jabdakhata

This is a part of an article written for a magazine and is depicted here in several parts. In Ramakrishna the Great Master, by Swami Saradananda, Sri Ramakrishna’s vision about his foremost disciple is depicted vividly. He had this vision even before Narendra came to Daksineswar. In that vision his mind was going up on a luminous path in Samadhi, going beyond the gross world of manifestations into the subtle world of ideas and even beyond the world of deities. Finally it arrived in the realm of indivisible which was difficult to enter even for gods and deities with forms. There it saw seven sages whose bodies were composed only of divine light, engrossed in Samadhi. In virtue and love and renunciation they were far greater than even the deities. Then a part of that abstract undifferentiated divine light became transformed into a divine child who came and embraced one of those sages and tried waking him up from Samadhi with his nectar like words. The sage was full of love and blis...

Faith or Sraddha is an intense belief in a cause. As Swami Vivekananda had said, first one needs to develop a Sraddha in one self before one has Sraddha in any other matter. He cites the example of Nachiketa from Kathopanishads. On seeing his father performing the Viswajit sacrifice faith entered into the heart of young Nachiketa. He found that in the name of the sacrifice for giving away everything his father was actually  committing  a major error by giving away the things that he no longer required, like old and decrepit cows who did not yield milk etc. Therefore he went to his father and asked him three times to whom his father would give him (Nachiketa) away? When his father finally, in a fit of irritation, said, to the God of Death Yama himself he would bestow Nachiketa, the latter thought that among many he came first and among many he was in the middle. Sankara and Vivekananda both commented that what Nachiketa meant was that he never considered himself as infer...

At some point of time in Science there emerged two theories which were supposedly  irreconcilable . One was that of Newton, that light consisted of particles, which was very popular till Christian Huygens proved it wrong. According to the latter theory, light was wave. Thus there were two scientific dogmas which had their own followers and believers. But nobody was in a position to refute or accept one over the other. This was the prevailing condition till Quantum Mechanics came and established the wave particle duality. Thus it took a higher level view to understand the apparent contradiction. This higher level view enabled the scientific world to reconcile the supposedly  irreconcilable . It was established that both both corpuscular theory of light and wave theory of light were true, but they were relative truths. The absolute truth, which is a notch higher than either of these relative planes, can be used to  harmonize  these relative truths and bind ...

Maslow’s hierarchy of need can be represented in the form of a pyramid. At the bottom of the pyramid is the physiological needs, above this is the need for safety and security, still higher and progressively up are Need for belonging, Need for Self esteem and culminating in Need for Self Actualization. These needs are evolving from a pure biological or physical level to the mental and intellectual level. But there is a gap and we’ll come back to that. If one is conversant with our spiritual heritage one is bound to notice something. The needs can be mapped to the three Gunas . One who is conversant with Sankhya philosophy or Gita, knows that the three gunas are – Tamas or the quality of darkness, characterized by ignorance, sleep, laziness, errors in judgement and all baser instincts, Rajas or the quality of passion, characterized by action driven by desire, lust, greed etc. and Sattvam, characterized by tranquility, peace, love of wisdom and knowledge etc. If we look into the hi...

Materialists and scientists may argue – what is pure consciousness? Can anybody define the same? Since it is not definable and not discernible through senses, it therefore does not exist. So pure existence is a Utopia as which exists can be realized by senses. If we cannot realize it how can we say that it exists? The response to the same as given by those who have undertaken the journey and have realized the same is – we can neither define, nor realize pure consciousness because impure state cannot realize the pure state. If so, it would first have to become the pure state itself to know that pure state. Only those who have gone beyond the apparent world of names and forms can explain that pure state, but there is only a handful of divine beings belonging to that category. They are the greatest teachers of all ages. Therefore the distinction will remain for almost all of us and dualism is bound to remain. As Sri Ramakrishna says, a salt doll goes to measure an oce...

It is quite obvious that all major religions has the same idea about the pure and impure consciousness, although the terminologies and the languages may be different, conditioned by different cultures, beliefs and values. Adam and Eves’ and fall from grace, the original sin is pure consciousness becoming impure. Temptation by devil is probably a mere common man’s definition of apparent universe tempting an individual with all sensory attractions, thereby knocking him off from the journey towards a spiritually evolved state. As pointed out by Swami Vivekananda this is the mirror image of the Vedantic Truth. In Vedanta there is no fall from grace, but the one has to realize that he is pure consciousness itself and then the veil falls. Jesus Christ said, “He who hath seen the son hath seen the father – I and my father are one”. It implies that both he was pure consciousness himself and he had realized that supreme state of Advaita. The state of Buddha or enlightenment is arguab...

