Everyday Geeta

May 22, 2011 Today's "The Sunday Times" in Singapore had a great Classic Peanuts cartoon strip. In the wonderful 'ladder of fall' metaphor that occurs in the 62nd & 63rd verse of Chapter 2, Śrī Kṛṣṇa delineates the steps that lead us to anger and from anger to complete loss of self-respect and possibly destruction. It all starts from constantly thinking of something we want; this leads to attachment that gives rise to a craving for the object of desire; anger rises when the object is not attained; anger deludes the intellect; this delusion makes us forget time, place and the people involved; this 'forgetfulness' leads to a loss of intelligence which in turn leads one to destruction. Here, our protagonist perfectly embodies the statement in 2-63: क्रोधाद्भवति सम्मोहः सम्मोहात्स्मृतिविभ्रमः krodhaadbhavati sammohaH sammohaatsmR^itivibhramaH . From anger comes "delusion" ; from delusion "loss of memory". Hari Om and Namaskaar until the...

May 18, 2011 There is a report in the BBC news magazine on the cost of raising children in the UK. I don't doubt that parents like me, in every part of the world, would agree that costs of raising our children have gone up significantly compared to what our parents spent on raising us. My eyes popped out when I read this quote: "Technology is also playing its part - with nearly one fifth of parents of children aged 0-4 years having bought a television for their baby's bedroom, rising to 28% of parents of children aged 15-24." How mad are we to think that infants and even toddlers require their own TV set? Let's not even discuss the amount of junk food advertising that these children will see by the time they're teenagers. कामरूपेण कौन्तेय दुष्पूरेणानलेन च ||३-३९|| kaamaruupeNa kaunteya dushhpuureNaanalena cha .. 3\-39.. This constant enemy of the wise in the form of 'desire, ' which is difficult to be appeased, like fire Here, Śrī Kṛṣṇa describes de...

May 17, 2011 My eyes lit up when I saw a tiny Chinmaya Mission booklet called "Geeta in Daily Life" by Swami Tejomayanandaji . What perfect synergy for my blog! For me, the book stands out for Guruji's simple, yet elegant, summarization of samatvam, equanimity as seen in several verses in the Bhagavad Geeta. Guruji himself refers to shloka 6-8 and 6-9. समलोष्टाश्मकाञ्चनः samaloshhTaashmakaa~nchanaH To whom a lump of earth, a stone and gold are the same सुहृन्मित्रार्युदासीनमध्यस्थद्वेष्यबन्धुषु | साधुष्वपि च पापेषु समबुद्धिर्विशिष्यते ।। ६-९ ।। suhR^inmitraaryudaasiinamadhyasthadveshhyabandhushhu . saadhushhvapi cha paapeshhu samabuddhirvishishhyate .. 6\-9.. He who is of the same mind to the good-hearted, friends, enemies, the indifferent, the neutral, the hateful, relatives, the righteous and the unrighteous, he excels. Guruji concludes the topic on equanimity by stating: "In our relationship with people, equanimity (samabuddhi) means acceptance of all. With respec...

May 14, 2011 I came across an interesting post titled "Dharma's Good News: You Are Not a Sinner!" by Rajiv Malhotra . This brought to mind how in the Bhagavad Geeta, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, effectively redefines sin. In Geeta 3-9, Śrī Kṛṣṇa states that any action performed for a higher purpose (for the sake of yaGYa; in the Geeta, yaGYa is not merely as Vedic ritual but anything done selflessly), liberates the doer while anything done selfishly binds the doer. Śrī Kṛṣṇa drives home the point by going further in the 13th verse: यज्ञशिष्टाशिनः सन्तो मुच्यन्ते सर्वकिल्बिषैः | भुञ्जते ते त्वघं पापा ये पचन्त्यात्मकारणात् ||३-१३|| yaGYashishhTaashinaH santo muchyante sarvakilbishhaiH . bhuJNjate te tvaghaM paapaa ye pachantyaatmakaaraNaat.h .. 3-13..   The righteous, who eat the "remnants of the sacrifices" are freed from all sins; but those sinful ones, who cook food (only) for their own sake, verily eat but sin. 3-13 According to Śrī Kṛṣṇa, anyone who works selfishly with no i...

May 8, 2011 Today is the auspicious occasion that is both Śri Ādi Śaṅkarāchārya jayanti as well as the birthday of Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayanandaj i. In the Chinmaya Mission publication, was thrilled to find "Śaṅkarā - the Missionary" , has a beautiful chapter on the 4 senior disciples of Śri Ādi Śaṅkarāchārya, Śri Padmapāda, Śri Hastāmalaka, Śri Suresvarā and Śri Totakāchārya. My own prostrations to my Gurudev for opening my eyes to the glories of Śri Ādi Śaṅkarāchāryaji and his stupendous achievements. Jñanānanda Bhārati goes further to draw parallels from the various slokā-s of the Bhagavad Gltā. And about the famous line, which occurs twice in the Gltā (IX-34 and XVIII-65): manmanā bhava mad-bhakto madyājī mām namaskuru. There are four paths indicated with one goal to reach - that is Me. He says : The first path manmanā bhava (with mind ever concentrated upon Me) fits in with the ever inward turned Hastāmalaka. The second process mad-bhaktaḥ (devoted to Me) can be...

April 30, 2011 Sometime back I had a post on Bhagavan's Vibhhoti as seen in a time lapse video of the Aurora Borealis. This time a link from mashable.com points us to 10 beautiful examples of time lapse photography. In every one of these, geeks across the world have leveraged digital photography to open our eyes to new ways of seeing nature's glory. For the Geeta lover, these are occasions to reflect on shloka 10-41 in which Śri Kṛṣṇa exhorts us to see Him in everything that is "glorious, prosperous or powerful in any way". My specific favorities among those are: 1. Moonlight and Milky way rising at Daigenta Canyon in Japan. 2. Startrail Timelapse Compilation - Nevada Nights Hari Om and Namaskaar until the next post.