Everyday Geeta

January 29, 2013 Continuing the posts on the glory of the Lord's vishwarūpa , let us examine verse 11-7 when Śrī Kṛṣṇa first reveals himself. इहैकस्थं जगत्कृत्स्नं पश्याद्य सचराचरम् | मम देहे गुडाकेश यच्चान्यद् द्रष्टुमिच्छसि ||११-७|| ihaikastham jagat kṛtsnaṁ paśyādya sacarācaram mama dehe guḍākeśa yac-cānyad draṣṭum icchasi 11.7 Now behold, O Gudakesha, in this Body, that the whole universe centred in My Body, including the moving and the unmoving and whatever else you desire to see. Now see in this picture, a dramatic view of sunset over the Himalayas. In this, a flock of birds (चर - the moving) is set against a breathtaking backdrop of the evening sun, the clouds and the mountains (अचर - the unmoving). Pause. Take a deep breath.  Behold the Lord's विश्वरूप ! His Cosmic Form! Hari Om and Namaskaar until the next post

January 25, 2013 After my previous post on Vyāsā's vast intellect , I felt I had failed in describing Sage Vyāsa's greatness. Just a couple of days ago, I recalled two of the dhyāna-shlokās of the vishhNusahasranaamaM. They are exquisite in their description of Sage Vyāsā's glory. Here they are: व्यासं वसिष्टनप्तारं शक्ते: पौत्रमकल्मषम् । पराशरात्मजं वन्दे शुकतातं तपोनिधिम् ।। vyaasaM vasishhThanaptaaraM shakteH pautramakalmashham.h. paraasharaatmajaM vande shukataataM taponidhim.h .. Param Pujya Swami Krishnanandaji has provided a beautiful translation : I bow before you O Vyasa, The treasure house of penance, The great grand son of Vasishta. The grand son of Shakthi, The son of Parasara. And the father of Shuka. व्यासाय विष्णुरूपाय व्यासरूपाय विष्णवे । नमो वै ब्रह्मनिधये वासिष्ठाय नमो नमः ।। vyaasaaya vishhNu-rUpaaya vyaasa-rUpaaya vishhNave namo vai brahma-nidhaye vAsishhThAya namo namaH. Again Param Pujya Swami Krishnanandaji's translation but this time with a slig

January 20, 2013 This is a continuation of my post on the Vishwarūpa, Lord's cosmic form. As an adult, I learned that Śrī Kṛṣṇa revealed the Vishwarūpa to Arjuna on the Kurukshetra battlefield. The wonder returned. I came across an article that described how Robert Oppenheimer, the “father of the atomic bomb” (in America) had recalled Bhagavad Geeta verses 11-12 & 11-32: “A passage from the Bhagavad-Gita, the sacred epic of the Hindus, flashed into his mind: If the radiance of a thousand suns / were to burst into the sky, / that would be like / the splendor of the Mighty One— Yet, when the sinister and gigantic cloud rose up in the far distance over Point Zero, he was reminded of another line from the same source: I am become Death, the shatterer of worlds.” . Today, as I comfortably sit in my air-conditioned office browsing the worldwide web, I often wonder at the lord who has gifted us this wondrous, unbelievable world of the Internet as our own divya-chakshu (divine sight)

January 16, 2013 “Stop Kanhaiya! Don’t swallow the mud!” Yashoda screamed as she ran across the courtyard. Baby Krishna looked up innocently at Yashoda, as though to say, “Who? Me? Now, what did I do?” “Beta! Kanhaiya! Open your mouth. NOW!” Kṛṣṇa knew there was no hoodwinking his mother in this state of panic. His heart melted. He looked up with big eyes at his mother’s concerned face. He opened his mouth wide. Suddenly, the world she knew vanished. All Yashoda saw was the entire universe of stars, planets, galaxies, the past, present and future all swirling around rushing past, tearing apart her very concept of the world. “Kanhaaaaaaaaa! I can’t....” and Yashoda swooned. To the world, she lay unconscious but the wondrous expression on her face indicated that she was in a trance of Krishna-mayam-jagat. This story that I first heard as a Chinmaya Balavihar child always fascinated me. “Really?” I thought? Could even a divine child make the entire universe appear in his mouth? “Why di

Jan 10, 2013. I am sure greater people than I will be extolling Swami Vivekananda on Jan 12, 2013, the day that marks the 150th birth Anniversary of this great man who brought about a Indian renaissance calling it a "man making religion". I first want to bring to your attention that the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda are available online here and at the Belurmath website . In my own mind, Lokamanya Tilak, although a contemporary, Mahatma Gandhi, and Param Pujya Gurudev all are on a continuum of this renaissance. I first want to quote Swamiji's words to banish the academic nonsense that is out there regarding the dating of the ancient Hindu texts. Swami Vivekananda clearly says: The origin of ancient Sanskrit is 5000 B.C.; the Upanishads [are at least] two thousand years before that. Nobody knows [exactly] how old they are. The Gita takes the ideas of the Upanishads and in [some] cases the very words. They are strung together with the idea of bringing out, in a co

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