Meanwhile, the prince from Kekaya, Bharatha’s maternal uncle, approached Dasaratha and said that a long time had elapsed since he had come from his kingdom. “Father is waiting to see me back. He would have been very happy to be present for these festivities. He doesn’t know about Bharatha’s wedding, and he will be very disappointed when he hears that his grandson’s marriage was celebrated in his absence. His disappointment can be assuaged to some extent if Bharatha comes with me now, so that some festivities can be arranged there for his satisfaction and pleasure.” Dasaratha consulted his wives and called Bharatha. “Son! Your maternal uncle, Yudajit, came to take you with him from Mithila, but I didn’t agree. I learned that your grandfather is very anxious to see you. So make yourselves ready to accompany him,” Dasaratha ordered.
Bharatha said, “Father! It would be very good for Satrughna to come with me.” So, he was also ordered to prepare to leave.
Moved by his ...
The meditator (dhyani) considers the realisation of Atmic bliss as important, but the promotion of the welfare of the world is also an equally important aim. For carrying out that aim, one must bring certain physical, verbal, and mental tendencies under control. These are usually known as the tenfold sins: the three physical, the four verbal, and the three mental. The physical tendencies are: injury to life, adulterous desire, and theft. The verbal sins are: false alarms, cruel speech, jealous talk, and lies. The mental attitudes are: greed, envy, and denial of God.
Eschew the tenfold “sins”
The person intent on following the path of meditation must take every care that these ten enemies do not even approach. They have to be eschewed completely. The person needs tendencies that will help progress and not those that drag back. One must speak and act only good (subha), for good alone is auspicious (mangala) and the auspicious alone is Siva. This is what the scriptures (sastras) also ...
When Parikshith heard Suka’s consoling and satisfying words, he queried, “Master! what are the Puranas?
What are their contents? How many are there?”
Suka replied, “The texts that elaborate the terse truths that are enshrined in the Vedas are called Puranas.
They are numberless in extent. But at present, 18 of them are outstandingly famous. These were collated and edited by my father, Vyasa. They have ten common characteristics. The supplements to these Puranas, called Upapuranas, have only five.
The ten marks of the Puranas
“You may ask what those ten are. I’ll tell you even before you ask! They are:
creation (sarga), proliferation into manifold varieties of created beings (visarga), setting of boundaries (sthana), protection (poshana), consequences of one’s actions (uthi), the ages of Manu (manvanthara), the glories of the Lord (Isanukatha), absorption (nirodha), freedom (mukthi), and support of the universe (asraya). The support (asraya) is the most important of t...
The benefit we can derive from anything is proportional to the faith we place in it. From adoration of gods, pilgrimages to holy places, uttering mantras, or resorting to doctors, we derive benefits only according to the measure of our faith. When someone gives a discourse, the more faith we have in them as a scholar and an exponent, the more clearly and directly we can draw the subject into our hearts and understand the discourse deeper and deeper.
For the growth of faith and for the fostering of understanding, an essential requirement is purity of the heart, of the very base of thought (the kshetra), of the levels of consciousness (chittha). Without this purity, the sudden effort of self-inquiry or investigation into the self-existent Atma, while in the midst of diverse worldly and material entanglements, will be rendered fruitless, since it will not stem from an eager will.
The consciousness (chittha) must first be withdrawn from the objective world (prapancha) and turned inward tow...
The name Rama is the essence of the Vedas; the story of Rama is an ocean of milk, pure and potent. It can be asserted that no poem of equal grandeur and beauty has emerged from other languages or from other countries until this very day, and it has provided inspiration to the poetic imagination of every language and country.
It is the greatest treasure inherited by their good fortune by every Indian.
Rama is the guardian deity of the Hindus; the name is borne by the bodies in which they dwell and the buildings in which those bodies dwell. It can safely be said that there is no Indian who has not imbibed the nectar of Ramakatha, the story of Rama.
The Ramayana, the epic that deals with the story of the Rama incarnation, is a sacred text. It is reverently recited by people with all varieties of equipment, the scholar as well as the ignoramus, the millionaire as well as the pauper. The name glorified by the Ramayana cleanses all evil and transforms the sinner; it reveals the form represen...
