THE POWER OF GOD'S NAME

                                                        

It is established that the NAME of GOD is more powerful than GOD Himself! Innumerable saints, sages and Azwars and Nayanmars have testified to the belief that His Name is more powerful than that of God! It is not necessary to have the vision of God by performing tapas or penance. It is enough if we meditate on Him and recite His name intently with concentration! Sage Valmiki had this experience as he repeated the name “mara’ which on repetition became “Rama” and transformed him into a great poet from being a highway robber! Kruth yuga and Dwapara Yuga, when yagnas were very common and popular are gone and nama sankeertan is the only way for the salvation of mankind!  “ harer namaiva namaiva namaiva mama jivanam  kalau nasthaiva nasthaiva  nasthaiva gathi ranyatha” It is the name of Hari alone that is my Life; There is no other salvation in Kali Yuga  except the name of Hari.

     ‘ Sangita Pitamaha’, Sri Purandara dasa  one of the greatest minstrels who popularized the bhakti movement  glorifies the name of God in every one of his beautiful compositions. He clearly says that he does not require God at all and his dignified presence which is rather difficult. if the strength of his NAME is present, all troubles and impediments shall be destroyed. Gajendra fought with the crocodile for hundreds of years foolishly. It had lost all its strength and energy! It realized its helplessness and to tally surrendered to Lord Narayana! It appealed to Him by calling him ‘ Adi moola” and instantly Hari came running to save His devotee! The Bhagavatha Purana describes how  Lord Vishnu, suddenly came out of Vaikunta, without informing Mahalaksmi and not arming himself with His conch and chakra or calling for Garuda His vahana ! Wondering why the Lord was hastily moving, Lakshmi, Garuda, and sankha and chakra and other devas ran behind the lord! Lord Vishnu, killed the crocodile with his chakra and saved the elephant, Gajendra!

       It is once again the name of Lord Narayana that saved the child devotee Prahlada from the torture of his father Hiranya kasipu.He as allowed to be trampled by elephants, thrown into the sea, put in caves full of serpents and finally forced to drink poison! During all these tortures, it was the name of Narayana that remained on the lips and heart of little Prahlada! He came out unscathed from all the tortures to the horror and astonishment of his father! When Hiranyakasipu challenged his son to show where Hari is, Prahlada said Hari is everywhere, including the pillar present there! To fulfill the words of his child devotee, Lord Narayana manifested himself in every object of the universe! Later, He emerged from the pillar as

NARAHARI and tore Hiranyakasipu to pieces

         The name of Krishna saved the modesty of Draupadi in the full court of Dhrutarashtra when, under the order of Duryodhana she was disrobed! She called out to the Lord with deep devotion to save her from that ordeal. None came to her rescue including her husbands who were powerless! Lord Krishna did not appear to save her personally! But her prayers were answered and Dussasana fainted unable to disrobe her! God is nearer to you if you are nearer to Him!  It is intense devotion to Him that counts , nothing else!   

           Sri Purandara dasa recounts another instance where the name of the Lord saved the man from damnation in hell! The Bhagavatha describes the story of a brahmin Ajamila who fell into evil ways. He committed sins which a brahmin should not have committed like drinking and meat eating! People felt pity for him as he he had gone astray and did not uphold the principles of the Brahmin community. He had a son whom he named Narayana. He was fond of this son and when Ajamila was terminally ill, in his last moments , he called out the name Narayana and breathed his last! ‘The Yama duthas’ came to take him to hell for punishment for all the sins he had committed! But at the same time messengers came to bring him to heaven for enjoyment as he died with the name of Narayana on his lips! Thus Sri Purandara dasa in this song establishes the efficacy of the name of the lord rather than the exact presence of God! God’s name is incomparable! There is nothing equal to the Name of God! This is one of the reasons why we name our children with the name of gods! The faith is that even if by mistake we utter the name of God during our last moments, we are sure to get salvation or mukti! But it is not easy to develop devotion and recite the name of the Lord!

ON HOBBIES

                                                                 

Man is not only a rational but a social animal! From the time he qualifies himself he is engaged in some activity or other. He takes up some job or other, some profession that he like or some avocation for which he has a passion! He becomes a workaholic and devoted entire time and energy in pursuing that activity! As an engineer, a doctor, a professor, a mechanic or one involved in any other activity, he derives pleasure in involving himself in those activities! As such he has little time in enjoying the pleasures of life and spending time with family and children. His life and work becomes a drudgery and he feels it difficult to come out of the rut!

