Thursday, November 22, 2007

Analyzing the Subtle body

AS stated in Bhagavad Gita, we are spirit souls covered by a subtle body of mind , intelligence and false ego and then by a gros body which we can see with our eyes. It is evident that for most mordern proponents this kind of construction of our body is shocking . But analyzing the statements in Bhagavad Gita closely and trying to see them by intelligence , one can understand what Bhagavad Gita is saying is not at all impractical.
It is a known fact that every person we meet has different desires, different mentality, different thoughts and different habits. Intelligent obserever may ask, As per our “modern” evolutionary theory we all have come from a single cell which eventually made higher intelligence like us, then why is that we find such a vast variety in human beings ? Why is that some one is very intelligent in humans and others are not so. Why is there a separate bracnh of psycology which deals with mind , even though we don’t see our mind, since people normally put an argument that since we do not see GOD with our eyes we do not believe in existence of GOD, So it can be safely concluded that , if I donot see someone’s mind with my eyes, that particular person has no mind, and since a person has no mind, there is no point arguing science of God, with a mindless person.
This article will show how the subtle body works as explained in Bhagavad Gita .
In Gita, Sri Krishna , says , that we the spirit souls are covered by 2 layers of material coverings.
Soul is independent and cannot be harmed in anywhich way, It is a part and parcel of the Lord and hence is eternal.
Soul is further covered by a layer of mind, intelligence and false ego.
Mind , intelligence and false ego are material elements which constitutes the subtle body of a living entity. It is not visible to the eye , but works on a sublte form. The hierarchy based on the power of control is explained in Bhagavad Gita,
Gita says,
Senses are more powerful than the gross matter, mind is powerful than the senses, intelligence is still power ful than the mind and soul is more powerful than the intelligence. False ego is the false identity of the living soul related to body( eg. Indian, american etc) . AS per Gita , real identity of the soul or in other words real ego of a living entity is that he is a eternal servant of Lord Krishna, and always subordinate to him.

So based on these statements, we can conclude that Senses, mind, intelligence, and ego are subtle material instruments for the functioning of the bodily mechanism, which is a gross matter made up of earth , water , fire, air, ether. One may know by observation that body contains all these elements , namely earth, water, fire, air, ether.

Now senses include, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, hands, legs, genitals, anus, etc are controlled , centrally by the mind. For example, if we see a nice peace of sweet meat, eyes and tounge tell the mind to pick it up and mind transmits this to the hands and them the process of eating takes place. This is done very quickly. Hence all the activities are centered around the mind. Hence mind is power ful than the senses.
Intelligence is more power ful than the mind, For example, if eyes see poison and tongue wants to taste it, intelligence discirminates it as dangeorus and hence controls the mind not to execute the fuction of eating.
Hence intelligence is more powerful than the mind.
At this point one may wonder , if intelligence is powerful than the mind, how is it going to help me? This brings us at the point of understanding Bahgavad Gita. Main function of intelligence as shown above is to discriminate good from bad, right from wrong, and Bhagavad Gita, is the wisdom which awakens the intelligence for a human being.
AS soon as I say awaken the intelligence , it is obvious that people may get offended thinking , it is outrageous to think that people in general have sleeping intelligent in today’s world. Without giving to much thought on the claims made by the false ego, if one reads further, one will understand why people’s intelligence are sleeping.
AS we see around us , every one is engaged in working hard, day and night, going home to his or her family, eating , sleeping , mating and then waking up again in the morning working hard and just waiting for the weekend to do the same , i.e eating , sleeping ,mating and defending. We today claim to posses a higher intelligence than the animals, and hence are very proud of our technological and economic improvements , but if one looks at the results of such a intelligence work, one will find, that we have become slaves to technolog y and have become more unhappy over the years due to this . In all this false pride and glamour of technological and economic development , we fail to realize that the higher intelligence given to us is being wasted in developing better ways of eating , sleeping , mating and defending, which even animals are doing it , that to without much mental stress and anxiety. They are surviving on the products supplied by the nature. This brings us to the point which should make us think that this higher intelligence is being misused by us and hence needs to be directed to a proper source of knowledge which would make it more meaning ful. Bhagavad Gita says, higher intelligence awarded to human beings is to inquire about God, his relation with him and how to attain that relation. This is what Gita teaches .
So if one takes the study of Bhagavad Gita, serioulsy , his intelligence awakens to the real wisdom and since it is powerful than the mind, it has the strength to control the illusory and unwanted desires of mind and the senses. This will make one more foccused on the ultimate goal , and revive the original constitutional position of the soul and engage him or her in activities which are beneficial to the soul , instead of running after a mirage of happiness created by the mind. Since the living entity is a spirit soul and not the body, it is necessary to find out what are the activities which will make the soul happy. All the material activities , of today’s world, of so called entertainment are just satisfying the mind for a while and then again gives a soul a sense of dissatisfaction and hence are temporary. The path to true happiness and understanding of the self lies in the study of Bhagavad Gita.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Science behind faith

