LALITHA AND KRISHNA

Lalitha Sahasranamam (LS) and Bhagavad Gita (Gita) are very important ancient Indian scriptures. There are a lot of similarities between them. LS consists of 182 verses. These verses have been converted into 1000 namas of Lalithambigai. Gita consists of 700 verses recited by Lord Krishna himself. These 700 verses talk more about self realisation, meditation, karmas all in the form of preaching. Krishna is the Guru and Arjuna is the disciple. Both LS and Gita are abridged forms of Upanishads. Krishna refers himself as the Supreme Brahman as he is the author of Gita. LS is authored by the eight vak devis and they praise Lalitha through these 182 verses. Gita was told to Arjuna by Krishna in the battle field and LS was recited in the presence of Lalitha, sitting in her throne and surrounded by all Gods. The situations are totally different. There are verses in LS which indicate that Lalitha and Krishna are not different. The following namas of LS 267.Govinda rupini, 280. Padma nabha sahodari, 298.Narayanai, 893.Vishnu rupini, 339.Vishnu maya are some examples where Lord Vishnu and Lalithambigai are said to be one and the same. Let us now take a detailed look into their unanimity or similarity. LS 6 says udyad bhanu sahasraba which means that Lalithai looks like rising of one thousand suns at the same time. As we all know that Lalithai is always indicated as red. Why is it so, because, the colour of compassion is said to be red. Lalithai as universal mother, is full of love and compassion and this is the reason why her complexion is always referred as red. In Gita Chapter XI Verse 12 compares the vishwarupa of the Paramatma is compared to the thousands of suns rising at the same time. LS 282 says sahasra sirsha vadana meaning Lalithai has thousands of heads and faces. Gita XIII.13 says ‘sarvathaha paani paadam tat sarvato kshiro mukam’ meaning that Paramaatma has hands, legs, head and face everywhere, i.e. thousands of heads and faces. Purusha suktham says ‘sahasra seersha purushaha’ meaning that Paramatma has thousands of heads. Though it is mentioned as thousands, it should be construed that God can see and hear anything and everything as God exists everywhere and in everybody. LS. 339 vishnu maya. This nama should be read along with LS. 399. vyaktaa vykata swarupini. The maya of Vishnu is in the form of vykata + avyakta which means she is the manifested and un-manifested form. She is manifested by those who always think about her. We all know Shakthi is the maya. That is why she is called maha maya swarupini. Are you able to recollect prakasha vimarsha maha maya swarupini? If not please go to www.manblunder.com/2009/02/finding-god-viii.html Manifestation is not real and therefore it is called maya or illusion. Krishna says in Gita VII.14 ‘gunamayi mama maya duratyaya’. He says it is difficult to cross His three types of his maya. Here three types of maya means the three gunas namely satwa, raja and tamo gunas. He calls these gunas as maya and only those who have surrendered to Him alone can cross that. We have seen earlier that vimarsha form of Shakthi takes us to Prakasha form of Shiva and leaves us at point closer to Shiva, the Supreme Brahman. The ultimate result of self realization is that maya vanishes and the Brahman with in is realised. We will discuss more on this subject in the subsequent postings.

WILL YOU COME BACK GURUJI

My Guruji was born this day. I was a regular visitor of nearby shakthi temple for years. The presiding deity is Moogambigai. The idol is beautifully sculptured and the priest takes keen interest in making Her look gorgeous and divine. Before my evening walk I make it a point to visit this temple and chat with the priest, a well informed young man. At that time I was desperately looking for a real Guru. One day during my casual chat with the priest, he said that there lives a Guru close by. I am living in this area for decades and this Guru was my neighbour, which I never knew. It was late in the evening when I heard about this Guru and I decided to take a chance to meet him immediately. When I entered his house I was made to wait, as Guru was taking his dinner. I could not control my anxiety. Every minute passed by, looked like an hour. After ten minutes of waiting he appeared. On just seeing him I prayed that he should accept me as his disciple. I first addressed him as Guruji only. My whole body was trembling as I could not withstand his vibration. It was a one to one meeting. Nobody was with us. I know for certain that I had met my Guruji. I was with him for about 90 minutes. Those 90 minutes I cannot forget in my life. He was very kind and cordial through out this time. It was very late by then and I decided not to disturb him any further as age was on his wrong side. From that day onwards, I never failed to visit him during my six years of association with him. He knew all the four Vedas by heart. He can quote anything from any of the Upanishads without reference. He knew astrology, astronomy, ayurveda, mantra sastras and tantra sastras. He initiated me into mantras. Since I was so ignorant at that time, I will keep on seeking clarifications for hours together. He will patiently clarify citing simple examples. Almost this daily routine continued for about five years. He performed daily poojas. He had very powerful and vibrating idols. His voice was simply superb. When he chants mantras, the recitation can be heard from miles. The rhythm, fluency and voice modulation vied with each other. When he performed poojas, you can literally feel the presence of the concerened deity. He was very close to Paramacharyal of Kanchi mutt. I have seen various letters written to him from the mutt signed as narayana smriti. One day a person from a Gulf country came to meet him. At that time I was also there. Whenever I have time, I used to go to my Guruji’s house. This gentle man from the Gulf wanted some clarification on his horoscope. Guruji never took the horoscope from him. But Guruji went on describing his house, right from the structure to the flooring. To cap it all Guruji told him that at that time his son was taking delivery of a brand new grey colour car. The gentle man did not believe this, as his son has not informed him about this car. He immediately rang up his son and he told him that he was in fact taking delivery of the same colour car. All of us were stunned. His own Guru is Ashwathama, the son of Dhronachariar. Ashwathama is said to be one of the chiranjivis (immortal). My Guruji told me that he got initiation from Ashwathama when Guruji was doing penance at the Himalayas. My Guruji has a big photograph of Ashwathama in his pooja room. On every birthday of Ashwathama, sacred ashes (vibuthi) used to fall from his photo. All his disciples including me saw those ashes gushing out from the photo. My Guruji had enormous powers and was a highly evolved soul. On one of his birthdays, same day three years back, he told me that he is going to teach me on self realization. Every evening for six months he taught me the steps towards self realization. Believe me, no body was present at that time except my Guruji and me. Either people will meet him before or after his teachings. The way in which he explained the concept, importance and modalities with simple examples, my God, no body can explain the most difficult concept in our life in such a simple way. Once, he was done with six months teaching, he again condensed the whole thing and delivered in fifteen days. When the second session was over, he asked me to prostrate before him. He never touches anybody nor does he allow others to touch him. He kept both his hands on my head for a moment. My God, my head was spinning like a motor wheel. It took several minutes before I could recoup myself. He knew when he was going to die. Normally I used to be with him till 9.00 in the night. When I announced my departure, he asked me to come back at 10.30 in the night. He asked me and my wife to sit on his bed and he hugged us like an affectionate father. I know for sure that he was passing on something to us. He had slight difficulty in breathing when I reached his house again. We called the doctor, though my Guruji said that doctors cannot do anything. Not one doctor, but several doctors came rushing in. He had a number of doctor disciples. Doctors wanted him to be admitted in a hospital, though they felt that his pulse and BP were normal. My Guruji refused to go to hospital. It was past midnight. One by one started leaving as he stabilized at that time. I also wanted to take leave, but he asked me to stay back. I stayed back for a while. I could not stay longer, as I was feeling very sleepy. Guruji was still sitting and meditating. His family members were there by his side at that time. I quietly left my Guruji and returned home to catch up with my sleep. But I could not get my sleep. I was feeling very guilty and I could not get my sleep. I called up his house by 01.30 early in the morning. His son informed me his end. He would have departed just then probably at 1.28 or 1.29. I ran to his house. I saw my Guruji but his atman had already merged with Him. I was too late. Today we are celebrating His birthday. I know that he will forgive me for not obeying his instructions during his last one hour. He is called Satyajithananda means one who has won over the Truth. Guruji! Are you hearing me? We need you Guruji, we need you to be always with us. We have nobody else except you Guruji. Will you come today in person to bless your children Guruji. We will be waiting for you today Guruji. Will you come back Guruji?

