GEMS
Prayer of St Francis of Assisi
The First is Love.
The second is never too much. The Third is never be the first in the world. Through Love one has no fear. Through not doing too much one has amplitude of reserve power. Through not presuming to be the first in the world, one can develop one`s talent and let it mature.(Agatha Christie)
FREEDOM FROM TENSION.
Only two kinds of people are happy and free from tension.The utter fool and the one who has surpassed himself gone beyond his mind and attained the state of a Paramahamsa).All people in between are in average stages of tension and sorrow.(Srimad Bhagavatam)
For the vast majority of people tension is a way of life.This tension says vedanta is the organism`s struggle for freedom in the case of a man it is this tension that carries him forward.Awareness of bondage is the first step towards freedom...Many people are not even aware that they are bound.There are quite happy with the little pleasures they get in the sense world.There is pain too, but if they have even a little pleasure that is compensation enough.Vedanta calls them Samsarins, or stagnant souls.(Swami Ranganathapada).
We may be in Samsara, but Samsara should not be in us. The boat should
be in water, but water should not be in the boat.Being in Samsara does
not make one a Samsarin. It is when Samsares or worldliness gets into
us, when we look upon the world of name and form as an end in itself,
it is then that we become stagnant and refuse to develop and progress
(Sri Ramakrishana)
All men should strive to learn before they die/what they are running
from, and to, and why.(James Thurber)
The majority of men devote the greater part of their lives to making
their remaining years unhappy.(Jean dela Bruyere)
Age of Vitality
Cecelia Hurwith (77) realised five characteristics helped the old
lead a happy life.
1)They enjoyed Growing old.2)They concentrated on what they could do.
3)And not on what they could not.4)They made friends with people of
all
ages.
5)They were physically active and they accepted mental challenges.
(Books)Vital Aging and creative living.The last period of your life should
be as good as the first.Fortitude, forgiveness, rule over the mind,
Not taking other Goods against their will, Cleanliness, control over
the senses too.Alert intelligence,learning and truthfulness.
Not giving way to anger such are the unfailing marks of the eternal
Dharma.
(Manau Smriti)
True civilization is where every man gives
to every other every right
that he claims for himself.
Four things a man must learn to do/ If he would make his record
true/To think without confusion clearly to all.From honest motives
purely.To trust in God and heaven securely.(Henry Van Dylke)
Murphy`s Law
If the facts are against you, Argue the Law,If the Law is against you,
argue the facts,If the facts and Law are against you, yell like a
Hell.
Songs ,Like flowers whose fragrance is becoming more and more
powerful as the Breeze of time carries them far and wide.
4. C`S
The ability of a person to perform is limited to his mental and
physical capacity, capability,competency and comfort level.Acid or
Razor,
Monkey or Hen,A Gangster~s name often gives away his crime.
(Crime Hall of Fame)
Marriage is popular because it combines the maximum of temptation
with the maximum opportunity.(George Bernard Shaw)
Planning involves linking Current realities and Future
problems.
NAVAVIDHA BHAKTI.
1)Audition (Shravana) Parishkit
2)Recaputualion (Manana) SukaMuni
3)Remembrance (Jnapaka) Pralhad
4)Service at the feet of Lord (Padasevan) Lakshmi
5)Worship (Pooja) Prathu
6)Salutations with praise Akrura
7)Service (Seve) Anjaneya
8)Friendless (Sakhya) Arjun
9)Surrender (Atma Samaprane) Bali
Spirituality is the light, substance and soul of life.It is the
quintessence of all Religions and the religion of non-religion. Its
Central content and the technique for its experience are embodied
in the Gayatri Mantra. The intrinsic and inevitable aspiration in
man for the real enlightmnet of intelligence it is the fulfill
ment of Life on earth.(Swami Onkarnanda)
O, Spirit, teach us to heal the body by recharging it with Thy
Cosmic energy, to heal the mind by concentration and cheerfulness
and to heal the disease of soul ignorance by the Divine medicine
of meditation in Thee.(Sri. Paramahansa Yogananda)Many people
believe that they are attracted by God, or by Nature when they are
only repelled by man.(Dean Inge)
I can not hide what I am. I must be sad when I have a case and
smile at no man`s jests ,eat when I have stomach and wait for no
man`s leisure.Sleep when I am drowsy and tend on no man`s business.
