Oriya poem

"Your hut stands outside the city
Oh, untouchable maid
The bald Brahmin passes sneaking close by
Oh, my maid, I would make you my companion
Kanha is a kapali, a yogi
He is naked and has no disgust
There is a lotus with sixty-four petals
Upon that the maid will climb with this poor self and dance."

---
found it somewhere on web, poet is kanhupa .. Mystical in nature will comment on this perhaps.

हाथ

हाथ लिखना चाहते थे
पर क्या लिखते ?
गद्य ? पद्य ?

हाथ जुड़ भी सकते थे, दोनो
पर क्या बनते ?
अभिवादन? याचना ?

हाथ थाम भी सकते थे कोई और हाथ
पर क्या देते ?
स्नेह ? सांत्वना ?

बनाने में हाथ, जिसका था हाथ
कदापि कहना चाहता था
मैं हाथ नही आऊँगा
हाथों को खोल दो

UG Speaks - 3

It went on and on in its own way -- peculiar things -- but never did I say to myself "Well, (Laughs) I am getting there, I am nearer to that." There is no nearness to that, there is no far awayness from that, there is no closeness to that. Nobody is nearer to that because he is different, he is prepared. There's no readiness for that; it just hits you like a ton of bricks.

Vishnu -- Lord of the past 2 (too)

Vishnu -- Lord of the past too

Enjoying a holiday, it struck me while taking bath that Vishnu is also lord of the past.

Vishnu in Vishnu Sahasranaam's(sahasranamam) opening verse is described as:

विश्वं विष्णुर्वषट्कारो भूतभव्यभवत्प्रभुः।
भूतकृद्भूतभृद्भावो भूतात्मा भूतभावनः॥१॥

We can become argumentative sanskrit pandits of Kashi and decipher Bhoota, as not 'past' but 'beings'. But then one more post will be required to connect the sublime invariance in the two seemingly contradictory interpretations of the word 'Bhoota'.

In any case Sahastranaam(sahasranamam) gives more expansive characteristic to Vishnu calling him, namely , bhoot bhavya bhavat(past,future,present). This is expected from the expansive Vishnuite tendencies which seek inclusion through constructs. The ever pervasive 'Vishnu' engulfs everything and appears everywhere hahahaha.

Let me put this semantics to rest, may be another post on Vishnu sometime!

However for those who are inclined to chew on this further there is some hint in the post script.
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PS: सर्वः शर्वः शिवः स्थाणुर्भूतादिर्निधिरव्ययः।
संभवो भावनो भर्ता प्रभवः प्रभुरीश्वरः॥४॥
स्वयंभूः शम्भुरादित्यः पुष्कराक्षो महास्वनः।
...
भूतावासो वासुदेवः सर्वासुनिलयोऽनलः
...
महाह्रदो महागर्तो महाभूतो महानिधिः॥८६॥

Bhootnaatha - Lord of the past

Boothnatha: LORD of the PAST

This blog has in the past argued, that memory(past) is only fundamental tense that makes up human experience. You cannot perceive without knowledge, which is nothing but a memory (or no knowledge which is in turn knowledge about no-knowledge)

The latent hardwired tendencies(memories) control the emotive response towards incidents/people/actions and also imagination.

All this buried baggage of knowledge, which is nothing but 'past', resurfaces again and again and we go through the same mental responses again and again. When you recognize how past has clutched you, how you go through in your mind same memories again and again compulsively. Memories about how you went through incidents. Memories about how you wanted them to happen and memories about how you would like to experience life which is yet to happen. Once this recognition happens it gives you the freedom to make the present free from past.

You become bhootnaatha by becoming Lord of the Past. When the repetitive tendencies of mind are controlled. When the same incidents which evoked panic/despair/irritation/restlessness earlier do not create them anymore, know that you are Bhootnatha. When memories of life that was, do not have an emotional pull left. When the imagined life which is yet to happen is no longer dwelled upon iteratively, know that you are Bhootnatha. You are liberated from the karmic chakra of thinking obsessively and going through the same "mental imagery route" over and over again.