THIS IS OUR OWN LALITHAMBIGAI

We have seen four dhyan slokas of Lalithambigai in Lalitha Sahasranamam. The first one starting with Sindhooraruna vigraham probably is the one composed by the eight vak devis. The second one beginning with arunaam is said to have been composed by Dhatatreyar. The fourth sakunkuma has been composed by aathi Shankarar. No information is available about the origin of the third beginning with dhyateth. In all the dhyan slokas there is unanimity about Her red complexion, which resembles the sun at dawn. Lalithambigai is a sculptured beauty. More than her complexion or beauty, her qualities are paramount. She is the universal mother, which is emphasized by the fact that her sahasranamam begins by addressing her as Sri Matha, which means universal mother. She is seated on a throne and Goddesses Lakshmi and Saraswathi standing on each side of the throne fans Her. She is also called para bhattarika meaning the queen of queens. She is also known as para shakthi, Parameshwari and Rajarajewsari. She is the consort of Paramashiva. Rudra is different from Paramashiva. She is worshiped in the form of Sri Vidya and Dasa Maha Vidya. Both the form of worship consists of many secrets to be learnt from a learned Guru. The latter form of worship consists of tantric rituals. But they are extremely powerful and desired results are imminent. In the Supreme form Shiva and Shakthi are called maha kameshawarar and maha kameshwari. They are the ultimate and the Absolute. In the absolute form she is called prakasha vimarsha maha maya swarupini (please refer my posting ‘Lalitha Sahasranamam’).Both of them in this absolute form have four hands and hold the same weapons. Pasam, angusam, bow made of sugar cane and arrow made of flowers. Both of them have moon in their crowns. Maha kameshwarar is pure transparent and colourless form. He is seated on a throne, with left leg folded and his right foot placed on the ground. She, the red coloured beauty, shining and smiling filled with joy and grace, ever ready to help her devotees, walking towards maha kameshwarar. His pure transparent and colourless form gradually turns red with every step she puts forward towards him. Even swans are ashamed about her agile walk. Maha Kameshwarar beams with smile on seeing Her. She sits on His left thigh with her right leg folded and left foot placed on a golden vessel filled with rubies. The moment she placed her left foot on this vessel, the red colour of the rubies reflects everywhere. When She sits on His lap, His form also turns red. Both of them are shining and when people look at them, they mistake the bright red radiation emanating from them as sun. This divine couple always stays united and that is why in this sahasranamam the penultimate nama is called shivashakthi ikya rupini. This nama complies with the above description. This form is called the Absolute form. It is presumed that there is nothing beyond this shivashakthi ikya rupini or the absolute form. But this sahasranamam ends with Lalithambiga. Does this mean that her Lalithambigai form is superior to shivashakthi ikya rupini form? The answer would be a firm Yes. Otherwise, vak devis would not have placed this nama as the last. They could have made this as the penultimate and shivashakthi ikya rupini as the last. They did not do so. In the body of the sahasranamam there are namas saying pancha pretha sana seena and panch brahma swarupini. The first one means that she sits on Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Mahadeva and Sadashiva. The deeper and impressed meaning of this nama will be discussed later. Brahma, the creator; Vishnu, the sustainer; Shiva, the destroyer; Mahadeva and Sadashiva are the two forms of Shiva one removing the illusion and another providing knowledge and blessings. When Lalithambigai is sitting on them, Her power cannot be described by us. She is the ultimate. She is everything. She is you and me. She can give us whatever we want. She can be approached like our own mother. You and I are her children. She will never harm us, irrespective of whether we think about her or not. Let us bow before her Absolute form in right earnest. Rest, she will take care. With this we end our discussions on Lalithambigai. In the higher form of learning Shiva is known as subject and Shakthi is known as object. Shiva is quiet and does nothing and Shakthi is the performer and is called prakrti or maya. Shiva is like atman within us and shakthi is like our body and mind always active to perform karmas or acts. We have already discussed this in detail in the earlier postings. For comments and feed back please mail at feeback@manblunder.com

MANIFEST LALITHAMBIGAI

This is the continuation of dhyan of Lalithambigai and can be referred as Part III dhyateth – meditating; padmasanasthaam – seated on a lotus flower or seated in a posture called padmasanam; vikasita+vadanaam – charming face. vikasa: also means moon. It can be construed that Her face looks like a full moon. padma – lotus; patraya – petal; taaksheem – eyes. Her eyes look like long petals of a lotus flower. hemaabhaam -golden complexioned; pitavastraam – wearing clothes with gold sheen; karakalitha – holding in her hand; lasath- shining; hema – golden; - padmaam – lotus. She is holding a shining golden lotus in her hand. vara+angim – most beautiful + body parts. She has the most beautiful body. sarva+alangaara+ukthaam – all types of + ornamnets + bejeweled. She is adorned with all types of ornaments. sathatham – continually; abhyatham – bestowing protection. She constantly protects her devotees. bhaktha – devotees; namraam – bowing down; She bows down to listen to her devotees. bhavanim – Bhavani, the wife of Bhavan. Shiva is also called Bhavan. Bhavn’s consort is Bhavani. srividyam – mantra and tantra sastras of Sri vidya. Sri vidya is the worshiping ritual of Shakthi. We will discuss about Sri Vidya in a later posting. She is the form of mantra and tantra sastras. shantha+murthim – form of tranquility or without any agitation. sakala+suranutham – worshiped by all devas and devis. sarva+sampat – all types of wealth; pradatrim – giver (giving is emphasized). The meaning of this verse is: She is seated on a lotus. She has a charming face. Her eyes appear elongated and look like petals of a lotus. She has golden complexion and her clothes have gold sheen. She holds a golden lotus. She has a sculptured figure. She is wearing all types of ornaments. She constantly protects her devotees. She bows down to listen to the needs of Her devotees. She is the embodiment of all mantras and tantras of Sri Vidya. She is calm and composed. She is worshiped by all Gods, which means She is the Supreme. She endows wealth to Her devotees. Sakunkuma – with kumkum; vilepanaam – anointing; alika+chumbi – attracted by bees; ksthurikam –vermilion; samanda+hasitha+aekashanam (samanda hasitekshanaam)– benignant+ smile +looks; sa +chara – with arrow; chapa – bow; paasham – pasaam, a weapon; angusam – a weapon (these two weapons already discussed in the earlier part in second sloka); asesha +jana+mohinim – attracts people without exception; aruna – red; maalya – a type of sandal wood from Malaysian mountains; bhoosha- ornaments; ambharaam – with out the use of magical feats or incantations ( attractions by sheer presence); japakusuma – red hibiscus flower; bhasuraam – decorated; japa+vidhau – as per the rules of japa or mantra chanting; smared+ambikaam – think about Her. The meaning of this verse is: She is anointed with kumkum and vermilion, which gives a pleasant smell, towards which bees are attracted. She looks at Her devotees with a benignant smile. She holds in Her hands bow and arrow, two weaponries. She attracts everybody; which means everybody is attracted to her irrespective of being Her devotee or not. She is wearing a red garland made out of special sandal wood. Excellent ornaments adore Her and She has the complexion like a hibiscus flower. One has to meditate on this form of Lalithambigai during japa time. This is the end of dhyan slokas and we will discuss in the next posting about these dhyan slokas.

LALITHAMBIGAI AS BHAVANI

This is the continuation of dhyan of Lalithambigai and can be referred as Part II Aabheena vakshoruhaam – fully developed bust. Paanibhyam - holding in her two hands. alipoorna – full of honey. Ali also means bees. Rathna chashakam – a cup made out of ruby. In one hand she is holding a cup made out of ruby with honey filled to the brim. On smelling the honey in the cup, bees fly around. Raktotpalam bibrathim – she holds in another hand a red coloured flower. In this dhyan sloka She is described with two hands only. But in the subsequent dhyan sloka she is described with four hands and in her shodashi form she is described with sixteen hands. Soumyaam – beauty. Rathna ghatastha – a pot consisting of rubies. Raktha charanaam - She is placing her red colored left foot on this pot. dhyaeth – meditating on her form. para ambigaam – para means highest. Her highest and Supreme form. This dhyan sloka gives her following form. Her complexion is red and all things associated with her are red in colour. She is the embodiment of beauty. In one hand she holds a cup made of ruby, filled with honey and in another hand she holds a red coloured flower. She is keeping her red coloured foot on a pot containing rubies. It is difficult to say why her feet are red in colour. Is it due to the radiation of rubies reflecting in her shining feet (which is shining, is it the rubies or the feet of Lalithambigai) placed on the pot full of rubies or is it due to the henna applied on her feet or is it because her complexion being red, her feet are also red in colour, matching with her complexion? No body can answer. What we know is that everything associated with her are red in colour. This is the first of her dhyan sloka. Now let us look into the second dhyan sloka. Second Dhyan Sloka: Arunaam – like rising sun, the colour of the sun at dawn which is red; karunaa – compassion; tharangitaakshim – waves from her eyes; Waves of compassion from her eyes. dhrta – supported by; paasaam – a type of weapon; angusaam – another type of weapon; pushppa – made out of flowers; baana – arrow i.e. arrows made out of flowers or using flowers as arrows; chapaam – bow; She has bow made out of a sugarcane and arrows made out of flowers. animathibhir – ashtama siddhis like anima etc aavrtaam – surrounded by. She is surrounded by eight types of siddhis like anima etc. mayukhai: - a ray of light or beam of light; aham – me; ityeva – like this; vibhavaye- beatitude ( a state of supreme happiness); Bhavaaneem – Bhavani, another name of Lalithambigai. Bhavani is the 112th nama in this Sahasranamam. The meaning for this verse is – I meditate on Bhavani, the supreme happiness, whose colour is like the sun at dawn i.e. red in colour and from whom rays of light are emanating. This confirms her red complexion discussed in the previous verse. Her compassion for her devotees comes out of her eyes like waves of ocean. In this verse She is described with four hands. In the rear hands she has two weapons called paasam (like a rope) and angusam (a sharp edged metal weapon normally used to control elephants). In the front hands she holds a bow made out of sugar cane and arrows made out of flowers. A detailed study of these four weapons is included in the one thousand names. They represent four of Her premier assistants. She is surrounded by ashtama siddhis. Each siddhi is represented by a goddess in Srichakra. I meditate on Her form called Bhavani, a state of supreme happiness with beams of light. Further discussions on her dhyan sloka continued in the next posting.

