Everyday Geeta

June 30, 2012 Today is Pujya Guruji Swami Tejomayanandaji's 62nd birthday. Pujya Guruji now has been teaching Srimad Bhagavad Geeta, the Upanishads and other Vedantic texts for close to 40 years. He embodies devotion in and through his teaching.  He is also a Samskritam scholar and has composed numerous texts and songs in Samskritam.  I particularly love Guruji's beautiful, soulful composition, his tribute in honor of Mother Geeta. It is the "Śrīmadbhagavadgītā Aṣṭottaraśata Nāmāvali, 108 Worshipful Glories of the Bhagavad Gītā." It is included in the Holy Geeta Ready Reference published by the Chinmaya International Foundation and available for purchase at this link . At your next Gita Jayanti celebrations, chanting this as part of a shodasa upachara puja of Srimad Bhagavad Geeta would be a beautiful addition. What better way to share Pujya Guruji's tribute to Mother Geeta herself? Or as Guruji describes it in mantra 107: ॐ श्रीकृष्णप्रियतमायै नमः । Om śrīkṛṣṇ...

June 24, 2012 Following on the series on Indian names in the Geeta, we can now look at 'Paartha' (पार्थ - pārtha), a name which occurs 41 times in the Bhagavad Geeta. This has become popular name for babies nowadays as against the name Paarthasaarathi (पार्थसारथी), which was more prevalent when I was young. Literally, the name refers to the son of Pritha, another name of Kunti, the mother of the Pāṇdavās in the Mahābhārata. Therefore, the term could refer to all three of Kunti's sons, Yudhishthira, Bhīma or Arjuna. Thanks to the Bhagavad Geeta, most associate the name Pārtha with Arjuna. The word Partha in Samskritam also means Prince (in this online dictionary ) or king according to the Apte Dictionary site . Pujya Guruji Swami Tejomayanandaji has a very interesting explanation. The first letter प (pa) stands for Parameshwara or the Lord. The word अर्थ (artha) means wealth. So, Pārtha refers to the person for whom the Lord, Parameshwara is the only wealth. With this cont...

June 20, 2012 (This guest post is by Smt Arundhati Sundar. She heard Swami Swaroopanandaji's talk on Anger in Singapore on May 27, 2012 at the RELC Auditorium organized by the Chinmaya Seva Centre . This post is not intended as a report of the talk.) The topic was "Anger: Burn It, Harness It." Pujya Swami Swaroopanandaji was talking about an emotion that is universally experienced,  equally deplored, to a jam packed auditorium. Swamiji painted vivid word images of anger in all its gradations from its mildest form to its gloriously full-throated form. Irritation, annoyance, exasperation, - the commonplace mild forms of the emotion appear innocent enough, yet end up clouding our days. But the emotion that ends up hijacking our happiness is self destructive. Like the soda bottle, just open the lid, it fizzes up and equally quickly splutters out; Like the meteor, enter into our inner space with a sudden flash, blazing trail burning bright, but also burns out quickly; Like th...

June 17, 2012 I had earlier started a series on Indian names in the Bhagavad Geeta and launched it with a post on Ananya. Ideally, that series should have been launched with a post on Arjuna since it is his name that appears over 40 times in the Geeta, compared to only 12 times for the name 'Krishna'. Arjuna is a beautiful name and I am glad to see that Indian parents still name their children Arjuna since people of any nationality should find it easy name to pronounce. In Shri VS Apte's 'The Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary', the word Arjuna is defined variously as 'white', 'clear, bright, of the color of day', 'silvery'. 'Arjuna' is also the name of a species of tree. The dictionary provides one beautiful quote by Arjuna (I guess it is Arjuna in the Mahabharata, though not stated explicitly in the dictionary) करोमि कर्म शुद्धं च तेन मामर्जुनं विदुः - 'I perform actions that are pure, hence know me as Arjuna.' Pujya G...

June 16, 2012 As we were driving on Saturday, Aung San Suu Kyi's Nobel Peace Prize event was being broadcast live on BBC Radio. Ms Suu Kyi's speech grabbed my attention right away and her introduction directly plays into the theme of the Karma Chronicle posts .   Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. She could not travel to Oslo to accept it for fear that the military dictatorship in Burma (now Myanmar) at the time would not let her re-enter the country where Ms Suu Kyi was leading the fight for democracy. Clearly, her life story is such that Ms Suu Kyi could just as easily be a role model as I have discussed it in these pages.  Long years ago, sometimes it seems many lives ago, I was at Oxford listening to the radio programme Desert Island Discs with my young son Alexander. It was a well-known programme (for all I know it still continues) on which famous people from all walks of life were invited to talk about the eight discs, the one book beside...

