Temple Darshan of Her Holiness, Kanchi Kamakshi

Dear magnificient aatmans Relish the gradeaur of the Kanchi Kamakshi Sthal Want to see more ?? Click here Many thanks to Venkata Rangarajan Victory unto Kadambavana Nilaya Karunaa Kattaakshi , Kancha Lochani Kaamakshi Also, May I alert you about my previous post :) SRI KRISHNAARPANAM

Rediscovering India - Some Sad Truths

Dear magnificient Aatmans, Time to imbibe more of my amateurish attempts in poetry. For some reason , I seem to have gotten a predilection for using poetry to express my thots. Kindly adjust with this habbit of mine:) O young men and women of Bharatha Varsa, the land made pure by the foots of thousand noble souls Alas,What has become of Thou Intelligence? Oblivious and Smothered relentlessly With doses of sweet poison O young men and women of Bharatha Varsa, the Vaikunta Of Earth Alas, What has become of Thou Grace? Obliviously becomming sub-human Thou Act, Without the slightest bit of pithy O young men and women of Bharatha Varsa, the land of thousand holy rivers Alas, What has become of Thou holyness? Thou senses,Willfully imbibing loads of Noise instead of all that is holy Hapiness, Thou seeketh. (lol) O teachers and scholars of Bharatha Varsa, the land of countless spiritual Gurus, Alas, What has become of Thou Greatness? Swallowed by an Ocean of Greed, Seeketh thou Wealth and Fame Character Not , thou instill in young minds UPDATE O great young Souls of Bharatha Varsa, Ressurect from the dark dungeons Seeketh the Glory Of the Lord and his Aatman Seeketh SatSang with the great Sages that glorious Land will take a re-birth UPDATE 2 A Tamil Song by Sethumadhava Rao on the death of Mahatma Gandhiji In the song Shanthi Nilava Vendum , he says "Shaanthi Nilava Vendum, Aatma Shakthi Onga Vendum Gaandhi Mahaathma Kattalai Adhuvey" Translation "May the world be in Peace May the power of Aatman be on the high, That is Mahathma Gandhis' Wish and Order" When we look at the current state of India as a whole (forget abt the World), one can clearly observe the lack of peace. If the realization of Aatman has been given more importance by the learned (in particular Brahmins) and the literate citizens (forget about others), I'm sure that India could be in tremendous shape. Alas, it could not be so. People have given up to the power of Kali or should I say Kali has taken over peoples minds. Avan Arivan (HE WILL ONLY KNOW) The above voiced opinions are to be considerd only in a holistic sense as I have only mentioned "young men and women of ". They don't refer to any particular individual or group. SRI SRIMANNARAYANAARPANAM RAMA LAKSHMANA JANAKI , JAI BOLO HANUMAN KI

Aacharya Madhava

Dear fellow aatmans, First up, kindly accept my Belated Vijayadashami wishes. On this wonderful eve ,I Invoke the blessings of the great Vaishnava Saint and philosopher, Acharya Madhava and the Ramabhaktha Vayuputra Hanuman before attempting to write up on this special post on the eve of his jayanthi. He is one of the three great achaaryas (Adi Sankara and Sri Ramanuja , the other two) that walked Mother India. Let us take a sneak peak into the life and teachings of Acharya Madhava . Srimad Ananda Tirtha commonly identified as Acharya Madhava was born in South Kanara (karnataka) in the 1200s as the third incarnation of Mukhya Prana , after Ramabhaktha Hanuman and the strong and loyal fighter in Sri Krishna's Army, Bhimasena. Even as a child, he was into spirtuality , showing extraordinary intellectual maturity often astounding his teachers. He got ordained into sanyaasa at a tender age of 11 by Achyutapreksha Tirtha, his Guru. Soon he astounded the Guru with his knowledge which fetched him the title, PoornaPrajna (the one with complete wisdom ) . He defeated several budhists and advaitins in debates and spreaded the Glory of Narayana wherever he went. Once with his spiritual power rescued a ship battling in the high seas. He was asked to take gifts from the captain but he took only a mound of "gopi chandana " from him and when it broke , he got a Krishna icon . Seeing that , in Bhakthi he composed the famed Dwaadasa Stotra on his way back to Udippi , where he established the temple and the Ashta-Mathas later. Dwaadasa Stotra is a set of 12 beautiful garlands of pristine bhakthi superimposed on exceptional spiritual wisdom. It is normally recited when naivedya is offered to the Lord. It is supposed to bring wisdom to the reader and the listener as it has anti-venomic properties.:) In this stotra , the acharya says " I salute the Lord , who showers the moonlight called happiness on the devotees" Apart from this, being a Dwaita philosopher, he has written his own commentaries (bhasya) on Gitas , the upanishads and other Vedanta Sutras. His philosophy, TatvaVada , more commonly known as Dvaita , in a nutshell, emphasizes the importance of bhakthi to stay free of the distress caused by Kali. Being a re-incarnate of Hanuman , this is of no surprise at all. He has described the infinitesimal majesty and the glory of the various parts of Narayana just like Hanuman portrayed the appearane of Sri Rama to Sita Devi. One might want to remember that great poets and saints like Purandara dasa , Kanakadasa , and Sri Raghavendra of Mantralayam were all Tatavavaadists. All his teachings can be imbibed in a tablet form as given below Kuru bhumksva ca karma nijam niyatam Hari-pada-vinambra-dhiya satatam Harireva paro harireva gurur- Harireva jagat-pitr-matr-gatih Tadalam bahu-loka-vichintanaya Pravanam-kuru-manasa misha pade Translation : Do thy duty allotted by God to thee And eat what comes to thy share ! Hari is God Supreme, Hari the teacher great, Father and mother too is Hari. Stop then thy worldly cares endless, Pin thy mind at the lord’s feet boundless Let we all follow the royal path of bhatki laid by such great acharyas to transcend ourselves beyond materialistic clutches by permanently getting a visa in the Karaunaa Samudra and experience the glory of that feet of Sriman Narayana. I am very pleased and blessed to have had my birthday in such an auspicious time:) P.S The interested can know more about him @ www.tatvavada.org JAI AANJANEYA SWAAMI KI JAI ACHARYA MADHAVA SRI SITARAMACHANDRAARPANAM

