GuNAtita - One who is beyond the त्रिगुण

GuNAtita - One who is beyond the त्रिगुण - Satva, Rajas and Tamas

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 to time, whatever I did, from 1952 onwards till now, has been accepted with hesitation, talked about with suspicion, discussed as a sure failure, as a certain madness, as an unnecessary extravagance, or an an unprofitable utopian theory. The more vigorous the criticism, the more insistent I learnt to be, and till this date, I find all of you have accepted all my programmes, and many of you have benefitted by them.

When the Mission was conceived... crash ... came the criticism. This is unnecessary. Why not join the R. K. Mission or similar other Missions?

As Study Groups were inaugurated ... Will we ever get such people?

Devi Groups ... What a plan for a Swami to conceive and start!

Bala Vihar ... Unnecessary, futile, as we have no workers! And what does Swami know of children's training?

Publication of Books ... Is Swami ripe enough to write commentaries upon Upanishads and Geeta? Is he not too young?

Yagnas ... What an old dilapidated word! Why drag India back to the Vedic period?

Talking in English ... wearing silk ... having a wrist watch ... travelling by plane and car ... living with the rich ... addressing Rotary and Lions ... taking part in (anti) cow-slaughter movement ... visiting the war front in Pakistan ... helping the Vivekananda Rock Memorial Construction Scheme ... going around the world ... wearing European dress on occasion ... visiting even night clubs ... interest in music and painting ... starting the construction of a temple for 3-4 lakhs and a hospital with 200 beds for 30-40 lakhs ... in short everything that the Swami did was unorthodox, shocking and suspect first, a discussion later, a long drawn out controversy next ... until all cools off to a recognition and a beaming joyous co-operation.

I am enumerating these, not as a complaint ... In fact, the consciousness that your critical eyes are ever upon me was a great and noble restraint for me upon myself.

Thank you, Gurudev from this Balavihar child & sevak, this study group member & sevak, enlightened by the Yagnas, books, CDs, DVDs of your Geeta and Upanishad talks, from one who has personally witnessed and benefitted from the Ashrams and temples in Mumbai, Himachal Pradesh, Coimbatore, Kolwan, Piercy (in California) and New Jersey.

My prostrations unto that guNAtitA, Śrī Svāmi Chinmayānandaji Maharaj!...

Hari Om and Namaskaar until the next post

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

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

Geeta in Literature - IF by Rudyard Kipling

September 12, 2011 I came across a nice YouTube video that is an animation of Rudyard Kipling reading his famous poem IF . The full text sourced from wikisource is below: If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too: If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise; If you can dream—and not make dreams your master; If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim, If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same: If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools; If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And los

Parvathy RamanJune 17, 2012 at 8:58 AM
Gurudev is with us now, this moment, a live and vibrant presence, speaking through the spiralling waves of time, in a voice that catapults us into the silence of eternity. He is pulsating in you and me as we connect with him. These are the moments of meditation when he promised to be with us. Who said we have to close our eyes and sit down to meditate!

Everyday Geeta

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