Guest guest Posted July 5, 1999 Report Share Posted July 5, 1999 Namste Everyone ! Swami Vivekananda namo narayana RE: Message: 6 Sun, 04 Jul 1999 12:42:31 +0530 Dr C S Shah <drcssha Re: Ramakrisha Digest 122 Dear friends, In what way this age could be called age of 'darkness'? I feel: Kali-Yuga means a peculiar situation in the evolution of human intellect where extreme materialism and intense spirituality coexist. Can any one deny the wonderful achievements of Science! (Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Einstein, Pasteur, and etc. etc.) And, Can anyone deny the spiritual greatness of Sri Ramakrishna! (+ Swami Vivekananda, Raman Maharshi, Sri Aurobindo, and many more) dr c s shah COMMENT FROM TOM: Dear Dr. Shah, I certainly enjoy your postings as I am sure most other list members do! I have heard it said many times that the life of the world may be compared with the life of the individual soul. There are different 'ages' for the embodied soul: infancy, childhood, adulthood and old age. So also is the SOUL of the world. And, if one doubts the imminent destruction of this world, as foretold by Rishis, since time immemorial, then one doubts the very existance of God. An excellent illustration of this propensity for destruction, inherent in the Divine Nature, is revealed in observing the child at the seashore. He/she builds intricate sand castles, plays with them, admires them...then he/she destroys them.....only to start from scratch to build again! It is also said that the child is nearer and closer to God's Real Nature than any of us conceited grown-ups. We think that we know God, because we have studied and meditated. As far as this humble correspondent is concerned, God is not a 'rational' Entity. {at least not in the sense of 'worldly rationale'] He/She does not follow the rules of logic or make decisions based on empirical knowledge. Study the child at the seashore. Sri Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsadeva spent much time in observing things 'close to the ground'....such as the jackal with his eyes on the bullock's testicles...and the crow proudly strutting about in others' filth...that is why the 'Gospel' is such a precious book! Anyone, even a child may understand it....why? Because it was written down by Mahendranath Gupta as the faithful diary of the life of a child...a child of the Divine Mother. Blessings and Love, Tom RE: Swami Yogeshananda wrote: > > Swami Yogeshananda <yogeshananda > > Dear Tom, > That is correct. kali is the yuga; it means " iron " , darkness, strife etc. > whereas kAlee, long A and I, is a name of the Devi (who, we know, has both > sides to her nature, the benign and the terrifying.) > Hari Om, namaste, Swami Yogeshananda TOM COMMENTS: Swamiji Hari Om! Thank you so much for your message. Yes, kAleemA has many different sides 'in between' also. Sometimes She is neither benign nor terryifying...but rather a slice of each. I would imagine that, as the occasion demands, sri durgA, can be anything She wants. That's why we call Her the Divine Mother. om shanthi om, Tom RE: Message: 7 Sun, 4 Jul 1999 16:56:47 +0200 " Shankar " <shankar Re: Thakur & Upanishads-4 It is true that atheists do not admit the existence of God. But, athiests do not deny the existence of themselves. And, that Self is not their body-sense-mind combination, which is only a spurious offshoot from their body-consciousness. Thus, they will readily have to agree that they are experiencing the three states of waking, dream and deep sleep, irrespective of whether they like to experience them or not. Thus, they have admitted their helplessness in experiencing these three states. This also amounts to admitting a Higher Power, that is God, which is forcing them to experience these three states. Thus, as long as the ego does not abide as the Self, it is forced to experience the three states by the Power of the Self, which is God. As for experiencing God as a person, we are constantly experiencing the Personal God alone, only without being so aware. It is only Thakur who experienced so with full awareness. 'Person' is a combination of name and form. We experience a world of gross name and form in the waking state and a world of subtle name and form in the dream state. All name and form constitute the body of the Personal God. From the Supreme Self, an egoistic identification arises, as Its Body, with the entire universe, comprised of name and form, thus: 'I am this Body of Universe'. This identification gives rise to the Personal God. Hence, all names and forms are included in the Personal God. Jiva is identified with his limited gross body and the Personal God is identified with the entire universe of name and form as His Body. Thus, the difference between Jiva and Ishwara is only in the type of body with which they are identified. However, Jiva is ignorant of his source, the 'Supreme Self'. But, the Personal God, having assumed the universe as His Body by His Omniscience, is always aware of His Status as the Supreme Self. Thus, all of us are experiencing 'persons' or 'names and forms' all the time, which are included in, but which do not exhaust, the body of the Personal God. When we seek with intense longing to have the vision of the 'Entire Body of Personal God' like Thakur, we can behold His Divine Form in Savikalpa Samadhi COMMENT FROM TOM: Dear Shankar, Please allow me to congratulate you on a most lucid explanation of vital truths. om shanthi om, Tom RE: Ramakrishna-owner schrieb: > Welcome and introduction to new members > > Revered friend > Welcome to this moderated list started on 1st January 99. The list is devoted to > portraying the life and teachings of Sri Sri Ramakrishna, and other God-men of > our age. > > Your comments, views and news are most welcome. We request you view our web site > http://www.btinternet.com/~vivekananda/ > > We welcome any suggestions and contributions on suitable spiritual > topics which can benefit all the participants . > Suggestions and contributions to the list to be sent to: - > ramakrishna COMMENT FROM TOM: Dear Jay, We must also remember that there are 'God-women' too ! Warm regards, Tom RE: " Shankar " <shankar Common earthly beings, distinctly lacking the faculty of discrimination, and unaware of the origin of these desires, allow these desires to invade and actively possess them. Then, these become active part of their frontal and surface-mental consciousness. Since these people,-acting inadvertently and indiscriminately as media for the unfulfilled desires of disembodied vital beings,-possess strong powers of execution, they execute with a tremendous power, most often tending to ruthlessness, these unfulfilled desires. One such effective ruthless medium was Adolph Hitler of Germany. COMMENT FROM TOM: Dear Shankar, From what I have read of Adolf Hitler, he was simply expressing the desires and frustrations of the majority of his people. In other words, he was a 'medium' for their ruthlessness, vindictiveness and warlike tendencies. He was also the 'incarnation' of an angry response to the vindictiveness, ruthlessness and warlike tendencies, of the victorious powers of the Great War [1914-18] Sri Swami Vivekananda said it so well: " Love must conquer hatred, hatred cannot conquer itself. Materialism and all its miseries can never be conquered by materialism. Armies when they attempt to conquer armies only multiply and make brutes of humanity " . We will also notice that mankind has learnt its lesson [to a certain extent]: When hostilities ceased in 1945, the victorious allies set about to 'rebuild' shattered Germany and Japan, rather than subject them again to huge reparations and 'economy-stifling' sanctions, as was erroneously done in the previous world conflict. Only the communist dominated countries were allowed to go their own way...and we have yet to pay the final price for this 'lapse' in judgement. Sir Winston Churchill suggested that the victorious Western allies sweep into Russia and dismantle the soviet system in 1945. We can NOW see that he was absolutely right! So much misery and suffering could have been eliminated by following the advice of this great believer in humanity. Please forgive me for straying so much from the topic at hand, om shanthi om, Tom ____ 123India - India's Premier Search Engine Get your Free Email Account at http://www.123india.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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