Totapuri and Sri Ramakrishna -- question

[Guest guest]

shriman ompremji,

 

once again a great 'post' punctuated with appropriate quotastions

from swami sivananda...

 

with shri ramakrishna and swami sivananda gracing this forum and with

the divine mother being in total charge , how can there be

any 'darkness' - all veils drop at the first sight of 'illumination'

 

You have made some valuable suggestions specially with reference to

practicing meditation as a spiritual practice and mantra japa etc...

 

but one phrase that caught my immediate attention is...

 

". But our eyes are limited. They have a very narrow threshold."

 

Exactky!!!

 

WE can see 'GOD/ESS' with reyes closed (meditation) and we can also

see 'god/ess' with eyes open.

 

the first one is the path of yogis or knowledge. ( jnana)

 

the second one is the path of intimate experience (anubhooti or

bhakti path)

 

the first without the second is "un exciting' - a little dull and

boring...

 

the second without the first is futile - leading nowhere!

 

So in order to strike a balance, we need to combine the mysticism of

YOGA with the path of Humanistic approach of bhakti and karma yoga.

 

The enlightened ego is not the ego that sits in one corner doing

meditation 24 hours a day -the enlightened ego is the ego that

recognizes that the 'atman' that resides in me is the same 'atman'

that resides in the 'homeless' and the 'poorest of the poor' - but,

we need to make sure while practicing karma yoga . that our acts of

philantrophy or charity are not 'ego-enhancing' but are driven by a

spirit of nishkama karma- 'truly' spiritual- all friuits of action

dedicated to god. there is absolutely no self-interest involved- like

that of acquiring name fame or coveting a nobel prize!

 

OMPREMJI, YOU MENTION ANOTHER INTERESTING POINT- going beyond names

and forms... A FAVORITE EXPRESSION OF MINE AS WELL.

 

here , we need to make a distinction between Apara-Bhakti and Para-

Bhakti.

 

Apara-Bhakti is for beginners in bhakti marga. the bhakta decorates

an image (ishtafevata) with flowers and garlands, rings the bell,

offers Naivedya (food-offerings), wave lights; he observes rituals

and ceremonies. The Bhakta here regards the Lord as a Supreme Person,

who is immanent in that image and who can be propitiated through that

form only.

 

such a bhakta has only one name and one form in his/her heart... 'my

kali, my krishna, my rama, my jesus, my allah ..... " He only

worships the deity in one form and in one name and abhors all other

formss and names... while there is something to be said in favotr of

this in the beginning stages of bhakti - but for bhakti to fully

blossom into brahma-jnana - it has to move beyond the stage of apara

bhakti...

 

the devotee needs to graduate to the stage of Para-Bhakti, the

highest form of Bhakti. He sees the god in every atom of creation and

feels the power of god's manifestation in all all of god's

creation... in the smile of a homeless, in the face of a terrorist,

in the dancing daffodils and in the blue rain-cloud... a man of

expanded consciousness - not a man of tunnel vision. this is the

stage of para bhakti or a jnani- such was the state of shri ramana,

shri ramakrishna and sswami sivananda. "vasudevam sarvam

iti.vasudaiva kutubakam:": - krishna is everywhere! the whole

world is my family... there are no distinctions of caste, creed,

racial differences!!!

 

but how to cultivate this state of para bhakti?

 

step by step- first sow the seeds of love in your spiritual garden

and nurture this sapling with love and devotion until it blossoms

into a tree of jnana- a kalpavriksha!

 

so from 'idol' worship we proceed to 'cosmic' vision all step by

step!!!

 

ABHYASA- PRACTICE, PRACTICE!

 

OMPREMJI, I REALLY LOVED THE WAY YOU EXPANDED ON THE 'MAYA'

CONCEPT ...

 

here i quote from our beloved shri ramakrishna..

 

"It is the unwavering conviction of the jnani that Brahman alone is

real and the world illusory. All these names and forms are illusory,

like a dream. What Brahman is cannot be described. One cannot even

say that Brahman is a Person. This is the opinion of the jnanis, the

followers of Vedanta philosophy.

 

But the bhaktas accept all the sates of consciousness. They take the

waking state to be real also. They don't think the world to be

illusory, like a dream. They say that the universe is a manifestation

of God's power and glory. God has created all these -- sky, stars,

moon, sun, mountains, ocean, men, animals. They constitute His

golory. He is within us, in our hearts. Again, He is outside. The

most advanced devotees say that He Himself has become all this -- the

twenty-four cosmic principles, the universe, and all living beings.

The devotee of God wants to eat the sugar, and not to become the

sugar. ".

 

"The yogi seeks to realize the Paramatman, the Supreme Soul. His

ideal is the union of the embodied soul and the Supreme Soul. He

withdraws his mind from sense-objects and tried to concentrate on the

Paramatman...

 

But the Reality is one and the same; the difference is only in name.

He who is Brahman is verily Atman, and again, He is the Bhagavan. He

is Brahman to the followers of the path of knowledge, Paramatman to

the yogis, and the Bhagavan to the lovers of God. "

 

 

om sat-chit-ananda rupinyaii namaha, says our lalita sahasaranama!

 

with attributes our divine mother becomes sat-chit-ananda ruppini!

 

without attributes She is brahman- sat-chit-ananda!!!

 

love and regards!!!

 

jai gurudeva!

 

jai durge!!!