From experience and satistical data, it is evident that most of the general populace believe in presence of GOD, but the mass propaganda by some atheist believers who are totally inimicable towards Supreme Lord tend to put a doubt in a rather innocent crowd who have no answers to the questions posed and debated by them. Due to this ignorance in the mass of people, many have turned to atheism and many are loosing their strong faith in goodness. This has let to many misconceptions regarding behaviors out of the jurisdiction of religious text which seem very obvious in today's world.

A very common question people ask when it comes to religious practices ,is Do you believe in GOD?. The question of believing or not believing comes when we have incomplete knowldege or conception of that particular object. But if you have knowledge and can be verified experimentally , then that so called belief becomes a fact and hence makes it very easy to answer this question. On the other hand, faith is very important ,infact it is the first step in knowing anything, for example , if one has no faith in the educational system , one will not learn much from it. Only having little faith makes it difficult to protect , in circumstances when majority are either unaware or inimical about our faith and often it dwindles in such circumstances.But if this faith when properly nutured by knowledge becomes a fact, which can stand any critisism and will lead to a better foundation in understanding a particular concept.

When question comes to GOD, most people have strong faith but are often bewildered by critizism and debates over exsitence of GOD with no results, and hence it is very essential that people in general be educated in these concepts. It is a nautral phenomenon,only by knowing a particular person can one's faith , trust and love for that person increase. Same holds true for Supreme person. As we have to take efforts to know any person, by bonding , similarly it requires effort to know the Supreme person. The only difference stands in the medium of knowing. The process of knowing the Supreme Lord is by reading about him through Bhagavad Gita and Vedic literature. Now the next question that may be raised is , why only Bhagavad Gita , why not Bible, or Kuran or anyother scriputre, why do we have to follow only Bhagavad Gita?. If we analyze all the scriputures scrutinizingly we will find , that the message is same, to love GOD, but agian inorder to love someone, we have to know someone. Any scripture if followed strictly will lead to that goal there is no doubt about it. But when I speak of science behind the faith, Bhagavad Gita very distinctly and very scientifically explains very nature of the living entity, reasons for things we see around us, gives you knowledge on what the nature is , its working, reasons for various mentalities we see around us, the purpose of our existence and the path how to achieve this purpose. All these things are explained purely through the point of view of our Creator. All the questions and doubts that spring up in ones mind can be answered by Bhagavad Gita and many other Vedic literatures. All these answers are available very scientifically for us to apply and realize the Absolute truth. Some others may question if that is so then why is that there are so many scriptures that are available, why is every one not reading only Bhagavad Gita? A very valid question but this question can be answered by a simple example, teachers teach their students depending upon the capacity of the students, a teacher teaching a particular subject in 4th grade will not teach the same material to students in a higher grade. Similarly , different sciptures differ in details and practices inorder to adjust to the understanding capacity to a particular group of people, but the goal is same to attain the Supreme , to know HIM. Bhagavad Gita is the preliminary study in gaining knowledge about GOD, as one begins to understand Bhagavad Gita, then one may progress furthur with the study of Literatures like, Srimad Bhagavatam and other Vedic literatures. At this point I would like to clear a very common misconception about Bhagavad Gita, people due to the humbug tend to thing that,everything might be true , yes bhagavad Gita is sceintific etc, but it is a Hindu scriputure , so by reading Bhagavad Gita we are changing our religion? , But nowhere in Bhagavad Gita Lord Krishna , says , that this teachings are only meant for Hindu's NO, It is meant for everyone. Hinduism, Chirtianism, Muslim and other religions as we know today are man made and the conflicts that often occur between these sects are because of selfish and egoistics interest of these groups. There are many evidences which show that , 5000 years ago , when Bhagavad Gita was spoken , there was no Hindu, Christian or Muslim religion, these have been recently labelled by men. Practices followed may differ in these groups but the science is the same, which is give by the LORD HIMSELF in Bhagavad Gita.

