A Prayer

ॐ गं ॐ
ॐ गं गणपतये नमः
ॐ
O Lord, You are the ocean of consciousness,
Partless, Whole, All-pervading, Formless, All- Knowledge and All-powerful, Invincible
Ever present, ever the same,
Free of Attributes
Yet full of auspiciousness
You are cit svarupa
You are ananda svarupa
You are shanti svarupa
As Your own reflection, You appear as me
Your reflection as me, the jiva is just an appearance, a costume of yours
In reality, You alone are effortlessly shining here as I
Even when I take myself to be a jiva and I appear as just a drop in You,
That seeming drop  is nothing but cit svarupa, ananda svarupa, shanti svarupa.

Thank you for my Gurus
Thank you for making me understand that even when I take myself to be an individual, I am totally connected to You,  I cannot stand apart from you or this world, which belongs to you
You pervade me as Divine Order, making me who I am, as an individual
Thank you for making me understand that in Your Divine Order, I am in Order
You pervade this body-mind as the very substance of which it is constituted, as well as the intelligence that makes everything what it is

Thank you for making me understand that essentially I am You ....self-evident, effortlessly shining, indestructible, all-pervading, formless, pure, independent, auspicious ever-present  changeless consciousness-existence ...illumining, blessing, enlivening this body-mind sense complex. As pure consciousness I am purna.

This whole universe, which includes all bodies, all things, belongs to you
This body- mind is a wonderful instrument gifted  by You, with which transaction with the rest of the universe takes place, by Your laws
As a trustee for this body-mind complex, I care for it's safety and health
And use this beutiful instrument of body-mind to nourish  and protect thru thought, word and deed, all the beings and the environment.
By Your Grace may this sense of 'I' be fully firmly merged in You.

Whatever these hands do, may they be an offering unto You, an expression of purnatvam
Wherever these feet go, may it be a tirtha yatra to You, recognizing your all pervasiveness
Whatever words are spoken may they be in praise of You, acknowledging Your ever-presence, Your fullness
Whatever thoughts, feelings, memories are entertained, may they reflect Your ever-presence, Your fullness
Please let your Grace shower on me such that I never forget You, never forget that You are the antah-sakshi, that that you alone are permanent, that You pervade the universe as Divine Order, that everything including this body belongs to You.
In gratitude, may this life be ever dedicated to You expressing the fullness that You are.

By Your Infinite compassion and grace may all beings love and respect each other and live harmoniously with each other, recognizing, loving and respecting You, who are in each. May each of us, who are from different religions mutually recognize and honour the truth of Your divine presence in each and every one.

May all beings recognize the divinity within and be free.

ॐ गं गणपतये नमः
ॐ गं ॐ

Sadaa Purno'ham - Ever Full am I

Om Gam Ganapataye Namah

I am the Consciousness that does not have to do anything, that does not have to know anything...
Naturally identified with the bms owing to karma
Yet free of ignorance of my true nature, I choose to identify with the bms, and
I choose to do. I choose to know.
When I drop all efforts to do something, to know something, I easily see myself as I am - purna
Purnata that is the self, does not go, does not disappear  when I do, or know....that is knowledge. Sadaa purno'ham.
I am the Consciousness that does not have to do anything, that does not have to know anything.....to be purna.
I am purna.Sadaa purno'ham

Om Tat Sat

Meditate on transience and permanence - inspired by the Virus 2020

You can't be casual about Vedanta study

Vedanta is so easily available now. So many blogs, websites, YouTube videos .....all presenting Vedanta. So many teachers desperate to impart the knowledge. However, many teachers are half-baked and many a time the seekers are not ready.

So there could be a certain casual attitude towards it's study...taking it for granted. The price you pay for that is you don't gain much ...just some lip-service knowledge.

In Katha Upanishad we see

नायमात्मा प्रवचनेन लभ्यो न मेधया न बहुना श्रुतेन । यमेवैष वृणुते तेन लभ्यस्तस्यैष आत्मा विवृणुते तनूंस्वाम् ॥ २३
This Atma is not recognized through talking about it,  or  through much use of intellect,
or by listening to many talks. This Atma is recognized by the one who chooses it. For such a one, Atma reveals its own nature.

You have to choose to know - you have to prioritize. You can't be casual. If you are casual, atma-jnanam will by-pass you!

