Author: Vasundhara

God

God’s Incarnations – Gandhi

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God’s Incarnations – Gandhi

Om
The Supreme Ideal
Man’s Ultimate Aim is Realization of God.

God
is Sat-Chit-Ananda Existence, Knowledge, Power and Bliss.
He is an Omnipresent, Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omniblissful Mysterious Power.

God is not a person. To affirm that He descends to earth every now and again, in the form of human being, is a partial truth, which merely signifies that such a person lives near to God. Inasmuch as God is omnipresent, He dwells within every human being and all may, therefore, be said to be incarnations of Him. But this leads us nowhere. Rama, Krishna, etc. are called incarnations of God because we attribute divine qualities to them. Whether they actually lived or not does not affect the picture of them in man’s mind.

Marriage and children

Marriage and Spouse – Ramakrishna

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Marriage and Wife – Ramakrishna

 

Sri Ramakrishna: “Pratap’s brother came here. He stayed a few days. He had nothing to do and said he wanted to live here. I came to know that he had left his wife and children with his father-in-law. He has a whole brood of them! So I took him to task. Just fancy! He is the father of so many children! Will people from the neighbourhood feed them and bring them up? He isn’t even ashamed that someone else is feeding his wife and children, and that they have been left at his father-in-law’s house. I scolded him very hard and asked him to look for a job. Then he was willing to leave here.

“Are you married?”

M: “Yes, sir.”

The Master continued, “Have you any children?”

M.  “Yes, sir, I have children.”

Holier than thou ?

After a few minutes Sri Ramakrishna looked at him kindly and said affectionately: “Tell me, now, what kind of person is your wife? Has she spiritual attributes, or is she under the power of avidya?”

M: “She is all right. But I am afraid she is ignorant.”

Master (with evident displeasure): “And you are a man of knowledge!”

M. had yet to learn the distinction between knowledge and ignorance. Up to this time his conception had been that one got knowledge from books and schools. Later on he gave up this false conception. He was taught that to know God is knowledge, and not to know Him, ignorance. When Sri Ramakrishna exclaimed, “And you are a man of knowledge!”, M.’s ego was again badly shocked.

On other occasions, in other conversations, the Master spoke about Marriage as follows:

Sakti alone is the root of the universe. That Primal Energy has two aspects : vidya and avidya. Knowledge and Ignorance. Avidya, Ignorance deludes. Avidya conjures up sex and money which cast the spell. Vidya, Knowledge, begets devotion, kindness, wisdom, and love, which lead one to God. This Vidya must be propitiated, and that is the purpose of the rites of Sakti worship. One must strive to win or regain the favor of Sakti by worshipping Her. Women are, all of them, the veritable images of Sakti. In northwest India, the bride holds a knife in her hand at the time of marriage. The meaning is that the bridegroom, with the help of the bride, who is the embodiment of the Divine Power, will sever the bondage of illusion. This is the ‘ heroic ’ attitude. The bride is the very embodiment of Sakti. Haven’t you noticed, at the marriage ceremony, how the groom sits behind like an idiot ? But the bride—she is so bold.

A wife endowed with spiritual wisdom is a real partner in life. She greatly helps her husband to follow the religious path. After the birth of one or two children they live like brother and sister. Both of them are devotees of God — His servant and His handmaid. Their family is a spiritual family. They are always happy with God and His devotees. They know that God alone is their own, from everlasting to everlasting. They are like the Pandava brothers. They do not forget God, in happiness or in sorrow.

“Once a man realizes God through intense dispassion, he is no longer attached to woman. Even if he must lead the life of a householder, he is free from fear of and attachment to woman. Suppose there are two magnets, one big and the other small. Which one will attract the iron? The big one, of course. God is the big magnet. Compared to Him, woman is a small one. 

A DEVOTEE: “Sir, shall we hate women then?”

MASTER: “He who has realized God does not look upon a woman with the eye of lust; so he is not afraid of her. He perceives clearly that women are but so many aspects of the Divine Mother. He worships them all as the Mother Herself.