Hence, inorder to understand anything in this world we should have faith. It is a common occurence , faith leads to knowledge similary, knowledge leads to faith. In our daily mundane world , if one has to gain knowledge about a particular subject he should have faith in that subject matter to further investigate into it, which leads one to knowledge, and similarly once a person acquires knowledge about a particular phenomenon and practices it , his faith increases. So it is utmost neccessary , for those who have faith to acquire the required knowledge to protect your faith in GOD. Those who want to develop that faith , have to practice the teachings in Gita. So Bhagavad Gita is such a wonderful body of knowledge that , it is beneficail to whomsoever may read it seriously. Even a fraction understanding will make one happier than before. It is my most humble request to all, to take advantage of this great book and expereince its results. There is nothing to loose in this experiment, Even if one fails he would sooner or later come to a point of understanding the philosophy , and if one seriously follows the teachings is sure to make his life perfect in all respects.

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Navrathri festival --- turns into a concert

Today is October 13th 2007 , just yesterday the age old festival of Navratri started. I went to one such arrangement made to celebrate this festival, but truly speaking it felt as if I have come to a concert.

Navrathri as all the festivals in ancient India are celebrated with a spiritual and a divine objective. Navrathri means Nine nights of worship to Goddess of Strength. First three nights are for the worship of Mother Durga to invoke her blessings to counter our sinful activities, Second three nights are for the worship of Mother Lakshmi to bestowed upon us spiritual strength and goodness , and the Last three nights are for worship of Mother Saraswati for spiritual knowlegde.
These are the main reasons for which the festival is celebrated. Also every festival has a pure format where in a person can invoke his or her devotional and spiritual energies to attain the ultimate goal of life which is salvation as per the Vedic Literature.

During Navrathri the form of worship is my dancing in circles and singing bhajans and kirtans praising the activitites and nature of Mother Durga, and thanking her for protecting us from the demons. These dances are performed seperately by men and women to maintain the purity of affairs to obtain devotional objective. These have to be followed strictly which will make one blissful and happy during the festivities.

But it was really saddening to see the celebrations in todays Kaliyuga. Today if anyone asks a youngster, that Why do you celebrate Navartri , the common reply would be " To have fun, enjoy, socialize etc", but no mention of the worship to Goddess Durga. Nobody knows why they are dancing in circles before a diety. Navrathri has lost its main spiritual objective. Formerly songs and bhajans were sung using traditional instruments like drums, cymbals to create a divine atmosphere suitable for the festival, today people have become so much advanced that they think that full orchestra will make Goddess happy. They also think that instead of praising Mother Durga through devotional songs, Goddess will become pleased if we sing some cheap Hindi Flim songs and dance obscenly on these songs and while all the stupidity is going on we will perform a short aarti for Mother Durga for about 15 minutes and then again we will start our dancing on Hindi songs like some concert. Moreover people have become even more brilliant , thinking Navrathri festival is a fashion parade , where in people can were any type of revealing clothing to attract attention. Girls no longer care to dress in a decent way , boys are trying to show off their new hair styles. Girls and boys are freely dancing and mingling without any concerns , Some how or other people also started thinking that Mother Durga will be pleased and bestow her blessings on them if they are drunk during the festival. These are some of the malpractices which has crept in the modern day celebration of Navrathri.

