Bharatheeyam : ( 08/11/2012. )

======================================================================== ======================================================================== 27/11/2019. 19. To Thine Own Self Be True-3. ======================================================================== Many religions, rightly or wrongly, knowingly or unknowingly, have given the impression that they are teaching an otherworldly gospel, which has roused the wrath of many socially-oriented thinkers who do not feel that the world of nature is an unreality to the extent that it demands a religious abnegation. I do not think that the very Sankalpam  of religion, whether it is a Sri Raman or Sri Krishna or Mahadevan or devi sankalpam , were responsible for creating this difficulty in our religious thinking. Most followers, whether of the gospel of Krishna or ...., seem to be expressing the weakness that is characteristic of human nature and demonstrating that they cannot be up to the mark or the level of the prophe...

====================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 08/11/2019. 19. To Thine Own Self Be True-2. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Now, we come to an interesting sidelight of this matter when we try to go a little deeper into this question of religion. Has religion failed, as some people would tell us today? Is religion being threatened, as we often hear it said in many quarters? May I confidently say that religion has not failed and it cannot fail. It cannot also be threatened. Because, if you would agree with me that religion is an outlook of consciousness, and not a coming together of social units for an empirical purpose, no one can threaten religion, because no one can threaten consciousness. One's social, physical and political ex...

======================================================================= BHARATIYA FESTIVALS :  DIWALI (DEEPAVALI) - ======================================================================= ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 27/10/2019. *Watch the video https://youtu.be/cg4pr-F2Iwk ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ On this Sacred day of Deepavali (Diwali) at dusk when darkness intensifies, all homes are illumined by lights, tiny mud pots with oil wicks. I appeal that this day is a day of prayer and expression of love. Get out of your homes in the evening and embrace every other individual in society not because they are Hindus but, because they too are small flames of the same light Divine. This Pure Divine light can impart a joyous sense of perfection in the ways of men & women. Diwali is a day ...

======================================================================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19/10/2019. 19. To Thine Own Self Be True-1. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- An extempore reply given to the Inter-Religious Dialogue Group held under the auspices of the Vatican, that conducted its sessions at Raipur (Dehradun), and visited and held a day's proceeding at the Sivananda Ashram on the 3rd of June, 1981. The Divine Life Society, with the large heart of Swami Sivananda at its back and its roots, extends to you all a cordial welcome at this moment of a session of spirits which may be regarded as gathered for a common purpose. I was delighted to listen to the definition of 'Ashrama' given by our earlier speaker, as a place where a purposeful life is being led. I think...

 ========================================================================  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14/09/2019 18.  The Purpose of Philosophy-5. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A talk given on the 1st of February, 1979, while inaugurating the 24th Conference of the All-India Philosophical Congress, at the Sivananda Ashram. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The whole universal Reality is planted in himself, a significance which is brought out beautifully in a great teaching in the Chhandogya Upanishad which goes by the name of Vaisvanara Vidya. 'Vaisvanara' is called 'Atman' at the same time. The two words are really very significant and they are not used merely casually. The word 'Vaisva...

==================================================================== 14/08/2019 18.  The Purpose of Philosophy-4. ========================================================================= A talk given on the 1st of February, 1979, while inaugurating the 24th Conference of the All-India Philosophical Congress, at the Sivananda Ashram. ========================================================================= The question would arise, how philosophy can be related to life. My feeling is that philosophy is not going to be related to life. Philosophy is the name that we give to the way of living itself. They are not two different things. The system of living correctly in terms of our relationship to the ultimate Reality is philosophy.  This is Jnanam or wisdom and this is Darsanam or true vision. We are not supposed merely to love philosophy as the etymology of the word would suggest. We have also to possess it. You may love many things but not possess the things....

11/06/2019 18.  The Purpose of Philosophy-3. I am reminded here of the few sloka-s from the eighteenth chapter of the Bhagavadgita where Bhagavan Sri Krishna defines three types of knowledge. The lowest kind of knowledge is that which takes a particular finite entity as if it is everything. To consider any isolated object as the whole reality would be the lowest kind of knowledge. The higher knowledge is that which regards every finite as related to every other finite in this world. There is an inter-penetration of things, inter-relation of things, inter-connection of everything with everything else. This is a higher viewpoint, which is larger than the limited viewpoint which takes one finite object only as if it is everything, by which we cling to things by attachment. Attachment is due to the misconstruing of any particular object in this world, wresting it out of its relations with other things in the world, abstracting only certain characters foisted upon it relati...