The Tadpole's Tail!!!!!

|| Aum Sri Ramakrishna Sharanam||

Lord Vinayaga
Pic - Googles

||Aum Namo Narayanaya||

A humbling sight awaited me on a visit to India a few years back. It was a late night of travelling that privileged a little extension of my resting hours. But that was soon disrupted by the melodious singing of "Moeshika Vaghana Modaka Hasta" accompanied by the rhythmic ringing of the bell. The sudden interjection of a thud encouraged me to alight from the snug comforts of my bed to catch a little glimpse of the morning life of the Temple- City of Madurai. As soon as I drew the curtain, the enchanting mellifluous stream of delight swelled once more from the tongue of an extremely gifted Priest adorned with big white streaks (the symbol of Shiva) all over his body. He was facilitating an offering of coconut to Lord Pillayar by a middle-aged devotee making his way to the office.  Taking a little prasad from the Priest and smearing it upon his forehead, his expression took on a more confident outlook for the day. It seemed that he was not alone in his endeavour as the queue rapidly grew with more people exiting the street vendors with handful lots of flowers, sweets and the most significant coconut to appease the Lord of obstacles    -Vinayagar- to remove the obstacles in their path for the day.


It is not uncommon for any prayer or venture to begin with the name of Ganesha... as the goal of any undertaking must end with success. I recall when I was a co-ordinator of prayer festivals at our Temple, I could rest assured that I need not lose sleep over marketing  as this particular prayer snatched people out of their comfort zones and they even overlooked the weather to come get the grace of Lord Ganesha.
In order for our understanding of why Lord Ganapathi was awarded this special place in spirituality... I am reminded of an inspiring statement made by Sri Ramakrishna whilst in conversation about Keshab. Master said when he first met Keshab at Jaygopal's house, he said he is the only one who has dropped his tail. At this, the people laughed. Keshab said to them don’t laugh, there must be reasoning to his words. Thereupon Master said, the tadpole, so long as it has not dropped its tail lives only in the water. It cannot move about on dry land. But as soon as it drops its tail, it hops out onto the bank then it can live both in water and on land. Likewise... as long as man holds onto his tail of ignorance, he can live only in the water of the world. But when he drops his tail, that is to say when he attains the knowledge of God, then he can roam about as a free soul or householder in the world.


The mythology states that Mother Parvathi was about to take a bath in the absence of Lord Shiva. In order to secure Her chamber so that none may enter, She created a son out of tumeric powder from Her body. She breathed life into him and was full of adoration for him. Her strict instruction was that none should enter whilst she had her bath. The little child dutifully carried out his task. Although a little boy, he was endowed with super strength and power by the Mother Herself. Lord Shiva came unannounced and had to face the wrath of the little boy. After a protracted battle, Lord Shiva became livid and so enraged that He used His trishul and removed the head of Ganesha. On hearing the commotion the divine Mother hurriedly finished Her bath and was welcomed by the gruesome scene of Her Lord standing over the dead body of their son. She was teeming with anger with intention to destroy all of creation but collected herself after Lord Shiva agreed to restore life to Ganesha.The head of the first creature facing north was brought and thus Lord Ganesha was restored to life with the head of an elephant and thus was blessed with the boon of Mudalvanne - that is one who is worshipped first.
The truth of life as proclaimed by Swami Vivekananda is that "we are all potentially divine beings". However, we create obstacles for ourselves when we polarise this divine identity by our own egos. Living in the world of sense fixation, we choose not to unveil the cloud of ignorance and create one obstacle after another in our lives. This creates a lot of unhappiness and misery. Lord Ganesha being given the task of guarding the doorway was so consumed by the status of the task that He failed to recognise Lord Shiva.  Thus the Lord using His trishul removed the head which is the seat of ignorance and ego. The weapon to remove this ego and ignorance is the trident of inner strength, intelligence and knowledge.