Ode to find your "Hari"-ness

Dear fellow aatmans, Here is me giving a shot at something different. Hope , you would bear with it :) Please Do let me know your thoughts. CAVEAT: This is my first ever attempt Aye young man, You seeketh that One moment of pride, You seeketh that fleeting time amidst mansions Your mind , jumping like a monkey From One Object to another. Aye young man, You give your ears to all kinds of noise. Your eyes, unaware of the demon veiled by illusion Your tongue failing to sense the life in food What do you seeketh after all? Aye young man, Let your mind to think about Hari Your Voice anointing him with the fragrance of the Saptha Swaras Gifting your ears with the sweetness of NadaBrahmam (Divine Sound) Casting your mind upon Hari, Before eating the first morsel of Food. You ask, What else would I seeketh ?? UPDATE : Tamil Translation: Adiyen , Oru vaasgarin virupathal , meLirikkum Aangila Kavithayai Mozhipeyarka Muyandrirukkiren. Pizhaigazhai Manithu Karuthezhuthavum :) Naadinaan, andha oru gana perumaiyai Thedinaan, andha aranmanai Vaazhkayai KurangaiPOl , avan manam , Oru poruzhil Oru ganam Maru Poruzhil Maruganam Sevikku , pala vidha AravAram Peyai ariyaa maayayil avanin KanGaL Unavil Uyir Ariyaa Avan Naaku Ivaigazhai Naaduvathen? Kamalakkannanin visayil Nin Manam Iniya sapthaswarangazhal andha Vaasudevanai abishekhum Nin Kural naadhabramathAl , madhurathil nin sevigal Unbatharku mun , nin manam Avan visaiyil VerEythum Nin Manam Naadumaa? Sri SitaRamachandraarpanam Sri Krishnaarpanam