Om Tat Sat

Two important useful sadhanas for a sadhaka of Vedanta

ॐ गं ॐ
I am in reality, direct, immediate self-evident, changeless independent consciousness, time-free, space-free, object-free. Identifying with the body-mind, I as though become a personality - confined to the boundaries of the changing body and mind. Then engaging with the various thought forms taking place in the mind, I believe myself to be the different roles assumed, or different thoughts or emotions or memories...and then am more often than nought, overwhelmed by them.

To really be able to understand and assimilate that my real nature is ever auspicious, peaceful, non-dual Consciousness that is ever free of the triad of experiencer-experiencing thought-experienced object, the sadhana of japa followed by being a simple impartial observor is very useful.

Using the sadhana of japa,one disengages with all of one's roles, and assumes the role of a simple devotee, who simply lovingly occupies the mind with the name of his beloved Lord - the Lord, who is the invariable Consciousness, the Divinity within,  that is always with him/her. One loves to chant His name, because one recognizes Him as the one who is always there in the background, in the past, in the present, in the future - illumining and enlivening by His mere presence, one's inner and outer life...only one has been so engaged in one's own private world of one's endless masks, stories, likes and dislikes that one never noticed His silent auspicious peaceful ever-presence.

As one disengages from every other role, and simply remains as a devotee, chanting His name, one begins to assimilate all that one learned in satsang and one begins to love Him and chant His name.

One loves to chant His name, because one recognizes that He pervades every thought, every feeling, every breath, every cell, every thing in space, as the intelligence that manifests and permeates everything, as the very essence, making everything what it is. One loves to chant His name, because one recognizes He is all this that was, is, will be....and yet He is free. One loves to chant His name because one recognizes He alone is nitya, and one cannot stand apart from Him even if one wants to. Now, one loves to disengage from every other role and remain as a devotee, simply chanting His name.

As one continues with this japa sadhana, the mind becomes very quiet...very peaceful. Now one stops chanting and assumes the role of an observor - an impartial kind observor.... Simply observing sounds, breathing, thoughts and emotions that come up and pass by. Now it's easy to recognize that observor is also a role that assumed in the ever-presence of the Consciousness that shines both the I-thought and the object of the I-thought.

The knower/observor is mithya ....dont carry a subtle form of observor in understanding of consciousness that one essentially is..the observor disappears in understanding of consciousness...one cannot retain oneself as an observor ....in consciousness there is no real observor.

In confirming the nature of consciousness, the one who confirms disappears ...that  consciousness is not an object ...is understood by the buddhi ...and the pramata, the knower-status resolves in understanding the mithyatvam of the knower.

Visualize that as a new-born baby, at that time you are just simple immediate conscious presence - there is no identification with anything - now ask these questions :-
Does self evident consciousness have size, shape, weight, form, colour, movement, change, modification, growth, retardation boundary? If your answer is yes it means there is identification with body or mind. Use the atma-anatma rule to seperate Atma from anatma and ask yourself the same question again.
Does self-evident immediate consciousness have feelings, thoughts, physiological functions, sensations, breathing? If your answer is yes it means there is identification with body-mind ....
Does self-evident immediate consciousness have ego, memories, history, ignorance? If the answer is yes for you it means there is identification with body-mind.

Are there two things then- consciousness and body-mind?

No two things - Shastra says ekam Eva advitiyam. Consciousness alone is ...changelessly ever present

Then what is body-mind?

An appearance alone that does not have power to change or hurt consciousness because they are not the same order of reality ...can my shadow hurt me?

All this is to be deeply assimilated. So be a devotee first and gain samatvam. Be a simple observor and confirm for oneself what one has studied through Shastra pramanam.

Om Tat Sat

Bhuta Yajna - Pujya Swami Govinddev Giri

Bhuta Yajna

After this our scriptures have described one more type of yajna. That is bhuta yajna. My life is that of a human being. My family is a community of humans. I am not alone in this creation. Nor is  this creation peopled only by human beings. It is inhabited by many different creatures. My mind should think about them too daily. May I desire the well-being of all creatures.This is the difference between our vision and that of the West. In the West, animals are meant only for using (and consuming).

