Concentrated Ramblings on Mantra Pindam-part 4

[Guest guest]

Dear Kailasham, I was waiting for one question from you when I narrated the story regarding my ancestor Vishnu Bhatta and his daughter Leelavathy. If everything is destined and ordained then why do mantras and upasanas? First,

no one can be a total fatalist. Second, Gayathri Mantra upasana(for that matter any mantra or upasana) is a means to get out of the matrix of Maya and Karma. My ancestors were in Hampi (now in

Karnataka) originally then they moved to Tenali (Guntur District of Andhra) and from there to Srikakulam. For a long time we used to carry the name “Bhatta” in the end but changed it to “Balijepalli” after a village by that name near Kollur-Tenali. Even today there is a street by that name in Tenali. I can reel out two more stories narrated by my father one regarding this ancestor of mine (Vishnu Bhatta) and one more regarding my own Paternal great grandfather Venkatakrishna Shastry who was a great Srividya and Yoga Gayathri Upasaka. Story 1:Vishnu

Bhatta The same VishnuBhatta had lot of agricultural lands in Karnataka and used to go from one village to another to take care of lands on a regular basis. On one such excursions, he stayed in a village and since he was quite orthodox he did not stay in any house but slept on the charpoy outside the house. He found one pious brahmin’s house and requested a night’s stay outside his house on the Charpoy. The Brahmin trembling with fear said

“ Oh great Brahmin, VishnuBhatta, it would be my greatest fortune to house your esteemed presence in this house even for a day because you are verily the son of Gayathri Matha Herself but we are afraid of a Chandala-Kshudroupasaka who resides in this village who does not allow us to entertain any outsider. We are in his clutches and have to take permission even to breath!” VishnuBhatta replied unperturbed, “Please allow me to sleep sire. I will take care.” The Brahmin reluctantly agreed and Vishnubhatta spread his pure white cloth on the charpoy and took out his Gayathri Upasana lamp and cooked his own gruel and ate

it after Sandhyopasana and mantra japa and slept soundly. The Chandala Kshudropasaka(black magician) saw with his cruel powers that someone had entered the village without his permission or knowledge. So, he began to attack the person(Vishnubhatta) with an assortment of weapons and krithyas. He was surprised to see that all of them were deflected and so in anger threw weapons from his place on the cows of the Brahmin and saw to it that they died.And seeing this small success, he assailed Vishnubhatta with his final most powerful weapon “Kshudraanjaneyam”(a rare form of roudra hanuman used for aabhichaara

prayogas). (Panchamukha Anjaneya considered the eleventh Rudra) Hanuman fully enraged came to attack Vishnubhatta and seeing Gayathri devi protecting him benignly, he asked divine mother”what should I do now? I need an ahuthi” Divine mother said “Ok go back to the tantric and eat him” Hanumanji promptly did so. The Brahmin who had given place for Vishnubhatta to sleep got up in the morning to see that his cows were no more. Distraught, he came running to Vishnubhatta. Vishnubhatta said to him” You call yourself a Brahmin practicing Gayathri mantra. Shameon you to fear Abhichaara prayogas. The more you face such a problem,

the more number of repetitions of Gayathri mantra you must do. Don’t worry your livestock will be saved by me. Gayathri Matha has already eliminated the problem of the bad tantric” So saying he took his Kamadalu and sprinkled holy water with the chant of Gayathri Ghanam and the cows stood up as if from slumber. Vishnubhatta thanked him and entreated the Brahmin andothers in the village to surrender to Gayathri Matha and went his way. So Kailasham, Iam really fortunate to have been born in his lineage. I don’t know whether Iam living my life up to his standards in these debilitating times but I feel that one should chart a course/path for oneself in spirituality than depend on the greatness of my ancestors, else my quest becomes a mere

rhetoric. Why for that matter even Jiddu Kirshnamurthy, the great philosopher, was my father’s cousin brother but will it make me a JK? No, never.(I also do not want to be even though both and me and my father physically resemble him a bit when we were very young in our teens! hehe!) Each sun shines according to its brightness and self-luminosity. The expression “standing on the shoulders of giants” does not hold water here. Even if one is not a giant or an elephant and even if one’s legs are weak like an ant with various faults, vices and mental defects, one must stand on one’s own frail legs and try to search Brahman. This is my sincere belief. Stories are good for inspiring one’ Atma encapsulated in various Adhama-karmas but the use ends there if one revels in such stories and rolls in the muck of self-conceit, one does more harm to one’s Athma than good. Ok now before I reel the second story which is more recent…. Some other interesting things… (The Rhino turns its snout!) -----You expressed a doubt as to whether a girl (in the story

