SEE GOD IN ALL-This is the gist of all worship - to be pure and to do good to others. He who sees Shiva in the poor, in the weak, and in the diseased, really worships Shiva, and if he sees Shiva only in the image, his worship is but preliminary. He who has served and helped one poor man seeing Siva in him, without thinking of his cast, creed, or race, or anything, with him Shiva is more pleased than with the man who sees Him only in temples.
GOD IS WITHIN YOU It is impossible to find God outside of ourselves. Our own souls contribute all of the divinity that is outside of us. We are the greatest temple. The objectification is only a faint imitation of what we see within ourselves.
PERSEVERE IN YOUR SEARCH FOR GOD-To succeed, you must have tremendous perseverance, tremendous will. "I will drink the ocean," says the persevering soul, "at my will mountains will crumble up." Have that sort of energy, that sort of will, work hard, and you will reach the goal.
TRUST COMPLETELY IN GODStand up for God; let the world go.
LOVE OF GOD IS ESSENTIALGiving up all other thoughts, with the whole mind day and night worship God. Thus being worshipped day and night, He reveals himself and makes His worshippers feel His presence.
What should Hindus do when someone critize their God?
A Hindu who has God realization will never get angry or rebuke someone but will pray to God to forgive the ignorant and to show him the right path.Abusing,threats etc create a negative vibration in humanbeings.Those who abuse you are also creation of the same Lord.Forgiveness is a virtue.
What is Kriya yoga?
"Kriya Yoga is an instrument through which human evolution can be quickened,". "The ancient yogis discovered that the secret of cosmic consciousness is intimately linked with breath mastery. This is India's unique and deathless contribution to the world's treasury of knowledge. The life force, which is ordinarily absorbed in maintaining the heart-pump, must be freed for higher activities by a method of calming and stilling the ceaseless demands of the breath."
The Kriya Yogi mentally directs his life energy to revolve, upward and downward, around the six spinal centers (medullary, cervical, dorsal, lumbar, sacral, and coccygeal plexuses) which correspond to the twelve astral signs of the zodiac, the symbolic Cosmic Man. One-half minute of revolution of energy around the sensitive spinal cord of man effects subtle progress in his evolution; that half-minute of Kriya equals one year of natural spiritual unfoldment.
The astral system of a human being, with six (twelve by polarity) inner constellations revolving around the sun of the omniscient spiritual eye, is interrelated with the physical sun and the twelve zodiacal signs. All men are thus affected by an inner and an outer universe. The ancient rishis discovered that man's earthly and heavenly environment, in twelve-year cycles, push him forward on his natural path. The scriptures aver that man requires a million years of normal, diseaseless evolution to perfect his human brain sufficiently to express cosmic consciousness
Kriya Yoga is mentioned twice by the ancient sage Patanjali, foremost exponent of yoga, who wrote: "Kriya Yoga consists of body discipline, mental control, and meditating on Aum." Patanjali speaks of God as the actual Cosmic Sound of Aum heard in meditation. Aum is the Creative Word, the sound of the Vibratory Motor. Even the yoga-beginner soon inwardly hears the wondrous sound of Aum. Receiving this blissful spiritual encouragement, the devotee becomes assured that he is in actual touch with divine realms.
Kriya Yoga is referred to by Krishna, India's greatest prophet, in a stanza of the Bhagavad Gita: "Offering inhaling breath into the outgoing breath, and offering the outgoing breath into the inhaling breath, the yogi neutralizes both these breaths; he thus releases the life force from the heart and brings it under his control." The interpretation is: "The yogi arrests decay in the body by an addition of life force, and arrests the mutations of growth in the body by apan (eliminating current). Thus neutralizing decay and growth, by quieting the heart, the yogi learns life control."
Do Hindus have many Gods?
Hindus believe in One supreme God who created the universe.He can be worshiped in various form and names.Since it is based on meditation,the meditation can be on the formless or on a three dimentional form for better concentration.
What is Karma?
Answer #1: Karma is one of the natural laws of the universe. It simply means "cause and effect." Our religion is made up of many natural laws of the universe. Karma is just one of them. (This is a simple answer for a casual seeker. After you have said this, smile and ask if they want to know anything more.)
Answer #2: Karma is basically energy. I throw energy out through thoughts, words and deeds, and it comes back to me (in time) through other people. We Hindus look at time as a circle. I think professor Einstein came to the same conclusion. He saw time as a curved thing and space as well. This would eventually make a circle. Karma is a very just law, too, as it is equal in re-payment. Like gravity, it treats everyone the same.