136th Birth Anniversary Remembrance of the Mahatma

Dear Friends I am pleased to have the following song rendered for your listening pleasure ;) on the eve of our Mahatma Gandhiji's 136th Birth Anniversary. The song kindles the spirit of love thru Sri Rama and is one of Gandhijis favorite bhajans Hear a better rendition of the same song by checking this out. Update 0: Another rendition of the same song as rendered by Ashit Desai can be gotten by clicking here Also , check out "Vaishnavajan to " here "He Ram, He Ram" or "Rama, Rama".- Gandhijis last words UPDATE 1: Hinduism & Gandhi - By Jagmohan, Former Governor of J & K and former Union Minister (From the Statesman, Calcutta, 2/10/05) On Gandhi’s birthday, instead of going round the samadhis and attending prayer meeting ritualistically, the ruling elite will do well to think how strong and healthy India could be built on it spiritual traditions and how Hinduism as viewed by Gandhiji could be used to refertilize and revitalize that tradition. Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, in connection with his study of religion posed three questions to Mahatma Gandhi. What is your religion? How are you led to it? What is its bearing on social life? Gandhi answered the first question thus: “My religion is Hinduism which, for me, is the religion of humanity and includes the best of all religions known to me.â€ï¿½ In response to the second question, Gandhi said: “I take it that the present tense in this question has been purposely used, instead of the past. I am led to my religion through truth and non-violence. I often describe my religion as religion of truth. Of late, instead of saying God is Truth, I have been saying Truth is God. We are all sparks of Truth. The sum total of these sparks is indescribable, as yet unknown Truth, which is God. I am daily led nearer to it by constant prayerâ€ï¿½. To the third question, Gandhi replied: “the bearing of this religion on social life is, or has to be seen in one’s daily social contact. To be true to such religion, one has to lose oneself in continuous and continuing service of all in life. Realization of Truth is impossible without a complete merging of oneself in and identification with this limitless ocean of life. Hence for me, there is no escape from social service; there is no happiness on earth beyond or apart from it. In this scheme, there is nothing low, nothing high. For all is one, though we seem to be manyâ€ï¿½. Gandhi elaborated: “The deeper I study Hinduism, the stronger becomes the belief in me that Hinduism is as broad as the universe. Something within me tells me that for all the deep veneration I show to several religions, I am all the more a Hindu, nonetheless for itâ€ï¿½. On the Mahatma’s birthday it seems necessary to bring home these fundamentals, particularly to those who go on condemning Hinduism without even studying it and also to those members of the ruling elite whose attachment to fake and fraudulent “godsâ€ï¿½ have made the country a den of corruption, callousness, confusion and criminality. Gandhi’s elucidation makes it clear that true Hinduism is nothing but spiritual secularism. To relegate such a religion and to follow a shallow and superficial secularism is one of the worst sins that the false problems of contemporary India are committing. They call Gandhi the Father of the Nation. Yet in practice they do everything to negate all his beliefs. Throughout human history, religion has remained a potent force despite all the pounding it has received from thinkers like Marx who called it “opiate of the massesâ€ï¿½, and Freud who termed it as “a collective neurosis of the massesâ€ï¿½. It may be relevant to recall a talk between Cardinal Gonsalvic and Napoleon. The Cardinal was pleading the case for the church. Napoleon got annoyed on some point and shouted at the Cardinal “Your Eminence, are you not aware that I have the power to destroy the Catholic Church?â€ï¿½ The Cardinal smiled and replied, “Your Majesty, we the Catholic Clergy for the last 1800 have done our level best to destroy the Catholic Church. We did not succeed. You will not succeed either.â€ï¿½ This conversation brings out in a telling manner the staying power of religion, notwithstanding its internal and external destroyers. While religion has its influence in every country, it is more so in India. Swami Vivekananda, with his characteristic clarity and insight, has observed: “Each nation, like each individual, has one theme in life, which is its centre, the principal note around which every other note comes to form the harmony. If anyone attempts to throw off this central note, that is, its national vitality, the direction which has become its own through the transmission of centuries, that nation dies. In India, religious life forms the centre, the key-note of the whole music of national life. Take away region from India nothing would be left.â€ï¿½ Power in present-day India has become an end in itself. Justice is being buried deeper and deeper. Means however unscrupulous are resorted to and then rationalized. Corruption in public life has attained alarming proportions. Most of our institutions have lost their underlying motivation of service and become effete and venal. Why has this happened? Why have our state and society become soulless entities? Why have criminals enlarged their hold on politics? And why have power and pelf become everything and justice and truth nothing? The answer to these questions is that the ethical foundation of Hinduism, as seen by Gandhi, which could provide “an awakened conscienceâ€ï¿½ to an individual and make him an honest, just and compassionate component of society has been destroyed partly by the stink and slush of our past degeneration and partly by the type of spurious secularism which has been exploited in post-independence India. Hinduism, as made clear by Gandhi, sees all human beings as “sparks of truth/divinityâ€ï¿½. As such, it neither goes against any other religion nor is it incompatible with the constitutional goals of equality, fraternity, liberty and justice. If the same divinity constitutes the core of all individuals, they cannot but be equal. Further, divinity in one person cannot in any way be unjust to the same divinity in another person. As the Gita puts it, “Seeing the same God equally present in everything, one does not injure the self by self; and goes to the highest goalâ€ï¿½. In Hinduism, Gandhi saw a unique quality: “In it there is room for the worship of all the prophets of the world. It is not a missionary religion in the ordinary sense of the worldâ€ï¿½. Gandhi underlined: “God is not encased in a safe to be approached only through a little hole in it, but He is open to be approached through billions of openings by those who are humble and pure of heartâ€ï¿½. Courtesy : Advaitin Forums on Yahoo "Generations to come will scarcely believe that such a man in flesh and blood once trod upon this earth"." -Albert Einstein SRI SITARAMACHANDRAARPANAMASTHU