Eloquent writings

[Guest guest]

> I have always hesitated to post anything in this club because all

> postings are so well written from so learned people.whenever I

> attempted to post anything, I worked on it as if it were for my

> school examinations

 

Hi Angelina!

 

Welcome and thank you for joining in the discusion. You are right. We

are blessed with some wonderful, eloquent writers with a beautiful

command of the langage. However our club is for all. Sadhna has

little to do with eloquence, it has to do with practice and

experience. And that can be expressed in the simplest of language.

 

I want to bring this to the notice of all, because this is a

complaint I hear very often by many of our members. Perhaps I

haven't been able to do a good job in reassuring our members that all

posts are welcome and pllllease don't worry about writing abilities.

This is not a essay contest. All that is needed is a simple

expression of ideas, knowledge and experience.

 

I can only keep repeating that and hope that other members also

understand and join in the discussions.

 

_/\_ Tat twam asi

 

Uma

 

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This is reply to Post #3393 by de_spell_2000

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[Guest guest]

>>Sadhna has little to do with eloquence, it has to do with practice

and experience.<<

 

I remember a small story that relates to what u've said above:

 

A learned Pundit was once giving discourses on Bhagavad Geetha in the

august presence of a Maharaja (King). One day was the turn of this

sloka :

 

Ananyaaschinthayantho maam

Ye janaah paryupaasathe

Theshaam nithyaabhiyukthaanaam

Yogakshemam vahamyaham.

 

The Pundit was explaining enthusiastically the many-sided

implications of this sloka, but the Maharaja shook his head and

said: "This meaning is not correct." He continued to dispute the

correctness of every one of the explanations the Pundit gave. The

poor Pundit had won meritorious distinctions at the court of many a

Maharaja and was honoured by them all with pompous titles. He felt as

if he was stabbed when the Maharaja in the presence of the entire

band of courtiers condemned his explanation of this sloka a 'wrong'.

He smarted under the insult; but plucking up courage, he again set

upon his task, and marshalling all his scholarship, he plunged into

an eloquent discourse on the multiple meaning of the words, "Yoga"

and "Kshema." The Maharaja did not approve of even this; he

ordered: "Find out the meaning of this sloka and having understood it

well, come to me again tomorrow." With this, the Maharaja rose from

his throne and went into the inner apartments.

 

The Pundit lost even the few grains of courage left in him. He was

weighed down by anxiety; he tottered under the insult; he reached

home and, placing the copy of the Geetha aside, he dropped on his bed.

 

Surprised at this, the Pundit's wife asked, "Tell me why you came

home from the palace today in such grief? What exactly did happen?"

She rained one anxious question after another so that the Pundit was

obliged to describe to her all that had happened, the insults heaped

on his head, the command with which the Maharaja sent him home, etc.

The wife listened calmly to the account of what had happened and

after pondering deeply over the incident, she said, "Yes; it is true.

What the Maharaja said is right. The explanation you gave for the

sloka is not the correct one. How could the Maharaja approve it? The

fault is yours." At this, the Pundit rose in anger from the cot, like

a cobra whose tail is trodden hard. "What do you know, you silly

woman? Am I inferior in intelligence to you? Do you, who are engaged

in the kitchen all the time, cooking and serving, claim to know more

than I? Shut your mouth and quit my presence," he roared.

 

But the lady stood her ground. She replied, "Lord! Why do you fly

into such a rage at a statement of mere truth? Repeat the sloka once

again to yourself and ponder over its meaning. You will then arrive

at the right answer yourself." Thus by her soft words the wife

brought calm into the mind of her husband.

 

The Pundit started analysing the meaning of each individual word in

the sloka. "Ananyaaschinthayantho maam", be began, deliberately and

slowly, repeating aloud the various meanings. The wife intervened and

said, "What use is it to learn and expound the meanings of words?

Tell me what your intention was when you approached this Maharaja.

What was the purpose?" At this, the Pundit got wild. "Should I not

run this family, this home? How am I to meet the cost of food and

drink, of clothes and things, for you and all the rest? It is for the

sake of these that I went to him, of course; or else, what business

have I with him?" he shouted.

 

The wife then replied. "If you had only understood what lord Krishna

has declared in this sloka, the urge to go to this Maharaja would not

have arisen! If He is worshipped without any other thought, if one

but surrenders to Him, if at all times the mind is fixed on him, then

the Lord has declared in this sloka that He would provide everything

for the devotee. You have not done these three; you approach the

Maharaja, believing that he would provide everything! That is where

you have gone against the meaning of the verse. That is the reason

the Maharaja did not accept your explanation."