June 12, 2012 ॐ गुणातीताय नमः | OM guNAtItAya namaH . This is one of the mantras in Param Pujya Gurudev's Paduka Puja ashtottaram (a collection of 108 mantras). The term guNAtIta - one who is beyond the three guNas of sattva, rajas and tamas is clearly explained in Bhagavad Geeta 14-25 मानापमानयोस्तुल्यस्तुल्यो मित्रारिपक्षयोः | सर्वारम्भपरित्यागी गुणातीतः स उच्यते ||१४-२५|| maanaapamaanayostulyaH-tulyo mitraaripakShayoH . sarvaarambhaparityaagii guNaatiitaH sa uchyate .. 14\-25.. He who is the same in honour and dishonour; the same to friend and foe, and who has abandoned all (selfish) undertakings, He is said to have crossed beyond the GUNAS. It is difficult to understand what this means in everyday life. My doubts disappeared when I came across this beautiful quote from Pujya Gurudev's letter in the June 2012 edition of Tapovan Prasad . The quote is from a letter that was originally published as a letter from Swamiji in the May 1968 issue of the same magazine. From time t...

June 5, 2012 Is there anyone out there who has not been bored to death when someone went on and on about some topic? Param Pujya Swami Chinmayanandaji discovered the PERFECT antidote. I was reminded of this when I came across the reference to it in lesson 6 of the Gita online course conducted by the Chinmaya International Foundation . I first saw this in Pujya Guruji's talks on the Yoga Vāsiṣṭha Sāra Saṅgrahaḥ . Once our Gurudev, Swami Chinmayanandaji, was asked whether he was bored because of the presence of an extremely talkative person. He replied, "He talks, the sound reaches the tympanum and the vibrations reach the brain, the intellect understands and orders the head to nod. Why should I get bored? I stand apart from it all!" The verse of interest here is Geeta 3-28. तत्त्ववित्तु महाबाहो गुणकर्मविभागयोः | गुणा गुणेषु वर्तन्त इति मत्वा न सज्जते ||३-२८|| tattvavittu mahaabaaho guNakarmavibhaagayoH . guNaa guNeshhu vartanta iti matvaa na sajjate .. 3-28.. But He, t...

June 5, 2012 Sometime ago I had started a series of posts on role models based on Geeta 3-21 (यद्यदाचरति श्रेष्ठ: - yadyadaacharati shreshhThaH). I came across a reference to Gopichand Pullela in lesson 6 of the Gita online course conducted by the Chinmaya International Foundation . Gopichand Pullela is the second Indian to win the All England Open Badminton Championship in 2001 and is currently the coach for India's Saina Nehwal. After winning the championship, it appears that he was approached by major soft drinks manufacturers to promote their product (reportedly Coke or Pepsi) and he turned this down simply because he was convinced that such aerated drinks were bad for health. The wikipedia entry for Shri Pullela quotes him as saying, "As a result of aggressive marketing by cola companies, people have stopped drinking healthy drinks like fruit juices and people in the villages have actually begun to believe that soft drinks are good for health. Aerated drinks are not on...

June 3, 2012 I have had a series going on Gita in Bollywood. My originally intent was to avoid the various Bhajans (devotional songs) that make their appearance frequently in Indian films since that would be too easy and make me a lazy blogger. However, a recent viewing of the Baiju Bawra song, "Man tadapat Hari darasan ko aaj" (click here for the lyrics from smriti.com) made me change my mind. After seeing the Youtube video below, you have to agree that this is probably the earliest and best rendition of devotional music in a Hindi film. Remember Geeta 7-16: चतुर्विधा भजन्ते मां जनाः सुकृतिनोऽर्जुन | आर्तो जिज्ञासुरर्थार्थी ज्ञानी च भरतर्षभ ||७-१६| chaturvidhaa bhajante maa.n janaaH sukR^itino.arjuna . aarto jiGYaasurarthaarthii GYaanii cha bharatarshhabha .. 7-16.. Four kinds of virtuous men worship Me, O Arjuna, the dissatisfied, the seeker of (systematised) knowledge, the seeker of wealth, and the wise, O best among the Bharatas. While listening to / watching bhaja...

May 31, 2012 Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi , the great realized Master of Arunachala had selected 42 verses from the Bhagavad Geeta that he considered the most important. This selection is published by Sri Ramanasramam as " श्री गीतासार The Song Celestial ". The 4th verse is highlighted in the book with the words, "Bhagavan selected this verse as the most important in the Bhagavad Gita." अहमात्मा गुडाकेश सर्वभूताशयस्थितः | अहमादिश्च मध्यं च भूतानामन्त एव च ||१०-२०|| ahamaatmaa guDaakesha sarvabhuutaashayasthitaH . ahamaadishcha madhya.n cha bhuutaanaamanta eva cha .. 10\-20.. I am the Self, O Gudakesha, dwelling in the Heart of every being; I am the Beginning and the Middle and likewise the End of all beings. Translated by Shri Munagala Venkataramayya, later Swami Ramananda Saraswati This verse occurs just before the Lord launches into describing his own Vibhooti in 75 different ways. Param Pujya Swami Sivanandaji has this in his commentary on the Bhagavad Geet...