Everyday Geeta

August 29, 2013 बाँसुरी की विशेषता - परम पूज्य सवामी तेजोमयानन्दजी (English translation below) गोपियाँ तो जलती थीं इस बाँसुरी से । बोले हमारे अधिकार को छीनती है यह बाँसुरी । इन होठों पर हमारा अधिकार है । लेकिन जब तक यह बाँसुरी उनकी होठों पर लगी रहती है, तब तक हमें तो इनका अास्वादन मिलता ही नहीं । भगवान की ऐसी प्रीति है इसके ऊपर कि सदा इसे कमर में खोंस कर रखते हैं । वे इसे इधर-उधर कहीं नहीं रखते । एक ने उससे पूछा, "ऐ बाँसुरी, तूने क्या पुण्य किया था जो भगवान् तुझे अपने साथ रखते हैं?" बोले, "मैं धूप में तपती रही हूँ, तुमको पता है?" देखो बाँसुरी बनने के पहले तो वह बाँस के रूप में रहती है । बाँस का पेड़ पहले जमीन में रहता है, फिर बाहर अाकर वह सूरज की गरमी, धूप, बारिश अादि सब सहन करता है । बाँस का वृक्ष जब बढता है तो इसे सब सहन करना पडता है कि नहीं? कितना तप करता है वह । इतना तप करने के बाद फिर उसको उखाडते हैं, काटते हैं, वह सब भी उसे सहन करना पडता है । फिर उसमे छेद करते हैं । एक ही नहीं, सात-सात छेद कर डालते हैं । अब बताओ, कोई हमारे ऊपर छिद्र बनाने लगे तो हमें कैसा लगे...

August 28, 2013 PS: Thank You, Chinmaya Prakashan ! If you are not on facebook, then click here . Hari Om and Namaskaar until the next post

August 25, 2013 A while back I had posted on "Redefining Sin". I somehow missed a very good quote in the Holy Geeta by Param Pujya Gurudev, Swami Chinmayanandaji . In Geeta 10-3, there is a discussion of one who is "freed from all sins" , सर्वपापैः प्रमुच्यते In his commentary on Geeta 10-3, Swamiji says: An individual is not punished for his sins, but he is punished by his sins. Sin is a self-insulting act arising out of a misunderstanding in the sinner as to his identity. When one wanders away from one's own Real Nature as the Self, identifies oneself with the happenings of the world and behaves as a mass of repulsive flesh, or a bundle of throbbing emotions, or a pack of ideas, one is in a manner, dishonouring one's Godly dignity and divine status. Such acts and thoughts chain a person down to a pursuit of the low pleasures only, never allowing him to rise above and climb the higher peaks of real Perfection. On re-discovering the nature of the Self and...

August 24, 2013 Always available here ! Hari Om and Namaskaar until the next post

August 10, 2013 I was reminded that Mme Marie Curie would be a wonderful addition to my continuing series on role models by this post on brainpickings.org. Someday, Maria Popova, the brain behind this wonderfully curated website might herself feature in this blog. I cannot do better than what Maria Popova highlights from the New York Times obituary on July 5, 1934. Few persons contributed more to the general welfare of mankind and to the advancement of science than the modest, self-effacing woman whom the world knew as Mme. Curie. Her epoch-making discoveries of polonium and radium, the subsequent honors that were bestowed upon her — she was the only person to receive two Nobel prizes — and the fortunes that could have been hers had she wanted them did not change her mode of life. She remained a worker in the cause of science, preferring her laboratory to a great social place in the sun. The road which she and her husband had chosen she followed throughout her life, disdaining all po...

August 8, 2013 भक्तोऽसि मे सखा चेति ||४-३|| bhakto.asi me sakhaa cheti .. 4-3.. for you are My devotee and My friend An absolutely adorable picture taken by Arvind Ramteke @ Pandharpur last month during the recent pilgrimage. The month of अाषाढ (ãṣāḍha - typically in the June-July period) is a particularly auspicious time to visit Pandharpur and have darshan of Lord Viṭhobā (विठोबा - the same form captured in this picture). The quote is something sweet that Śrī Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad Geeta. Param Pujya Swami Chinmayanandaji in his Holy Geeta commentary explains why this statement is key to the message of the Bhagavad Geeta. Mind and intellect blossom forth only in a warm climate of love and freedom, friendship and mutual understanding. Hari Om and Namaskaar until the next post