DHYAN OF LALITHAMBIGAI

Lalitha Sahasranama’s dhyan sloka gives huge and valuable inputs about Her physical appearance. When we meditate on her, we can meditate on this form. Sindhooraruna vigraham - Sindooram means the kumkum kept on women’s forehead, which is always red in colour. Arunam means the colour of sun rise, which is also red. The complexion of Lalitha is red. Why her complexion is referred twice - one example is referring to the colour of the kumkum, and another example referring to the colour of sun at the time of his rise. Is it not enough if her complexion is compared with any one of the two? It was felt by vak devis to emphasize the deep red colour of Her complexion one example was not enough and hence two examples were cited. Vigrahaam means her form. Thrinayanaam means three eyed. Generally all devas and devis said to have three eyes. Third eye should not be taken in its literal sense. Third eye is the eye of jnana. If you acquire jnana your third eye will be opened automatically. Gods have more jnana than us. That is why Gods are described with the third eye. These three eyes represent the sun, the moon and the agni (the god of fire). Manikya mouli spurath – She is wearing a crown studded with ruby stones (ruby stones are red in colour). Her crown also has moon (mouli). Thara nayaka shekaram – thara means stars. Moon is said to be the chief of stars. She is wearing in her crown the chief of stars, viz. moon. Wearing the moon in her shining crown is emphasized by referring to the moon twice. Probably we can also say that the rubies are shining red with the aid of the moon light. Smitha mukim: – smitha - smile, mukim – face. She has a smiling face or She is always smiling. Generally all the Gods do have smiling faces. Then what is special with Lalithambigai? The answer is given in 48th nama ‘maha lavanya shevathi:’ She is the embodiment of all the beauty in the universe and there is no other beauty which can be compared to Her. She is referred as ‘the brahman’ in various namas. “The Brahman” is the ultimate joy. Lalithambigai is the combination of beauty and joy. Beauty is with reference to the physical body and joy is related to the mind. The joyful mind is reflected in Her physical body, adds luster to Her beauty. It is said that face is the index of mind. You can easily identify a person from his face. There will be ‘tejas’ or shine in his face, who does a lot of upasana. (upasana – various types of worshiping shakti, such as japa, pooja, chanting of mantra, havana or homa, meditating her, etc ) When a person gets such a tejas by merely worshipping Her, will there be any words to describe Her Brahma tejas? Idol worship: Worshipping an idol is individual’s choice. You cannot say whether it is right or wrong. It depends upon one’s mental makeup. If someone finds manifestation difficult, he can with the aid of an idol or a picture can visualize that form of God. But, when you take up idol worship, you have to necessarily follow the prescribed rituals. When pooja and other rituals are done with great devotion and sincerity, you can over a period of time certainly observe changes in the face of the idol or picture. The cosmic energy you are generating during the rituals gets transferred to the idol and the idol becomes energized. No doubt idol worship is secondary, but you can begin with idol worship before realising the Brahman within. Smitha mukim can be interpreted in this context also. We will continue our discussions on dhyan sloka in the next postings.

ANGER IS YOUR WORST ENEMY

Anger is your worst enemy. When you are in a fit of anger, you loose your capacity to think. Your mind refuses to act. You loose your mental balance. Functions of your sense organs go wayward. Your mind and thought refuse work in co-ordination. Your speech is not guided and controlled. Words are not checked, a state called outburst. You become a bundle of bad deeds. Here comes your worst enemy who is called anger. Let us analyze why we get anger. In the first place, we should have a reason to become angry. There are two root causes for anger. One is our ego and the second is our desire. Ego is prestige in disguise. Assume that you are driving a vehicle. Somebody abuses you for your way of driving. He looses his temper and uses all cheap words. When you are too good, you tolerate to the maximum. When the other person crosses his limits, you also loose your cool. You become angry. Let us not get into the details of the other person. In your case, when you become angry, you are not in control of your words. Your body starts trembling. You loose your concentration. You will reach a stage where you can’t drive with concentration. Possibly you could be driving for a business meet. Either you may reach the venue late or you could loose your focus on the agenda of the meeting. You may forget important points or you may not be able to drive home your points with authority during the meeting. Possibly you may be a looser in the business meet. There may be many repercussions, but we have just analyzed a few. All this happens because your ego or ‘I’ consciousness gets affected. You feel that your prestige gets affected. Let us take the case of desire. Your friends are from high society. All of them have high end mobile phones. You get a desire to change your existing mobile phone to a better model. In the first place you fail to reason out for changing your existing phone. Secondly, you do not think about your financial implications. All your friends are well placed and have enough liquidity. But you have to swipe your card for the purchase. By ignoring all these facts, you go to a shop, finalize an instrument on par with your friends. Your card is not accepted as you do not have sufficient credit limit. You speak to the customer service and they are not helpful. You get angry! Your desire is not fulfilled. You go home and express your anger to your wife and children and even to your elderly parents. The whole house looses its happiness. Everyone was awaiting your arrival, as you are always an affectionate father, husband and son. You are jovial in nature. But today you are angry. Anger leads to dejection and depression. We have seen two instances. In the first instance, you are not the reason for your anger, but you are responsible for your anger. Had you not lost your self control, everything would have sailed smoothly. You could not have lost that business. You could have held to your nerves for a couple of more minutes. By that time the other person could have left the scene, knowing well that you will not respond to his provocation. But unfortunately you gave importance to your ego and your ego in turn induced your mind and lost your temperament. You were pondering over this incident for the whole day and ultimately you lost an excellent day. In the second instance, you are responsible for your anger. It is your desire that caused your anger. Had you analyzed about the requirement of a new mobile phone, you could have come to a better solution. Even, if you had taken more time to think about this, you could have made some arrangements for the required money. Instead you made an instant decision. This made the atmosphere at home uncongenial. How much your aged parents would have felt on that day? How much your children would have missed you? Therefore anger is called as your worst enemy. Anger can be easily avoided. Two basic things required to keep anger at bay are 1.Patience and tolerance and 2. Avoiding desires and good planning.

LALITHA SAHASRANAMAM

Lalitha in Sanskrit means playing, sporting, beauty, grace, charm. In general Lalitha also means a woman. We can define Lalitha as a gracious, charming, and beautiful playful woman. Sahasranamam consists of two Sanskrit words sahasram + namam. Sahasram means thousand. Namam means names. Sahasranamam means thousand names. Lalitha sahasranamam means thousand names of Lalitha, the gracious, charming and beautiful woman. She is the Vimarsha form of Shiva. Shiva’s form is called Prakasha. If you have missed my postings on prakasha and vimarsha please vist www.manblunder.com/2009/02/finding-god-vii.html www.manblunder.com/2009/02/finding-god-viii.html Lalithambigai as she is often called controls the activities of this entire universe. That is why she is called prakasha vimarsha maha maya swarupini. This form of Lalitha has been discussed in ‘finding god-viii’ in this blog. The one thousand names mentioned in this ancient text called “Lalitha Sahasranamam” are rich treatise for our eyes and ears. The phonetic sounds of the namas are soothing to our ears. When we are able to manifest the form of Lalitha with the help of these namas, that will be a rich treatise to our third eye. Let us understand more about Her and Lalitha Sahasranamam. Lalitha Sahasranamam finds a place in Brahmandapuranam, one of the 18 puranas composed by ancient and well known rishi Vyasar. Lord Hayagriva, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu first imparted this Sahasranamam to Agastya rishi. This Sahasranamam was composed by eight vaak devis (vashinyathi vaak devis) at the instance of Lalitha Devi Herself in Her very presence.. In other Sahasranamams, a nama is usually used more than once to make up 1000 or 1008 namas. None of the namas here are used more than once. She was born out of fire. She lives in the middle Sri Chakram. Sri Chakram is in Sripuram. She is with Lord Shiva. Shiva has various manifested forms and His ultimate form is called Maha Kameshwarar. Lalithambigai in Her ultimate form is called Maha Kameshwari. She is sitting in the left thigh of Maha Kameshwarar, in the central place of Srichakra which is called Bindu. The Sahasranamam begins by addressing Her as Sri Mata, which means the mother of all. This indicates that She is the one who creates this universe. 999th nama says shivashakthi ikya rupini, which means Her form is the combination of Shiva and Shakthi. 1000th nama addresses her as Lalithambiga, the meaning of which has been discussed above. Even though the combined form of Shiva and Shakthi is said to be the Absolute form, the last nama Lalithambiga is used after Shivashakthi ikya rupini emphasizes her importance of her Absolute form. That is why she is also called Pancha brahma swarupini. Most of the namas have very deep and secret meanings. The secretive nature of the meaning is not revealed to all, as they are meant to be learnt from a Guru. Self-realization, kundalini, meditation are widely explained in this Sahasranamam. She has been beautifully described, her feet, her walking, her eyes, her fore head, her qualities, her nature. Every nama is to be enjoyed. At the end of this Sahasranamam, you can visualize her total form and by deep meditation you can see Her through your third eye. For details on third eye please read my posting www.manblunder.com/2009/02/yhird-eye.html We will discuss more about Her, in future postings.

