jabdakhata

In some of her teachings we see the grand fusion of ideals of Vedanta with everyday life and these are relevant for all people of all ages. She said – “There is no greater wealth than contentment (with what we possess) and no greater quality than forbearance.” “Forget your individuality and try to understand your real nature”. “One who regularly thinks about the divine, how can he/she be ever in trouble?” “When one never expects anything from anybody, then only one can have equal love towards all. Love mired with desire and expectation is no love.” [i] Her last statement was that to have a lasting peace one should never look into the faults of others, but rather find one’s own faults, in a bid to improve oneself and transcend one’s nature. She stated the purpose of life as realization of the divinity and emphasized on taking refuge in God through renunciation of selfish desires. One should always take resort in truth and do good for the sake of doing good, by depending on God, as ...

The whole life of Holy Mother is an illustration of how one can reach perfection through tireless and selfless work, how one can forget and forfeit all egos in working for others, how one can shoulder great responsibilities without slightest display of power, through complete detachment. She is a shining example of chastity and boundless love for all and sundry – pavitrata swarupini. Her love for the great master is probably a demonstration of that divine love which Sri Radha possessed for her beloved God, or the love which mother Mary possessed for infant Jesus. She did all her material duties with a grace that is incomparable and yet, devoted her life for the spiritual welfare of her innumerable sons. She had the intellect and ability to be the God mother of one of the greatest philanthropic and spiritual organizations of the world, directed it in times of great crises, and yet, she never once displayed her superiority. It was love and only love that endeared her to people who came...

Bhagavat Gita, in its essence, talks about two ideals of human life – a complete renunciation of actions or Karma Sannyas, and being in action but renouncing the fruits of action – karma phala tyaga. Sri Krishna advises us, who are in the world, who needs to work, to sacrifice the fruits and in the end surrender to Him completely. Through complete and total surrender comes total renunciation. There are others, great teachers, holy men and saints, who do not need to work. They are the sthita prajnyas, one who is established in Self. Sri Ramakrishna adds in the Gospel that even a person who does not need to work, one who has renounced actions completely, sometimes work for the welfare of all, out of compassion for ignorant mankind, to dispel ignorance and to bring light to masses. It seems Sri Ramakrishna, the avatar varistha, the greatest among all such teachers, belonged to the first type. He had renounced all actions, took external sannyas, and yet, came down to live in the material...

Sister Nivedita had said about the Holy Mother that Sarada Devi is the final word of Sri Ramakrishna as to the idealism of Indian womanhood. [1] Then she puts forward a question herself, as to whether she (Sarada Devi) is the culmination of an old ideal or the beginning of a new ideal? Miss Josephine McLeod had said that Sarada Devi is the ideal which Indian women will have to reach in the next three thousand years. To understand the Holy Mother and her contribution to womanhood in general and Indian womanhood in particular, these two comments are extremely important, as they both come from extremely learned, erudite, well respected Western devotees whose culture and upbringings were vastly different from that of traditional Indian culture. The two remarks are actually complementary. Together they help in unraveling one of the greatest personalities of all ages, an ideal so vast that it would probably take many more centuries to understand her and emulate her life. Swami Vivek...

If the entire world converts into one religion will all the problems of fanaticism stop? The answer is no, although some of the Semitic religion proponents would claim that if the world converts to their religion, the world will be at peace. If we look into major religions we find that they are not strictly united in the truest sense of terms. They are divided into many sects which are also fighting with each other, apart from fighting other religions. This is because if we look into the anatomy of fanaticism, we'll find that fanatics are not driven by religious ideals, they are driven purely by their own monumental egos which force them to denounce others who are not in consonance with them. The hatred lies within themselves and it will always find an expression to come out. So even if people belong to the same religion they fight with each other by dividing into sects, people within the same sect fight with each other dividing themselves into principles, ideals and even dog...

