Each Soul is potentially Divine .........

[Guest guest]

Dear Satsanghi-s !

 

On this day of India's Independence day, it gives me great me great

pleasure to recall these famous words of Swami Vivekananda-ji ....

 

""Here in this blessed land, the foundation, the backbone, the life-

centre is religion and religion alone. Let others talk of politics,

of glory of acquisition of immense wealth poured in by trade, of the

power and spread of commercialism, of the glorious fountain of

physical liberty; but these the Hindu mind does not understand and

does not want to understand. Touch him on spirituality, on religion,

on God, on the soul, on the Infinite, on spiritual freedom, and I

assure you, the lowest peasant in India is better informed on these

subjects than many a so-called philosopher in other lands... We have

yet something to teach to the world. This the very reason, the raison

d'être, that this nation has lived on, in spite of hundreds of

years

of persecution, in spite of nearly a thousand years of foreign rule

and foreign oppression. This nation still lives; the raison d'être

is, it still holds to God, to the treasure house of religion and

spirituality."

 

Swamiji goes on to say

 

"Each soul is potentially divine. Religion is to manifest this

Divinity within, by controlling nature, external and internal. Do

this either by work, or worship, or psychic control, or philosophy...

and be free. This is the whole of religion. Doctrines and dogmas,

rituals and forms, books and temples are but secondary details."

 

and really speaking , is there a link between Happiness and

spirituality?

 

A survey of 65 countries, published by British magazine New

Scientist, says that Nigerians are the happiest people on earth,

followed by the Mexicans. Venezuela, El Salvador and Puerto Rico are

close behind.

 

India has been ranked 21st in the world happiness index.

 

India's greatest contribution is not in the field of Mathematics or

science or arts or culture but it is in the field of spirituality!!!

The vedas , the Upanishads, the Srimad Bhagvat Gita are the richest

treasures (legacy) She has bequeathed to the rest of the world.

 

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), American Philosopher, Unitarian,

social critic, transcendentalist and writer:

 

"In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal

philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita in comparison with which our modern

world and its literature seems puny."

 

"What extracts from the Vedas I have read fall on me like the light

of a higher and purer luminary, which describes a loftier course

through purer stratum. It rises on me like the full moon after the

stars have come out, wading through some far stratum in the sky."

 

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), German writer and a great

philosopher has this to say on the effects Upanishads had on him

 

 

"In the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so elevating

as that of the Upanishads. It has been the solace of my life -- it

will be the solace of my death.

 

Then .

 

Ralph Waldo Emerson, (1803-1882) author, essayist, lecturer,

philosopher, Unitarian minister said this about the Gita:

 

" I owed a magnificent day to the Bhagavad-Gita. It was as if an

empire spoke to us, nothing small or unworthy, but large, serene,

consistent, the voice of an old intelligence which in another age and

climate had pondered and thus disposed of the same questions which

exercise us."

 

Mark Twain (1835-1910) the American writer and humorist wrote:

 

" India has two million gods, and worships them all. In religion all

other countries are paupers; India is the only millionaire."

 

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) the English novelist and essayist, says

this about The Gita

 

"The Bhagavad-Gita is the most systematic statement of spiritual

evolution of endowing value to mankind. The Gita is one of the

clearest and most comprehensive summaries of the spiritual thoughts

ever to have been made. Hence Huxley thought its enduring value, not

only for Indians, but for all mankind."

 

and finally our own beloved Father of the Nation ,

 

Mahatma Gandhi: (1869-1948) says ...

 

 

"The Geeta is the universal mother. I find a solace in the

Bhagavadgeeta that I miss even in the Sermon on the Mount. When

disappointment stares me in the face and all alone I see not one ray

of light, I go back to the Bhagavadgeeta. I find a verse here and a

verse there , and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of

overwhelming tragedies - and my life has been full of external

tragedies - and if they have left no visible or indelible scar on me,

I owe it all to the teaching of Bhagavadgeeta."

 

http://www.geocities.com/tulsidas_ramayan/page336.htm - 42k - Cached -

 

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TAMASO MA JYOTHIRGAMAYA-

 

Lead us from Darkness to Light

 

Asato MA SATGAMAYA

 

Lead us from Untruth to Truth

 

MRUTYORMA AMRUTAM GAMAYA

 

Lead us from Death to Immortality

 

Aum Shanti! Aum Shanti! Aum Shantihi!!!!!!