Q.1 Most Hindus I have met say HInduism is polytheistic, and they say why can't we have more than one god, bcoz truth is diff. for everyone. They say all these gods existed in the past! Answer: Watch this video on youtube:Polytheism, Pantheism, Idol Worship in Hinduism(Part XIII)
Q.2 Does Hinduism have caste system?Answer:The is no caste system in Hinduism.The British had followed a divide-and-rule policy in India. Even in the census they categorised people according to religion,occupation and viewed and treated them as separate from each other. They had based their knowledge of the peoples of India on the intrinsic differences they found in them instead of on the way they coexisted in the present.Caste is an english word brought by the British empire in India and the British were the highest caste among Indians(Hindus,Sikhs and Muslim).There is still effects of caste system prevailing in Hindus,muslims and sikhs of the Indian subcontinent.
"The universe is the outpouring of the majesty of God, the auspicious one, radiant love. Every face you see belongs to Him. He is present in everyone without exception." - says the Yajur Veda.
"The Lord (The Divine) is enshrined in the hearts of all." - says the Isha Upanishad 1 -1. The Upanishads which are a pure, lofty, heady distillation of spiritual wisdom which come to us from the very dawn of time tell us: "Reality (God) is our real Self, so that each of us is one with the power that created and sustains the universe." In Sanskrit, Tat tvam asi, You are That. "In the depths of meditation, sages (rishis) Saw within themselves the Lord of Love, Who dwells in the heart of every creature."
In Bhagawad Gita, sloka 20, Chapter 10, Lord Krishna says, "I am the Self seated in the heart of all creatures. I am the beginning, the middle and the very end of all beings". All beings have, therefore to be treated alike. Lord Krishna as saying, in response to the question— "How is Varna (social order) determined?" "Birth is not the cause, my friend; it is virtues which are the cause of auspiciousness. Even a chandala (fourth varna) observing the vow is considered a Brahman by the gods." The four fold division of varna(castes) was created by me according to the apportionment of qualities and duties. Not birth, not sacrament, not learning, make one dvija (twice-born), but righteous conduct alone causes it. Be he a Sudra or a member of any other class, says the Lord in the same epic, he that serves as a raft on a raftless current , or helps to ford the unfordable, deserves respect in everyway.
Q.3 If Hinduism has so much science in it, why were most of the worlds inventions made by westerners?? Why didn't hindus come up with them first??
Answer: The west now accepts most of the inventions were taken from the vedas.I have few videos on it.The wheel of fortune doesn't rest on one civilization for long.Hinduism was a very advanced culture with science,medicines,grammer,astronomy,astrology,mathematics etc.There was a point of time when Hindu society became extremely peaceful and famous which invited invaders.
Early Chinese travelers have left us many striking pictures of Indian society. The Chinese priest, Fa-Hsien, wrote an account of his eleven years in India during the reign of Chandragupta II (early 4th century). The Chinese author relates: "Throughout the country no one kills any living thing, nor drinks wine. . . . They do not keep pigs or fowl; there are no dealings in cattle, no butchers' shops or distilleries. Rooms with beds and mattresses, food and clothes, are provided for resident and traveling priests without fail, and this is the same in all places. The priests occupy themselves with benevolent ministrations and with chanting liturgies; or they sit in meditation." Fa-Hsien tells us the Indian people were happy and honest; capital punishment was unknown.
The Greek historians have left us many vivid and inspiring pictures of Indian society. Hindu law, Arrian tells us, protects the people and "ordains that no one among them shall, under any circumstances, be a slave but that, enjoying freedom themselves, they shall respect the equal right to it which all possess. For those, they thought, who have learned neither to domineer over nor cringe to others will attain the life best adapted for all vicissitudes of lot."
"The Indians," runs another text, "neither put out money at usury, nor know how to borrow. It is contrary to established usage for an Indian either to do or suffer a wrong, and therefore they neither make contracts nor require securities." Healing, we are told, was by simple and natural means. "Cures are effected rather by regulating diet than by the use of medicines. The remedies most esteemed are ointments and plasters. All others are considered to be in great measure pernicious." Engagement in war was restricted to the Kshatriyas or warrior. "Nor would an enemy coming upon a husbandman at his work on his land, do him any harm, for men of this class being regarded as public benefactors, are protected from all injury. The land thus remaining unravaged and producing heavy crops, supplies the inhabitants with the requisites to make life enjoyable."