 

Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
By Mahendranath Gupta (“M”), His Disciple
Translated from the Bengali by Swami Nikhilananda

Bhagavad Gita Quote 18

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Bhagavad Gita Quote 18

Bhagavad Gita – Chapter 2
Lord Krishna’s Guidance to Arjuna

Verses 64 and 65

The self-controlled man, moving amongst objects with the senses under restraint, and free from attraction and repulsion, attains peace.
In that peace all pains are destroyed, for the intellect of the tranquil-minded soon becomes steady.

Bhagavad Gita Quote 17

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Bhagavad Gita Quote 17

Bhagavad Gita – Chapter 2
Lord Krishna’s Guidance to Arjuna

Verses 62 and 63

When a man thinks of the objects,
attachment to them arises;
from attachment desire is born;
from desire anger arises.
From anger comes delusion;
from delusion the loss of memory;
from loss of memory the destruction of discrimination;
from the destruction of discrimination he perishes.

Aathicchudi

Aathicchudi Guidance Third Set

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Aathicchudi Guidance Third Set

Aathicchudi – Guidance conforming to the Letters of the Tamil Alphabet

By Saint Avvaiyar (First century AD)

Avvaiyar wrote the original poetry in Tamil for Guidance in Life, with a line of Guidance for each letter of the complete Tamil Alphabet, in the correct grammatical order. There are several sets of letters. This is the third set.  Just the English translation is provided here.

 

The Tamil Alphabet’s third set of letters are as follows. These are the syllable “ka” and its variations. Each line of this poem starts with one of these letters in this order.

Invocatory Verse: Let’s worship the Lord who wears the garland of primrose flowers, again and again.

Alphabet continued from previous post:

32. Forget saying hurtful, angry words to others.

33. Keep up your vows.

34. Live while being beneficial to others.

35. Get rid of wickedness, baseness.

36. Don’t give up good character, good nature.

37. Don’t give up good friends.

38. Don’t hurt or ruin others.

39. Try to listen to the wisdom of learned people.

40. Don’t hide the knowledge of your skills from others.

41. Don’t wish to rob or steal from others.

42. Totally give up playing illegal games and sports.

43. Eliminate the troubles in life.

Holier than thou

Holier than thou – Ramakrishna

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Holier than thou – Ramakrishna

 

Sri Mahendra Nath Gupta is familiary known to the readers of the “Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna” by his pen name M.  He kept a diary of all his meetings and experiences with Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and later wrote them in a book. This first, full-fledged volume of  the “Gospel” was  published in Chennai in 1907.

M.’s firt meeting with Sri Ramakrishna

After a little conversation M. saluted the Master and took his leave. “Come again”, Sri Ramakrishna said.

On his way home M. began to wonder: “Who is this serene-looking man who is drawing me back to him? Is it possible for a man to be great without being a scholar? How wonderful it is! I should like to see him again. He himself said, ‘Come again.’ I shall go tomorrow or the day after.”

Holier than thou ?

After a few minutes Sri Ramakrishna looked at him kindly and said affectionately: “You see, you have certain good signs. I know them by looking at a person’s forehead, his eyes, and so on. Tell me, now, what kind of person is your wife? Has she spiritual attributes, or is she under the power of avidya?”

M: “She is all right. But I am afraid she is ignorant.“

Master (with evident displeasure): “And you are a man of knowledge!”

M. had yet to learn the distinction between knowledge and ignorance. Up to this time his conception had been that one got knowledge from books and schools. Later on he gave up this false conception. He was taught that to know God is knowledge, and not to know Him, ignorance. When Sri Ramakrishna exclaimed, “And you are a man of knowledge!”, M.’s ego was again badly shocked.

Note: The Master is not afraid to tell the truth. The Master tries to subdue the ego of the seeker so that the seeker will attain happiness. Humility is one of the core prerequisites to spiritual progress.

Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
By Mahendranath Gupta (“M”), His Disciple
Translated from the Bengali by Swami Nikhilananda