Gayathri Mantra-Query-Part 2

October 26, 2008

Dear Varun,

These are mere ramblings from my inner-self, no big information you seek, yet I guess it might be helpful to you in your journey.Information, you already posses from various books and sites.Collate what I said with what you have and let a new light (savitur) shine forth.

Continuing my thread from last posting, I emphasized the need for dying internally for any sadhana.That is the most important part, if you missed it, you missed everything.

West is afraid of death and dying.You can't see deadbodies here even legally unless it is your close relatives.The other day I was taking an evening walk here in Mississauga and there is a funeral home, they laid a dead body and me out of curiosity peeped in after somehow managing to go in the premises.They were beautifying the deadbody! They sprayed some body spray(Axe-musk, if I ws not wrong)on it and also make-up.Even external death has become so sanitized here! Even the deadbody is fed with some ego, Ha!

The more human-sanitization happens, the more mayavic/illusory it becomes.So soon I will be in India to carry on my sadhanas,I guess! Haha!Had a good time here studying and finished my studies.

Even aged people are discarded here.A person is not even referred to as an old man or old woman but "senior" euphemistically.This is all so sickening to me.No more is the respect for aged people in this society which belongs to such the doing-ness of things.Aged people are in their being-state as Eckhart describes, thus the abhorrence of the modern society toward them.

Being-ness= needed for sadhanas

Doing-ness= needed for wordly life

Having-ness= needed for ego.

Is-ness= needed for salvation(This comes last without trying)

This is how I see a quad-equation.There is an eternal struggle in every human these days with these 4.

You have to learn to "Be", to still the brain of persistent thoughts, to flow in Tao for a sadhana to succeed(if at all there is any goal-Maybe to forget the goal and just do the sadhana and yearn more for it is true success).

Having-ness is the yearning to have more and more knowledge as you have expressed, but really it is for ego-mind.

However,gnana should be differentiated from informational cramming.

What then is the purpose of Sandhyavandana?

As I type this a small zephyr blows across lazily in my Ontario Lakeside dwelling.Wish things were as simple as this small zephyr, and the miracle is, it is!

Sandhyavandana is a prayer for the dusk and dawn power of the sun.

Now, what sense does it make from an esoteric perspective?

Ramana Maharshi, used to say, if you want to see God easily, you can if you consciously are aware of the moment, just before you get up and just when you are drifiting into your sleep for there is release of the unconscious into the conscious and the consious into the unconsious, there is an emptiness in between, which, He defines as God.

This emptiness can be brought about with great,great,greatest difficulty through meditation and the difficulty lies not just in the difficulty but in the sense of effortlessness which actually makes the emptiness happen.This effortlessness is brought about after great effort! This is the contradiction and God lies in contradictions,precisely the point.

Sandhyavandana is then the prayer to that "internal dawn" and "internal dusk" within us.

Then, ofcourse an intelligently stupid person,oxymoronically speaking, would ask, "What about the Madhyanika Sandhya?"

Yes, that is the fantastic point of the Sahasraara in the Turiya and Turiyaateetha states wherein too God is experienced.Ramana said "If you want to see God easily..."He knew of the existence of the Turiya-Turiyaatheetha states.But he was a man of Tao, less said the better!

Sandhyavandana in the gross form represents the ritual observances and in maintaining ritual purity.A Brahmin(One who is in the quest of "Brahman", nothing to do with caste) must take every care to see that his/her body is kept chaste and fit for it to absorb mantric power which is Gayathri.

Sandhyavandana readies the body which is such a receptacle for glory of God.My Tamil friends say , "Dei Sandhi pannitiyaa daa?"(did you do "sandhi"?)

"Sandhi" is a shortform of "Sandhyavandana", but still it amuses me(amuse has the word muse in it, see!) because unknowingly they refer to the "sandhi"(bridge) which Ramana refers to!

Gayatri contains in itself the spirit and energy of all Vedic mantras as there is an effulgent sun which resides in us to which the mantraical vibrations refer to.Indeed its practice imparts power to other mantras.ecause without knowing the light in us, wherefrom other mantras can be perceived by our light-body('Oli-udal' as the siddhas call).

Periyawal says thus : "Gayatri is the hypnotic means of liberating ourselves from worldly existence as well as of controlling desire and realising the goal of birth. We must keep blowing on the spark that is the Gayatri and must take up the Gayatri-japa as vrata. The spark will not be extinguished if we do not take to unsastric ways of life and if we do not make our body unchaste."

Now, the words to note here taking just the pith of things are the interetsing use of 3 words/phrases intelligently by Periyawal,

"Hypnotic"--Hypnotism is required to lull the left-brain which keeps chattering incessatnly the worries of the world to be quite, Sandhyavandana aids this hypnotic practice by constantly hinging the sadhakas soul to bening thoughts

"Blowing on the spark"--A mantraical grid which I referred to my older cymatic postings is strengthended in the sadhaka as he or she relentless pursues the mantra or the practice.

"Not be extinguished"-This is a need in current society as we tend to put other wordly activities first and foremost and then consider spiritual practices when we have time.Also, the flame can never be really extinguished but totally dulled and it might take many lifetimes or births or even evolutions before one can really aspire for something spiritual.

In "Hindu Dharma": Periyawal also says thus:

"Even in these days it is not difficult to perform sandhyavandana both at dawn and dusk. Office goers and other workers may not be at home during midday. They may perform the madhyahnika (the midday vandana) 2 hours 24 minutes after sunrise that is called " sangava kala".

We must never miss the daily sandhyavadana unless we find it absolutely impossible to perform. When we fall ill, in our helplessness we ask others for water or kanji in the same way, we must ask our relative or friend to perform sandhyavandana on our behalf. "

These are said to emphasize the importance of sandhyavandana.

I might take more parts than what I initially thought of to address this question, so please bear with me...

The zephyr has stopped and the deadman has been interred in the funeral home, I guess by now(with the makeup and Axe perfume)

Yours Yogically,

Shreeram Balijepalli

Hreem Rajarajeshwari Paradevatha!

Purity, Powers, Parabrahmam...

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