 

Hearing this, that reputed scholar sat awhile, ruminating on her

remarks. He realised his mistake. He did not proceed to the palace

the next day. Instead, he got immersed in the worship of Krishna at

home. When the king inquired why the Pundit had not appeared,

courtiers said that he was staying at home and had not started out.

The king sent a messenger, but the Pundit declined to move out. He

said, "There is no need for me to go to any one; my Krishna will

provide me with everything; He will bear my Yogakshema Himself. I

suffered insult because I did not realise this so long, being blinded

by eagerness to know the manifold meanings of mere words.

Surrendering to Him, if I am ceaselessly engaged in worshipping Him,

He will Himself provide me with all I need."

 

When the messenger took this message to the palace, the Maharaja

proceeded to the dwelling of the Pundit on foot; he fell at the feet

of the Pundit, saying "I thank you sincerely for explaining to me

this day, out of your own experience, the meaning of the sloka which

you expounded yesterday." Thus, the king taught the Pundit that any

propagation of spiritual matters which does not come out of the

crucible of experience is mere glitter and show.

 

---------

 

>From the above story, it is clear that 'an ounce of practice /

experience is greater than tonnes of knowledge'.

 

Many posts cud be written on Gita, Upanishads, Tantra etc ,

containing fanciful words like 'karma, vasana, samskara, sankalpa'

etc. But what use is all this knowledge if one cannot follow even

simple things like :

1. Do not hurt the other peson's feelings

2. Speak sweet words

3. Try to help others whenever possible etc.....

 

Hence, I would like to say,

"What is needed to write is NOT eloquence, BUT humility and

compassion."

 

Ramana Maharshi used to say, " More knowledge is more burden."

Knowledge in many cases (though not all) is directly proportional to

arrogance and pride.

Therefore ,what is important is NOT how simple or complicated the

substance is, BUT if it is said with love in the heart or not.

 

So, let us all fill our hearts with love and compassion, join our

hands, and shed light on each other. :-)

 

Hari Aum !!!

 

, "tatwamasi" <tatwamasi> wrote:

> > I have always hesitated to post anything in this club because all

> > postings are so well written from so learned people.whenever I

> > attempted to post anything, I worked on it as if it were for my

> > school examinations

>

> Hi Angelina!

>

> Welcome and thank you for joining in the discusion. You are right.

We

> are blessed with some wonderful, eloquent writers with a beautiful

> command of the langage. However our club is for all. Sadhna has

> little to do with eloquence, it has to do with practice and

> experience. And that can be expressed in the simplest of language.

>

> I want to bring this to the notice of all, because this is a

> complaint I hear very often by many of our members. Perhaps I

> haven't been able to do a good job in reassuring our members that

all

> posts are welcome and pllllease don't worry about writing

abilities.

> This is not a essay contest. All that is needed is a simple

> expression of ideas, knowledge and experience.

>

> I can only keep repeating that and hope that other members also

> understand and join in the discussions.

>

> _/\_ Tat twam asi

>

> Uma

>

> ********************************************

> This is reply to Post #3393 by de_spell_2000

> ********************************************

[Guest guest]

Jaya Sri Radhey! Namaste all. The same 'sloka' from 'Gita' reminds me

another beautiful experience of Sri Yamuna Acarya of Sri Vaishnava

Sampradaya.

 

Long, long time ago, when Sri Yamunacharya was writing the commentary

on Gita, he came to the verse -

 

" ananyAzcintayanto mAM

ye janAH paryupAsate,

teSAM nityAbhi yuktAnAM

yoga kSemaM vahAmyaham"

 

(Gita 9.22)

 

Poverty stricken acarya and his wife were starving with no food for

many days and their life was getting harder to continue in that

misery.

When he read the 'verse'(9.22) he could not believe Lord Krishna

would "personally" carry out the wishes of His sincere devotee and

fulfil his material as well as spiritual needs. So Yamunacarya

had 'stricken off' the word in the last line of the verse

i.e. 'vahamyaham' and gone to take bath and contemplated while

bathing what should be written instead of 'vahamyaham'.