       Is it necessary for man to suffer like this?  What is the way out? It is not difficult to get rid of this drudgery if you have some hobby to turn to! What is hobby? It is an activity that turns you away from the usual activity that sometimes bores you! It breathes a fresh lease of life for you from the tiresome work that you are involved in! The physical and mental fatigue that you accrue is relieved by diverting your attention away from the routine work! Hobby can be anything that you like apart from the regular or professional work! Reading, cycling, swimming, trekking, driving, playing games like chess and carom Rummy and Bridge and a host of others can  be included as hobbies! Philately is another well known hobby practiced by many.

          My hobby is playing chess. My friend and colleague in the college I served in Vaniyambadi, was also a good player of Chess. We used to sit together for chess and forget the whole world and families! It was a different world for us altogether! Rook move, pawn move,  Bishop attack, Horse movements, queen attack and defence--- oh what an intelligent game it was! We spent many hours after the college hours till we were awakened into the late hours of the night by our spouses!  Those days were wonderful golden days! Another hobby that attracted me was Ball Badminton! I was considered as a good player! A friend of mine, an enthusiast, would come to my residence and wake me up for play at the college playground. I would follow him and play till about nine am and return to prepare myself for classes in the college! Occasionally I would play in the evening also in the company of students.

           I am religiously and spiritually disposed and engaged myself in social and spiritual activities! I established an organization, and invited great scholars for religious discourses! It was an opportunity for all to share the thought of eminent people. The local Pillaiyar Koil was the hub of all religious and spiritual programmes! We invited renowned people like Ki Va Jagannathan, Kothamangalam Subbu, Anna of Sri Ramakrishna Mutt, and Sri Jagannatha Chariar of Vivekananda College. Their discourses were a feast for the ears and the public relished them. Book reading is a hobby worth cultivating! Books are the best companions for anybody! The concentrated and accumulated wisdom of the ages is laid bare in books! One who does not cultivate the hobby for reading books misses a lot in life!

           In 2011, twenty one years after my retirement, I went to the US to visit my son and his family! I wanted to walk along with times and was introduced to the world of computers! I picked it up and was thrilled at the ease with which things were made possible. I started commenting on various articles published on The Times of India. A wing of TOI, Speaking Tree, attracted my attention! It was devoted to spiritual and cultural issues and I plunged into it as it was to my liking and interest! Many retired individuals struggle and do not know how to spend the enormous time at their disposal! They become sedentary and spend time at the TV! I have no such problem! My present and very interesting hobby is publishing Blogs on religious, Spiritual and philosophical topics!  I find full satisfaction in doing so. The comments that I receive for my Blogs encourages me to write more and I am a SEEKER on the Speaking Tree with more than 150 Blogs to my credit! I consider this not only a hobby but a humble service to   society! Let everyone develop a hobby of his choice and get relieved of  the rut and boredom of  the drudgery!   

GOD REVEALS HIMSELF THROUGH INCARNATION

Omnipotent and infinite God may wish that his divinity as Love may manifest itself in flesh!  It is then He is among us as an incarnation! It is through such incarnations that Love flows. While we can realize God through spiritual eyes, it is very difficult to explain or describe Him in words. For us, human beings, the milk of Divine love issues forth from the incarnations of God! It is impossible to know God fully but it is enough  if we can see Him—feel  that He is the only reality. Sri Ramakrishna argues that it is best to seek God in man. One has to find a person with a heart overflowing with the love of God! He should be “a man who lives, moves, and has his being in God”. In other words he should be intoxicated with His love! God manifests in such rare beings!

        Though God is absolute, He indulges in LILA or divine sport! In our parlance,we call such things as miracles. Divine Leela is of four kinds.  According to Sri Ramakrishna they are 1 Iswara Lila 2 Deva Lila 3   Jagat Lila and 4 Nara Lila. His incarnation is possible in Nara Lila. What is the nature of this NaraLila? It is like the tremendous gushing out of water in a torrent through a wide channel  It is as if the power of the Absolute manifests itself through the channel! During the Avatar of Rama, not many could recognize him as the manifestation of Divinity! Only the Saptharshis---sage Bharadwaja and others could recognize Rama as God in human form—Avatar!

          What is the difference between a Siddha and an Avatar? Siddha is similar to an archeologist who excavates and  removes the superincumbent earth and dust and reveals the old  civilization covered up  through the ages! The Avatar, says Sri Ramakrishna, is akin to a great engineer who sinks a new well in a place where there was no water before! While the Siddhas can give salvation to those with love , the Avatar can save even those with dry and arid hearts! The Avatar is like a tidal wave, a tsunami, that inundates rivers, streams, land and all the adjacent areas presenting one watery surface, But rain water is drained away through the usual channel! The Avatar saves all through His Grace But Siddhas have their limitations! The Avatar is similar to a large steamer  towing rafts and barges along with it.  The Avatar easily carries thousands to safety across the  ocean of maya or illusion! Avatars carry multitudes of men overburdened with sin to the presence of God!

