Bharatheeyam : ( 08/11/2012. )

Chapter-6. Lord Sri Krishna – The Purna-Avataram Part-6. Our meditations and our worships are really silent invocations of the characteristics of the Object of our worship and meditation. Every worship is an invocation, and every form of meditation is an invocation; and invocation means the calling of the force into our own being and the planting of the power of the Divine in our own personality. We have, in ritualistic or Tantric parlance, what is known as Nyasa, which is performed during the time of worship. The Pundits and Archakas who perform worship in temples know what Nyasa means. Nyasa is a Sanskrit word which means 'placing', 'stabilising', 'fixing', 'invoking', 'stamping'. All these meanings are conveyed by the word 'Nyasa'. At the commencement of the worship, whether it is done in one's own private sanctum sanctorum in the house or in a public temple, Nyasa is performed by every worshipper. In thi...

Chapter-6. Lord Sri Krishna – The Purna-Avataram Part-5. All this teaching is like pouring water on a rock. It has made no impression upon us. The infinite is the Fullness, the Purna; and the finite is the Apurna. We individuals, the Jivatmas and everything in this world are Apurna, finites, but we enshrine the Infinite in our bosom. And the manifestation of the Infinite in the finite, the birth of God in man is possible, practicable and inevitable when the obstructions to Its manifestation are obviated totally. To speak from the point of view of the historical life which Bhagavan Sri Krishna is said to have lived thousands of years ago – let alone the spiritual or the mystical – we see a wholeness manifest in Him. His life was a fullness right from childhood up to the maturity of life. He was a completeness in every respect, even in his babyhood or childhood, a completeness in his adolescence, a completeness in his youth and maturity. He was a fullness of bo...

Chapter-6. Lord Sri Krishna – The Purna-Avataram Part-4. On the other hand, the birth of the Atman is a deathblow to the senses, and the slumbering of the prison guards at the time of the advent of the Lord may be, in a way, compared to the death of the senses at the time of the birth of Divinity. Kamsa represents the ego and all his menials the represent the senses. All these were put to rest at the time of birth of Lord Krishna. Hence, the Bhagavadgita says, "Ya nisa sarvabhutanam tasyam jagarti samyami, yasyam jagrati bhutani sa nisa pasyato muneh": The night of the ignorant is day for the sage, and vice versa, the night of the sage is day for the ignorant. The Atman is something quite different from what we regard as very dear to us, notwithstanding the fact that we have been told, again and again, that It is the deepest Reality in our personality. All this teaching has remained only a theory for us. We have always been pampering the senses and fo...

Chapter-6. Lord Sri Krishna – The Purna-Avataram Part-3. Bhagavan Sri Krishna, the full Avatara, the complete manifestation of God, is the object of our worship, prayer and meditation on this day. This has a very special relevance to our own personal lives, and its meaning for us is naturally the meaning that is implied in our relationship with God. We have heard from narrations recorded in the scriptures like the Srimad Bhagavata, that Bhagavan Sri Krishna was born at midnight. The darkest part of the night is midnight, and that was the hour of the birth of the Lord. This divine advent took place not at the commencement or at the fag end of the night, but in the thick of the night, midnight, which from the point of view of our own personal Sadhana-life is reminiscent of the conditions under which God would reveal Himself in our own lives. God did not reveal Himself in daylight, but in the dead of night. The spiritual connotation of this, from the point of view...

Chapter-6. Lord Sri Krishnan – The Purna-Avataram Part-2. We only express a little of our thought, a little fraction of our understanding and a partial form of our energy as would be necessitated by the nature of the particular context. Likewise, God never manifests Himself wholly unless the occasion is of such an intensified character as to call for such a manifestation. Historically speaking, the circumstances at the time of the advent of Bhagavan Sri Krishna were such that a complete manifestation of the Divine Energy was called for. We have an idea of what God is and what His total energy would be like, from the point of view of our own humble imaginations, which is, of course, comparable to the idea that a frog in a well may be entertaining in its mind in regard to the Pacific Ocean. That may be the idea we may have in our minds of the total energy of God. Nobody can say what it is. Anyhow, we can understand what 'totality' means, at least in a gra...

Chapter-6. Lord Sri Krishnan – The Purna-Avataram Part-1. The Jayanti of Bhagavan Sri Krishnan, also known as Sri Krishna Janmashtami, falls on the eighth day in the dark fortnight of the month of Bhadrapada (August-September). The observance of this holy day and the performance of this sacred worship to the great Incarnation is a symbol of an intensification of our soul's yearning to come nearer to God as much as possible. Bhagavan Sri Krishnan is regarded as Purna-Avataram, which means the full Incarnation. Avataram is 'Incarnation', and Purnam is 'the full'. He is considered to be a complete manifestation of God, not a partial expression of the power and the glory of God. The power of God is never fully manifest anywhere in the world. It is always manifest or expressed in some percentage as the occasion demands, even as we ourselves, in our own individual capacities, for instance, do not put forth our total energy at any time of the day. ...

Swami Sivananda Chapter 5: Sivananda – The Fire of Sannyasa Part-18. To him we pay our obeisance by directing our thoughts and contemplating on these eternal values, and by proclaiming once again, in the same tone and intensity of feeling and fervour, that the goal of life is God-realisation. Everything else follows in the wake of this acceptance, as a shadow follows the substance or, as they say, the tail follows the dog. One need not separately tell the tail to follow. All the things of the world and all values that are regarded as covetable in life will come in abundance and in plenty, if we accept from the bottom of our hearts that the goal of life is God-realisation, for which ideal Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj lived and sacrificed all his life. Such is his Sanyasa, such is his Vedanta, and such is his teaching for our practice. May his Grace be upon us all! END. Next : Chapter-6. Sri Krishna – The Purna-Avataram Swami Krishnananda To be continued ...