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|| Sri Ramakrishna Sharanam||

Aum Namo Narayanaya 

I trust that we have all had a wonderful weekend and really looking forward to the ensuing week with much excitement at what it may offer. What really surprises me of the week that comes is that it heralds the month of August. This really signals as they would say in aviation terms the beginning of the descent. Before we know it the festive festoons and jingles will make their way into the public arenas and we will be counting down to 2012.

Pause for a moment to recall the advent of 2011 to the current day, can we vividly with detail lay an account of what we have done or achieved in these months. If we reflect upon the resolutions we made, how many have we ticked off as completed successfully.

I am reminded of this wonderful story:Once Lord Vishnu and Narada were walking in the garden when  the Lord feels very thirsty and requests  Narada to fetch some water.

Narada goes to a nearby river to take some water. Suddenly he hears from a tribal person shouting “Please wait, don’t take that dirty water, I have pure, distilled and cool water in my house, Please come to my house and accept my most humble seva”.



Sage Narada



 Narada is pleased to get pure, distilled, cool water and therefore, goes to the  house. While offering water to Narada, it suddenly strikes to the tribal person that it is sin to offer only water, without offering any fruits to a sage; hence the tribal person requests Narada to wait for few minutes so that he will bring some fresh fruits from the forest. Narada feels happier for the hospitality of the tribal person and agrees to wait till the tribal person brings fruits from the forest.

 Within few minutes, the tribal person brings some fresh fruits from forest and offer to Narada along with pure, distilled & cool water. Narada with full happiness and contentment eats the fruits and drinks the water and expresses his gratitude to the tribal person.

 Before leaving from the tribal person’s hut, he sees the daughter of tribal person and falls in love with the daughter of the tribal person. Narada expresses his willingness to marry the tribal person’s daughter. The tribal person feels very much excited to hear that Narada is interested in marrying his daughter and immediately agrees for his proposal and performs the marriage of his daughter with Narada Muni at the very moment.

 In due course, Narada Muni is blessed with a son also. Now Narada Muni is fully engaged in his daily busy schedule for earning livelihood for self, family, son, brother-in-law, father-in-law, mother-in-law, etc., ploughing fields, cultivating farm, etc., Narada Muni has no time to breathe, Forgot about remembering SRI HARI, who is waiting in the garden for Narada Muni to return with the water.

 One day, Narada Muni hears a big sound in river. On enquiring, he comes to know that his son has fallen in the river. After sometime, he again hears big sound and he comes to know that his wife has jumped into river to save her son and she too is drowning. Then immediately, Narada comes out of his hut and try to rescue his wife with his Tambura (Narada’s musical instrument) and finally Narada also falls in the River. When Narada is about to drown, he remembers his lord SRI HARI and starts shouting NARAYANA….NARAYANA…NARAYANA….

 On hearing the shouting NARAYANA….NARAYANA…NARAYANA….Lord Sri Hari pats on the shoulder of Narada(who is holding water in a vessel) and asks WHAT HAPPENED?

 Then Narada realized that what all happened is just a dream, but not in reality.

If we reflect on the year that past we can’t but empathize with the situation that Sage Narada found himself in .We are so caught up in the trappings of this world chasing the transient joys we totally forget and deviate from the goals we set. Life will pass us by without achieving any goals and when the reality hits us it will be too late to recover or make amends.

In a similar fashion we also have forgotten about our true journey of life which is self realization.   Caught up in this world wide web of desires and transient joy, we have forgotten the eternal joy and bliss that is within all of us. That we are Amritsya Putra( eternal children of God). That in essence we are pure bliss and that everything else is but Maya (dream), as experienced by Narada.

Let us remove ourselves from this web and begin our journey back to bliss (our original destination) is my sincere prayer. I also take this opportunity to wish our Muslim brothers and sisters a blessed Ramadaan fast.

Unconditional Surrender the key to his Grace

|| Sri Ramakrishna Sharanam||



Lord Venketeswara



Aum Namo Narayanaya

As evening starts to swallow that which remains of this beautiful winter day, I cannot but set aside a little discontent at the pace with which the weekend has approached and left us. Each weekend though presents a little excitement which provides some tangible proof of its existence.

I awoke on Saturday morning with the usual respects and pranams to the Master, Swamiji and Lord Venketeswara whose beautiful pictures adorn the wall s in my room. For some particular reason this morning it seemed the Lord sported a mischievous smile. My eyes then resigned to his regally jewelled form which sprouted an intense joy in my heart. At once I broke into a mental rendition of Kasturi Thilakam Narayana(song dedicated to Narayana) as the first offering of love for the day as anything vocal would have made the neighbourhood cringe in agony at my off tone performance.

