on this day Of Swami Vivekananda's MahaSamadhi!

Swami Vivekananda sings in one of his poems...

"And tell the world —

Awake, arise, and dream no more!

This is the land of dreams, where Karma

Weaves unthreaded garlands with our thoughts

Of flowers sweet or noxious, and none

Has root or stem, being born in naught, which

The softest breath of Truth drives back to

Primal nothingness. Be bold, and face

The Truth! Be one with it! Let visions cease,

Or, if you cannot, dream but truer dreams,

Which are Eternal Love and Service Free."

what beautiful lines! iN these verses, Swamiji has stated the FOUR

pillars of HinduISM.

Swamiji on Bhakti Yoga

We all have to begin as dualists in the religion of love. God is to

us a separate Being, and we feel ourselves to be separate beings

also. Love then comes in the middle, and man begins to approach God,

and God also comes nearer and nearer to man. Man takes up all the

various relationships of life, as father, as mother, as son, as

friend, as master, as lover, and projects them on his ideal of love,

on his God. To him God exists as all these, and the last point of his

progress is reached when he feels that he has become absolutely

merged in the object of his worship. We all begin with love for

ourselves, and the unfair claims of the little self make even love

selfish. At last, however, comes the full blaze of light, in which

this little self is seen to have become one with the Infinite. Man

himself is transfigured in the presence of this Light of Love, and he

realises at last the beautiful and inspiring truth that Love, the

Lover, and the Beloved are One.

Swamiji on Karma yoga

Karma-Yoga, therefore, is a system of ethics and religion intended to

attain freedom through unselfishness and by good works. The Karma-

yogi need not believe in any doctrine whatever. He may not believe

even in God, may not ask what his soul is, nor think of any

metaphysical speculation. He has got his own special aim of realizing

selflessness; and he has to work it out himself. Every moment of his

life must be realization, because he has to solve by mere work,

without the help of doctrine or theory, the very same problem to

which the Jnâni applies his reason and inspiration and the Bhakta his

love.

He works best who works without any motive, neither for money, nor

for fame, nor for anything else; and when a man can do that, he will

be a Buddha, and out of him will come the power to work in such a

manner as will transform the world This man represents the very

highest ideal of Karma-Yoga. "

Swamiji on Jnana Yoga

"The essence of Vedanta is that we are divine. The soul was never

born and will never die. There may be weakness, but never mind. We

want to grow. We all know our weaknesses, says Vedanta, but being

reminded of weakness doesn't help much.

Instead of telling us that we are sinners, Vedanta takes the opposite

position and says, 'You are pure and perfect. What you call sin does

not belong to you.'"

Swamiji on 'Dharana' in Raja Yoga

"What is meant "by holding the mind to certain points"?(Dharana) It

means forcing the mind to feel certain parts of the body to the

exclusion of others. For instance, try to feel only the hand, to the

exclusion of other parts of the body. When the Chitta, or mind-stuff,

is confined and limited to a certain place it is Dharana. This

Dharana is of various sorts, and along with it, it is better to have

a little play of the imagination. For instance, the mind should be

made to think of one point in the heart. That is very difficult; an

easier way is to imagine a lotus there. That lotus is full of light,

effulgent light. Put the mind there. Or think of the lotus in the

brain as full of light, or of the different centers in the Sushumna

mentioned before."

Swamiji explains the Logo or emblem of The Vedanta Society Of Shri

Ramakrishna Mission thus...

'The wavy waters in the picture are symbolic of karma, the lotus, of

bhakti, and the rising sun, of Jnana. The encircling serpent is

indicative of yoga and awakened kundalini 'Sakti, while the swan in

the picture stands for the paramatman. Therefore, the idea of the

picture is that by the union of karma, Jnana, bhakti, and yoga, the

vision of the paramatman is obtained.'

Hari Aum!

Dear Adi-Ma,

Sri Ramakrishna once saw in a vision that Vivekananda was none other

than a saptarishi. Ramakrishna used to say that the day Vivekananda

discovered who he truly was he would not remain on earth anymore.

The impact of Swami Vivekananda and his band of monks on the world

has been far more than is recorded by academic history. As Richard

Schiffman writes beautifully in his book 'Sri Ramakrishna':

"The Baul had come and gone. But his band would continue to dance

their way through nearly half of the twentieth century. Through most

of the nations of the earth, through India, through the alien lands

of Europe and America and the Far East, they would dance their heady

dance – unsung, unknown perhaps to the great mass of men, but not

without sowing the flaming seeds of Love on the winds of the dark age

of untruth."

The seeds of Love works silently in the hearts of (wo)men like the

dew that falls in the deepest silence of the night.

Love,

Chittaranjan

advaitin, "adi_shakthi16" <adi_shakthi16>

wrote:

> Swami Vivekananda sings in one of his poems...

>

> "And tell the world —

> Awake, arise, and dream no more!

> This is the land of dreams, where Karma

> Weaves unthreaded garlands with our thoughts

> Of flowers sweet or noxious, and none

> Has root or stem, being born in naught, which

> The softest breath of Truth drives back to

> Primal nothingness. Be bold, and face

> The Truth! Be one with it! Let visions cease,

> Or, if you cannot, dream but truer dreams,

> Which are Eternal Love and Service Free."

>

Chita-ji writes ...