People and Organizers of todays world have made a mockery of the divine Goddess and the festival for her and they are acting in order to satisfy their selfish desires of enjoyment. In the selfish quest to fulfill their motives they are spoiling the future generation of people who have no clue why are they celebrating a particular festival, Nobody even cares to ask these questions that what is the purpose of celebrating Navrathri , why is that garba is done, why do we worship Goddess. It is the responsibility of the older generation to impart this knowledge to the younger generation and tell them the significance and importance of this or any festival , inorder to invoke devotion and quest for spiritual knowledge in them, since it is the most important science which should be know , but unfortunately, due to the effect of the age , every one is just very busy in fulfilling their own desires without even caring for the anger of the Goddess.

Many older people themselves are in ignorance and hence are not able to explain the importance of spirituality and the festivals celebrated in Vedic culture. It is a pity that people have adjusted to such malpractices and failed to see the consequences. Now many people out of their sheer ignorance and weakness in mind , which probably they are not able to figure out , are not protesting , but that will not stop the reactions to these irresponsible actions. So it is very important that instead of simply encouraging the younger generation to fall into the ditch of darkness and ignorance, make it a habbit for them to ask the question Why? , since if one does not become inquisitive to understand things, the person will be fooled by the laws of nature again and again. Everything has its reactions. It is very sad that due to lack of knowledge many innocent people who are capable of learning will also have to suffer.

Now let us analyze the original objective of celebrating Navrathi. It was to invoke devotion and spiritual bliss, which is a reality, but due to the corruption , the younger generation thinks worship of GODS and GODDESS to be a mere myth, which diverts them to demoniac propensities which they see around them. Modern So called Disco Dandiya and dancing on Film Songs are no way invoking any kind of bhakti or devotion , infact , such lusty songs and music are just polluting their minds and making their conviction of Goddess worship being a myth even stronger. Moreover , Girls and boys during Navratri are supposed to dance in seperate circles and not intermingle and dance freely dashing with each other. Also The foremost and main intension of Navrathri is to praise the Goddess, but instead of doing that we are keeping Mother Durga aside and Praising Hindi songs. Also this scared festival is to be done in a pure way , where in girls are supposed to dress decently and boys are also have to be traditionally dressed with humility, but today, Navratri has become a hunting ground for boys and girls and a fashion stage, where in boys are interesed in having "cool" haristyles and dress and girls are more intend on dressing more in a revealing manner to attract attention. So one question remains , where is the pleasure of the Goddess for which this festival is meant , to be thankful to her and please her , since we cannot possibly be able to repay her for the blessing she as already bestowed upon us insignificant souls?. If we keep our selfish motive of entertainment in the center instead of Mother Durga and try to enjoy the festival, then there is no surprise that we see so much exploitation, crimes , fights, sexual assaults etc during these festivites, which is a mere reaction to our disobedience of the orders of the Goddess and sign of her displeasure.

Hence it is very essential that instead of encouraging the ignorance of the younger generation, elders and parents have to educate first of all themselves than the younger generation to avoid being pushed into ignorance, or else it will lead them to ruination.

Friday, October 12, 2007

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Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Maha mantra

" हरे कृष्ण हरे कृष्ण कृष्ण कृष्ण हरे हरे
हरे राम हरे राम राम राम हरे हरे "


" Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare "

