God vs Idea of God

In a recent discussion some of my friends(?) were ready to push each other off the roof in order to deduce the existence of God. I realized how shallow we can become, trying to prove our mean arguments, especially about things which we ourselves have no solid understanding of!

Understand that whether god is or god is not, the “idea of god” is a social creation and its an abstract idea. Quite unlike other abstract ideas of Love Silence Beauty which you might experience and you might need to survive happily, you can very well survive on this planet without knowing or understanding the idea of God. Now since this idea is social creation much like any other social construct it has its own ideological support in the society. You might be in favour of this God ideology, a theist or you might be opposed to this God ideology, an atheist.

Both stands are socially programmed and determined. If you subscribe to the belief system to the attributes and the image of god as conceived by some scriptures seers or past prophets you have your own tension. If you don’t accept this image you have your own tension.

So god as an ideology is a mental concept and a belief system and much like any mental concept it can be challenged or defended and is subjected to normal argumentative logic. Both sides then will have their own logics for and against god.

In my understanding both stands have their own validity. It depends on the quality of your consciousness, the depth of your understanding and purity of your purpose.

If you are a Nagarjuna If you are a Mahavira If you are a Brihaspati If you are a UG Krishnamurthy If you are Ramana Mahrishi then God doesn’t exist and this emptiness this Shoonya is your experience. If you are Tulasidas If you are a Thyagaraja If you are a Meera If you are a Rama Krishna then god exists and this completeness this Poorna is your experience.

The catch is experience and experiential understanding of the higher reality which is beyond our current limited perception and experience. The expression of Meera might not be the expression the Mahaveera. To Meera ecstasy is the fulfillment she gets losing her self in the Krishna Identity. To Mahaveera ecstasy is the fulfillment he gets in losing himself in the void of his own inner silence. This or that, it is the state of god, the zone of fulfillment which is paramount and central and not the idea of god.

The idea of god is subject to your petty logic and your petty understanding and you can play your dirty tricks there, prove or disprove him. Win arguments and prove your superiority and your intellectual prowess and impress people. The state of God however is the precious gift which lies concealed in your very silence which humans cannot prove or disprove for when the expression dissolves it begins to happen.

Ignore the people who are trying to prove or disprove understand they have their own axe to grind and only harm happens when you gift your head to their axe. They are window shoppers who have no business in buying the gift of god which existence can offer to them in this body. They are just here to have entertainment and time pass and are contented, fiddling with the ideas of God intellectually throwing their weight around. Neither have their eyes known any tears for God nor have they spent nights in deep silence grappling with questions related to questioning the idea of Divinity (or their own identity).

Seeking is absent in them and nor are they empty, they are filled with their second hand prejudices which they picked up from some stale books or stale thought warehouses or stale minds.

O lalita!

Sound

nAdalOluDai brahmAnandamondavE -- Thyagaraja
Being immersed in the eternal sound vibration, experience supreme bliss


An interesting article on how yogis view Sound.

Yamuna

Having seen Ganga in its mountain phase, in its enchanting rupaas and felt its energetic presence my loyalites had always been with Jhanavai until i went to Gujarat.The land of jai shri krishna. Soon stutimandal came into existence and a beautiful stuti was discovered. Yamunashtakam by Shankara. Who else!






A true poetic beauty made me wonder if I ignored the younger sister of Ganga.
Ganga and Yamnua both complement each other. Ganga, white & majestic, adorns the head of the Karpoor Gauram mostly calm and composed Shiva. Yamuna dark and playful no wonder, enjoys Krishnas company. If Yamuna is the Pingala Ganga would be the Ida of the annamaya kosha.

While ransacking youtube for audio of the amazing stuti.
I also found that lands of Cauvery, Krishna and Godavari also miss Yamuna !

Here is one gem by Ghantashala and one by Ilaiyaraaja.

The Ghantashala one is much more moving. And I should also not ignore my West Indian influence so enjoy this famous famous bhajan too by Oza ji.

To Ganga and Yamuna for gushing open the saraswati within :)

Quiz: guess the chhanda of Yamunashtakam :)

spine

what is spine ?
but your lute
wholes it has seven
who can refute?

hold the breath
let me be torn
if music be,
the food of love
play on.