Leelavathy) could do Gayathri Upasana and Sandhyavandana… Yes, I know it is hard to digest for you as the original teachings have become corrupt and societal influence has marred the entrée’ of women into Gayathri Upasana. Onething, Gayathri Devi Herself is a woman and thus it is extremely asinine for learned scholars to prevent women from chanting the Gayathri mantra or to do Sandhyavandana and other upasana kramams. The common block which the scholars lay down is the period when women have to face the rigor of nature. Ancient Vedic times boasted of women seers like Vishvavara,Gosha,Godha,Apala,Lopamudra,Gargi,Maitreyi and others who were not just vedic scholars but Brahmavadinis PurA kalpe’ KumArI nAm bandhanam isyate’ AdhyApanam ca vedAnAm sAvitrI vAcanam tathA II In this Shloka it is mentioned that Purvagrantha was a text which said girls were eligible for even upanayanam,teaching and learning Vedas and to chant the Gayathri mantra. It was bigoted scholars with half-baked knowledge and male superiority who interpreted the whole thing into something which only men could do. Also, Bhagavan Sri Krishna mentions in Vibhuthi Yoga of Srimad Bhagavad Geetha that women possess 7 divine attributes: kIrtih srIr vAk ca nArInAm smrtir medhA dhrtihksamA Fame and glory, Lakshmi tejas, Wealth of sweet and positive speech, a good memory, fortitude, intelligence(even validated by modern research that women are superior to men in terms of many facets of intelligence like multi-tasking intelligence, verbal intelligence, etc) and virtue of forgiveness. One might argue whether modern day women really possess these qualities in fullness? But this is beside the point. What is to be noted here is that these virtues manifest

in them more naturally than most men. So, if a woman takes up a spiritual practice seriously, she is sure to make rapid progress within a short time. Also, Paraskara Guhya Sutra says : “SarvesAm vA gAyatrIm brUyAt” –“The Gayathri mantra should be chanted by everyone everywhere” However, here too as before, I mention that one should take a proper initiation from an adept before proceeding. I di get some backlash when I said that one should do Lalitha Sahasranama only after initiation.I still stick to that statement. The main chunk of the back lash has come from disciples of certain modern day saints and sages who have

asked their disciples to chant the same. I have nothing to comment or argue with them. I just narrate what has been my experience, my Guru’s upadesha and then what is there in shastras. Iam not a person who quotes things from shashtras parrot-like. I asked one such person “Ok so your guru has asked you to chant Lalitha Sahasranama . Then it means you must consider that person as your sole refuge as your teacher in every way. Why do you have the photos of so many Gurus. which do you follow? I see here photos of Sathya sai baba, Ammachi, Karunamayi, Shirdi Sai Baba, Ganapathi Sacchidananda swamy….adorning your puja room

and all in the main pedestal. I can understand you want to create an aura of saints by keeping all photos but whom do you follow in a major way?” (Representative photo only not the person's puja room) The person replied “I follow Baba for bhajans, Ammachi for prema and service, Karunamayis’ mantra, Shirdi Sai Baba as sadguru, Ganapathi Sacchidananda swamy for

Datta-mantra….etc. Also keeping so many photos also looks beautiful, se how we have arranged the photos and made decoration” “Wow! so many gurus…so many paths at a time and so much of externality(style over substance).... So many mantras….what about eka guru-eka shakthi concept? why not try digging a deep pit to get water than hundred small pits?”-I asked “I don’t believe that analogy, I will take the best of all worlds, best of all babas” (“and kicked by all of them”—I thought) I did not further argue with the person and left it at that. Each one lives his own self-created world, heaven and hell. Who is Shreeram Balijepalli to interfere? A mere “yours yogically” a semi-anonymous figure! The point to note here is, if Ammachi or Karunamayi has asked the devotee please read Lalitha Sahashranama it should not be taken in a general sense for all and sundry, it either means to that particular devotee or group of devotees and if one’s faith is really strong, one must get an approval from Her and then proceed to chant the Lalitha Sahasranama. It then becomes an integral part of Guru-bhakthi. If the Guru-concept and prapatthi is clearly understood such unnecessary arguments with me is redundant in the first place. Ok Rhino turns again!

: Kailasham, you share your name with my elder brother too…his name is Kailashnath, so I feel a sense of brotherliness when I tell please read Gayathri Kalpam which throws great light on the subject of Gayathri mantropasana. One view which I found to be interesting wherein I can draw a parallel to Einstein’s equation E=MC2 Is the energy and mass relationship, when you utter “Tat savitur”….you must know my brother that it

represents the word “energy” and when the word “Deva” is mentioned it refers to “mass”. In a similar vein, “Bhargah Vareniyam” represents “velocity of light”.So, the Gayathri mantra seems to be a transcendent reality encapsulated by the Einstein’s equation wherein the sadhaka/ sadhaki is taken toward the effulgent Daiva Chaitanya, the eternal light of Divine Consciousness. And there is again a close connection between this fact and the kindling of kundalini energy You would be interested to know that some research studies in environmental biology prove that the purity of water is detrimentally affected by the minimal rays of sun during an eclipse. Further it has been found that Darbha grass,even more than Tulsi leaves, keeps water pure during eclipse. There is an ancient tradition among vedic Brahmins to put Darbha grass in food and water during eclipses much before these recent studies have proved all the practical merit of all these. There are other wonderful details about the speed of light and such in Rigveda which might be mentioned but that would become too much of a digression. Gayathri mantra, Suryopasana, Vedic chanting and hathayoga practice of surya namaskara. Gayathri mantra contains three distinct components: 1. PranavAdi Saptha vyahruthi 2. PranavAdi Chaturvimshathyakshara GAyathri 3. PranavAdi vAkyasheshAnthagAyathri ShirahA What these mean, I will try to elaborate along with story-2 of my paternal great grandfather next email. For now, let me go for my dinner and have a morsel for my jatharAgnI PranavAdi rePHa JananI! Yours yogically, Shreeram Balijepalli Purity, Powers, Parabrahmam... IIश्रीराम बलिजेपल्ली II Click to join Rajarajeshwari_Kalpataru

Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Mobile. Try it now.