Reality beyond mundane vision

As I sit besides the window and watch the squirels moving around , I come to see the truth in the teachings of Bhagvad Gita. These creatures were constantly restlessly moving around and eating, as soon as other squirell was around they start chasing each other inorder to defend ,these creatures are in ignorance of the real truth, they are acting under illusion which gives them intelligence to only eat , sleep ,mate and defend, It is impossible for them to understand the higher nature they belong to . In order to understand this they have to go through the evolution process of changing their bodies until they reach the human form of life where they will have the intelligence to understand their real purpose of existence.
Looking at them , I wondered how many millions of years I must have spend , being a squirell, a tree, a insect, a hog, a dog and many forms and finally by the grace of Krishna I have been given this chance to understand what really I am , Where is my real home, who is GOD and why are we here. But , even though I am fortunate enough to get the human form of life , it is shameful that i am just wasting it in the lower inferior activities . I have already wasted 27 years of this precious human form of life in eating, sleeping , mating and defending , and trying to please my senses and others without knowing why am I existing and what is my role. I am wasting this high intelligence , in developing improved ways of eating , sleeping , mating and defending , which I already was engaged in my previous births , and for which I had a better body and senses to enjoy. Especially last 10 years I have just wasted in false pursuits to satisfy my mind and body , coming under the grip of maya. Seeing these animals I feel fortunate and wish to stop this useless activities I have been indulging into for so many years , And I pray with all my heart and soul to Krishna,that being a very minute and incapable particle of your manifestation, I do not posses the strength and intellect to fight maya and hence I take shelter of your Lotus feet, surrendering the results of all the activities for the pleasure of Krishna. I pray to All merciful Lord, to give me the intelligence and strength so that I do not wavier from this path of Devotional service ,anytime and be attached to HIS holy name, for this is the only way to get out of the precarious conditions we have put ourselves into .


The reality , one may believe it or not is , that we are in a great illusion called the material nature, which is under the control of Almighty Lord Shri Krishna. We are put into this precarious condition, as a result of our activities and desires to lord it over the material nature. Due to these desires we are given different bodies which have the capacity to fulfill our desires for a while, but since we are not in our real constitution of serving the Lord , the so called happiness we derive using our bodies is limited and fade out very soon. We being the parts of Krishna are qualitatively equal to the lord , but with respects to power we are very minute and insignificant in comparison to the unlimited power of the Lord. So it should be noted that , inorder to be happy ,it is essensial to follow the instructions of the Lord as give in Bhagvad Gita, since it is a rule set forth by the Ruler of the world, Everthing that we see around is a property of Krishna, and encroaching Krishna's property for our senses is criminal , and hence the uhappy state of affairs we place our selves into.

It is little difficult to understand these concepts being in illusion of maya, but as soon as one desires from the heart to know the truth and is fed up with the constant changes in the material nature , one can understand these concepts slowly and gradually by the mercy of the Lord. Only thing one needs , is to be completely surrendered to Krishna and a unflinching faith in HIS words and a constant reading of Bhagvat Gita , while following the four regulative principles of , no meat eating, no intoxication, no illicit sex and no gambling.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

The Great Loss of intelligence

As predicted some 5000 years ago in Srimad Bhagvatam , the people in the Age of Kali have become ignorant and lost their intelligence to sense gratification and weakness of mind. Everyone today considers America to be one of the most powerful and richest country and a happy nation and others in the world think to live a American Life. Well I was one of them until my fantasy was shattered when I actually landed on this land.

After staying here for a little more than 2 years and looking at the conditions of life in America, I consider America to be most unfortunate and poorest of nations . I know these statements are shocking for some and utterly outrages for most Americans, but It is a fact. When I see around me America has all material opulences as given my GOD, but still the people hear are afraid, unhappy, always, angry and lusty. Even after having so much wealth why are people so unhappy in this place. The answer is found in Bhagvad Gita. The answer to this is the great loss of intelligence.

As per Vedic Wisdom, each living entity is on this planet for sense gratification. Everyone has a part to play. Vedic literature describes the duties of different classes of men and their functions for the smooth running of the social order and to attain ultimate goal of human life which is to realize GOD.
As per the Vedas, society has to be divided in to 4 classes of men namely , brahmanas, kshtriyas, vaishyas and sudras. These classes have to made as per once qualifications and not based on birth. Bramhnas are described as the brains of the society ,ksahtriyas the adminstrative heads, viashyas the mechantile class and sudras the workers.