If we read carefully Swamiji, we'll realize that he has infinite compassion for all, even the worst sinner. The reason being, he says, sin is nothing but a covering of the soul owing to ignorance. However he also says the same thing about virtue, though one is an iron chain while the other is a golden chain. There are two coverings on soul - Thin blanket like covering through ages of bad work which had brought miseries and sufferings in its wake, and a thick veil like covering which had been made through ages of good work which brought joy and happiness. To uncover the soul, we need to transcend both coverings. Its not enough to remove the thick blanket as the thin veil will also hide the Atman, although its glow is probably faintly visible, and the uncovering of the thick one enables us to know that something is hidden there. Once we remove the thin veil the Self becomes visible in its full glory. The thin covering is the covering of ego of goodness. As Gita says, Sattva binds a...

On this auspicious period of Navaratri and Durag Puja, when India worships the divine mother as Shakti, the universal feminine principle that creates, sustains and destroys the universe as nature or Prakriti and which even transcends nature, which permeates the entire universe as the cosmic energy and yet acts as the container of that very energy, it is probably fit to pay our tributes that eternal feminine. Why is the eternal feminine worshiped as Shakti? When did the worship of Shakti start? Why is nature called mother and not father? What is this elusive entity called Shakti? These are some of the questions that have haunted the scholars since time immemorial. However these are the very questions that are conveniently answered by the so called great teachers and mystics. Very few cared to listen to them and those who did had all their problems and doubts resolved. Who is mother? Mother is one who procreates, nourishes and nurtures and takes care or protects. It is true...

Why is then Vedanta, despite its extremely logical construction, an anathema with scientific world? The answer is not far to seek. Just as religions are characterized by dogmas, science also has its own dogma. That dogma prevents scientific world from acknowledging anything remotely connected with spirituality as scientific, even if it is perfectly logical and rational. Science inhabits in the realm of nature. Vedanta, asks us to transcend nature and go beyond. The perceptions are Vedanta are outside sensory perceptions while science deals purely with the world of senses, proofs and tangible evidences. Unless there is any evidence, science considers an explanation as a hypothesis, i.e. acceptable subjected to testing. Now the question is, can Vedantic assertions be ever tested. The answer is a resounding Yes. Vedanta had been and tested and proved even though it is beyond the sense world. The Vedic Rishis, who were actually scientists, did not accept anything without tangible evi...

Science, even though based on law of cause an effect, cannot explain the following questions easily - a) How are people born to different circumstances, some in misery while others in prosperity b) Why are some people deformed by birth, afflicted with disease at a very tender age, probably just a few months after birth, die very young c) Why do some people suffer more than others d) Why are some people stronger and healthier than others e) Why are there much evil tendencies among some people and good among others f) In general if the world is entirely materialistic and if there is no motivation for doing good, why should we be good and selfless? Why should not we all become selfish and maximize our gains at the expense of others? Why do we not live happily by killing others? What is the need for peace and charity? Why should we rather kill the weak and ensure that the resources are enjoyed by the strong? If one gives the excuse of ethics, morality etc. why should there be...

While Science acknowledges nature and natural laws, it classifies nature as devoid of intelligence. However it fails to recognize that one that is devoid of intelligence cannot frame or evolve laws. Laws can only be set by an intelligent entity, in other words, one having consciousness. Science does not accept consciousness as it is not perceptible through senses. One for instance cannot see or hear consciousness. However, the faculty of seeing or hearing is a by product of consciousness and therefore by definition cannot know it. An object of knowledge cannot know the one which is studying it. It is always the other way round, i.e. it is consciousness that knows what is the object of hearing and what is the object of seeing. It is the one which is controlling the senses, not the other way round. Vedanta, very scientifically explains that neither eyes by themselves see, nor ears by themselves hear. They are only instruments. The perception carried by them are interpreted in nerve cen...

Vedanta and science, unlike religion and science in the Western concept, are not miles apart. Rather they stand very near to each other. In ancient India there was no major distinction made between science and metaphysics. In fact one was considered as a subset of the other. Mundaka Upanishad talks about Para Vidya and Apara Vidya, the first one deals with realization and experience of supreme knowledge while the latter one with conventional knowledge. Science belongs to the realm of Apara Vidya. However Vijnan or special knowledge also refers to spiritual science or the knowledge of supreme. Gita's 7th Chapter is named as Jnana Vijnana Yoga, pointing to a close relationship between the two. The thoughts of Indian sages were never at odds with modern scientific thoughts. In fact they were very much scientists themselves. They never conjectured or theorized anything, never relied on dogmas, but rather on practices and direct realization. They were like the modern day scientists wo...

