My Gratitude on a Birthday!

December 6, 2011 , Geeta Jayanti

I launched this blog a year ago on Geeta Jayanti day that also happened to be Vaikuntha Ekadashi. On this first birthday, I recall with gratitude those who set me on this path of study:

My mother: Having studied at the National School in Chennai, she was fortunate to have seen great Indian leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi and Shri Chakravarti Rajagopalachari visit the school. With that early inspiration and in that atmosphere, she learnt Hindi and Samskritam. She loved to chant and that has rubbed off on me. Karma Yoga was in her blood.
Nirmala Aunty, the Balavihar sevika who inspired hundreds of Balavihar children in Chembur where I spent my early years. Through the wondrous institution of the Balavihar, she taught Geeta chanting, took children to listen to Gurudev, and instilled a value for seva in those she taught
Of course, Pujya Gurudev. More than anything, this blog is an imperfect reflection of what I gained through Him and the teachers He sent out into the many corners of this world.
Foremost among them is Pujya Swami Tejomayanandaji. It is spiritual teaching that sustains me today.
Pujya Swami Shantanandaji of Chinmaya Vrindavan is a teacher to whom I turn to for guidance all the time.

यद्गत्वा न निवर्तन्ते तद्धाम परमं मम ||१५-६||

yadgatvaa na nivartante taddhaama paramaM mama .. 15\-6..

My Supreme Abode is that having gone to which, they return not.

On Mokshada Ekadashi (the Ekadashi on which, people gain Moksha or Realization through fasting and worship of nArAyaNa), here is this inimitable quote from Pujya Gurudev:

Ghee is the final product of milk after churning. It can never become milk again. Similarly, once you have tasted the bliss of Realization, you cannot 'mix' with the world again. You will always float on top.

Just as chapter 4 says, that there is nothing as purifying as GYAna (ज्ञान - Knowledge of the Self), connoisseurs of Indian food know that nothing adds flavor to food like ghee.

Hari Om and Namaskaar until the next post

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Geeta Dhyānaṁ 2 - Vyāsā's Vast Intellect

January 7, 2013 Previously on Geeta Jayanti, I had posted on the eternal debt of gratitude to Mother Geeta that is the basis of Geeta Dhyānaṁ. I love Param Pujya Gurudev 's commentary on the Geeta Dhyānaṁ. Pujya Gurudev's commentary is after the introduction to the Bhagavad Geeta in the commentary on Chapters 1 & 2 published by the the Chinmaya Mission. I personally believe it should be a book by itself. After invoking Mother Geeta, we now pay tribute to the wise Vyāsa Rishi - the Guru whose Jayanti marks Guru Pūrnima every year. Pujya Gurudev starts His tribute to Veda Vyāsā in his commentary on the 1st verse of the Dhyānaṁ. Vyāsa, the father of the Vedās, who, first collected, edited and published the Veda texts and who thereafter, gave us the dialectics of Vedānta in his Brahma Sūtra, himself a great man of realization, was indeed well fitted for the job. The ancient seer had both the mastery of the theoretical science of religion - Hinduism and also the practical expe

Geeta in Literature - IF by Rudyard Kipling

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In every field, let Dharma flourish - क्षेत्रे क्षेत्रे धर्म कुरु

August 9, 2012 Swamini Vimalanandaji has done a series of talks at the Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA) called "406 SMS – Sure Mantras for Success from Bhagwad Geeta" (item 406 at this AMA link ). In this she has a very interesting take on the 1st line of the Bhagavad Geeta. धर्मक्षेत्रे कुरुक्षेत्रे १-१ dharmakShetre kurukShetre 1-1 <i> on the holy plain of Kurukshetra... </i> Swamini turns that slightly and says, क्षेत्रे क्षेत्रे धर्म कुरु - kShetre kShetre dharma kuru. Swamini goes on to establish that we can use this mantra to make that: "In every aspect of society, must be pervaded by Dharma" Hari Om and Namaskaar until the next post

Everyday Geeta

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