Laugh when I am merry and claw no man in his humour.(William Shakespeare.)
(Much Ado About Nothing)
If I held Truth in my hand, I should let it go for the joy of
pursuing it is greater than that of finding it.(Sir,W.Hamilton)
India which was never poor by nature, but was poor only by
policy.The real resource of any Country to-day is knowledge.(Nani
Palikiwala)
Ritual and reason regarded, as being antithetical.For others there are
complementary factors, in the process of spiritual growth.
Ritual are born of man`s adoration for that unseen power underly
ing the mystery of life.Adoration or Appeasement worship and sacrifice
encourage humility and surrender resulting in the Chitta Suddhi or
spiritual purification so necessary for inner Growth.
I say to you make perfect your will.I say take no thought of that
harvest, But only of proper sowing.(T.S.Eliot The Rock)
Yoga is the culmination of the process of refinement that leads to
inner Grace, Soul expansion when one learns to detach one self
from the Limits of wrongly activities one surrenders to Divine.
This is Bhakti.A Bhakta is one whose every action is an offering to
Higher Reality.
Be worshipful, be respectful towards your body.God has chosen it
to be His residence.It is a universe in itself go within wards
acquaint your self with this temple.Don`t look for God in the sky;
look within your own body.(Osho Rajneesh)
The truth which is God, can`t be expressed in words. But it is
that Truth which enables us to speak whatever we say.Whether our
words are full of spiritual wisdom or a denial of God.It is God
who is the ultimate speaker of our speech.It is God who enables
our mind to feel and comprehend whatever the feeling or thought
good, bad, or different.When we pray feeling joy and purity, it
is God who enables us to feel this, but God is not that
feeling.God can`t be felt that you feel is terrestrial what ena
bles you feel is transcendental.(Swami Parthiswamy)
When we are at rest , the demons rejoice, but when we are at work,
the angels exult.(St.Issak.Syrin)
Who is the foe? It is but idleness(Sri.Shankar Bhagavadpada Prashotra
Ratna
Mala)
To be at work,to do things for the world, to make our existence a
positive element is a new joy of which the idle man knows no more
than the mole knows of sunshine.(Phillips Brooks)
An once of application is worth a ton of abstraction.(Arthur
Bloch)
Murphy`s Law 1977)
SEEKING WITH BELIEF
The truth of Brahman, which is of the nature of condensed infinite
Bliss and consciousness, which has no second to compare with and
is not limited by space and time, which is eternally free and is
sought to be illumined by hundred thousand utterances of the Veda
and the Upanishads, which is beyond the purview of sight(and
sense organs) and yet is the supreme goal of human Life that truth
of Brahaman, however, shines visibly as the image of Shri.Krishna
in the temple of Guruvayur Town how fortunate in deed are ordi
nary human beings.(Narayana Battatiri Sri.Narayaniyam)
THE COMPANY YOU KEEP
Seek the companionship with men of wisdom .Be established in firm
devotion to Lord Cultivate virtues eschew all desire-ridden ac
tions. (Adi Shankara)>To be alone is
better than to have a bad
companion,
and a good companion is better than being alone; and speaking what is
good is better than keeping silence; and silence is better than
speaking
what is evil. (Sayings of prophet Muhammad)
What we need in religion is not light, but new sight not new
paths, but new strength to walk into the old ones, not a new
duties but new strength from on high to fulfill those that are
plain before us. (Tryon Edwards)
DECLINING VALUES AND LEADERSHIP
Pleasure alone will confer rank,wealth will be the only source of
devotion, passion will be the sole bond of union between sexes,
false hood will be the only means of sensual gratification.Earth
will be venerated only for its mineral treasurers. Dishonesty will
be the universal mean of subsistence, menace and presumption will
be the subterfuge for leering, Liberality will be devotion simple
ablution will be purification, mutual absent will be marriage,
fine clothes will be dignity. (Vishnu Puran)
And thus I clothe my naked villainy, with odd old ends, Stol`s forth
of holy writ, And seem a saint when most I play the devil
(William Shakespeare Richard)
The Hottest place in Hell are reserved for those who in time of Great
moral crisis maintain their neutrality.(Dante)
Prompting Stress free Life
Antanpragnya, An organization committed to the ideas of spreading
spiritual knowledge and technics from the ancient Indian scripts in
order to promote holistic health and stress free life.
