be in its proper place. Both the aspects of contribution and limitation are equally important. You cannot increase the size of the limb enormously to occupy the whole page and say that the limb itself is the elephant. No doubt, the elephant is incomplete without the limb and hence, it is contributory. The proper place of legs is below the body of the elephant. Due to attraction and over appreciation of the legs, you should not draw the four legs above the body. The whole problem lies with the person, who can draw the leg only...
[A devotee asked Swami about ‘Aakasha Deepam’, which is said to guide the devotee after death to the abode of God if it is lit in this month of Kartika.]
Swami replied: “If this oil lamp lit by you has such power, let it prove a small fraction of its power now itself. You lit the lamp here and go outside in the darkness. Let this lamp show you the path outside”. If this lamp cannot have even such small power while it is burning, how can we believe that it has power after a long time when it does not exist? Everything in the creation happens according to Science only. The rules of Science are broken only by the will of God. Unless you please God and get His grace, such miracles will not happen...
Hindus are spending lot of money on ritualistic functions like marriage etc., in which the major item is serving expensive varieties of food. The receivers of this food are mainly relatives and friends invited based on your blind passion for relatives and your attitude of business to friends. The donation of food is ‘Annadaanam’ and for any donation, the receiver must be an eligible person, selected not based on relationship or friendship. The eligibility is due to the spiritual knowledge and devotion of the person to God. Otherwise, you are giving food to un-deserving receivers, who may be your relatives and friends. In Mahabharata, the sage Vyasya told that donation to deserving person brings good fruits...
There is a misunderstanding that women were suppressed in Hinduism without independence. People quote Manu Smruti in this context, which says that woman should not be independent (Na stree svatantryamarhati…). But, the same Manu says that women should be worshipped to please God (Yatranaryastu pujyante ramante tatra devatah…). Both these contradict each other. If you do not give even basic independence to somebody, how can you worship him or her? Will you worship a person without independence, put in prison? This means that the first statement of Manu is misinterpreted. The actual meaning of first statement is that women should not move independently without escort because...
[Reply to Dr. Sheshadri Thiruvenkadam (Balaji).] All bad qualities are created by God with a positive sense alone. When we misplace these qualities,...
[Reply to Dr. Sheshadri Thiruvenkadam (Balaji).] Your question contains the answer. You have to do something practically to get the grace of God,...
[Reply to Dr. Sheshadri Thiruvenkadam (Balaji).] The feeling of stress as stress is the important point. You take lot of strenuous steps to get a...
[Question by Dr. Sheshadri Thiruvenkadam (Balaji).] The true knowledge is the only solution to remove the hindrance caused by any factor. Truth is...
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