COMMUNE WITH GOD

Once your heart chakra which is also called anahat chakra is activated, you will start enjoying universal bliss. Enjoying universal bliss is a part of self realization. After plugging your sensory organs, start concentrating on your heart chakra. After persistent practice, you can listen to the sound of ‘OM’ from your heart chakra!! The OM is the sound of divinity. First, we should learn to communicate our thoughts to our manifested form of God and secondly, we should be able to understand and listen to His answer. When you are already a creator, it will not be difficult for you to establish your line of communication with Him. Again you have to use the power of your mind and thought to establish such a link. Like manifesting a form, you have to visualize the communication link. Yet another important factor is your unstinted faith in the manifested form of God. Let us assume that you have a question to God about a change in your career. You have an offer from XYZ firm doubling your salary and they ask you to join them within a month or so. You are working with your present employer, a firm of high repute, for last 10 years. Now you are in a dilemma whether to take up the offer from XYZ or to continue with the present employer. You are neither in a position to decide by yourself nor are your friends able to help you to take a correct decision. Now you have no choice except to ask your God. If you ask Him in the right way He will certainly give you a solution. He will not only give you a solution for this problem, but will give you solutions for all your problems, provided you ask Him by establishing a good communication link with Him. Sit for meditation, a real deep meditation and employ the following techniques. Visualize your created form of God. By coordinated efforts of your mind and thought, tell your God about the problem. The first technique is to coordinate your mind and thought. You should be familiar with this technique as you have already used this technique in manifesting His form. Second important technique is that you should enter a state of deep meditation and your consciousness should be in higher frequency. Higher frequency means merging your ‘I’ consciousness with the universal consciousness or merging your thoughts into the ether. Stay attuned with your form till you get an answer from your God. God will reply you in two ways. The first way of His communication is by words and His second way of communication is by vision. Some times, He can communicate with you by both words and vision. Now let us understand this. Let us take the case of His visual communication. When you are in a deep state of meditation and tell God your problems, God will analyze your problems, and will give you a vision of a future scene. For example, if He decides to advise you to take up new assignment, you will then get a vision connected to your new environment. You may get a vision of your new office, or a vision of yourself entering the premises of new office or any vision of this type. In case He decides to advise you not to take up the new offer, you will get no vision of your new environment and you will have a vision of your existing work place. In case He decides to give you answers by words, you will hear His voice saying yes or no or any other words of His choice, provided you have closed all your sense organs and established a strong communication line with Him. You will hear His voice clear and loud. Since He decides, nothing will wrong against you. You must also understand that all this happen due to your power of manifestation and your ability to synchronize your thought and mind. Sometimes, He replies in your dream, particularly to those who do not have these abilities. One thing you can be sure is that His decision will never go wrong. Your patience and perseverance play a vital role in your commune with your God. What else you are waiting for? For feedback and clarification please mail me at feedback@manblunder.com

CLOSE YOUR SENSORY ORGANS

To commune with God is not that difficult. The basic requirement to commune with God is your manifested form. You should be able to observe all the minute details in His appearance. When you think about Him for a minute you should be able to visualize Him immediately. The power of your manifestation and visualization is important in giving a final form to Him. I am repeatedly clarifying that God does not have a form. He is the ultimate creator and whatever He creates has its own shape and form. We are talking about God with a form here because we are only in the initial stage. Secondly, you should believe in His powers. If you are repeatedly told that God has enormous powers, you should be in a position to believe that. Unless, you experience Him, you may not believe Him. If you do not believe Him, then all your efforts will become futile. That is why we are now discussing God with a form. Secondly you should also know your creative abilities. All of us have plenty of creative abilities and the unfortunate thing is that we do not realise our own abilities. If you realise your creative abilities, you will have a wonderful career path too. Once you are able to visualize His form in a moment, then you are ready to establish your commune with Him. You can manifest God either in a male or a female form. For easy reference we are referring God by masculine gender. Before establishing your commune with Him, you have to infuse life to the form. Here mantra chanting helps, though it is not compulsory. By chanting mantra as frequently as possible and with utmost concentration, you will energize your manifested form. That is why it is always said that whenever we chant mantra, we have to visualize that form of God to get benefits of chanting. Those who are capable of chanting mantra can do so, and those who cannot chant have to put in more efforts. Sit for meditation and close your eyes. Visualize your favourite form. Close all your sense organs. You can close all your sense organs by imagining a link between the sense organs and your inner self which is located in the heart chakra or anahat chakra. Suppose you want to close your ears then you should not hear any external noise. For this you first visualize closing your ears with cotton pads or whatever you can think of though you actually do not use any thing to close your ears. Then establish a link between your ears and heart chakra. By practicing this, you will not hear any external noise whenever you decide so. The same is the procedure for all other sense organs. By establishing such a link with all sensory organs, your heart chakra will be activated and your love for fellow beings will vastly improve, apart from deactivating the sensory organs. If you realise that your love for others has improved, then you can be confident that all your steps are right. We will continue in the next posting.

YOU ARE THE CREATOR

Manifestation is a very powerful tool that is available to us. Manifestation helps us to create and thus make us as a creator. Will is important for manifestation. Your thought and mind though play their own role in manifestation, your will to manifest is very important. Basically, what you require is to engage your thought and mind to create something with a bodily form, though such form does not exist in reality. Since the form does not exist in reality, you have to use your imagination to conceive a form with shape. So, in order to create something with a form, what you need is your imagination that influences your mind and thought to manifest. The end result of manifestation is the form created. Therefore it is only you, who have to create and give a form to the manifested ‘object’. The word object is placed in apostrophes because the manifested object does not exist in reality. Ishta Devata is the form of God that is to our liking. Ishta means liking. Ishta Devata means the God to our liking. In other words, it can be interpreted that you can create a form to your liking, your very own Ishta Devata. To help us to create various forms of God, ancient saints have by their imagination described various forms of God by explaining their form, the colour of their complexion, the arms used by them, flowers worn by them and all other minute details such as the stones in their crown, etc. These descriptions are given in the form verses which are called dyan slokas. By understanding the meaning of these verses, you can easily visualize a form of your own choice. These saints have made our job easy. I would like to reiterate the point that God is formless as He is the universal consciousness. The forms we discuss are only manifested forms. In future postings, we are going discuss about the formless form of God and methods of meditating on His formless form. But that would be the highest form of meditation. We cannot jump from primary school to doctorate degree. We are now in our primary schooling. After completing all the preliminaries discussed in the earlier postings, sit in a comfortable posture. Now, start creating the form of your own Ishta Devata, after understanding the meaning of the verse. Your thought and mind should be working in unison with your manifestation. Do not allow your thoughts to stray away. This creation will take time to get a final shape. In the first day, you can form the silhouette. In the next day, you can visualize the complexion. In the subsequent days, you can visualize their garlands, their attire, their crown, their arms, etc. It will certainly take a month or so to complete the creation of the form. Now you should be able to see the form that has been manifested by you, whenever you want to. Now you give a name to the form. This name will be there in the dyan verse. You can use the same name or whatever name you like. When you call that name, you should be able to visualize the form. Now you have created a form and also you have given a name to that form. This is possible only by practice. If you take sincere efforts, you will have unimaginable results. This form will do wonders for you. We will find out how to commune with your ‘Godly’ form in our subsequent postings. In case you have missed the following two postings, please go through them carefully 2009/04/12/manifestation-vs-maya 2009/04/11/ manifestation

CONTROL YOUR THOUGHTS

Lie on your back (supine position) i.e. facing upward. Fold your legs by bringing your feet close to your thighs. Keep your hands away from your trunk maintaining a distance of about 2’ with palms open. Now turn your folded legs to your left without moving your trunk and of course making the trunk flexible to move along with the folded legs. When you turn towards your left, your right folded leg will be over the left folded leg. Do not move your hands. Now, turn your head in the opposite direction to the movement of your legs. In this case, turn the head towards your right. Come back to the original position and then stretch your legs. Then do the same exercise in the opposite direction. Lie on your abdomen (prone position) i.e. facing the ground. Keep your toes folded keeping them in firm contact with the ground. Keep your opened palms facing the ground 1’ away from your shoulders. Now raise your head and trunk, till both your arms straight position. Your lower abdomen should be in touch with the ground and should not be raised. Bend your head backwards, when you are totally in the raised position. Inhale when you start rising. Come back to normal position by exhaling. Do all these exercise, a few times in the beginning. You can gradually increase over a period of time to the maximum of 10. Once you are done with all the exercise, lie down flat facing upward (supine position). Preferably use a yoga mat. Keep 2’ distance between your feet. Keep your hands straight on the ground, palms open making them face upwards and keeping a distance of at least 1’ between your palms and trunk. Breathe slowly and regularly. Keep your mind free of thoughts. Relax in this position as long you as like. Then turn to your left, sit straight and get up. Once you get up, possibly you may feel some giddiness, which will go off in a few seconds. Do not drink water immediately. Now it is time for you to freshen up and sit for a good meditation. In the stage of meditation, you should be totally thoughtless. You cannot become thoughtless in the beginning. But practice will certainly help. A few deep breaths before the start are good. Make your seat comfortable. Avoid soft surface like foam or cotton cushions as your seat. The surface should give a flat and uniform seating. An ideal thing to use is a soft towel. It is always better to face the western direction when you meditate. But whatever the direction and the place you choose for meditation, the same should be used whenever you meditate. In the next few postings, we will discuss about concentration. A complete control over your thoughts is the basic requirement for a good meditation. This is called the thoughtless state or initial stage of Samadhi. When you have to concentrate, there should be an object on which you can concentrate. When there is an object, there will be thoughts. We will look for clarifications in the next postings.