"Stress is not caused by people or situations, but by your response
to them.you must learn to choose your responsive, and also control
your mind. you can thus regain control of your life.Simple meditation
practice gives us the ability to reach of inner consciousness,
identify
our negative trait self.(S.R.Gogate, 145,East of Kailash New Delhi)
Srishtsi: Creation
Like bobbles in water, the worlds arise from, exist in and dissolve
into
the Supreme Lord, who is the material cause and supporter of
everything
(Atmabodha-8)
Every creation has three causes, material, efficient, and
instrumental.
The making of a pot requires the mud,the potter and the potting wheel
respectively. In the case of the creation of the manifest world, the
three causes are:
One :Brahman
Brahman uses itself to create the world out of itself.Thus... It is
self
supporting.The pluralistic world arises out of the ocean like bubbles.
The bubbles are,at once, separate and part of the ocean.They are made
by the ocean out of itself.If we understand the water that is the
bubble, we understand the water that is the ocean, If we understand
the Divine spirit(Brahaman) that is the universe.(Swami Parthasarathy)
As milk is spontaneously changed into curds, and water into ice,so
Brahman modifies itself in diverse ways, without the aid of
instruments
or external means of any kind whatever.Thus the spider spins its web
out of its own substance,subtle beings take diverse forms, and the
lotus grows, from marsh to marsh without organs by
locomotion.
(Brahman Sutra. 11.1)
God to reveal himself in the image.
Shodash(Upchar) Pooja.
(1)Dyana(2)Avahana.(3)Asana(4)Padhya(5)Arghya(6)Snana(7)Vastra
(8)Yajnopavita(9)Gandha(10)Pushpa(11)Dhupa(12)Deepa(13)Naivedya
(14)Tambula(15)Niranjana(16)Suvarna pushpa.
In temple the deity is permanently invoked in the image as such the
temple becomes a place of pilgrimage for devotees.As an aid in
attaining
oneself to the form of the deity the devotee can perform the ritual of
placing the different limbs of the deity on the corresponding parts of
his own body.This process symbolizes the adjustment of the Macrocosm
with the Microcosm.
The spiritual seeker must find proper instruction at he feet of a
Guru,
who is well versed in the vedas which lead to the knowledge of God.
(Srimad Bhagavatam.11-3-21)
GURU
Why is one`s Guru greater than Ishvara? No one has seen God.An
individual who is present before us in person. who is all the time pure of
heart and
mind, who possesses Jnana and is blameless whose mind is not fickle.
if we are fortunate to have such a person for a Guru, he will give us
the same peace of mind and happiness that we otherwise seek from
Ishvara. However we should not be forgetful of devotion to God, who
brings the devotee and the Guru together(Chadrashekahar Saraswati)
Until we realise the God within, we must act, according to the advice
of those who have had the experience of God. We must combine devotion
to the teacher with the most unrestricted right of free examination
and
inquiry, the Hindu tradition insists on inquiry and reflection.
(S.Radhakrishan)
A man should either discover the Truth for himself or learn it from
some one else. If this is not possible he should take the best and
most
irrefrangible of human theories and make if the raft on which he sails
through Life.
