Shraddha

[Guest guest]

Dear ramji, I heard at one of swami dheerananda's lecture an explanation

regarding Shraddha.I believe it was a quote from Ravindranath Tagore in which

he states shraddha as (shraddha is when birds start singing before the sun

rise) I have paraphrased it since i do not know the original poem.I thought

it was nice.

nirmala.

[Guest guest]

Hari Om Nirmalaji:

 

Thanks for posting Swami Dheeranandaji's beautiful

reference to the list. The singing of birds before the

sun rise is the most effective way to communicate the

meaning of the word shraddha. The bird's natural

disposition is to sing before the sun rise. Our

natural disposition is to seek the True knowledge. If

we possess the same mental attitude of the bird -

sing with humbleness, sincerity, self-confidence to

face the life with great faith! Also the bird singing

is wake-up call for dreamers like us!

 

Shraddha in Yoga Sastra is the culmination of the

four mental attitudes of respect, sincerity,

humbleness and faith or self-confidence. The disciple

with the shraddha (Yogi) will not ask intellectual

questions nor will make attempts to acquire a supposed

knowledge based on long lists of names and concepts.

The Yogi doesn't seek the knowledge, instead, the

knowledge seeks the Yogi!

 

A whole chapter in Bhagavad Gita (XVII) is dedicated

to shraddha and we can see its importance verse 3:

"Oh Arjuna! The shraddha of every man is in accordance

with his natural disposition. Man is of the nature of

his shraddha; what his shraddha is, that verily he

is."

 

warm regards,

 

Ram Chandran

[Guest guest]

Namaste,

 

Poetry and music [of a certain kind, of course] are good

solvents for intellectual pride and arrogance.

The Upanishads have a number of stories illustrating exactly

this.

The Gita summarises this in IV:34 :

 

tadviddhi praNipaatena pariprashnena sevayaa .

upadekshyanti te j~naa.n j~naaninastattvadarshinaH ..

 

Learn that by humble reverence, by inquiry and by service. Those with

wisdom who have seen the truth will instruct thee in knowledge.

 

" Out of discussion we call to vision, to those desiring to see

we point the path, our teaching is a guiding in the way, the seeing

must be the very act of him who has made the choice."

 

Plotinus: Enneads, VI:9:4

 

[Quoted by Radhakrishnan, in The Bhagavadgita:p.170; George Allen &

Unwin, 1949.]

 

Regards,

 

s.

 

 

advaitin , Ram Chandran <ramvchandran> wrote:

> Hari Om Nirmalaji:

>

> Thanks for posting Swami Dheeranandaji's beautiful

> reference to the list. The singing of birds before the

> sun rise is the most effective way to communicate the

> meaning of the word shraddha.