           The contrast between the holy men and liberated saints and the saviours is beautifully explained by Sri Ramakrishna! Four persons decided to scale the place enclosed by a great wall. They were curious to know what was in the place. A ladder was brought and the fist man went to the top of the wall. He laughed  heartily and jumped into the place. The second and third followed the first man and jumped into the place where there was a beautiful garden with pleasant groves and delicious fruits.  The fourth  man. though tempted to jump in, restrained himself, came down  and narrated the glory of the garden to others outside. Brahman is the beautiful walled garden! Whoever sees Him forget themselves  and are absorbed in His essence! Holy men and liberated saints are these people! But the savior or Avatar is one who sees God but anxious to share the happiness of divine vision with others! He is prepared to undergo the pangs of rebirth in the world to edify and lead struggling humanity to its goal!

             What is the need for God to incarnate? We know that whenever Dharma or righteousness is on the decline and evil predominates, God takes Avatar to uplift Dharma and save the good and destroy the bad. Sri Ramakrishna points out that God comes down to ‘manifest  to man the perfection  of Divinity’.Man can then talk with God and see His play. “In the incarnation, God fully enjoys, as it were, His own transcendent sweetness. In the saints, God manifests Himself only in part, like the honey in a flower. You suck the flower and get a little honey. In the incarnations, it is all honey--- all sweetness and all blessedness! Nothing is problematical to the incarnation. He solves the most difficult and intricate problems of life as the simplest of things in the world and his expositions are such as even a child can follow. He is the Sun of Divine Knowledge whose light dispels the accumulated ignorance of ages.

KATHA UPANISHAD 2------QUALITIESOF THE SELF OR SOUL

                               

Clarifying the doubts of Nachiketas, Yama,  the God of Death continues his description of the various attributes of the SOUL that is eternal. One who has fallen into evil ways and has no concentration can never realize the Self in spite of his knowledge! There is a beautiful symbolism in the description of the Self and its associations! Yama describes in detail and compares the Self to the Lord of the Chariot and the Body to the chariot! Buddhi or intellect is the charioteer, the driver of the chariot while the Mind is the reins that control. It is quite appropriate to describe the Soul as the Lord of the Chariot as it is embedded in the innermost recess of the heart within the body! The driving force of the body is the   intellect or Buddhi while the Mind is the controlling factor!

        “The senses, they say, are the horses, the objects of the senses their roads.When the Self is in union with the Body, the senses and the Mind, the wise call Him the enjoyer”.says Yama. The chariot has to be drawn by the horses which take the roads they want to traverse! The union of the body,senses and the Mind with Self makes Him the enjoyer! An unrestrained mind is out of control and is like the vicious horses for the charioteer. On the other hand a controlled Mind is restrained and the senses are under control as good horses! While lack of proper control over the Mind leads to the cycle of birth and death, total control releases him from the cycle. Like the charioteer who controls the horses by th reins , one who controls his mind gets salvation.

          The God of Death points out that beyond the senses there are essences and beyond them the Mind.  Understanding comes next and beyond understanding there is the great Soul. Unmanifest comes next and beyond that is the Spirit. Beyond that Spirit there is nothing and that is the end of the road. That is the highest reach. Yama inspires Nachiketas with his discourse on the Self and counsels him to walk carefully. “Arise, awake, obtain the best teacher and learn of them. Sharp as the edge of the razor, hard to cross and difficult, is that path—so the sages say”. Realizing that beyond sound, touch, form, decay, and without change, beginning, end and everlasting shall free the person from the jaws of death!

           Katha Upanishd continues to describe the glory and greatness of the Self or Soul. Speaking of it, it says, “The person of the size of the thumb resides in the middle of the body. After knowing him as the Lord of the past and future one fears no more.”  He is like a flame without smoke. Speaking of the all pervading nature of the Self the Upanishad declares, “He is the swan in the sky, the wind in the firmament, the priest at the altar, and the guest in the house. He dwells in men; He dwells in gods; he dwells in the sacrifice; He dwells in space;  He is all that is born in water, all that is born on earth, all that is born of sacrifice and all that is born  on the mountains---He is the true and the great.”Clarifying the mystery of Brahman and what happens to the soul after meeting death, Yama tells Nachiketas, “some enter into a womb for embodiment, others go into stationary things, according to their deeds and according to their thoughts.”