Courtesy Sanjeeb Maharaj - Swami Dheyananda of Ramakrishna Mission Students' Home Belgharia  Excerpt from the lecture Practical Vedanta -Part I V delivered by Swami Vivekananda in London My idea is to show that the highest ideal of morality and unselfishness goes hand in hand with the highest metaphysical conception, and that you need not lower your conception to get ethics and morality, but, on the other hand, to reach a real basis of morality and ethics you must have the highest philosophical and scientific conceptions. Human knowledge is not antagonistic to human well-being. On the contrary, it is knowledge alone that will save us in every department of life -- in knowledge is worship. The more we know the better for us. The Vedantist says, the cause of all that is apparently evil is the limitation of the unlimited. The love which gets limited into little channels and seems to be evil eventually comes out at the other end and manifests itself as God. The Vedanta also sa...

Courtesy Sanjeeb Maharaj - Swami Dheyananda of Ramakrishna Mission Students' Home Belgharia Excerpt from the lecture Practical Vedanta - Part I V delivered by Swami Vivekananda in London I would like to see moral men like Gautama Buddha, who did not believe in a Personal God or a personal soul, never asked about them, but was a perfect agnostic, and yet was ready to lay down his life for anyone, and worked all his life for the good of all, and thought only of the good of all. Well has it been said by his biographer, in describing his birth, that he was born for the good of the many, as a blessing to the many. He did not go to the forest to meditate for his own salvation; he felt that the world was burning, and that he must find a way out. "Why is there so much misery in the world?" -- was the one question that dominated his whole life. Do you think we are so moral as the Buddha? The more selfish a man, the more immoral he is. And so also with the race. That rac...

Shudra Jagaran was Swami Vivekanananda's dream. He advised the elites to retire and give way to shudras who would be the next world force to reckon with. He predicated that Indians would rise from every nook and corner of villages and slums, would aspire after the best in the world and then the world would begin to take serious notice of India which they have so far mocked and derided as a country of illiterate and obnoxious casteist Hindus. They are right to do so. For this is how India's elite had painted India for generations, esp. in the last twenty years or so. The so called liberals and the mainstream media had gone overboard in painting India as a country of either dead woods who understand nothing or hardened fundamentalists who would fall for something which they derisively termed as "Hindutva". The rest, the gang of elites, the most intelligent, most liberal and so on, are secular, whatever that word means.  This is however not a unique situation in In...

Courtesy Sanjeeb Maharaj - Swami Dheyananda of Ramakrishna Mission Students' Home Belgharia Excerpt from the lecture   Practical Vedanta - Part I V delivered by Swami Vivekananda in London According to dualistic theory, we have a body, of course, and behind the body there is what they call a fine body. This fine body is also made of matter, only very fine. It is the receptacle of all our Karma, of all our actions and impressions, which are ready to spring up into visible forms.   Every thought that we think, every deed that we do, after a certain time becomes fine, goes into seed form, so to speak, and lives in the fine body in a potential form, and after a time it emerges again and bears its results. These results condition the life of man. Thus he moulds his own life.   Man is not bound by any other laws excepting those which he makes for himself. Our thoughts, our words and deeds are the threads of the net which we throw round ourselves, for good or for evil. Onc...

Courtesy Sanjib Maharaj - Swami Dheyananda of RKM Students' Home Belgharia “We are in reality that Infinite Being, and our personalities represent so many channels through which this Infinite Reality is manifesting Itself; and the whole mass of changes which we call evolution is brought about by the soul trying to manifest more and more of its infinite energy… Each one of us has come out of one protoplasmic cell, and all the powers we possess were coiled up there.   You cannot say they came from food; for if you heap up food mountains high, what power comes out of it?  The energy was there, potentially no doubt, but still there. So is infinite power in the soul of man, whether he knows it or not. Its manifestation is only a question of being conscious of it.    Slowly this infinite giant is, as it were, waking up, becoming conscious of his power, and arousing himself; and with his growing consciousness, more and more of his bonds are breaking, chains are bursting...