The removal of the head is beautifully captured by Sri Ramakrishna's analogy of dropping the tail... both resembling ignorance and ego. The replacement of the head is symbolic of the change... the metamorphosis from the self-centred and consumed being to the all-embracing  universal self that identifies itself with the cosmic self.


Lord Vinayaga’s acceptance of millions of coconuts on an annual basis is a reminder to us all that within each and every one of us is the pure spirit of God with the power to quench the parched mundane lives that we live... but in order to get a taste of this Ilaneer (coconut water in Tamil) one must first remove the tough fibre that surrounds the coconut. This is symbolic of the tough ego, pride and ignorance in the mind that covers the buddhi or intelligence.  Man- making decisions based on intelligence has greater success in life than man basing decisions on emotion and sense gratification.


May that great Lord of the intellect help us all remove our ego and ignorance and expose our divinity and intelligence, is my sincere prayer.

With absolute sincerity

Yogan Naidoo

www.sudarshanavidya.blogspot.com

Anbe Shivam!!!!(Love is God)

||Aum Sri Ramakrishna Sharanam||

 

image -google images

||Aum Namo Narayanaya||

 

In our hearts... Spring started today... when we all gathered at the Shree Veeraboga Cultural Centre to witness the blooming of the timeless wisdom of the Tirukurral by the gracious and loving touch of Swami Vimokshananda. The idea for today’s blog seemed pre-ordained by a higher power. Yesterday when I had posted the reminder to our devotees about the scheduled class, brother Kiru -an ardent student of the Tirukurral- expressed his delight as should it have taken place next week he would have missed it as he was going to be out of town. Relating to his absolute delight, I unconsciously replied to his post by merely saying Anbe Shivam. When Maharaj began the class today, I was stunned to learn that we were discussing that very subject matter of love and Maharaj made several inferences to Anbe Shivam (Love is God). With such subtle commands from the universe, it will definitely be unwise to detract from that train of thought.

 

Last week, we all engaged in the celebration of Gita Week and Krishna Janmashtami with some very powerful and elevating ideas emanating from discussions on the Gita. In the midst of this, I still became a little emotional as I browsed through the gallery of pictures posted by Maharaj of His tour of Northern Natal. The devotees’ countenance in those areas was a confluence of both delight and distress. In the company of Maharaj they expressed bliss similar to the Gopis in the company of Krishna but their minds felt the pain of their hearts that was impaled by the imminent departure of Maharaj. This would be their last Krishna Janmashtami with Maharaj. Suddenly the pangs of separation became infectious as today while I was waiting for Maharaj, I realised there were just two classes left before Maharaj departs South Africa for His new mission.

 

In today’s class,  we learnt that there is one common thread that binds this whole world... although it may be found in varying degrees... it nonetheless exists. This emotion or feeling is called “love” and since we understand through Vedanta that it is God alone that pervades everything, we can therefore easily allude to the statement Anbe Shivam – (Love is God).

 

Swami Vivekananda said: “relationships are more important than life, but it is important for those relationships to have life in them”. Tiruvalluvar eruditely points out that those who possess love in their beings truly live, the rest are merely skeletons clad in skin. Reading Swami Vivekananda, one is exposed to this idea continuously. Swamiji goes to the level of saying that making offerings or doing pooja at a shrine is but preliminary worship. Swamiji emphasised that real tangible worship comes out of serving Shiva in the hungry, in the poor and the sick.

 

But the question arrives... how is it that most of us cannot see Swamiji’s view on this matter. We can only conceptualise such high and noble ideals when our hearts reconfigure itself from self-centeredness to embrace the entire universe as one-and-the-same as yourself.

 

Today some people feel so insecure about visiting family and friends in State hospitals due to cleanliness issues. Yet we read how Florence Nightingale and Mother Theresa worked in such challenging conditions to nurse the sick to good health without care for caste, creed or status in society. So it is the absence of this love and empathy that essentially makes our lives unfulfilled?