Sage Suka resumed his narration. “First, I’ll describe the saumya quality of Sri Rama. By ‘saumya’, I mean his gentle, soft, and mild nature. He wore a leaf-green gown and had yellow cloth round his waist; he had on a golden diadem. But he walked with his eyes on the ground, as if he was ashamed to look up; the scene melted the hearts of all who saw. No one caught him in the act of casting his look on others. He had always the inner, not the outer, vision. Whenever anyone offered him anything, he didn’t accept it entirely but just broke off a bit or took out just a portion, in order to please them. Or, he just touched the offering with his fingers and gave it back to the person who brought it.
“With his father-in-law and mother-in-law, he moved not as a son-in-law but as a son. He seldom opened his mouth to speak to his sisters-in-law or their maids. He never lifted his face and cast his eyes on them.
“He revered all women older than himself as he revered his mother, Kaus...
Emperor Parikshith journeyed in state over the entire Indian continent, acquainting himself with the administrative excellence of the rule of his grandfathers, with the unique relationship they had established between themselves and Lord Krishna, who had then come down on earth as man, listening to the experiences of many a saint and scholar living in those halcyon days and reflecting on those cheering memories, as he traveled along.
Often he was overcome with remorse at the thought that he was not alive during the days when the grandparents were in such heavenly bliss.
While immersed in the joy of recollecting the annals of his forefathers and the glory of those bygone days with Krishna, Vyasa, the great sage, appeared quite unexpectedly. Parikshith welcomed him with great honour and seated him on an elevated seat. The sage praised Parikshith’s rule and said that he was reminded of the reign of the Pandavas. The young king listened reverentially.
After some time, Vyasa said, “Son,...
Swami: Well! You look so full of joy today!
Devotee: You yourself said that people are the embodiment of joy, right?
Swami: Then you must always be in this mood; do you remain so?
Devotee: I am trying as far as possible.
Swami: Why do you say “trying”? Doesn’t sorrow flee the instant reality is known?
Devotee: But what is the reality, Swami?
Swami: All that “is” is unreal! The efforts you undertake, the words you utter, are all unreal; when you know this, the reality will be evident. Remove all the unreal ideas, opinions, and acts and the truth that is hidden can be seen.
Piling up all this on top, if you ask what Reality is, how can it be seen?
Devotee: How is it possible to take all that is done, spoken, seen, felt, and listened to as unreal?
Swami: First, understand who is experiencing all these. You refer to the body as “I”, don’t you? That is unreal.
When the experiencing “I” is itself unreal, how can the experiences be real? All have the same Atma. The person ...
This wave-like movement of proceeding and receding, of merging and emerging, has been happening since time; it will happen till time ends; it is eternal in its feature. This is the belief of Indians (Bharathiyas). A person is not just this gross body; in it, there is a subtle component called mind; inside it, as its prompter and spring, is an even more subtle principle called the individualized soul (jivatma). This soul has neither beginning nor end, it knows no death, it has no birth. This is the basis of the Indian faith.
One other article of faith, which is a unique feature of Indian mental equipment: Until the individualized soul gets liberated from the individualization and merges in the Universal, thus attaining liberation (moksha), it has to encase itself in one body after another and go through the process called living. This idea is held by no other people. This is the cycle-of-birth-death (samsara) idea, which the ancient texts or scriptures of India reveal and propagate. Sam...
Whatever the tangle in which people are caught, if they get immersed in the Lord’s name, it will make them free. Moreover, by this means, they can realise without fail the name and form through which they constantly remember the Lord. There is no iota of doubt in this.
All religions remember the Lord’s name
The spiritual disciplines of yoga, breath control (pranayama), and penance (tapas) are beset with pitfalls at every step, and they are also full of dangers. But in the spiritual practices of repetition of the name (japa), meditation (dhyana), and remembrance of the name (namasmarana) there is no likelihood of a fall or of any other danger. In the former type of spiritual disciplines, the practices differ according to the caste or religion. In the practice of the name (nama-sadhana), there is not even a trace of such distinction. Hindus, Muslims, and Christians may differ on many points, but they are all one in the glorification of the name of the Godhead. All of them take the na...