(Plato)
I went to Pray with the devotees, and did not feel in my place
I went among those who mortify, themselves, among those who fast,
and still I did not feel in my place.I said "O MY GOD! what then is
the way to Thee?And the answer was:Abandon thyself and come.
(Bayazid.a.Bistami)
He who is happy within, who rejoices within , and who is illuminated
within, that person attains absolute freedom or Moksha(Bhagavad
Gita.v.24)
If we refrain from desiring pleasure and hating pain Karma will work
itself out and we shall be liberated.(Swami Vivekananada)
Our true independence lies in recognising our total dependence on God,
for it is in Him that we find our dignity and strength.If we want joy
peace and unity it must begin with prayer to God.(mother Theresa)
Religion is the technique of perfect living of gaining a better
mastery
over oneself.Science applied becomes technology.Pure philosophy
applied
to social conditions becomes religion(Swami Chinmayananda)
Reading makes a full man-Conference a ready man-and writing an exact
man- and therefore if a man write little he needs to have a great
memory,
if he confer little, he needs to have present wit- and if he read
little
he needs auto have much cunning to seem to know what he does not.
(Francis Bacon)
To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting.(Edmund
Burke)FAITH
Nothing in life is more wonderful than faith the one great moving
force
which we can neither weigh in the balance not test in the crucible
(Sir, William Osler)
SURRENDER YOURSELF
Abandon all supports and look to me for protection.I shall purify you
from the sins of the past:do not grieve.(BhagavadGita18.66)
Taking refuge in God itself is freedom from all sin and sorrow.
In him there is no sin and no sorrow, even as in the Sun there is
no darkness. God is bliss.Even the happiness we derive from prayer is
the fruit of contact with him. We should surrender ourselves
to
him to bliss. As long as our ego seperates us from him, we shall
continue
to be unhappy.
All the Gross and subtle manifestations of this ego should be avoided
so that nothing stands in the way between us and Him.(Swami
Venkatesanda)
No man can do properly what he is called upon to do in this Life
unless
he can learn to forget his ego and act as an instrument of
God.(W.H.Auden)
Yesterday is beyond repair.Tomorrow may never come.To-Day alone is
ours.
Make the best use of it as it is your sole sure possession.Time well
lived in youth gives man sweet memories to look back upon when he
grows
old.
(Zarathustra)
KSHAMAWANI DIWAS/DAY OF FORGIVENESS
I sin a lot,there is no limit to my misdeeds
O, God! Save me with your grace.I am a great sinner,
God! According to my Karma my turn will never come,
It must be your Grace, that can lead me to you,
The kind Guru led me to God, washing all my sins and evil deeds away
Those who remember God,says Nanak, they are honored.(Guru Amar
Das)All-Pervading God! Whatever heinous sin we may
have committed, be it
one of own right jeering at God or scorn of him by tongue,mind or
action,
we pray for pardon(Rig.veda:4.54.3)
Globalisation should properly be understood as the process by which
Individuals indentify their community at the level of the Globe
embracing
all of human kind. As(Zarathushta)
Man is born to workout to prosper.You are the master of your own fate.
Our children will reap the fruits of our present labour.
But happiness does not last. Pleasure is always mixed with pain.
Therefore extinguish all desire for worldly happiness. But who casts
away the grain because of the husk.
Jemmy Benthan
Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign
masters,
Pleasure and pain and it is for them alone to determine what we
shall do.
The behavioral scientists in this century have identified the
causes of
pleasure and pain as the main spring of all goal directed behavioral.
It is genetically programmed into the human and animal brain.
My Prayers Have been Answered.
i)I asked for strength and God gave me Difficulties to make me
strong.
ii)I asked for wisdom and God gave me Problem to solve.
iii)I asked for prosperity and God gave me Brain and brawn to
work.
iv)I asked for courage and God gave me Danger to overcome.
v)I asked for love and God gave me troubled people to help.
vi)I asked for favours and God gave me opportunities.