Advaita (Non Dual) Vedanta is a very subtle science and does not have much appeal among the masses, including the scholars and the believers in dualism. Only Swami Vivekananda in recent times has been able to expose the beauty and subtlety in his own, characteristics, inimitable way. The same message is hidden in Gita, Upanishads, Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Bible and almost all other scriptures and holy works. What we call the Brahman or the Supreme Being or the Godhead, the entity beyond attribute and beyond quality, is, described by three terms – Existence, Consciousness and Bliss or Sat-Chit-Ananda. This entity is the purest form of all of these – it is the pure (and according to the Vedantic tradition the Only) existence, pure consciousness and pure bliss. When we use the term pure it signifies that it is not afflicted by Nature, so there is no scope of modification anywhere. It is immutable and infinitely so.  Now according to Vedanta, this pure consciousness is the starting...

Once there was a huge elephant. He used to roam freely around the forest. He was wise and kind and generous and had much power. Many had gained from him. He never injured others but always helped them. But gradually he became tired and sleepy. He was then attacked by some hunters and other  opportunistic  animals who were looking to feed themselves on his body parts. He resisted successfully for a long time. He however became more and more weak and tired. Then fatigue overcame him and he fell asleep. He remained in that state for a long time. Then several other hunters came. They found the animal very useful for their purpose and therefore decided to tame him. They chained him, tied him with ropes and thrashed him mercilessly till he bled. However he did not die. Nor did he completely surrender. Even though he was sleepy he resisted them with all his might. He finally succeeded in shaking off the chains and tried standing on his feet. But the hunters had badly bruised him, a...

One interesting point of similarity will be the ordinals and numeric system. German construction is far similar to Sanskrit than to English on this - e.g achtzen (eighteen) and ashtadasan (eighteen), ein und zwanzig (21), zwei und..... drei und....fier und...., eka, dwa, trayo, chatur..binshati, trinshati...etc.  101 is ein und ein hundert... 1001 is ein und ein tausend...compare with Sanskrit eka adhika shatam, eka adhika sahasram etc.... There are few notable similarities as well as differences.  Numerals are declined in Sanskrit based on gender - Dau, Dve, Trini Tisrah etc. while in German they do not change based on gender eg. drei Maenner and drei Frauen would be same. In Sanskrit the cases are more, combination of the eight cases (including vocative) and the three vacans, along with the three lingas, gives us a very rich vocabulary covering almost everything. German is far poorer. They lack instrumentive (karan), ablasive (pancami), locative (saptami) ...

The Independence Day ushers in a message of freedom and hope. But the key question is - Freedom from what? and what is the definition of freedom or liberation? Many a great sacrifices are made for liberation of every country. Many heroic souls lay down their lives for the future generations to survive and succeed. However future generations tend to forget them and in their lethargy and ignorance do not understand the sacrifices, or are afraid of them. Because of this failure to understand and appreciate the sacrifices and need to preserve the legacy of those sacrifices, they soon run into grave danger and are ultimately destroyed. Then again comes another set of heroic souls to liberate the rest. Thus this cycle continues ad nauseum . However nobody can deny that freedom is a basic need of the mankind. Nobody wants to remain as slaves. While now education and awareness have increased appreciably this is all the more evident. Worldwide fundamentalism, which is a major impediment a...

Swami Vivekananda also realized that the three schools of thoughts – Dualistic (Dvaita), qualified non dualists (Visistadvaitas) and monists (Advaitas) are in reality not different from each other, but rather are various steps towards the ultimate goal. One would start with dualism where there is a personal God to whom one can pray and whom one can love and worship, one would then realize that this personal God has become all living beings and the world (qualified non dualism) and from there by proceeding further one would be able to perceive the unity of every thing with the Supreme Godhead or Brahman and know the world to be actually non existing, all that is existing is this Brahman. The following words summarizes his core philosophy - "Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this Divinity within by controlling nature, external and internal. Do this either by work, or worship, or psychic control, or philosophy -- by one, or more, or all of these -- and ...