STRETCHING EXERCISE

Stretching exercises are important as they provide flexibility to the body muscles and tissues. Performing stretching exercises is important before you sit for a good meditation. One basic principle in such exercises is if you rotate your hands clock wise, you have to compulsorily rotate them in the opposite direction. If you turn your neck to your right, you have to turn it towards your left also. These exercises if practiced with inhalation and exhalation, will give results much faster. For example when you turn your head to your right, you have to inhale slowly along with the movement of your head. The turning of your head and inhalation should synchronize. In the same way when you bring back your head to the normal position, you should gradually exhale and by the time your head is brought to the normal position, all the air in the lungs would have been expelled. The idea behind this is that your lungs expand when you turn right or left and get back to the normal position when you reach your normal posture. When the lungs expand, they take more air and when constricted, they push all the air out. Thus the impure air in the lungs is totally pushed out. If you understand this basic concept of stretching and breathing, you can design your own exercises. It would always be better this way instead of mechanically following the yoga books. It is easy for you to identify your own body parts that have congestion or tension. Once you are done with these exercises, you have to ensure that you lie flat on your back, with your hands and legs stretched. This relaxation is important to ensure that your energy spreads uniformly in your body. Now let us look into some of the basic exercises to be performed before the commencement of meditation. Stand erect. Turn your neck to your left by inhaling. Bring the neck to the normal position by exhaling. Turning of neck and breathing should synchronize. Now turn your neck to your right by inhaling. Bring back to the normal position by exhaling. Stand erect. Push your head backwards by inhaling. Do not loose your balance. By exhaling push the head down towards your chest by exhaling. Do not apply pressure and if you apply pressure you may hear some cracking sound from your neck area. This is not good. Rotate your arms parallel to your trunk first anti-clock wise and then clock wise. First do it with your left arm and then with the right arm. You can inhale when your hands move away from your trunk and exhale when they are nearing your trunk. Stand erect. Raise your arms in front of you and keep them in 45degrees angle from your trunk, with your palms open. Keep your feet one foot apart, heels a little closer and toes a little apart. Now turn your trunk upwards to your left as much as possible. Do not apply pressure in the neck. You will feel the stretch from your ankle upwards. Move the palm of your left hand as long as your eyes can watch the left palm. Bring your right arm folded at the elbow towards your left arm pit. When you move into this position, inhale. Come back to the original position by exhaling. Then turn towards your right and come back to the normal position. Stand erect and keep a distance about 2’ between your heels and your toes spread apart. Keep your hands above your head. Now bend towards your left by moving your left hand down to touch your left thigh. Make an arch with your right hand over your head. Come back to the original position. Then do this on your right side. Inhale when you bring your left hand down and exhale when you bring your left hand to the original position i.e. above your head. Do sit up exercises. Sit and stand alternatively with your entire feet on the ground. We will continue with more such exercises in the next posting. Please note that these exercises are only to ensure free flow of prana and to remove any energy blocks.

UNBLOCK YOUR PRANA

Now, you should be familiar with the right and comfortable posture, observation of your breath and closing your eyes lightly. This stage is called initial stage of meditation. You will also be familiar with a part or parts of your body, where you feel some vibration. With a good practice, you will be observing some sort of vibration between the two eye brows. You may refer to my posting on the third eye on February 17, 2009. But this may not be necessary at this point of time. Just continue to observe it for a moment and then ignore it. What we should learn at this point is some breathing and stretching exercises. These exercises should be done both before and after meditation. For attaining a good meditative stage, the prana inside our body should move freely. If there are obstructions to the free moment of prana, tension will develop in and around the area. Secondly, you should always keep your body loose and without any tension or stiffness. Breathing and stretching exercises help us to keep our body fit for the easy moment of prana. Presently you are practicing only normal and slow breathing, without holding your breath. In the next stage, you have to hold your breath. Inhale counting up to 5, hold the breath counting up to 5 and exhale counting up to 10. If you are not able to hold your breath for 5 seconds, do not bother. However, ensure that you exhale very slowly. Normally, inhale – hold – exhale should be in the ratio of 1- 1- 2 and then gradually increased to 1-2-2. Please do not go beyond this 1-2-2 level without the help of a yoga master. For our purpose 1-1-2 is sufficient or at the most you can try 1-2-2. What does this ratio mean? If you inhale counting 5, hold counting 5 and exhale counting 10. This is 1 -1- 2 ratio. You can increase this to 10 – 10 – 20 and so on. Your inhalation count and holding should be the same and exhalation count would be twice the count of inhalation or holding. This ratio is called 1 – 1 – 2. In the case of 1 - 2 – 2, holding and exhalation counts would be twice the count of inhalation. Depending upon your capacity, practice this breathing exercise at least ten times daily before meditation. You can increase the duration to 20, 30 and so on as long as you feel comfortable. This breathing exercise should be practiced with both the nostrils and not by closing and opening alternate nostrils. This means inhale through both the nostrils, your stomach bloats, hold the breath and your stomach remains bloated and exhale by pulling your stomach towards you. In the next stage, while you inhale push your head slightly behind, your stomach gets bloated. Hold your breath with your head bent backwards and stomach remains bloated. Exhale by slowly bring your head close to your chest and your chin close to your chest, and simultaneously pulling your stomach towards you. Please do not forcefully attempt to touch your chest with your chin. If you apply force, you will develop serious neck and shoulder problems. Do this breathing 10 times to begin with, and gradually increase. Please do not forget to practice the earlier breathing exercise along with this. Inhale and exhale fast. When you inhale your stomach bloats and when you exhale you pull back your stomach. Inhale and exhale should be fast and deep and there is no holding of breath here. Practice this regularly along with the other two exercises. These breathing exercises will enable your prana move freely and drive away any impure air in your lungs. We will look into some stretching exercises combined with breathing in the next posting.

MANIFESTATION vs MAYA

In the meditative stage you are the creator and manifestation happens according to your will. In the dream stage, you do not get your desired dreams even if you will. In meditative stage you are the creator. Swami Vivekananda once asked his guru Swami Ramakrishna Paramahamsa to show him the God. Paramahamsa meditated and made Mother Kali to appear before both of them. Paramahamsa subsequently said that Mother Kali was created purely out of his will and manifestation. But all of us cannot be Paramahamsa. Why I am discussing this incident here is that we can also achieve, provided we have the will to achieve. The will can be developed over a period of time and by dedicated practice. It is said that God does not have form. This is true also. But we give different forms to the form of the formless. We have so many forms of Gods, all created out of pure consciousness of the highly realised persons. They not only created a form of their choice, but they identified the form as their Supreme. They sang and danced, cried and laughed and reached a stage of extreme ecstasy. In the same way you can also create a form to your liking in your manifestation. Believe me; this form will extend all help to you, whenever you need help. You have to use your will and consciousness to create such a form. The difference between us and the realised souls is that they call their creation as God and we do not realise the form as God. We get ourselves attached to the form we created, and seek from it material prosperity. It also gives material prosperity. Totally engrossed with the wonders of the form, we forget that the form is nothing but our own willed consciousness. We should know that we derive our individual consciousness from the consciousness of the Supreme. This means that the form we created out of our own consciousness is also the creation of the Supreme Consciousness. That is why this form is willing to help us in times of our need. You can create this form provided your karmic account is in your favour. We should not confuse illusion with manifestation. Illusion is an erroneous mental representation. This is also called maya. Manifestation is appearance in bodily form. By manifestation we can create and by illusion or maya we are deceived. Take the case of mirage. This is an illusion and not in existence though it appears to be in existence. This does not have a bodily form. By a process of profound and continuous contemplation, a stage that is called meditation, a form is created and life infused only in that stage. Illusion is deception whereas manifestation is not. I am saying this here because all of should not underestimate what we are capable of. We should never undermine our capabilities. Undermining our capabilities and capacities is undermining the qualities of God. This means that we are in no way different from God. We will now proceed to continue with our practice from the next posting onwards.

MANIFSTATION

All of you would have begun your practice. You have to continue with your practice vigorously and daily. Till such a time, you are thorough with your practice, let us get ourselves introduced to manifestation, will and meditation. These are going to be useful in our subsequent discussions. Manifestation is one that we need to understand in detail. Manifestation is a powerful tool. www.wordweb.info gives the following meaning for manifestation -an appearance in bodily form (as of a disembodied spirit). This means, a physical appearance is given only by the stretch of our imagination to something that is not real or that does not have a form. Some thing can be imagined only if it does not exist in reality or that I do not actually possess. To have a good imagination we need only our will to imagine. The same word web gives meaning for will as follows - the capability of conscious choice and decision and intention. Now it is clear that we need to have intent to manifest. What action we perform when we manifest? Are we not ‘creating’ our favourite form in our imagination? This means that we can create if only we have the will to manifest. We can also create in our fully awakened stage. Here we need to have only the will and manifestation is not needed. Manifestation can be willed not in the three stages viz. awake, dream and deep sleep but only in the stage of deep meditation. Meditation is explained as continuous and profound contemplation on a subject. For such a state of continuous and profound contemplation we need an object of our choice, to contemplate. The object is our choice because it is we, who are going to create that object. This object will be to our liking. We are not going to create something that is not to our liking. This explains that we need to have the will to manifest. Let us take an example. I have only a hut. My desire is to have a palace. In reality, I cannot even think of having a small house, leave alone the palace, as I do not have that kind of money. We have already discussed in ‘mind and thought’ that formation of desire will not allow us to concentrate on anything else, unless we achieve that desire. We put our heart and soul to achieve that desire. In this case, even I put my heart and soul, I cannot have that palace. It is beyond my reach. Therefore, if something is out of my reach, I can still get it by simply manifesting it. When I can manifest that? Not in the three stages which we have discussed above. I can manifest provided I have the will to manifest by continuous and profound contemplation (meditative stage) of the palace. Beyond the three stages, we now understand that there is yet another stage called meditative stage. If we have the will to manifest in a meditative stage, we can create an object. Therefore we become a creator. There is a difference between dream stage and meditative stage. In a dream stage we cannot continue our dream the next day. But in my meditative stage, I can continue to add a brick whenever I meditate on the same object and one fine day I can finish the palace and start living there too. Therefore we can also create by becoming a creator ourselves. We will discuss more in subsequent postings.