Funny Subhashit on doctors

O doctor, kin brother of Yamaraj ,I bow to you.
Yama takes away life, but you money too :)

exercise: Indentify all the vibhaktis

A Matter of Taste

It all started, with my association with Vishwanathan Balasubramanian. The comely tambrahm who was exiled to snowy peaks of Switzerland. Much like any Indian boy, both of us hardly knew how to cook. I was experimental and made daal on the first day, right away. With some effort and luck it was, it was, it was "A Victory". It was OK, digestible. The tambrahm however if I understand correctly was a little skeptical in taking initiative and was trying to postpone his agni pareeksha (in kitchen) by exhausting his Chennai packed puliodarai (have I spelled it correctly?). Yeah we had a girl colleague who was our “Mother of all sorts”, but both of us resisted to take cooking lessons from her. And, after all, we are, MEN of HONOUR! I, Cuba Gooding was I think trusting my failed experiments and Vishwanathan (Robert de Niro) Fate.

After a few months of independent experiments we realized that we can divide and rule this hunger- nutrition need. I cooked dal and vegetable, mostly and Vishwa rice(notice). It was easy. The Agastyar from Himalayas was already invading the Dravidian stomach. I took strange liberties, with my interest in nutrition and taste, I was dishing out Nutrela (soya nuggets), pakodas, mutter paneer etc. Things went well, my client ate with the kind of gratitude and satisfaction, South Indians show when they make a trip to Thirumala, their wishes granted. Some things which I remember found special favor with the “thayir sadam” boy were chole, rajma, palak and baingan sabzi.

I understand how much the boy must have craved for sambhar vattal kozumbu and other things that I don’t know (but want to know!) but what could I do. Anyhow, one fine day I made bhindi sabzi to which the boy responded with some visible disagreement. I said kya hua, is it not okay ? He quipped, "how does your mother make it" ? Oh, I was never Mama’s boy u see and paid little attention to “Mothers Recipes”. I said don’t know may be she cooks it the same way.

Finally the Chennai roots of the boy sprung forth, he blurted out his disapproval, how can u make bhindi daaaaa (yaar) sans coconut? This came to me as a shock, Coconut? What is this man talking about? Why would some one put coconut in bhindi ? May be he realized its bad manners to speak thus about food, he lightly said its okay, but politely added "your mother surely must be putting coconut in vegetables". Okay, I was ignorant, but not that much, I had never seen my mother using coconut anywhere except to make mithais or sweet rice.

Finally the enlightenment dawned on me, in his part of the world coconut is to vegetable what chai patti is to tea. I realized, how some things can change but some things could remain same. Daal makhani could be tolerated but it needed to admit kari patta(generously). Tandori roti could be relished, but curd rice should follow. Lassi and Jal Jeera might be "cool" but filter kaapi is also "haaat". The true national integration happens in our stomachs(mouths?) before it happens in our hearts.

Do u know now Sangeetha restaurant in Chennai serves Chettinad Paneer Kurma!

The proof of pudding, will well, still be, in the eating but to some it should be served on plantain leaf.

To Vishwanathan, and to all those memories where tongue rolled as “a matter of taste”.

PS: No offense is meant to any culture state or region. These are private emotions on private net-space.

deva devam bhaje

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eyes

the beginning:
aa piya in nainan mein jo palak dhaanp tohe lun
na main dekhun aur ko, na tohe dekhan dun
chhap tilak sab chheni ..... re tose naina milaike

-Sufi Verse from Khusro

interval:
samam kaya-siro-grivam dharayann acalam sthirah
sampreksya nasikagram svam disas canavalokayan

-gita ch 6 V13

towards the ending:

The Vedas, the Shastras and the Puranas are like prostitutes [attainable to all]. The shambhavi mudra, however, is like a chaste woman, carefully guarded.

-hath yog pradipika Ch 14 V 35

Finally:
na cha shrota jivye na cha ghraan netre
na cha vyom bhurmi na tejo na vuyuhu
chidananda rupah Shivoham Shivoham

- Atmashtakam Shankara Virachitam

hriday ka dwar

hriday ka dwar
khola hai tere liye
kya aaoge
tum aaoge
ek bar
darshan doge!

kya jeevan
yun hi jaayegaa
bina darshan
tere bhagwan!!

din aur raat prabhu
din aur raat
dekhun teri baat din aur raat.