The day unfolded nicely with much of it being spent at the Shree Durga Amman Chariot Festival in Tongaat. Soon after lunch Prasad at 2pm I made my way home to take some rest. Then as one would put it, “All hell broke loose” with a bomb scare at the Shree Veeraboga Cultural Centre which was occupied by a large crowd attending a memorial service. Although I was not there at the precise moment of the scare, I was told by members of the temple that it was not a pleasant experience as panic and mayhem ruled over all as the protection services and the bomb disposal units swept the premises in search of a bomb which eventually proved to be a hoax call.

It is instinctive for us to flee from impending danger, but this incident has begged the question of why should we be consumed by such fear. This fear which has been used by terror movements throughout the world to leverage their demands is born purely out of attachment to our body and this physical existence. Has anything born into this world not suffered the fate of death?  How then do we live a life free from fear and attachment?

Sri Ramakrishna said in the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna after Mahendranath commented on a discussion by Vidyasagar:”What is the use of calling on God? On one occasion Genghis Khan plundered a country and imprisoned many people. The number of prisoners exceeded 100000. The commander of his army asked your majesty who will feed them and it will be equally dangerous to free them. What shall I do? Genghis Khan ordered them to be killed. Now God saw this slaughter, didn’t he? But he didn’t stop it in any way. Therefore I don’t need God even if he exists because I don’t derive any good from him.

To this Sri Ramakrishna replied as follows: Is it possible to understand Gods actions and his motive? He creates preserves and destroys? Can we ever understand why he destroys? I say to the divine Mother I do not need to understand. Please give me love for thy lotus feet. The aim of human life is to attain bhakti. As for other things the mother knows best. I have come to the garden to eat mangoes. What is the use of my calculating the number of branches and leaves? I only eat mangoes; I don’t need to know the number of trees and leaves.

Fear can be eradicated by two things. One is knowledge and second is the company of someone.  If one has to enter a forest with the knowledge that there is no wild animals or thieves ready to plunder you, the fear to travel the forest will be diluted, in a similar manner if you were to enter the same forest infested with wild animals and thieves but in the company of a skilled archer once again the fear within is much reduced.

Let us undertake our life with the knowledge that God alone is the doer, our only goal is to attain him. Let all our concentration and focus in this life be on achieving his grace and he will take care of our material and physical needs.  I am reminded here of the Swayamvar of Arjuna (where prospected bridegrooms will part take of a challenge to win the ladies hand in marriage). During his training Arjuna’s guru sage Drona set up a wooden bird upon a tree, and from across the adjacent river, asked the princes to shoot it down by striking its eye. When prince Yudhisthira tried first, sage Drona asked him what he saw. Yudhisthira replied he saw sage Drona, his brothers, the river, the forest, the tree and the bird.  Sage Drona replied that Yudhisthira would fail and asks another prince to step forward. The others gave the same reply, and Sage Drona was disappointed with all. But when Arjuna stepped forth, he told Sage Drona that he was seeing only the eye of the bird and nothing else. When sage Drona excitedly asked him to continue, Arjuna replied that he saw only the bird's eye. Sage Drona asked him to shoot, and Arjuna did strike the bird down in the eye. 



Arjuna Shooting the fish



At the swayamvar a pole with a revolving fish was placed in the center of the hall. A vessel full of water was kept beneath it. The prospective grooms had to aim an arrow at the eye of the fish watching the reflection of the fish in the water. Using the technique of intense focus and concentration Arjuna came on stage and took the bow in his hands. He took aim and shot the arrow on the eye of the fish. Finally, Draupadi garlanded Arjuna choosing him as her husband.

In the same way if we focus our energy and concentration on God alone as the target and attain him then all the pleasures and necessities of life will automatically garland us.

In these times that we live in, where acts of terror are as common as the setting sun, we need not hunt down the terrorists as more and more of them will emerge, we must neutralize the treat by removing the fear from within us, by making God our only goal by surrendering unconditionally at his feet whilst soliciting his divine grace and company through bhakti (devotion). When there is no fear, there is no leverage.

May God himself be our eternal protector is my sincere prayer.

A disciple the intrepid traveller

|| Sri Ramakrishna Sharanam||                                                      

Dear Readers                                                                                     



My Revered Guru
Most Revered Swami Atmasthanandaji
Maharaj- President of Ramakrishna Mission
and Math



Aum  Namo Narayanaya to Master, Holy Mother, Swamiji and each and every one of you , I salute and greet you with humility on this wonderful and auspicious Guru Poorinima day. Even on my most inspired day I could never have crafted such a perfect morning as today. I awoke with great excitement to spend the morning in Pooja and then breakfast with revered Swami Vimokshananda. Having arrived at the ashram I was most honoured to have prostrated before the Master, Holy Mother, my dear Swami Vivekanada and Swami Vimokshananda which pretty much set the mood and tone for the ensuing pooja to Master.