Then bhootnatha sits in Shamsana(dead/inactive memories) without fear. The fear and burden of memories is no more. The decay of the lifeless past only adds to Bhootnaatha's splendor. It adorns him.

Then when you longer experience your mind the way you experienced in the past, in your action you open your self to the spontaneous, unplanned dimension of life. Time doesnt unsettle you and the fearless Bhootnatha now opens up to be Kala Bhairava, one that time cannot frighten.

----

A related post on Kali is here

Ramana Speaks -- 4

D.: It is difficult to follow. I understand the theory. But what is the practice?

M.: The other methods are meant for those who cannot take to the investigation of the Self. Even to repeat Aham Brahmasmi or think of it, a doer is necessary. Who is it? It is ‘I’. Be that ‘I’. It is the direct method. The other methods also will ultimately lead everyone to this method of the investigation of the Self.

-from Talk 266


from achalayoga blog

Guru strotam - Guru poornima

ततः किं ततः किं ततः किं ततः किं
ततः किं ततः किं ततः किं ततः किं



---
Will add more words here on the strotam , perhaps :-)

अनुभव

जीवन के सारे अनुभव
मैं त्यागता गया
पर जाना की ये भी एक अनुभव था

प्राप्ती की आशा, निराशा

अंत

चाहता था अंत
अंत आया तो, पर
अपने साथ उपरांत लाया
अंत के उपरांत फिर एक प्रारंभ

अंततः शांति कब ?

kya

क्या फिर किया जाए?
जब जिया ना जाए

bandhan

विचारों के अतिरिक्त बंधन क्या ?
और बंधन के अतिरिक्त विचार क्या ?

भाषा के अलावा विचार क्या ?
और विचार के अलावा भाषा क्या ?

mahatvkaanksha

महत्वकांक्षा तो कभी थी ही नही
अब आकांक्षा की भी आकांक्षा नही रही
आकांक्षा का महत्त्व ही क्या , आखिर ?
महत्त्व का महत्त्व क्या ?

प्रश्न चिन्ह ने अंततः
जीवन की गति को विराम दिया

Upadesha Saram rendition

A nice version of Upadesha Saram though incomplete. Rendition is by Shastri and Sharma ji, they are also better known for Rudram and Chakaram recitation.


अहमयं कृतो भवति चिन्वतः |
अयि पतात्यहं निजविचारनम ||

I

Sometimes I feel, that I am there
and then I realize that, I am, is still there

500 miles

If you miss the train I'm on,
You will know that I am gone

Past

What is past? Is there is any past? All the discourse on the much abused term “present moment” aside, the truth is you touch life only through past. Imagine seeing a cup, how you do know it’s a cup ? You know it because you knew it. Even if the object is new you know it in relation to what you already know. So the new knowledge is constructed on old knowledge. If the old knowledge memories let us hypothesize cannot be accessed, the new knowledge cannot be created. So all that is past is nothing but a set of memories, which are accessed in the field of perception that what we call Now. So we know our now through the past. Through the conditioning that happened in the past.

Normally, it is not possible to perceive without bringing in your memories your conditioning i.e. your past. The question is, is it possible to be free of past. Is that perception possible, to look at a cup and never know it’s a cup? Perception which is freed from the slavery of knowledge, perception which is unburdened from the shackles of recognition, is such a perception possible?

Yoga Vashishta Maharamayana

The true book which gives us a picture of Rama's mind and his attitude towards life is Yoga Vashishta. I often wonder why Rama's battle with Ravana(Ramayana) became more famous than Rama's battle with his own spiritual insufficiency(yoga vashishta).

Perhaps this is the nature of mind, it always believes that changing the outer world will give itself satisfaction in the inner world.