PY-Cosmic chants

Kali

Kaun kehta hai tu kaali ?
O Ma Jagadambe
Laakhon ravi chandra teri
Kaya se hain chamakte !

-by PY (who else)

ananda-dhara

Cool in my head
Hot down there
soothing in the middle
and sweet and painful in the neck
U move in me
Is this the way
u respond to my love ?

think

I think
I think why i think ?
Then i think am just I a thought ?
To whom are these thoughts happening ?
and does that whom exist independent of these thoughts.
and is it possible to know it through thoughts ?

panch prana

It has always been a mystery to me how yogis just by "being" could have such intellectual clarity 5000 years ago, which collective human effort of "doing" has failed to achieve in thousands of years.

Most know about the categorization of prana, few know the techniques to manipulate them, even fewer have felt them and to even few are open the subtle mysteries of of prana.

This great samvaad from Prashna Upanishad is one such dialogue between those very few.

Kausalya, son of Asvala, questioned Pippalada: "O Bhagavan Pippalada:
Whence is this Prana born? How does it come into this body? How does
it abide after it has divided itself? How does it go out? How does it
support what is without? How does it support all within the body?"

He replied: "You ask questions about transcendental matters. I will
explain to thee because you are a great enquirer of Brahman.

This Prana is born of the Atman. As is this shadow in the man, so is
this Prana in the Atman. By the action of the mind this enters into
this body.

As a king commands his officers, saying to them: 'Govern these or
those villages', so does this Prana dispose the other Pranas, each
for their separate allotted work.

The Apana dwells in the organs of excretion and generation: the Prana
itself abides in the eye, ear, mouth and nose. In the middle is
Samana. It distributes the food supplied equally and the seven flames
proceed from it.

This Atman is in the heart. Here there are a hundred and one nerves
(arteries). Each of them has a hundred branches; again every one of
these has seventy-two thousand sub-branches. In these the Vyana
moves.

Again, through one other, the Udana ascending, leads us upwards to
the virtuous world by good work; to sinful worlds by sin: and to the
world of men by virtue and sin combined.

The sun verily is the external Prana. He rises and assists the Prana
in the eye. The goddess of the earth attracts Apana downwards. The
other (between the sun and the earth) is Samana. The wind is Vyana.

The external fire indeed is Udana. Therefore, he whose fire has gone
out, enters another body with his senses absorbed in the mind.

Whatever his thought (at the time of death), with that he attains
Prana: and the Prana united with Udana together with the Jivatma,
leads on to the world thought of. The learned man who knows Prana
thus-his offspring does not perish and he becomes immortal.

He who knows the origin, the entry, the seat, the fivefold
distribution of Prana and its internal state in the body, obtains
immortality, yea, obtains immortality".

Vaastu

In my research on vaastu i am trying to connect vaastu with human spinal centres
and established properties of panch mahabuta.
i will come up with a draft in a fort nights time.
if any of u are intrested in sharing ideas on the above mentioned or contributing
or reading the draft let me know.

mantra

those looking for some internal guidance
can find this mantra powerful

OM
Si Va Ya Na Ma
Ya Na Va Si Ma
Ma Va Ya Na Si
Si Ya Na Ma Va
Va Si Ma Ya Na
OM

yojaka tatra durlabha

Amantram akhraro nasthi
Nasthi moolam anoushdham
Ayogya purushonasthi
Yojaka : tatra durlabha :

Meaning :
There is no word that has no effect of a mantra
There is no herb which has no medicinal effect
There no person who is worthless, but,
Rare indeed is the nourisher and net worker/organizer of talents.

eternal

whats new gets old
whats old, makes way for new
at some point every thing was new
at some point every thing will be old
the game of time
played in your mind
never lets you see
the eternal

bliss

seed of breath
sown prayerfullly
watered by tears
guarded by awareness
finally flowered
bliss unfolded

श्रवण मंगलम श्रीमदादतम भुविगनातिते वृहद जनम्
तव कथामॄतम तप्त जीवनम कवीभिरीडीतम कल्म शापहम

TAV KATHAMRITAM TAPT JIVANAM KAVIBHIRIDITAM KALM SHAPAHAM |
SHRAVAN MANGALAM SHRIMADATATAM, BHUVIGANATITE BHURIDA JANAM