Revered Swami Saradaprabhanandaji joined us, and we all sat for an enlightening breakfast which was populated with stimulating discussions on the divine mother. Having reached home a few hours ago my thoughts have already warped towards the evening’s satsang in anticipation of the melodious bhajans and discourse by Maharaj.

I place myself now in the times of the great discoverers of the world, the likes of Christopher Coloumbus and Vasco da Gama who with immense trepidation but purpose embarked on voyages of discovery which gave much impetus to charting and mapping the world as we know it. In this process many a life was lost, whilst facing innumerable challenges. It is through the immense sacrifices and tribulations of these brave souls that we are able to navigate the vast oceans with relative ease and confidence today.

When we are born in this world, we are totally devoid of past life memories and knowledge of the future. We are like a porous sponges waiting in anticipation to absorb and learn. Our parents and immediate surroundings provide the basis and foundation for our first learning. We then begin a journey on this vast ocean of life coming in contact with various teachers(gurus) who give instruction and guidance through their life experiences so that we may not have to undergo our life with many of the mistakes they did making our journey that much easier.

If engaging with this tangible and palpable world proves so difficult to understand can you imagine trying to understand the spiritual world which is beyond our senses and perception. Without a doubt in mind we need the assistance of one who travelled and experienced this realm. It is trough his experience alone we shall learn. He shall be our remover of ignorance or darkness (gu=darkness or ignorance, ru = remover). He is the knower of truth. He like Columbus and Da Gama has found through his intense sadhanas and practices the best and practical methods for your journey across this ocean of life. When one finds a guru who has descended from an authentic parampara or lineage to the great sage Veda Vyasa (the writer of the Vedas) then he becomes an intrepid traveller of life. He has the grace, protection, love, compassion and sage counsel of his guru. Fear, weakness, restlessness, lethargy and aimless wandering are unknown to a disciple.

Today I want to pay my sincere respect with palms folded and head bowed to my guru , most Revered President Maharaj of the Ramakrishna Mission and Math Sri Swami Atmasthanandaji for his grace, protection and inspiration.

The grace of the Master flows through all initiated monks of the order and we are indeed blessed in Durban to have revered Swami Vimokshanandaji Maharaj and Swami Saradaprabhanandaji Maharaj. I make my respectful and sincere pranams to them .



Revered Swami Vimokshanandaji Maharaj
President Ramakrishna Centre SA



Revered Swami Saradaprabhananda Maharaj
Vice President Ramakrishna Centre SA





                                    

On this auspicsious Guru Poorinima day I pray that the grace of your Guru descend upon you and that you attain enlightenment and eternal peace. This is my sincere prayer.

Akhand-Mandalakaram vyaptam yena characharam.

Tatpadam darshitam yena tasmai Shri Gurave Namah.

aum shanti, shanti, shanti

 My Salutations to that Guru who revealed to me that Truth, which is unfragmented, infinite, timeless divinity, and which pervades the entire universe – movable or unmovable.

Simple Living Higher Thinking



Mother Mariammen



||Sri Ramakrishna Sharanam||

Dear readers ,                                       

Aum Namo Narayanaya to all of you. I greet you with love, humility, respect and warmth during these icy cold days we are experiencing. The approaching week brings with it two important events on the religious calendar. On Friday we will see many spiritual aspirants pay homage and reverence to their gurus and on Sunday is the commencement of the Mariammen prayer which will continue for the entire month of Adi.

I think I should write about the Mariammen prayer this week and concentrate on the Guru pooja next week.  In actual fact the preparations for the Mariammen prayer will commence as early as tomorrow when the porridge meal will be soaked to ferment.

Growing up in South Africa has exposed us to unique adaptations of various practices from India. One should not be totally surprised on a visit to India if no similarity exists in some of the prayers and rituals we undertake here in South Africa.

Porridge prayer as it is most commonly referred to by locals has become a must attend event in the diary of our communities, this proven by the thousands who descend on the temples to partake in the prayer and porridge prepared and offered to the mother.

But in some instances we see a deviation from the norm, where elaborate meal preparations are made and huge gatherings of family and friends arrive at the home. On one hand this creates a wonderful opportunity for family and friends to socialise but upon arriving home on reflection one will find that nothing except a full stomach and time with friends and family has been derived from that outing. In a way as South Africans we have managed to transform our festivals pregnant profound meaning into feasts.

The word Mari in tamil means rain, which immediately conjures the thoughts of preservation in me. When a seed emerges from the ground it is in immediate need of water in the form rain in order to sustain its growth and life.  In the Devi Mahatmayam the divine mother is described in the powerful words as sristhi , sthithi and vinashanam.  That is as the creative, preservative and dissolution power of the universe.