The first chapter is "Vairagya Parakaran". It elucidates how dispassion has flowered in Rama. King Dashratha, understandably upset at this self-abnegation by a young prince of 15 years, consults seer Valmiki , who pronounces...

Valmiki: This madness of the Raghu prince
is not from bad luck, nor from lust:
it is his Waking to the dawn
of his Discerning Dispassion

Bring Rama here at once, and we
at once will lead him out of this
delusion, as the winds disperse
a cloud upon a mountain-top.

He will become the Great Suchness,
knowing this Samsara Universe,
with neither happy days nor sad:
pebbles and diamonds the same


In fact the authority with which Rama speaks, he sounds like a Rishi in his own right. He talks about nature of mind, the inability of finding peace through sense fulfillments, his own dispassion towards enjoyment of all kinds.

He says he doesnt want to live, nor does he want to die and wonders what will he do with his kingdom and pleasure objects when the desire to enjoy them is absent in him. He continues to shed enough light on states of Jivan Muktaa's and it seems, these tendencies of Jivan Muktaa's serve as an aspirational drive for Rama.

In one of his final statements, he almost breaks down saying, he has given up everything but still hasnt attained realization. Then suddenly pleads Vashishta to lead him to THAT.

Rama: In the mentations of the Mind, out of the Suchness, the Three Worlds are born. Somewhere, there's no distress without a remedy. Sir, tell
me where is that wonderful place?

Otherwise, Brahmana, if you, knowing and realizing some
precept, decline to teach me what you know, and tell me nothing, then,
since I cannot know it alone, that unsurpassed, that restful peace,
I must now give up this my "I", the Ahamkara EgoSense
I will no longer eat, I will not drink water, I will not put
on new clothes, and I will not attend to my religious duties:
no more sacred bathing, no more food-offerings, none of those things.
No more activity for me, lucky or tenfold-unlucky!


I will try to continue on YV from now on.
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1. verses have been taken from Yoga vashishta google group.
2. Thanks Nari as always :)

Ramana Speaks -- 3

M: is for Maharishi, taken from Talks with RM complete
_______________________________________________________________________
Mrs Jennings: Sri Bhagavan says that the state of Realisation is
freedom from the tyranny of thoughts. Have not the thoughts got
a place in the scheme of things - maybe on a lower plane?
M.: The thoughts arise from the ‘I-thought’ which in its turn arises
from the Self. Therefore the Self manifests as ‘I’ and other thoughts.
What does it matter if there are thoughts or no thoughts?
D.: Are good thoughts helpful for Realisation? Are they not authentic
via media, a lower rung of the ladder, to Realisation?
M.: Yes - this way. They keep off bad thoughts. They must themselves
disappear before the state of Realisation.
D.: But are not creative thoughts an aspect of Realisation and therefore
helpful?
M.: Helpful only in the way said before. They must all disappear in
the Self. Thoughts, good or bad, take you farther and not nearer,
because the Self is more intimate than thoughts. You are Self,
whereas the thoughts are alien to the Self.
D.: So the Self finally absorbs its own creation which had helped its
Realisation. Whereas civilisation wrongly worships and so separates
and ‘short-circuits’ its own creations which had helped its advance.
M.: Are you not distinct from thoughts? Do you not exist without
them? But can the thoughts exist without you?

Krishnam Kalaya Sakhi Sundaram

This is a beautiful composition. I first heard it from Unnikrishnan's magical vocal chords, but the one here is a more a kirtan style rendition. It has those lovely Indian cymbals in the background(khartaal, manjeera etc.), which make you feel its a next door kirtan, yet has beautiful micro tones and classical touch.

Rashid Khan

Reminds me of college days, had the pleasure of enjoying Ustad from an arms distance.

Here is a wonderful, bhairavi bhajan, aaj radha brij ko chali.



And here is an even better, but embedding of this link is disabled. Its a very famous composition, sung by almost every one, Kahiyo re Prabhu Aawan ki

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfSRyEF_leA