BEGIN YOUR PRACTICE

Now we are ready with breathing exercise, the basic posture and with a little bit of concentration. We will discuss more on concentration later. Let us now make a beginning. Now sit erect with your head slightly tilted backwards, shoulders away from your trunk, breath slowly through both the nostrils, making your abdomen bloat when you inhale and pull back your abdomen when you breathe out. All your actions should be slow and nothing should be done in a hurry. Take your own time to settle down. Without closing your eyes, look at the tip of your nose. Do not strain your eyes too much. Sit in the same position; do not change your posture; inhale and exhale slowly. Do not hold your breath. Find out how long you are able to sit in the same position. There is no hard and fast rule about the duration or timing. Your comfort level is important. Now observe your breathe. Observe the movement of air in and out of your nostrils. Observe very carefully. This practice of observing your breath is very important for developing proper concentration. Do not worry about the external noise. It is advisable to practice preferably in a calm atmosphere. If you are not able to find a right place, just do not bother about it. If you are in a noisy place, just ignore the noise. In today’s situation getting a noiseless place is a luxury. If you develop pain either in your abdomen or eyes, stop immediately. Take some rest and again restart. Now observe what is happening in your body. Observe very carefully. There will be minute vibrations in your body. You can observe these vibrations with great concentration. Once you start feeling the vibrations, concentrate only on the vibrations. Your concentration on your breathing will now move over to these vibrations. When you start feeling these vibrations, you will continue to sit for a longer duration. Find out how long you are able to sit in the same posture and observe the vibrations. At this time, if you feel comfortable in closing your eyes, you can do so. But you have to close it very lightly. Now observe whether the intensity of the vibration has increased or decreased. Some times you may not feel the vibrations in the first few practice sessions. But certainly you will feel the vibrations after a good practice. But proceed very slowly. If you want to feel the vibrations in the first day of practice, that is impossible. Without properly practicing the observation of your breath, do not go to the second step of observing the vibrations. Without practicing these two, please do not go to the third step of closing your eyes. As a matter of fact you will automatically close your eyes when you start feeling the vibrations. You will feel the vibrations only in certain places in your body. Identify those places and we will discuss about those parts later. Please ensure that at every stage you proceed slowly. If you proceed slowly from one stage to another stage, the ultimate result will be excellent. If you hurry through, you will not certainly get the desired results. Secondly you should not even attempt to go to the next stage without having sufficient practice in a particular stage. We will discuss more in the next postings. Only thing that is required is regular practice. You may not get the desired results immediately. But persistent practice will certainly help. Your experience may not be the same with my experience. Everyone will have their own experience. Please share your experience here, if you want to. Your experience will be useful to others.

MIND AND THOUGHT

Before we look into certain flexibility exercises, let us understand what concentration is. This is the most difficult part in any type of meditation. Concentration can be achieved with the help of our mind and thoughts. We have already discussed that mind and thought are independent and interdependent. It is difficult to say whether our thoughts come out of our mind or our mind is the instrument in creating our thoughts. So let us simply understand that these two are different. Please go through my posting titled mind and ego dated March 29th, where in mind and thought have been discussed. In order to achieve concentration, the primary thing is not to succumb to our desires. The desire may be achievable or not, the formation of a desire will never allow us concentrate on anything else, unless you achieve your desire. Let us assume that you are planning to buy a house. The moment you get this desire, most of the time you will be thinking about the house only. Your mind makes you to think or your thought influences your mind to think more about the house. That is why I said both are independent and interdependent as well. Now what happens is that after developing the thought of buying a house, you proceed to finalize a location, finalize your builder, apply for a loan, mobilize your funds etc, etc. Don’t you agree with me that your concentration is totally on your dream house and you do not have time and ability to think about your other activities? More and more your mind thinks about your house, you also start dreaming about the house. Now the house is affecting our two stages namely awake and dream out of the three stages viz. awake, dream and deep sleep. Obviously none will be affected by any thoughts during deep sleep stage. Unless and until your desire of having your own house is totally fulfilled, your mind and thought cannot be focused to concentrate on something else. Focus and concentration are same. When your mind and thought are focused on a particular form or thing, you almost get rid of your thinking on other forms or things. Even if you think about something else, your concentration or focus will not be impregnable. That is why it is said that we should not develop desires. One desire will always lead to another desire. Your desire for a house will lead to the next desire of furnishing it. Desire leads to attachment and attachment leads to ego and you know its evil effects. Desire by itself is not bad. But knowingly or unknowingly, we get ourselves totally involved with a particular desire. Owning a house is not a sin. But let us not put our heart and soul in owning house alone. Bliss is to be realised to enjoy it. Bliss will be ultimate and probably all of us will come to this conclusion by the time we end this series. When you develop a desire for a certain object, you are not able to come out of it. Suppose you develop your desire for your own atman, you will not be able to come out of the thoughts of your atman. Let us assume that your search for atman begins and ultimately you find it within your own self. This process is called self realisation. Now we know where to concentrate and focus and what to search with in us. This we will discuss in the up coming postings. Please offer your comments so that all of us can benefit.

BREATHING EXERCISE

You will be wondering why we are discussing such trivial things here. These are not trivial things. We need a strong foundation for a huge building. To understand and implement all these basics is surely a tough job. Once we start following these basics we can put further steps with ease and confidence. Let us not proceed further without practicing these initial steps. Let us now look into some ordinary postures. Advanced postures should be practiced only with the able guidance of an experienced teacher. Whenever we sit, let it be on the floor or on a chair, the position of our spinal cord should always be erect. The neck should be slightly tilted backwards, so that the back head chakra falls in line with the spinal cord. Concentrate on the tip of the nose. Two interpretations are given for the tip of the nose. One is the tip of the nose just above the mouth and another is the point between the eyes, a little below the third eye chakra. Here tip of the nose means, above the mouth. Lift the shoulders slightly and pull back a little. Shoulders should not droop under any circumstances. If you allow the shoulders to droop, you will develop stiff shoulder joints. In the same way, you should not apply pressure to the eyes. Do not lift up your eye balls. Such wrong doings will adversely affect the retinal nerves. Both your hands should be placed one above the other, in a convenient place near your naval. The palms should be rested on your lap. There should be no stiffness at all any where in your arms. If you feel discomfort in placing your arms like this, you can place them in such a position so that no inconvenience is caused. The only thing to be followed is that your upper arms should not touch your trunk. If you do not maintain a distance between your trunk and upper arms, that will lead to stiff shoulders. It is not important that both your palms should be placed together. What is important is that your upper arms should not touch your trunk. This is the basic posture one has to adapt for a proper meditation. Keep your eyes open for the present, and ensure that you look at the tip of your nose. Do not apply pressure to the eyes. Breathing should be normal and through the nose. Ensure that you have no nasal blocks. Keep some drinking water by your side, as you may feel dryness in the mouth. Inhale slowly and when you inhale your abdomen should bloat. Bloating of abdomen does not mean that the air you inhale enters your abdomen. When you make your stomach bloat, your lungs expand and more air enters your lungs. Now exhale slowly and when you exhale, pull your abdomen inside. Pulling the abdomen helps the lungs to constrict considerably, so that all the air inside the lungs is exhaled out. Pushing and pulling the abdomen in and out should be practiced very slowly and carefully. This should be practiced regularly, so that when you inhale normally, your abdomen automatically pushes out and when you exhale abdomen is automatically pulled towards you. The above breathing exercise should be practiced in an empty stomach. Even consuming too much of water is also not advisable. If the stomach is full, this exercise may affect your digestive organs and cause vomiting sensation. Practice this regularly. We will discuss simple yogasans and concentration exercises in the next postings.

THE NEXT MOVE

We have now consciously decided to cut salt, chilly and pepper intake, to tame our taste buds. From our health point of view also, reduced intake of salt and chilly is good. Controlling our taste buds is a tough job! But we have to practice by sheer perseverance. If we do not develop perseverance, we cannot accomplish our goal. Having controlled our taste buds, the next step is to control our hunger. Controlling hunger does not mean fasting. There are contrary opinions about fasting. Let us not go into those details. Controlling hunger means two things. Let us not eat when we feel the hunger. Postpone eating initially by 10 minutes and gradually increase to an hour. Drink water if you are really not able to tolerate hunger. Drinking water is very good for health. It will cleanse the whole system. We will also realise what hunger is. Millions of people are suffering from hunger even without one meal a day. This serves two purposes. One is that we are controlling our hunger and second is that we feel for our fellow men and women. We can develop our concern for those poor peoples. Do not eat a full meal. Stop eating when our stomach is half filled. Our digestive system requires some empty space for quick and proper digestion. It is always said that when we eat a meal it should fill up our stomach only 50%. Out of the balance 50% water should be filled for 25% and the balance 25% should be left for air circulation. Avoid eating spicy and junk food. Apart from being bad for health, they will increase certain physical desires. Having come to this stage, it is time for us to sacrifice those items, which we like most. Assume that you like potatoes, reduce your intake of potatoes. This is beginning of sacrifices, as we may have to sacrifice a lot more when we advance. Eat lot of fruits and vegetables. At least twice in a week have only salads and fruits for dinner. Yoga postures play an important role in keeping our body healthy. Learn from a guru simple yoga postures. Let us not do yogasanas on our own. Do not go in for tough postures. Stretching and relaxing are the most important exercises. Breathing exercises should be practiced early in the morning in clean air and with empty stomach. Therefore it is imperative that we should rise up from the bed early in the morning. When we practice early rise, we will feel the freshness all day long. Normally, we need seven hours sleep. Accordingly we have to plan our schedule. A small nap in the afternoon is very good. But not all can enjoy this luxury! We have to derive some energy from the nature. Early morning sun gives plenty of energy. Expose medulla oblongata (back head) to the sun. Natural energy enters our body through the back head chakra, where medulla is placed and through the top head chakra. Energy from sun will cure all diseases and improve our immune system. We can derive natural energy by standing under big trees. The rich foliage produces a lot of oxygen during day time. Doing deep breathing exercises under a tree is always good. Our intake of oxygen increases thereby nourishing tissues of our body. Another important aspect is to keep our body always clean. Occasional bathing in sea water is extremely good and it removes all bad energies from the body. Those who cannot take sea bath can add some sea salt to bathing water. Whether it is sea water bath or salt water bath, always end up bathing in clean water. Two or three baths in a day is very good. We will now proceed to know about certain simple postures, concentration, breathing etc in the next few postings.