Can we expect people in society to display and exhibit such love if they have not experienced same in the home? The starting point of developing this culture of empathy is the family. Former President of India, Abdul Kalam beautifully placed before the European Union Parliament that his culture based on the Tirukurral has taught him that when there is righteousness in the heart, there is beauty in the character, when there is beauty in the character there is harmony in the home, when there is harmony in the home there is order in the nation and when there is order in the nation then there is peace in the world.

 

There is the profound message that comes from the sloka: Vasudevam sutam devam, Kamsa Chanura mardanam, Deviki paramnandam, Krishnam vande jagat Guru. It states that we worship Krishna who is the son of Vasudeva, the slayer of Kamsa and Chanura, the absolute bliss of Deviki, the one who came as the world teacher.

 

I think that it is important that we understand how the Lord came to be the son of two human beings. It is because of their sincerity in their prayers for a child equal to the qualities of the Lord. The Lord proclaimed that none is equal to Him thus in their next birth, He Himself shall take birth as their son. In that way parents should also pray sincerely and devoutly to God for children of divine qualities. Children should never be born out of lust, but must be planned and be born out of sincere prayer. Then like Sri Krishna they will be the slayer of the greatest asuras of this world being lust and greed. They will be noble and firm in character. They will be the absolute bliss of their Mothers... like the sloka said Deviki Paramandam. In the previous Tirukkural class, we leant that Mothers experience great joy when they give birth to a child... however, greater than that joy is the joy they experience when their child becomes a leader in society. Therefore is must be impressed upon every parent how important the entire process of bringing children into the world is... as well as raising and nurturing children to be men and women of immaculate character. The home thus becomes an incubator of “man-making, character-building education” as espoused by Swami Vivekananda. However in society today, children are raised in crèches; by nannys, ipads and television - devoid of the love and affection of the Mother and also the fundamental value systems that constitute a noble being.

 

How then can we expect that child to exhibit the love and empathy that is needed to create and sustain a society that is just, peaceful and divine? It has become imperative now in the midst of the chaos in the world that we internalise and make practical the glorious values and ideas from the scriptures and teachings of the saints so that we don’t have to suffer against something that we can do something about, something that can be rectified. Our lives and futures lie in our very own hands. God can be experienced right here and now... not post mortem... by merely sharing something that costs nothing to give --- that is love. Through this little act of empathy, an entire revolution can take place.

 

Anbe Shivam, Shivane Anbu. (love is god , god is love)

 

May we all be touched by the divine love, is my sincere prayer

 

With sincere love and prayers

Yogan

www.sudarshanavidya.blogspot.com

Glorious Goddess

||Aum Sri Ramakrishna Sharanam||

||Aum Namo Narayanaya||

 

It was definitely encouraging and an unusual breath of fresh air to see the town painted red on Friday this week... in the literal sense of the word. It is not unusual whilst gazing through Facebook on a Sunday morning to see posts between friends declaring how they “painted the town red” whilst partying the previous night. However on Friday, culture and tradition took pole position when mothers, daughters, wives and sisters departed their homes adorned in inspiring hues of red to celebrate Varalutchmee Viratham. Even before Surya could usher in the day, families were up and about in a devoted exalted mood making preparations to glorify and offer worship to the Goddess of fortune and prosperity. Every human being wants success and prosperity in life, therefore even if somebody fails to obverse any other pooja, they make it a point to glorify Mother Luxmi with sincerity and devotion to seek Her blessings on the family.

8 Forms of Ma Luxmi    -Google Images

 

Swami Vimokshanada posted a link to His captivating blog which He composed a while back on the occasion of Luxmi Prayers. Maharaj so wonderfully constructed and crafted the concept of Mother being integrated into the evolution of our lives through her 8 qualities namely: creation, wealth, food, fame, fertility, strength, knowledge and success or victory. After reading this, I am sure that all doubts as to why people make every effort to observe this occasion is self explanatory. These qualities are what every human being strives to achieve... which brings us to the concept and meaning of Mother Luxmi.