            The one Self assumes many forms like the fire and air after entering the world. Like the Sun who is not defiled by the external impurities, the self is not defiled by the misery of the world. Speaking of the primal and superior position of the Brahman the Upanishad asserts, “the sun does not shine there, nor the moon and the stars, nor these lightnings. How then could this fire? When he shines, everything shines after Him; By His light all this is lighted.” Brahman is compared to a tree with roots above and branches below .That is called the pure, the Brahman and the immortal. The effect and power of the Brahman is clearly enunciated. “ Through fear of Him fire burns, through fear of Him the sun blazes, through fear of Him Indra, Vayu and also Yama, as the fifth, speed on their way” we find the echo of these thoughts  In the Bhagavadgita and the Taittiriya Upanishad. Speech, mind and vision can never reach Him. Yama finally points out that when all the desires that dwell in the heart are cast away man from being a mortal becomes immortal. He has to cut asunder all ties of the heart.

           Thus instructed by the God of Death, Nachiketas gained knowledge and attained Brahman! He was free from passion and death.

          

KATHA UPANISHAD 1

                                                                        

KATHA UPANISHD is one of the most widely studied among all the Upanishads! It was translated into Persian in the 17^th century copies of which were translated into Latin and distributed in Europe! Edwin Arnold rendered it in verse as “ The Secret of Death”. The ideas expressed in the Upanishad contrast  Hinduism with Buddhism that asserts the nonexistence of the Soul or Atma! Buddhism expects one to seek ‘emptiness’ or ‘ sunyata’ which is the highest Bliss! The Katha Upanishad is the saga of the son of Vajasravasa who performed a sacrifice as a ‘kamya Karma’ and distributed all his wealth for the sake of heavenly abode. The cows he gave away in charity were all terminally unhealthy! He did not approve of his father’s action and in disgust and anger asked to whom he would give away his son Nachiketas.  Irritated at this question Vajasravas retorted that he was giving him away to Death!

      Nachiketas , obeying his father goes to the abode of YAMA, the god of Death and not finding him there, fasts for three nights when Yama  welcomes him with honor and respect as a deserving guest! Pleased with the nature and behavior of Nachiketas, Yama offers three boons to him! Nachiketas , for the first boon, wants his father to receive him without anger and recognize him after he is released by Yama.  Yama grants he boon immediately. Next, Nachiketas wants Yama to explain’ Fire sacrifice’ which leads one to heaven. He wants to know how the dwellers in heaven gain their immortality, as his second boon. Soon Yama explains to Nachiketas  the nature of fire, the first of the worlds  and the kind  and number of bricks to be used and in what manner. Yama is pleased to give him another boon by which the fire will be known by his name!

      Nachiketas now asks Yama the most important and teasing question affecting the entire humanity!   When people die ,some point out that he exists and a few say that he does not exist. He wants Yama to clarify this doubt which troubles him! Yama tries to evade the answer  by saying that it is too subtle to understand  But Nachiketas says that if Yama cannot answer the question none else can! Yama tempts Nachiketas by offering wealth, longevity, maidens, cattle, horses, elephants,gold and any other thing instead of the answer to the question. But Nachiketas is firm and steadfast in getting the answer. He dismisses all the offers  saying they are all transient and wear out the vigour of all the senses!  Moe over  all  life is short. Nachiketas prevails upon Yama to tell him ‘what there is in that great hereafter.’

       Between the good and the pleasant, ignorance and knowledge Nachiketas has rejected the latter and thus gained the grace of the God of death. He tells Nachiketas that the self is beyond meditation, ‘inconceivable and subtler than the subtle’. Argument cannot reveal it and it can be understood taught by another! Yama compliments Nachketas for holding fast to truth The conversation between Yama and Nachiketas continues when the latter asks ‘what is beyond right and wrong, beyond effect and cause and beyond past and future?’. Yama replies that it is the word AUM which “all austerities proclaim and the Vedas declare. This syllable is the highest and the Brahman. This is also the best and the highest support. The Self is never born nor does it die. It sprang from nothing and nothing sprang from it. It is unborn, eternal, everlasting, and primeval. It is not slain when the body is slain.” Yama continues and explains,” Smaller than the small and greater than the great, the Self is hidden in the heart of every creature Though sitting still He travels far, though lying down He goes everywhere. The wise man who knows the Self as bodiless within the bodies, as the unchanging among the changing things, as great and all pervading, will never grieve This Self cannot be gained by the Veda, nor by intellectual power, nor by much learning. He is to be gained only by the one whom He chooses. To such a one the Self reveals His own nature.”                                                                    ( Continued)