 

Yamunacarya being an exalted devotee of Lord Krishna, Lord came to

prove what He had promised in the SAME verse that He was "ever ready

to take care of ALL the needs of His devotee", if only, if only he

had EXCLUSIVE faith in Him and COMPLETELY depended upon the Lord

ALONE, according to the word 'ananyata' in this verse of Gita.

 

As the powerful PROMISE given by Him in the very important verse

was 'stricken off' from Gita (Lord's Word and Lord being NON-

different), Lord's head had sustained injuries and was bleeding.

Still He brought so much food stuff to Yamunacarya's house

carrying on HIS OWN shoulders.

 

The Acarya's wife asked for the reason why such a nice BEAUTIFUL Boy

was beaten up. Lord said it was her own husband who injured Him for

the 'delay' as He was on His way to bring the "necessary" food

stuffs.

Mataji felt very sorry for Him and immediately applied bandage to the

wound and cooked some food to offer the kind, Handsome Boy.

 

While she was preparing His meal, Lord went to the Gita commentary

and CORRECTED the verse with His own hands keeping it as it was

before Yamunacarya had stricken off. He took His meal and left.

 

The acarya arrived after his bath feeling sad for DOUBTING the 'Word'

of Lord Krishna. His wife explained about the Boy with the injuries

and rebuked her husband for his cruelty towards such a tender,

CARING, HUMBLE, affectionate Boy (Lord) WHO personally brought the

food stuff carrying on His own back!

 

The acarya hastily checked the verse he had stricken off. To his

sweet surprise, he realized that Lord had REWRITTEN that verse with

His own hands. Yamuna acarya was thrilled to know that his WIFE was

more fortunate to receive the Lord personally and feed Him. He ran

for the remnants of Mahaprasadam.

 

The acarya now FULLY believed how POWERFUL was that verse in Gita

where Lord Himself DECLARED His 'promise' to SINCERE Bhaktas.

 

So do not let flowery eloquence or superficial, theoritical,

knowledge of scriptures and various speculations discourage the

sincere seekers (sadhakas) of Lord.

 

Here is another explanation of the same IMPORTANT VERSE:

 

"Lord Krishna makes His sublime promise,

 

" ananyAzcintayanto mAM

ye janAH paryupAsate,

teSAM nityAbhi yuktAnAM

yoga kSemaM vahAmyaham"

 

(Gita 9.22)

 

To those men who ADORE Me alone, THINKING of NO OTHER, who are

earnestly and constantly engaged in uniting their minds to Me, I

PROVIDE every gain and all security.

 

This is a SUBLIME statement revealing the law of life at SPIRITUAL

level.

It is all right for the body-bound man to toil for food and clothing.

 

But he WHO has COMPLETELY ATTUNED himself to the Divine loses caliber

when he brings his mind down to the mundane level. The GRACE of Lord

works in such a way that downfall does not takes place.

 

In every respect, the Spirituality of the Spiritual man is promoted.

 

It is ANANYA BHAKTI, when EXCLUSIVE SURRENDER, and love of spirit

soul for the Supreme Soul takes away all limitations between the Two.

 

The word 'yoga' in the context of this verse means the provision of

the means required for the devotees' spiritual as well as bodily

maintenance;

and the word 'kshema' means the protection of what has been provided.

 

According to this verse from Gita, the Supreme Lord becomes

RESPONSIBLE for THE WELFARE AND LIBERATION OF THE SURRENDERED SOULS

and showers His Divine Bliss upon one WHO SURRENDERS IN THE FORM OF

SUCH Exclusiveness."

 

"As long as a new born baby does nothing, the mother does every thing

for the baby. When the child starts doing things on his own, the

mother lessens her responsibilities to the same extent. When the

child begins to do every thing, then the mother does nothing.

 

This example is enough to explain WHAT EXCLUSIVE SURRENDER IS.

 

AS LONG AS WE SUFFER FROM THE PRIDE OF DOING, WE WILL REMAIN IN THE

BONDAGE OF ACTION, BECAUSE WE ARE DECLARED TO BE THE DOERS OF

ACTIONS. WHEN WE CEASE TO FEEL THAT "I AM THE DOER" and SURRENDER, WE

WILL BE CONSIDERED NON-DOERS.

 

IT IS THEN LORD WILL TAKE COMPLETE RESPONSIBILITY FOR US."

 

 

'When the devotee takes ONE stride towards the Lord, He takes TEN

strides towards that devotee. Such is HIS GRACE.'

 

-Sri Ramakrishna

 

Jaya Sri Radhey!