In the West, cows are reared.  There is a basic difference between the rearing of cows in the West, and the worship of cows that we have here. In the West cows are reared, much like sugarcane is farmed. Lakhs of cows are fed.They cannot leave their sheds. They are well-nourished. All efforts are made to improve their milk production and increase their flesh. All kinds of methods are used for that purpose. They are not allowed to roam around or run.They just get big. There is no scope for any other development for them. As they grow to their full size, they are cut up,k for consumption. Just as there is farming of crops (for consumption),so too there is farming of cows ( purely for consumption). That is their vision, their outlook. The universe is for consumption - that is their outlook. Whereas the vision of the Rishis is that the universe is one family. 

अयं निजः परो वेति गणना लघुचेतसाम्।

उदारचरितानां तु वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम्।।

He is mine, he is another - not mine- such are the thoughts of narrow-minded people. For the noble-minded, the whole world is a family.

We consider this entire creation as our family. We will think of the whole creation later. Nearby the home in which I live, there might be some dogs, or a cow - maybe a cow in my own family compound.  May I remember that cow daily. May I remember the dog daily. May I remember the crow too.The crow is considered the most common bird. Yet food is offered even to the crow. A dog is considered the commonest animal. Yet, everyday, bread (roti) is taken out for it. There is bali everyday for it - there is an arrangement made daily for feeding even the dogs. 

Here our Shastras are giving us a vision of life, that humans are not the only living beings in this creation. When I was travelling through America, one thing made me quite sad. We saw some beautiful gardens. We saw many jungles. Yet, nowhere did we see any birds. We did not see any insects anywhere.They had all been killed. They had all been destroyed. Even if there were birds there, they would only have been in the zoos - nowhere else.

It is not only man who has the right to exist on this earth. Others too have freedom. They too have their own life. So I should respect and honour  life - it's different expressions. I did not see this kind of thinking in the West.

Understand the vision of the Rishies of Bharat. Atmavat sarva bhuteshu - I will live, but I will live without causing harm to others. I will live and live well and I will live ensuring that other can also prosper. They have their rights, and I will respect and honour those rights. And as far as possible, from my bread, I will keep a piece for that dog, for that crow. Here the word dog or crow or cow are general symbols to convey a vision. Our Rishies, want to convey to us,  a vision of life. When a man, daily keeps aside some food for a dog or crow or cow, then his mind becomes sensitive to all the beings in creation.

I have seen such fine Mothers, who inspite of living in cities where no cow is to be found near their homes, yet who follow consistently the rule that I will go and personally feed the cow, roti with my hands, and only then I will eat. The cow is a well-fed healthy cow, yet this old Mother feels 'I must go personally, in the car, taking roti, feed her and then return and only then eat my meals'. 

There is no doubt that this observance of hers has a deep impact on her own vision of life. And when small children observe that our grandmother has so much eagerness to feed roti to the cow, then in their minds also a feeling or attitude is created that there should be love towards all animals,all beings of this creation. It is not that I will just use these for my own benefit. I will remember all the beings before my meals. Remembering them, I also learn to contribute something towards their well-being. 

This attitude of contribution towards other creatures well-being is bhuta yajna. You would have heard the word bhuta-daya. Bhuta word means a living being. May the feeling of compassion towards all living being always be alive in us. Not just for humans.

....Translated excerpt from book Yajnamaya Jivan

Thankful Offerings To Ancestors - Pujya Swami Govinddev Giriji

Pitr Yajna

May we do something for our ancestors. We have come to to the physical plane on this earth. We have not come just like that. We have a lineage and we are connected to that lineage. We are also connected to our ancestors who have departed. Our Shastra reveals that we are connected to at least three generations of ancestors. Their blessings and grace become fruitful in our life. Therefore remembering all their benevolent actions, we perform pitr-tarpan in the form of simple offering of water. What is so big about it? This is called as- yajna. All that is offered in this pitr-yajna is just a palm full of water along with sesame seeds in it. The main attitude here is that I am remembering my ancestors. Through that rememberance I am acknowledging my gratitude towards them. Because of the strong shraddha involved it is  called as pitr-yajna. This is the minimum that I may necessarily do for my ancestors - daily. May there be remembrance of my ancestors in my daily life so that their blessings may continue in my life. Acknowledging with gratitude, whatever they had done for our families, may we make this small but necessary effort to free ourselves from our debt to them.

...Translated excerpt from book Yajnamaya Jivan