THE FIRST STEP

We know well that for each and every activity there should be a first step. In the same way, to attain liberation or self realisation, there are various steps. Let us now find out what could be our first step. There is a saying that slow and steady win the race. Let us now proceed slowly. Let us not jump from one stage to another stage. Let us be in one stage, think over it, understand the intricacies of the stage, enjoy the stage and then proceed towards the next. Self realisation is a long process. Patience and dedication are the basics. If we do not have these two, let us not proceed further. Instead of taking the tough path of self realisation, we can very well choose the path of devotion, which is comparatively less tedious. The path of devotion means doing your daily rituals, visiting places of worship, chanting the names of God etc. Which ever the path we choose, we have to follow it meticulously. In the path of self realisation, let us first understand that our body is just a veil for the atma or Brahman inside. The physical body has no role to play on its own, but certainly it aids in controlling our desires. The effects of desires go only to the physical body. We used to sleep in an air-conditioned room. If the air conditioner is not working for a day, we are not able to get a good sleep. Our body is addicted to the comforts of air conditioning. Such comforts are only to the body. Whether we sleep in an air conditioned room or not, the atman does not change. Atman does not differentiate between comfort and discomfort. That is why I have said our body has no role to play in self realisation. But the body aids in controlling our desires. Body is controlled by the mind is different, which we will take up for discussion later in this series. The first to be brought under control is our sense organs. Let us begin with taste. We always relish sumptuous food varieties. Liking for good food is a desire. At the same time we cannot live without food. Certainly basic food is required to nourish the body. Why do we then need sumptuous food, when we know that we can live with an ordinary food? To begin with why can’t we reduce the salt content in our food? Why can’t we reduce our dependence on chilly and pepper for taste? Why can’t we reduce sugar for our coffee and tea? If we are not able to start from here, take it from me, we cannot make a beginning at all. As the first step, let us try to control our addiction to taste. Smoking and drinking are very serious addictions. They damage our central nervous system, where Kundalini is going to traverse up and down. With a weak central nervous system, there is no question of awakening Kundalini. Same is the case with sleeping pills. So please avoid all the three. One can put forth many arguments saying that they have nothing to do with self realisation. In fact, they have nothing to do with the atman. But don’t we know that atman is covered by the physical body? How we will feel with a foul smelling pullover? Can we get a good sleep? No we can’t. When we are lying under a foul pullover, instead of relaxing our mind, we will be cursing the foul pullover. Please alnalyse these facts before we proceed further.

DUALITY AN ILLUSION - UDDHAVA GITA

Then Krishna talks about the five gross elements, and tatwas. Krishna says that purusha and prakriti are different entities. Prakriti is ever changing and purusha does not change. He confirms the self illuminating nature of atman and compares atman with the sun. Those who do not believe in atman, says Krishna have to undergo births after births. Belief in atman, belief in God and belief in the inner self are one and the same. The living beings undergo constant changes and these changes are not visible as they are very subtle. The body is perishable and not the atman. He points out the nine states of the body starting from conception, embryo, birth, and 6 stages of growth viz. baby, young boy, youth, middle and old age and finally death. These stages are applicable to the body made up three gunas and not to the atman that remains as a witness. Therefore it is important to differentiate between atman and prakriti. The later is made up of the three gunas and attains the form of human body. Krishna says that though atman is without activity, it is covered by prakriti. (This is the absolute form – prakasha form covered by vimarsha form. It can also be interpreted as maya covering the Brahman). Patience and persistent efforts are vital to fight ignorance. He points out that very learned rishis also loose their patience when they are hurt by harsh words. Then he narrates a story about Avanti. Money and greed are the two worst enemies to self realisation. Inner self or atma never transmigrates and only the jiva connected with the mind goes from one body to another body. (This point has been discussed elaborately in my previous postings “God unplugged”) Krishna then proceeds to narrate the sankhya system. Brahman divides itself into two- subject and object or purusha and prakriti. Prakriti, according to the will of purusha produces the three gunas viz. satwa etc. Then comes maya, ego and sensory organs. From the universal consciousness three worlds, Bhur, Bhuva and Swar were produced. Krishna then creates time (day, week, month, etc) and from time karma rises. Whatever be the objects, they are produced from the two principles purusha and prakriti. They also get dissolved into the same principles purusha and prakriti. Prakriti is metrial cause, therefore it is not manifested. Purusha is the invisible cause, hence its form is manifested. Both Purusha and Prakriti is Me says Krishna. This is the system of sankhya, creation –sustenance –dissolution – again creation and the time wheel rotates like this. Krishna then elaborates about the three gunas with examples. Each and everything is just a modification of the three gunas. To attain the lotus feet of Krishna one should be free of these three gunas. Krishna asks what else one needs after developing an attachment to Him. That is bliss, Absolute and knowledge. Rishis are in this stage and any association with them will increase the positive vibration. As a matter of fact such rishis can guide those who seek Him. There are many rituals and ceremonies for worshipping Krishna and they fall under three categories viz. vaidika, tantrika and mixed. Procedures under each category have been prescribed by Him. Krishna says that one should neither praise nor criticize others. Whatever created will ultimately be destroyed. He concludes by emphasizing the importance of atman, and condemns duality. Sun rise drives away the evils of darkness. In the same way realising atman in one’s own self drives away ignorance. Duality is an illusion and man made. Some body afflictions may arise while practicing yoga. Such body afflictions can be removed by concentration, meditation, yogic postures, pranayama, austerities, mantra japa and medicines. Regular practice of yoga gives a strong body. Continuous and dedicated practice of yoga gives some great powers (ashtama siddhi - eight types of powers described in kundalini yoga). If one gets attached to such powers, he looses his concentration on Him and thus fails in his mission to reach Him, says Krishna. Krishna finally orders Uddhava to go to Badari and do penance to merge with His supreme form. UDHHAVA GITA CONCLUDED.

FORMATION OF UNIVERSE - UDDHAVA GITA

Krishna says that Vedas are his words, which was first reveled to Brahma. Brahma taught Vedas to others. He further adds different people give different interpretations to Vedas depending upon their mind set and culture. He says that those who are attached to senses cannot enjoy His bliss. There may be his devotees who are not capable of overcoming their senses. Krishna says that He will destroy the sins of these devotees, just because of their devotion. He describes such devotees as those crying, who could not speak continuously due to overflowing emotion, dancing, weeping, shouting etc. Krishna is particularly averse about keeping company with women. He prescribes pranayama and chanting of OM. Krishna says that He is the form of all living beings and that He is responsible for their birth, survival and death. Then He describes himself in various forms, a true depiction of Brahman. As a matter of we cannot find any comparison any where when He says that He is the best amongst various categories. He says that He can count the atoms and not his various manifestations. Krishna then goes on to compare the two out of the four yugas viz. Krita yuga and Treta yuga. I his opening remarks Krishna had dealt with Kali yuga. When a man goes to forest for penance, he should make arrangements for the safety of his wife and children. In case his wife wishes to accompany her him to forest, he can take her too. Krishna prohibiting various activities like bathing, brushing, shaving etc. says that man should perform havana with the aid of fire and other available grains in the forest. He then discloses various austerity measures one has to adopt and think only about Him. The realisation means not the theoretical knowledge but the actual experience. Krishna also says that a sage enjoys Him through the knowledge thus obtained. He again and again points out that one has to control his sense organs and should not become a victim of maya. He also says that He is responsible for maya too. Anything connected with the three gunas are subject to birth, sustenance and death. Lord then proceeds to point out 12 virtues that give liberation or material gains as per one’s requirements. The highest charity says Krishna are giving up cruelty to living beings and giving up one’s desires. Except knowledge, dedication and faith nothing else can liberate a man. The human body is difficult to get. By realising this fact one must put in all out efforts to attain liberation says Krishna. He attaches importance to bhakthi and says it is the easiest way to reach Him. Ceremonies, austerities, charity and such other acts only strengthen one’s attachment to Him. Krishna prefers mantras to Vedas. Not performing the ceremonies as prescribed in Vedas will be misunderstood by those, who have not crossed the initial stages. Vedas ultimately teach about Brahman within. One has to cross the initial stages by performing rituals and associated things prescribed by vedas to reach the final stage. But mantras do not prescribe any rituals except regular chanting. This is the reason for Krishna’s preference to mantras. Krishna says that he alone knows the reasoning for the rituals prescribed by the Vedas. He clarifies that prakrti (the source of objectivity) is the embodiment of the three gunas in equal proportion leading to birth, maintenance and death. Please note that we have already discussed about prakrti as vimarsha form, the form of shakthi. When prakrti (vimarsha) combines with purusha (prakasha) the universe (prakasha vimarsha maha maya swarupini) is formed says Krishna. (will be concluded in the next posting)