It is no wonder then that the Mother as Mariamma is worshipped in many rural farming villages for blessings in preserving life. South Africa has also not escaped her grace as many farming towns on the sugar belt are installed with her murthi.

She is also revered and worshipped for her ability to cure measles, small pox and fever with her concoction of syringa leaves and turmeric powder.  To this day many make their way to the mother to assist them in curing many body ailments by offering small silver replicas of their anatomy to her. Many would come forward boldly to attest to her divine grace in curing them.

The Mariammen Prayer in its absolute forms goes on to teach us a beautiful mantra for success in life both physical and spiritual. Always practice simple living and higher thinking. There are various maladies in our society which is a direct result of us breaching the code of simplicity and seeking that which that does not augment or add any value to our inner growth. The mother shows in her methods that the cure to our maladies is to return to the simple basics as shown through her use of turmeric and syringa(Simple ingredients from nature) . The higher thinking evolves from the use of very important tool known as viveka or discrimination. The ability to do things to protect and keep our physical bodies healthy, the ability to discriminate on the thoughts we process to keep our minds pure and our hearts pure with the actions we perform like sharing as seen with the distribution of the porridge with all.

Shri Krishna said in the Bhagavad gita, offer to me with love a leaf,a fruit or a glass of water and I shall accept, which further encourages the point that simplicity in all our actions is what is needed. Always discriminate against thoughts and actions that make us selfish, which will intern help us to expand our hearts and create space for love and devotion. Like the rain which showers the crops of the poor and rich, the sick and healthy equally.  Shri Ramakrishna said, the grace of god is incessantly flowing it’s just up to us to adjust our sails.

By practicing this mantra of simple living higher thinking, peace,calm,love and devotion will descend on you.  May the grace of Mother Mariammen be with you is my sincere prayer.

AUM SHAKTI

Shri Krishna the butter thief

||Sri Ramakrishna Sharanam||

Aum Namo Narayanaya

To all readers

What an eventful weekend this has been. Starting off with woman’s Wimbledon final, the Vodacom July handicap, the wedding of Prince of Monaco to a South African and the men’s final of Wimbledon. However for me the most exciting and colourful event to grace the city of Durban is undoubtedly the Ramakrishna children’s festival which took place at the University of KwaZulu Natal Westville Campus today. Not one to actually miss such an amazing event, I am terribly disappointed that I could not attend this year due to work commitments. There is however no question that the festival would have provided performances to mesmerise the attendees.



Krishna stealing butter



As a little boy Shree Krishna used to enact a lot of leelas (divine plays) much to the delight of the gods and residents of Gokul. The learned sages and the gods used to watch in total delight how the all pervading lord, infinite in nature could for the love of humanity take birth in a finite body and enact his play. For those wanting to have a greater understanding of these divine plays the Srimad Bhagavatam is a must read as the lords divine plays are described in the most beautiful poetic  language that would at once dispatch tears to a dry eye or make ones hair stand on its ends.

Of particular interest though is the lord’s mischief making of stealing butter from the households of Gokul. Mother Yashoda could never understand this as her house had some of the finest butter in Gokul. What was the need for Krishna to sneak into other houses to steal butter, thus being branded as Makan Chor(butter chief) . Mother Yashoda was definitely not pleased. 

But what a divine message Shri Krishna had given through this divine play. We must understand that butter is made from churning the milk until the butter emerges separated from the butter milk. Butter is regarded as the nectar of the milk.

The purpose of life is god realisation or going back to god. So as Shree Krishna went to the different households to steal butter, we need him to steal our hearts and receive our atman (soul). Shree Krishna does not want milk, he wants butter.

So how do we prepare ourselves to be taken by the lord? We need to simply churn out all the negativity, lust, greed, anger, hatred, selfishness, deceit, lies and ego and then the butter of love and devotion will emerge. This will then be ready to be taken by Shri Krishna.

As Swami Vivekananda said we are all beings inherent with divinity. We are not sinners. Yes indeed we are like milk, pure but inherent with divinity that must be brought out through processes of devotion, sadhana(spiritual practices), prayer, satsangh , mediation , selfless service and study of scriptures.

That is why today, I bow and offer pranams to revered Swami Nischalanandaji  Maharaj the first president of the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa who had the divine foresight to start the children’s festival. In doing so he has started the process of churning the youth and ensuring that they develop and grow in discipline and devotion to god, becoming lions to face any adversity in life and most importantly on the right track to god realisation.

I pray that we all start the process of churning our lives to bring out our true divine nature, share our love and help each other in the journey of life and god realisation.

This is my sincere prayer.