I received nothing I wanted .
I received everything I
needed.
God gives and forgives, Man gets and forgets
On Self Realization
Each one of us here have to discover our own true self, to find out
our own
that our true self is spiritual being that have taken manifestation
in
physical form .Truly therefore joyfulness is a spiritual experience.
To realize true
happiness , one needs to recognize that the spiritual energy, that
infinitesimal
particle of Sachidananda, the eternal, fully cognizant, joyful
personality
we worship as God.
Our holy Scriptures explain that
" God is wisdom of the
wise,
intelligence of the intelligent ,knowledge of the seeker ,kindness
of the kind,
ahimsa of the ahimsatmak, love of the loving, truth of the
truthful, the
beauty of the beautiful(satyam Shiva sundaram) , combination of all
virtues
and in fact, a mighty positive force."
Awaken to this
inner consciousness, and
we begin to experience mental equipoise returned to us ,suffusing
our entire being
with a new sense of well being. The realization begins to implode
with meaning
and awareness of life in all its depth and intricacy. The unbridled
craze for
material achievements tends to lose its momentum giving way to a new
understanding
of the universe, the purpose of our existence its ultimate goal.
We begin to see ourselves as beings more sublime, subtler, and more
substantive, now reaching beyond
the confines of our narrow self-image in an effort of self-
transcendence.
Spiritual awareness is a super sensory process of self-introduction
of an individual to his own self, to knowing what he is and what he
really ought to be.
Know Yourself
God is Eternal; the world is temporary.
God is One, but has infinite names and infinite forms.
If you will call upon God in a true and simple manner,
you will know that all you are performing is Divine Work.
Maintain the association of Seekers of Truth, because
true seekers will teach you the way to unite with God.
By means of the divine names you will realize that the
Consciousness of True Existence is Bliss.
Dwell in the ocean of existence like a fish. You have
two hands; with one of them do the work of the world,
and with the other hand, hold onto God.
If you want peace, see no fault in anyone. Find all
mistakes within yourself.
Learn to make the entire universe your own.
Continue to recite mantras until meditation comes.
Do not leave your recitation until your mind sits still.
Repeating the holy names, the mind automatically becomes
quiet.
(Shree Maa and Swami Satyananda of the
Devi Mandir)
I am human, therefore nothing human is strange to me."
CONTENTMENT
-
Today Upon a Bus I saw a lovely Girl with golden hair. I envied her, She seemed so happy.I wished I were as fair. when suddenly she rose to leave I saw her nobble down the aisle, She had one leg and wore a crutch And as she passed by, a smile Oh God ! forgive me when I whine I have two legs, the world is mine.
2. And then I stopped to buy some sweets, The lad who sold them had such a Charm, I talked with him, he seemed so glad, If I were late,it would do no harm And as I left he said to me " I thank you, you have been so kind , Its nice to talk with folks like you, for you, see" he said " I am Blind". Oh God ! forgive me when I whine I have two Eyes the world is mine.
3.Later walking down the street I saw a child with eyes so blue, It seemed he knew not what to do. I stepped a moment and then I said " Why don`t you join the others dear ?"
He looked ahead without a word And then I knew he couldnot hear. Oh God ! forgive me when I whine, I have two ears, the world is mine , with legs to take me where I `d go with eyes to see the sunset`s glow with ears to hear what I would know Oh God ! forgive me , the world is mine.
Thoughts become words. Words become actions.
Actions become habits. Habits become character.
Character determines destiny!
The earth is full of your goodness, your greatness and understanding, your wisdom and harmony. How wonderful are the lights that you created. You formed them with strength and power and they shine very wonderfully on the world, magnificent in their splendour. They arise in radiance and go down in joy. Reverently they fulfill your divine will. They are tributes to your name as they exalt your sovereign rule in song. jewish mystical hymn 516 b.c.e. - 70 c.e.