UDDHAVA GITA

Many of us may not have heard about Uddhava Gita. It is also called as the final sermons of Lord Krishna before he departed for His heavenly abode. Krishna says that he has completed his goal during this incarnation and that he is wanted back in His place. During his final moments Krishna gives advice to his devotee Uddhava. One can call it as an advanced version of Bhagavad Gita. Uddhava Gita also forms a part of Srimad Bhagavata. The emphasis of Uddhava Gita is more on self realisation and surrender to God. Uddhava Gita begins with a scene in Dwaraka. All the Gods headed by Indra come to Dwarka. They pray to Krishna to return back to His supreme abode. He asks the elderly persons surrounding him to leave Dwaraka on a pilgrimage. Uddhava also wants to go with Krishna. Krishna did not agree with Uddhava and here Krishna’s teachings begin. Since His teachings are addressed to Uddhava, it is called Uddhava Gita. Krishna says that once he leaves the earth, the earth will suffer from evil effects of Kali Yug or Dark Age. He further says that one has to turn his indriyams or sense organs inwardly and fix his mind on Krishna. Once Krishna is identified inwardly, that person is called a realised person. Krishna emphasizes the importance of realisation that can be obtained through the teachings of a perfect Guru. He goes further in differentiating a man and a yogi and says that yogi eats to live and an ordinary man lives to eat. He compares a yogi with that of the ether or akash which remains unaffected by the effects of other four elements. He also says that a yogi can remove the sins committed by an ordinary person, if that person is a genuine seeker of God. He says that a family man with uncontrolled senses ultimately gets only grief. He goes on describing the qualities of a yogi and says that men should not save for future. Unless food is controlled, sense organs cannot be controlled says Krishna. He says that a child and a self realised person alone enjoy the Supreme bliss. He describes His Godly form as the Supreme Lord, a mass of transcendent knowledge and bliss, the Absolute and without attributes. He says that one’s own body is the best teacher. For the sustenance of the body alone, sense organs are used. After many births one gets a human body. One should utilize this opportunity of getting a human form and aim at liberation. Krishna says that maya is the product of gunas (satwa, rajas and tamas), that prevents knowing the Brahman or Atman. One stays in heaven till the result of his good deeds is exhausted. He again takes birth and the cycle goes on. He further says that knowledge and ignorance are His powers. One can any one of these from Him. Knowledge leads to liberation and ignorance to rebirths. He also prohibits the usage of “I” and “my”. He proceeds to teach the ways and means for detachment. The gopikas realised the Brahman due to their holy association with Him, thus emphasizing one’s association. He then proceeds to describe the Kundalini shakthi and the powers derived from such practice. In the superior form spirituality satwa guna destroys the other two gunas viz. rajas and tamas and paves way for realisation. Krishna says that mind and senses can lead to a wrong interpretation of Brahman. He then talks about the three stages viz. awake, dream and deep sleep. He explains how the sense organs are gradually withdrawn from the awake stage to the deep sleep stage. By destroying one’s ego and doubts about Brahman if one concentrates on Krishna, he will be liberated. (To be continued)

THE EPILOGUE

Friends: We have been together through this blog for sometime. One of the main ideas of promoting this blog is to create awareness about our own self. We are now a divided lot on the basis of cast, creed and religion. These are the worst enemies of mankind. Mankind is huge and vast. It should be bound only by love and affection for each other. By developing hatred, we are digging our own grave. I am saying this in literal sense, as anger will shoot up your BP and associated health issues. The bondage of love is eternal and wonderful. Think for a while. Why we should develop hatred? There is no valid reason. If you thought about it seriously, the cause for hatred will be inexplicable. Somebody would have used an impolite word against you. He would have said that in a fit of rage or due to his bad mood at that time. If you choose not to retort, he will realise his mistake one day and repent for it. On the contrary if you choose to retort, permanent hatred develops between both of you. If you keep your cool for a few seconds, there is no room for hatred. Who knows, one day he may become your well wisher. There are various instances which can be cited as examples. So hatred is our enemy number one. Stop hating and develop love and affection. After all, our life is not ever lasting. A beginning should be made from your home. A cordial atmosphere at home improves your productivity as your mind remains calm and composed. We have already discussed that mind and thought are interdependent. A calm mind will increase your creative power. Secondly, do not attach importance to material gains alone. No doubt, money and power are needed in this world. But beyond a certain point, they become your enemies. If you start chasing them, you loose your health. When your health is lost definitely something is lost. Money should not become more important to you than your family and well wishers. Your parents are living Gods for you. Learn to respect all the elders. This again should be started from your home. Your aged parents do not need money from you. They need your love and care. Tomorrow, you will also become old. You will also long for care and attention. Your children will have more love for their grandparents. Your kids know that they receive unstinted love from them. Teach your children the importance of love and care. Teach them about God in the form of universal love and truth. You cannot buy happiness from the market. You can derive happiness from your family, friends and the humanity as a whole. Don’t you cry for somebody unknown to you who got killed in bomb blast? Don’t you cry for a kid who was murdered by his teacher? Don’t you cry for the passengers who died in an air crash in another part of the world? This is called as the love for humanity. Without realising, you love the humanity. You are not born bad. You are being made as bad. Your greed and anger make you bad. The situation and environment around make you bad. Avoid such situations. Avoid those things that make you bad. For example a bad company, a tempting offer, a violent movie, a lousy television serial and all that kind of stuff. Never allow your children to watch TV that shows violence. Your money cannot give you happiness. If you are addicted to money, it will destroy you one day. God is not different from us. He is within you and the same God is within me too. He does not discriminate. All of us are equal to him. God is one, for rich and poor. God is one for all religions. God lives in the world of love and truth. He is an embodiment of universal energy, the energy of every living being in this universe. When individual energy is so powerful, just imagine the power of universal energy called God. Only you can realise the God. Others can only show you the path to God. If you are a loving and caring person, you need not search for God. He will come to you. Feed the poor. Feed the animals and birds. God loves them more. Friends, I conclude my writing on ‘God unplugged’. Please spread the message universal love to those who value these principles. Let us build a world full of happiness, love and care. Let us eradicate poverty, corruption, laziness, anger, hatred. Let us give education to everybody. Let us grow together in prosperity. You may in a corner of this world. I am in another corner of this world. Let the distance not be a constraint for our togetherness. I will continue my writing for universal love, peace and prosperity. Please continue to visit this site. Please feel free and write to me at feedback@manblunder.com Yours, V.RAVI http://www.manblunder.com/

THE LIBERATION

When God finished his press meet, media are asked to leave the enclosure. There is a hectic movement of people. It appears as though all of them want to have liberation immediately. Security guards moved in and the enclosure is cordoned off. The parked trucks are ready with their ignition on. TV crew continued with their live telecast. The man who brought the God here is making frequent announcements. Several people are offering prayers. On one side, pandits are chanting veda mantras. On yet another side verses from the Holy Bible are being recited. On another side, verses from the Holy Koran are being recited. There is total ecstasy everywhere. Movement of people increases with the passage of time. Members of families are seen hugging together, crying and shedding tears. They realised the bondage between them, which was not realised earlier. Those couples who had misunderstanding between them realised their love for each other now. The elderly people are seen talking to their grand children that they would love to see them getting married and begetting children. The average of these elders would be around 75. It appears that they never wanted to die and live eternally. Small kids never realised what is happening around them. They are seen playing with each other. Their parents who never allowed their children to mingle with other children now realised what their children have missed all these days. They become too emotional on seeing their children being so happy. The crowd started moving slowly towards the enclosure. There are two openings to the enclosure. One is meant for entry and another for exit. Then came the announcement from Shakthi “Please listen carefully. Now it is time for liberation. Those who need liberation should enter the enclosure through the entry gate. I would like to repeat that liberation means squaring off all your karmas which leads to your death. There will be no more births for those who are liberated. Now, it is time for you to decide. All the members of the same family can be liberated together, if they so desire. The final decision purely rests with the individual concerned.” The moment the announcement was made the government officials swung into action. Now they are fully prepared to remove the bodies and shift them to the waiting trucks. Stretchers with men to handle them are ready just outside the exit gate of the enclosure. Security men took their positions to ensure order. People could see some movement in the self illuminating light of the God. There was absolute silence in the venue. The movement of people came to standstill. Suddenly there is a huge rush towards the exit gates of the venue. People are seen running away from the entry gate to the enclosure. People are in such a great hurry to get out of the venue and in the unprecedented rush elderly people fell down. The crowd did not care. Many families were split and each member was running in different direction. They never even turned back. Children started to cry and are running in search of their parents. Not one, not even a single person amongst this million people is seen anywhere near the entry gate to the enclosure. People are running and running till they reached a safe place from the venue, fearing that God would give them liberation compulsorily. It was so pathetic to see old people testing their running abilities. Finally the whole venue became empty. One could see thousands of dead bodies scattered around. The light of God was not there. THE END