 

The puranas relate a picturesque account of how Mother Luxmi appeared. We must once again be mindful that puranic stories are mediums to convey great spiritual truths in simple ways to the mass of society and therefore they should never be taken literally but should be the subject of study and discussion to unveil the masked treasures of spiritual wisdom in their payload.

It is said in the mythology that a long time after creation, the Gods and were in search of rejuvenation and were directed to churn the ocean which would present an amrith (nectar) of immortality that would resolve their predicament. The Gods realised that this task was impossible without the collective efforts of the asuras and therefore convinced them that a 50% share was awaiting them if they collaborated. They all agreed and immediately set about using Mount Madura as the churning stick and the serpent Vasuki as the rope. Although 50% was agreed upon for the asuras, they were never to receive it as that would make them more powerful and invincible. Therefore on advice from Lord Vishnu, the Gods took the tail-end of the serpent while the asuras took the other end. The idea was that as the churning went on, the heat and venom from Vasuki would weaken the asuras and eventually make them collapse and allow the Gods to feast of the amrith.

 

In the course of the process, the mountain began to sink and Lord Vishnu assumed the form of a tortoise (Kurma) and raised the mount on His back... thus facilitating the activity to continue. The hard work and efforts started to pay dividends... as from the ocean emerged many things both positive and negative: Mother Luxmi, Sura the God of wine, the Moon, the jewel Kasturba, the white horse, white elephant, the wishing tree, the poison halahal and the amrith.

 

A glorious idea of life came to me when I read this episode from the purana. The ocean is symbolic of the ocean of samsara or our life. Madura in Sanskrit means bird. Our atman which is eternally free like a flying bird is bound by our past samskars (the serpent Vasuki) and is pulled in both directions by the divine and asuric qualities within us. As we live in the world, our life is churned by the various experiences we encounter. Lord Vishnu in the form of the tortoise supporting Madura has two connotations: one being that all our activities and this creation is supported and perpetuated by the divine Lord and the other is that our soul and the divine are essentially one. Luxmi is derived from the Sanskrit root Lakshaya meaning goal. The emergence of Mother Luxmi first tells us that we all have a primary goal in life. Our asuric qualities may tempt us to pursue the fleeting pleasures and quick gratification mechanisms forgetting our higher goal. These qualities also make us despondent, weak and lethargic by expending all our energies on the worldly activities (heat from Vasuki). Those who follow the instructions from the Guru and God through reading scriptures, practicing sadhanas and leading a life gain relief and guidance from the divine. Like how Lord Shiva consumed the halahal poison... the Lord and the strength you have derived through discipline and sadhana shall protect you from the poisons of the world.

 

Leading a noble life in pursuant of righteousness and divinity, you will reach the goal of life (amrith) which is the knowledge of the self. This knowledge after being known... nothing else need be known. Man’s intellect is constantly challenged as the frontiers of his knowledge and is edged further and further with new discoveries and theories about his greatest quest to find out the purpose of this creation, the nature of the universe and the source of life. Dwelling between the region of Adi Luxmi and Vidya Luxmi (8 Luxmis) all this time... after tasting the amrith (nectar) of immortality, man shall transcend the realm of body consciousness to Aishwarya Luxmi (absolute bliss and prosperity).

 

We are about to commence the auspicious Gita week on Monday and we will learn more from Sri Krishna Bhagawan on how we should live and interact with the world. The Gita is essentially a recipe for peace, progress and prosperity. Swami Vivekananda said that Mother Luxmi Herself dwells in the home of a noble man. When we say that Hinduism is a way of life, we refer to a path or process of helping you to achieve the best results and highest potential that you are in the short space of time that have been accorded to on this earth. Hindu Dharma has practically been proven as a fail-proof method of achieving this through the lives of great avathars, saints, sages and common men.

 

Hence we can safely conclude that liberation, peace , prosperity and joy is not for the Gods, high caste or famous... but is accessible to man at every level so long as he is sincere and has a strong thirst for it. May Mother Luxmi bless us all, is my sincere prayer.

With sincere love and affection

Yogan Naidoo
www.sudarshanavidya.blogspot.com