Bramhanas hold the topmost position who instruct the kshasriyas to rule the world on religious principles as per the guidelines or instructions of the Supreme through Vedas. Kshatriyas are the second class , vaishays the thrid class and sudras the fourth class.
These divisions are based on the qualification of the person and not on birth. If a person is born in bramhan family but does not have any brahmanical qualifications he should be considered a sudra. This was the norm. But due to the effect of this age, everyone today have started claiming their rights on others properies and have fallen below sudra level. so in todays society we find no bramhans or kshariyas . The society is dominated by sudras who donot follow any rules and regulations and do whimsically whatever feels good. That is the norm these days.

It is saddening to see that, drinking , smoking, illicit sex, gambling which are the four pillars of sinful life are so prominent in America that people have considering it to be normal. Infact people wait till they are 21 so that they can start drinking. This is the most fallen situation. The condition is created by the ignorant leaders who are whimsically misleading the people so that they themselves can enjoy.

Moreover, Vedas also describe the specific duties of a man and a woman , inorder to maintian a healthy society so that they both can advance in spiritual understanding and reach their ultimate goal of life , i.e of know Krishna. As per the vedas men have are endowed with specific qualities and women with different qualities and when both of them work in conjuction with their qualities they can succeed.
Men have a higher intelligence than women , Again in todays world most of the women would consider to be a partial or male ego comment, but this is a fact. But what these women fail to recognize is that they are endowed with a quality of affection , which is lacking in men. This quality is very powerful, any women who becomes affectionate to God can become most exalted devvotee of Krishna, very quickly without going through the trouble some path of self realization through vedas. Whereas men who are intelligent cannot belive in anything very quickly and have to learn the vedas to generate this affection.
Hence the Vedas describe that men are supposed to learn the Vedas thorougly to develop devotion and love for GODHEAD . Since they have the intelligence they are supposed to support the women at everystage of their lives in order to protect them from being misused because of their natural tendency of becoming affectionate.
Similarly women are supposed to be chaste and support her learned husband in every decision he makes and help and serve him in order to advance spiritually with him.

But Now a days, because of so called democracy and propaganda of some selfish men to satisfy their lust, women are made to think that they are independent and can do as they wish without the support of men . This has lead to a chaotic situation where, women's bodies are used for satifying the lust of few men in the name of modelling, advertisements, movies they just propound lusty behavior. By nature women are allured my material things, hence they easily believe all this propaganda and are misled. In America , it is most prominent now a days, they change their partners and have unrestricted sexual relations with any partner without considering its consequences. People have lost all their intelligence to lust , greed, anger, pride and have forgotten the laws laid down by GOD. People in so called rich America are disturbed in their minds, since they have no control on their desires. They do whimsically what their minds tell them to do. Minds of most of the people are covered with lust, anger, false pride, ego and they act to satisfy these things creating actions which they will have to pay for in this or next life.


Every child raised here has these lust , anger false pride and ego embedded in them from the very beginning and hence they it becomes very difficult of them to imagine a happier world were they are free from all these anxieties and they can enjoy a constant bliss. They are constantly bombarded with the images, of violence, sex, pride, through television, new papers. They are constantly being trained from their childhood to only work for enjoying life ,without knowing their role and responsibility in the world. Now in this polluted atmosphere they loose all their control and during the last stages of their life they become lonely and deserted where death awaits them , when they have to leave all the material positions, loved once, their country , their wealth, their ego of being an American and all that they dreamt of to accept another body of a animal because they have wasted one chance of human form in nonsense.
While considering all these factors and reviewing the lifes lived by Americans in the light of Bhagvad Gita and the age old Vedas , there is no surprise when I say that Americans are the Most poorest of all due to the great loss of intelligence in this land. So I would appeal to all those who happen to read this, To please leave their false egos aside and for once , atleast once try to understand the philosophy of Bhagvad Gita As it is , and then see altogether another dimension of life.