It is quite often, a question in everybody’s mind, is that why do Hindus and some other preachers of religions too worship God as statues or a piece of stone, a book, or a mural, a picture or even the rivers, the oceans, or the mountains? This is a small personal reflection and compilation for you to have a look! Read More
…(Continued from Part 1)
Maya is not known because in reality it does not make sense. Because if the reality is really infinite, if something is really infinite, how could it become finite? And if you could become finite, then we have to begin questioning, whether it was infinite in the first place? If something that is one and then became many, then we still have to ask, which is real? Was that one real or these many that have appeared from it, now in front of us, are real?
So this sense of mystery or wonder, of all this one whole or from the different frame of reference, when we speak about creation means that something, which are coming out of nothing. Now that’s also a form of wonder. We might like to say, “Everything is possible. Well, nothing is impossible for God?” That is just saying it. But still how could all of this come from nothing, that’s one way of expressing our question and our wonder. And a second way is, if all of this was really one and undivided, how did it become many and divided?
At present we don’t really have to go into the metaphysics of it. But there is a lot of discussion in books, whether the one really became many or appeared to be many and so on. But we cannot deny that our present experience, the kind of world in which we find ourselves, is a world filled with various kind of things, various kind of beings, various kind of species and just to consider, even the material expanse of the world. Think about the galaxies; galaxies beyond the galaxies. Even to think about it at the material level, is just mind-boggling.
So that’s our present experience. The world in which we are, we are very big, we are all different beings, all separated from one another and also if we believe that there is some such being called, ‘God’ or higher power, we and almost all of us, believe that we are separated from that higher power as well.
To be continued…(Part 3)
Bibliography :
➢ God Talks With Arjuna ~~ Bhagavad Gita ~ Sri Sri Paramahansa
➢ Autobiography of a Yogi: Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda
➢ Understanding Vedanta: Swami Tyagananda.
➢ Meditation & Vedanta: Swami Adiswarananda
➢ Freedom Of Voice: Swami Vivekananda
➢ Inner Voice . Reflection, as Guided By Divine Mother Through Robbin Ghosh
So Now We All Stand Separated… (Continued from Part 1 & 2)
Now being separated gives us some form of individuality, some amount of freedom. I think we all probably have passed through that stage, when we are growing up in the family, then going to school, or when it’s time to go to college. We have seen it in our own lives and may be in the lives of our children or our friends, that many of these young teenagers, when they want to go to college, they don’t usually wish to go to the college ~ in their own city? They just want to go to some different place. Because once you are away from the family, it just gives you a little bit of freedom, a sense of individuality. Things like, “Yes, now I am someone. I don’t have to be always, be dependent or always be a part of something; even it might be a family. I can be on my own.” Read More
Finally, we are about to discuss ‘How do we silence our speech?’ It seems obvious that we can silence our speech by simply eliminating all useless, pointless talk. And one of the tests to know how much of our life is filled with useless, pointless talk is to just look at the quality of our conversations. We know that, as a family or sometimes a group of friends, we sit and we chat, we talk. It might be a helpful practice.
At the end of every conversation, we usually ask ourselves, what have we learnt? Have we learnt anything new? And I don’t honour gossip, as a form of conversation. You can learn a lot of true and false things about all the other people, in your neighborhood or in your community. I am not sure whether that does any of us, any good? Read More
We have spoken about silencing the body; now let’s talk about silencing the mind. An important requirement for silencing the mind is to have the mind under one’s control. This means not being overwhelmed by our emotions and feelings.
Emotions and feelings are a very powerful force. And I think it’s our emotions and feelings that guide us more in life, than our rationality or logic. That’s another paradox, which we all live in and move. Many of us, like to think of ourselves as very rationale creatures, very thinking beings. We think everything through because we think we are very logical. I think that’s the kind of way when you first like to think. But research has confirmed, “Just looking at our own lives, we might be able to realise that most of the decisions that we make in life, are not arrived at in a rational way. Most of the decisions, we take are really guided more by our emotions and feelings.” Read More
We need to, in every part of our being, every dimension of our existence, create silence! Speaking about dimensions, books of Vedanta often refer to three (3) dimensions – body, speech and mind. A phrase known in Sanskrit text is ‘Kayena Manasa vacha’; which means ‘with body, mind and speech’.
So, as a form of preparation, we can ask ourselves, how can I silence the body, how can I silence my mind, how can I silence my speech? Read More
When we talk about Inner Silence, do we always need some sort of crises to experience it in our lives? Or can we create this inner silence at will? Do we have any control over when and how inner silence can be created?
The answer is that inner silence can be created, at will. We have that power within us. It’s possible for us to do it.
Inner silence occurs in a state of true meditation Read More
Let me share with you, the experience, more than fifty-one (51) years ago, when suddenly my father had died. Because it gives us some idea about how this inner silence can be triggered, by any external critical moment in a person’s life. I remember that moment vividly, as if it happened that morning. My father had gone for a medical checkup and had performed a ‘Bronchoscope test’. As he was walking up the staircase, accompanied by my mother, on our riverside bungalow of Mother Ganga, he had smiled, said a gentle hello and then collapsed. I ran to our family doctor. He did come within minutes but couldn’t do anything and left, pronouncing him ‘dead’ within (fifteen) 15 minutes. There was no one around. Our father had left our mother with six children ~ us ~ five brothers and a sister, all very young. Read More
We all need ‘Silence’ in our lives. We know that if we are continuously exposed to sound, it not only affects our hearing, especially if it is a very loud sound, but also produces headaches and affects our peace of mind. Silence is of two kinds, inner silence and outer silence. At one time or another, everyone has craved for silence; or the need to experience it.
Outer silence is achieved through shutting out all the sources of sound, either by switching them off, or by sealing one’s own ears. That’s how ear plugs have come into being. Through technology now, we can also achieve a kind of selective silence; for instance, when you are flying, many companies have noise cancelling headphones which block out noise. Read More
Many people assume without question that success is essentially material, that it can be measured in money, prestige or an abundance of possessions. These can certainly play a role, but having such things is no guarantee of success. The success we want our children to achieve has to be defined in many nonmaterial ways as well. It should include the ability to love and have compassion, the capacity to feel joy and spread it to others, the security of knowing that one’s life serves a purpose, and finally, a sense of connection to the creative power of the universe. All of these constitute the spiritual dimension of success, the dimension that brings inner fulfilment. Read More
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