Manu instructed society to show respect to its members insofar as they possessed wisdom, virtue, age, kinship or, lastly, wealth. Riches in Vedic India were always despised if they were hoarded or unavailable for charitable purposes. Ungenerous men of great wealth were assigned a low rank in society. The origin of the varna(caste system), formulated by the great legislator Manu, was admirable. He saw clearly that men are distinguished by natural evolution into four great classes: those capable of offering service to society through their bodily labor ( Sudras); those who serve through mentality, skill, agriculture, trade, commerce, business life in general (Vaisyas); those whose talents are administrative, executive, and protectiverulers and warriors ( Kshatriyas); those of contemplative nature, spiritually inspired and inspiring (Brahmins). "Neither birth nor sacraments nor study nor ancestry can decide whether a person is twice-born (i.e., a Brahmin);" the Mahabharata declares, "character and conduct only can decide."
Fasting and Hinduism.Fasting is for health reasons and not religious reasons.God doesn't want us to starve for Him.Most of the saints have mocked fasting.A hungry person has more devotion to food than God.Here is a poem by Mira bai the great female saint of the century.If by bathing daily God could be realized Sooner would i be a whale in the deep;If by eating roots and fruits He could be known Gladly would i choose the form of a goat;
If the counting of rosaries uncovered Him I would say my prayers on mammoth beads; If bowing before stone images unveiled Him A flinty mountain I would humbly worship;If by drinking milk the Lord could be imbibed Many calves and children would know him;If abandoning one's wife could summon God Would not thousands be enunchs? Mirabai knows that to find the Divine One The only indispensable is Love. ("Bina Prem Se Nahi Mile Nandalala")
Nirgun Bhakti is the devotion towards a formless, all-encompassing God. The word nirgun means devoid of qualities, referring to the lack of physical attributes in God. It is one of the two forms of devotion prevalent in Hinduism, the other one being Sagun Bhakti which sees God in a physical form. These two forms of worship are given equal prominence in the Bhagavad Gita.I follow both.The system of Nirgun Bhakti believes in the worship of an unseen God, who cannot be confined in the realms of a physical form. When I see an image of Lord Shiva or Jesus Christ,I feel a surge of love just like a person keeps the picture of his beloved in his wallet.
These Biblical words refer to the threefold nature of God as Father, Son, Holy Ghost (Sat, Tat, Aum in the Hindu scriptures). God the Father is the Absolute, Unmanifested, existing beyond vibratory creation. God the Son is the Christ Consciousness (Brahma or Kutastha Chaitanya) existing within vibratory creation; this Christ Consciousness is the "only begotten" or sole reflection of the Uncreated Infinite. Its outward manifestation or "witness" is Aum or Holy Ghost, the divine, creative, invisible power which structures all creation through vibration. Aum the blissful Comforter is heard in meditation and reveals to the devotee the ultimate Truth.
"For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son."-John 5:22. "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him."-John 1:18. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father."-John 14:12. "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said to you."-John 14:26.
Kali represents the eternal principle in nature. She is traditionally pictured as a four-armed woman, standing on the form of the God Shiva or the Infinite, because nature or the phenomenal world is rooted in the Noumenon. The four arms symbolize cardinal attributes, two beneficent, two destructive, indicating the essential duality of matter or creation.
Lord Buddha was once asked why a man should love all persons equally. "Because," the great teacher replied, "in the very numerous and varied lifespans of each man, every other being has at one time or another been dear to him."
Life and death as relativities of thought only. Vedanta points out that God is the only Reality; all creation or separate existence is maya or illusion. This philosophy of monism received its highest expression in the Upanishad commentaries of Shankara.
In sabikalpa samadhi the devotee has spiritually progressed to a state of inward divine union, but cannot maintain his cosmic consciousness except in the immobile trance-state. By continuous meditation, he reaches the superior state of nirbikalpa samadhi, where he moves freely in the world and performs his outward duties without any loss of God-realization.
"In this passage Jesus calls himself the Son of God. Though he was truly united with God, his reference here has a deep impersonal significance," my guru explained. "The Son of God is the Christ or Divine Consciousness in man. No mortal can glorify God. The only honor that man can pay his Creator is to seek Him; man cannot glorify an Abstraction that he does not know. The 'glory' or nimbus around the head of the saints is a symbolic witness of their capacity to render divine homage."
Friday, January 30, 2009
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
