Mantra for Beginners - 5

[Guest guest]

Continued

 

Where does Philosophy fit into this? In Hinduism religion is

philosophy and philosophy is religion. They cannot be separated. When

you are in your teens and look at the people doing pooja, prayers and

japa and find that superstitious (we tend to call what we do not

believe or understand as superstition), you are attracted by

Philosophy. Later you realise that religion is the practice and

philosophy the theory/principle behind the practice. Sanskrit terms

like karma, Klesha , samsara etc. makes you wonder whether you can

make any spiritual progress. Later when you do Sadhnaa and want to

know the theory or the principle behind this you understand these

terms.

 

In the 60s in the Hippie Era LSD was often used by young people who

wanted a new experience. As anyone who has used LSD will tell you it

is an unforgettable experience. But whether the experience was most

pleasant or nerve shattering varies from person to person. We knew

what precautions to take having learnt by experience. Even now drugs

are used in Spiritual Sadhana. But smoking Hashish or pot is not the

way to spiritual Sadhana. The risk is not worth it and the effect is

only temporary.

 

All this heavy stuff is written because many of us seem to believe

that there is a short cut or an instant way to spirituality. In the

days of Instant coffee and Instant Tea we want Instant Nirvana,

Instant Mukthi, Instant Brahman. Unfortunately this is not possible.

(if one of my young and impetuous friends ask what about Bagavan

Ramana Maharshi or Bagavan Sri Ramakrishna, my answer is such people

one in a billion.) If anyone claims about Instant Kundalini and you

fall for it, you are surely in Instant trouble. Years back we used to

know a professor of Psychology who was specializing in

Parapsychology. He was doing a research on Tantra, various systems of

meditation, prayers and other rituals. His comment on some of the

forms of meditation was " pure torture". (Unfortunately like all

nutty professors I do not think he ever published his findings).

 

So Pooja, Japa, Meditation, Kundalini Yoga, choose a path, which is

suitable for you. Do not be led by the so-called superiority of one

path over the other. Before deciding finally learn all about the

path, its effects, advantages, disadvantages, risks involved etc. At

the same time do not be unduly frightened by the risks. You should

take a risk because the reward that you get by spiritual progress is

worth it. But it should be a calculated and thought out risk.

 

 

Remarks about my mesages.

 

Bagavan Sri Ramakrishna said that one should never teach until he has

been given a Divine message to teach. I am not teaching anything. It

so happens, that I have a lot of doubts about a whole lot of things.

I have taken to the habit of writing my doubts and then trying to

find answers by referring to various books and thinking about them.

If you have friends who are on the spiritual path you can discuss

these doubts. What we call Sathsang. But I have not been fortunate to

have such friends in town.

 

Thanks to the Internet I have such friends now. My messages are my

thoughts, as religion is my full time work. With friends you have a

dialogue. If I expect my friends to agree with whatever I say I would

not have any friends. If my friends do not respond, it becomes a

monologue. So Friends the ball is in your court.

 

Jai MAA KAALI !!!

 

Sankar

[Guest guest]

>>Bagavan Sri Ramakrishna said that one should never teach until he

has been given a Divine message to teach. I am not teaching anything.

It so happens, that I have a lot of doubts about a whole lot of

things. I have taken to the habit of writing my doubts >>>

 

We are all teachers and students at different levels. One may teach

because of self aggrandizement, to boost one's ego, or one may teach

because one wants to learn, or (in an eg used by svcs) as a hand

reaches out to assist a part of one's body to help if needed, so may

one reach out to teach another part of one's own Self.

 

It is the motivation that marks a true Guru.

 

_/\_ Tat twam asi

 

Uma

[Guest guest]

Thank You Uma for your msg.

 

"We are all teachers and students at different levels. One may teach

because of self aggrandizement, to boost one's ego, or one may teach

because one wants to learn, or (in an eg used by svcs) as a hand

reaches out to assist a part of one's body to help if needed, so may

one reach out to teach another part of one's own Self.

 

It is the motivation that marks a true Guru. "

 

The problem is always about motivation. What motivates a person to

write and what motivates him to post. People always attribute or

impute motives to another person. This attitude of questioning the

motive does frighten people. Even after a lot of self - analysis we

may not be able to find out exactly our motive in posting.

 

But the moment you start doing the self-analysis we have taken our

first step towards spirituality.

 

In this connection we all know that anger and irritation drains us of

our energy. We know the story of Sage Dhurvasa who lost all his

strength of Tapas every time he cursed someone. We try to control

these feelings. At the same time we should analyze why we are getting

angry/irritated and remove the source of anger /irritation. This is

easier than controlling anger/irritation. Recently I stopped my

subscription to a leading English Newspaper from Madras. The reason

was that this newspaper, in the name of upholding secularism was

publishing virulently anti-Hindu views. Again it always gives more

importance to Gen. Musharaf than Prime Minister Bajpai. So I found

that daily I was getting irritated/ angry after reading the

newspaper. Now that I have stopped the newspaper I am definitely in a

better mood in the morning.

 

Of course you cannot do this either with your husband/wife or

(when you see those ads in the messages). Here I think, what you

cannot cure you have to endure.

 

Sankar