( Sri Ramakrishna once saw in a vision that Vivekananda was none

other than a saptarishi.)

Believe it or not, i just read that passage this morning....

Here it is from my Library -

Romain Rolland, the great bigrapher POF both the master (sri

Ramakrsishna and Swami Vivekananda) describes this mystical Vision

during the master's meditation thus ...

sri ramakrishna's vision.......

HERE is an account of how sri ramakrishna saw his

most beloved disciple swami vivekananda (the young

naren) in the 'womb of the elect' before the paramahamsa

actually met the young swamiji in flesh.

"One day I found that my mind was soaring high in Samadhi along a

luminous path. It soon transcended the stelllar universe

and entered the subtler region of ideas. As it

ascended higher and higher, I found on both sides of the

way ideal forms of gods and goddesses. The mind then

reached the outer limits of that region, where a luminous

barrier seperated the sphere of relative existence from

that of the Absolute.

Crossing the barrier , the mind entered the transcedental realm where

no corporal being was visible. Even the Gods dared not peep into

that subtle realm and were content to keep their seats from far

below. But the next moment I saw seven venerable sages seated there

in Samadhi. It occurred to me that these sages must have surpassed not

only men but even the GODS in knowledge and holiness,

in renunciation and LOVE.

Lost in admiration, I was reflecting on their greatness, when I saw a

portion of that undifferentiated luminous region condense into the

form of a divine child. The child came to one of the sages,

tenderly clasped his neck with his lovely arms, and addressing him in

a sweet voice, tried to drag his mind down from the state of Samadhi.

That magic touch roused the sage from the superconscious state, and

he fixed his half-open eyes upon the wonderful child. His beaming

countenance showed that the child must have been the treasure

of his heart. in great joy the strange child spoke to him, "i am

going down. You too must go with me. 'the sage remained mute but his

tendeR look expressed his assent. as he kept gazing at the child. he

was again immersed in samadhi. i was surprised to find that

a fragment of his body and mind was descending on earth in the form

of a bright light. No Sooner Had I SEEN NARENDRA than I recognized

him to be that sage."

In the above narration, SRI RAMAKRISHNA describes himself as the

*divine child* and swami Vivekananda as the Holy sage .

Why? Why?

WHY THIS ROLE REVERSAL?

The PARAMAHAMSA found in young Naren "A 'MAN BETTER FITTED THAN

HIMSELF TO GUIDE MANKIND AND TAKE OVER THE COMMAND OF THE ARMY

(FROM THE BOOK OF LIFE OF Ramakrishna by Romain Rolland)

**********************************************************************

Chitta writes in another context... on Maya as the Magical Potency of

Brahman...

For me, Maya is the magical Shakti of Lord Shiva. With whatever

understanding I have of Advaita, it does not permit me to equate Maya

with illusion. Illusion may be Her trick, but She is not illusion

Herself.

Isn't Maya insurmountable as long as we resist Her? But when we

surrender, She takes us to the Self, for She is the Self when

everything is surrendered, no?

Spoken like a true Tantrik-advaitin! my humble prostrations...

Swami Vivekananda says...

Mother IS first manifestation of power and is considered a higher

idea than Father. The name of Mother brings the idea of Sakti, Divine

Energy and Omnipotence: the baby believes its mother to be all-

powerful, able to do anything. The Divine Mother is the Kundalini

sleeping in us; without worshipping Her we can never know ourselves.

All-merciful, all-powerful, omnipresent -- these are attributes of

the Divine Mother. She is the sum total of the energy in the

universe. Every manifestation of power in the universe is Mother. She

is life, She is intelligence, She is love. She is in the universe,

yet separate from it. She is a Person and can be seen and known -- as

Sri Ramakrishna saw and knew Her. Established in the idea of Mother,

we can do anything. She quickly answers prayer.

She can show Herself to us in any form at any moment. The Divine

Mother can have form, rupa, and name, nama, or name without form; and

as we worship Her in these various aspects, we can rise to Pure

Being, having neither form nor name.

The sum total of all the cells in an organism is the person; each

soul is like one cell, and the sum of them is God. And beyond that is

the Absolute. The sea calm is the Absolute; the same sea in waves is

the Divine Mother. She is time, space, and causation. Mother is the

same as Brahman and has two natures: the conditioned and the

unconditioned. As the former She is God, nature, and soul. As the

latter She is unknown and unknowable. Out of the Unconditioned came

the trinity: God, nature, and soul -- the triangle of existence. This

is the Visishtadvaita idea. [A reference to so-called qualified

nondualism, one of the streams of the Hindu tradition. Brahman is

That Which alone is, and than Which there is no other.

A bit of Mother, a drop, was Krishna; another was Buddha; another was

Christ. The worship of even one spark of Mother in our earthly mother

leads to greatness. Worship Her if you want love and wisdom. "

**********************************************************************

Yes, Sri Ramakrishna was a true'Baul' ... He was the Adhar Manush!The

Baul word for God is Adhar Manush, the essential man. He worships

man. He says, inside you and me, inside everybody, there is an

essential being. That essential being is all. To find that Adhar

Manush, that essential man, is the whole search.

Thank you Chiita, Kennji and you all are bringing out the 'gems' in

me which are lying buried under the deep Sea o my Mind!

Regards

_