Swamiji’s teachings are categorized into a) the states of existence and their attainment through evolution b) the different states themselves, esp. the higher states of divine joy and bliss c) the need for such a journey d) the means and impediments in such a journey. The chief impediment in attaining the supreme knowledge as per Vedantic doctrine is Maya or the divine illusion. It is the attachment to the worldly life that is the chief characteristics of Maya which is responsible for ignorance. Just as absence of light is darkness, the absence of knowledge is ignorance. Swamiji says that the knowledge exists within us but is shrouded by Maya just as a cloud covers the sun. Only when the cloud is dispelled the sun shines. Similarly we are able to conquer Maya through detachment and dispassion, we are able to realize our Self or see God. The means as prescribed by Swamji are the fourfold path. The first one is Karma or Selfless action (an action in which one has no right to th...

Swamiji provides us with means of embarking on this journey. These means are not at all theoretical. Even though both the means and ends are prescribed in countless scriptures, they are least understood and it only takes a spiritual giant like Swamiji to decipher it for the laymen and to make spiritual giants out of them. A world teacher like Swamiji only teaches what he himself realizes and only a person who has attained the summit like him can describe the summit as well as the steps to climb it. As Sri Ramakrishna said, only a prince can traverse throughout the palace. He can go up till the highest floor and come back to the lowermost one. Only one who can go to the roof and come down can know that both the roof and the stairs are made of the same material and can describe the steps leading to the roof. The roof is the goal – the knowledge of advaita, while the steps are the various states. Swamiji therefore proclaimed that one only moves from lower truth to higher truth and...

Swami Vivekananda’s teachings can be summarized in this manner – Human life is a journey from an animal state to a divine state. Each state has a spectrum where the manifestation of that state varies in degree. The entire state of journey itself is a spectrum, the variation being in the degree of manifestation of the Shakti or the divine energy within us. At the highest end a human may attend the state of Advaita or Oneness with God, which Swamiji calls as “Christ Man” or “Buddha Man.”.  At the lowest state is the brute who is no better than the lowest animal, who takes great pleasure only in the senses, through eating, sleeping, enjoyment and in sexual  intercourse .  In between we have the human state where compassion, kindness, love and intellectual pursuits are the chief characteristics and these dominate over the animal instincts. The pleasure is now in higher and nobler pursuits like  literary   art, culture, music, intellectual discussions, poet...

He was dead against sectarianism. In his own words, “ All this fight between sects and all those differences in dogmas will not be remembered anymore, and quarrels between your religion and my religion will have vanished altogether, when mankind will understand that there is but one eternal religion, and that is the perception of the divine within .” We can see in the world around us a massive change, compared to the late nineteenth century in which he appeared. India is now more self confident and of late has seen tremendous activity. Indian women were not only actively pursued education soon after the beginning of twentieth century, but also participate side by side, along with their male colleagues, in the freedom movement. His ideals of helping others have taken a firm root and countless voluntary organizations have sprung up, who, though not explicitly subscribing to his ideals, nevertheless perform work which would be much to his liking, in various spheres. Interfaith so...

Some scholars say that his teachings differ from that of his Guru Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa, whose teachings are more direct. With due respect to them and with my limited understanding, I think they have either not understood Ramakrishna or they have not understood Vivekananda, or both. Swami Vivekananda’s teachings are the essence of the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna, only made more suitable for the understanding of Western audience, whom he prepared for receiving the sublime teachings of Ramakrishna. There is no difference between teachings of Sri Ramakrishna and Vivekananda. One can be easily interpreted in the light of the other and it is necessary to study both in order to have a holistic understanding of the Vedanta in general and Ramakrishna-Vivekananda ideals in particular. In fact he was the one who understood his Guru perfectly, in all dimensions. One of those scholars pointed out that though his guru was never into politics and was always concerned about God realizatio...

To say that he was liberal would be an understatement as he had greatest respect for all religions and sects. He never lost this, despite the harsh treatment that he received in the hands of the Christian missionaries. Some of the best and most liberal minds of the Western churches like the Church of England and Unitarian churches of  America  were his friends and many of them used his teachings or invited him to speak from their podiums on Sundays. He was an ardent lover of Jesus Christ. One of the books that he always kept in possession during his itinerant days was Imitation of Christ by Thomas A Kempis. It was his genuine and sincere love for the greatest ideal of Christian world, that enhanced his appeal among the liberal section of the populace and the intelligentsia who were fed up with dogmas and doctrines devoid of love or tolerance. His teachings on the positive side, the divinity appealed to them in contrast to the Church’s over emphasis on sins. His Karmic theory...