Life is an opportunity

Rare opportunity; make use of it.
Beautiful poem; congratulate!
Dream; apprehend it!
Warfare; take risk and fight!
Duty; Do it with dedication!
Play; play joyously!
Promise; Fulfill without delay!
Grieving platform; stand resolute!
Music; sing melodiously!
Confusion; try to understand it!
A cyclone of sorrow; stand firm against it!
Good luck; Grab it.

---Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa

Human life is a cooperative unit of body, mind, intellect and Āṉmā. The elders advised, “Nurture the body, control the mind, make good use of intellect, and realize your soul. Our religion helps us apprehend the power of the soul.

Soul’s nature supports man’s Dharma. Body, mind and intellect identify, ‘He is my friend, he is my relative,’ and perform appropriate duties. The true human Dharma becomes evident, when he recognizes a person as an embodied soul and feels the obligation of his duty to the said soul.

Inimical qualities as causal agents of desire, avarice, anger, jealousy, hatred… disappear, when Jñāṉam about Āṉmā dawns in us.

Aim of human life!

Dvaitam refers to Jīvātmā and Paramātmā. When all Jīvātmās become divested of Malas, they merge with Paramātmā. Jīvātmā is a fragment of Paramātma, abiding in each one. Though the two are one and the two should merge, the human life becoming useful is the function of Ātmā.

When body is destroyed, mind and intellect disappear. But Ātmā does not disappear, according to Krishna Bhagavan in Bhagavadgita. We should keep the imperishable ātmā pure. For that, body purity, mental virtue, and Dharma should be improved. Religion means re-merger with God again. Latin religare means ‘to bind.’

re·li·gion

noun: religion

1.    the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods.

from Old French, or from Latin religio(n-) ‘obligation, bond, reverence,’ perhaps based on Latin religare ‘to bind.’

We must unite the Sakthis of the body, the intellect, and the mind to make spiritual power.  When the soul obtains freedom from the body (at death) and takes an abode in another body, we should have made it into a higher spiritual Sakthi. This is the aim of human life.

Gita has the answer.

Spirituality is to realize the power of Āṉmā. The Vedas, religious texts and Itihāsas help us improve the power of Āṉmā and by its virtue succeed in life. Rama’s body and indwelling intellect may be existent today. It is an undeniable fact Rama’s Ātmā still lives in our midst. Rama is the epitome of Satyam, Dharma, love… Those qualities in his Ātmā still to this day live in his sacred name. Likewise, Krishna’s Lilas and his Gita doctrine, being imperishable, lead our Ātmās on the righteous path.  

What is Ātmā? What kind of connection it has with body, mind and intellect? Does Ātmā die with the body?  If it does not die, where does it attain union? It is natural for these questions rise in our minds. The answers are contained in Gita. When we grasp the essence of Gita, we understand Āṉmā’s principle, its strength, its advisory… Gita’s greatness is that Upanishads are the cow; Bhagavan Krishna was the cowherd; the milk is the ambrosial Bhagavadgita.

Gita in English

Often, we do not realize the notable features in our country and home. Though we know, we do not consider their importance. We do not apprehend and celebrate its greatness. When some foreign scholars or scientists extol them, we recognize its greatness.

Once, a devotee went to Dakshinesvar to see Ramakrishna Paramahaṁsa and addressed him, “O Guru, yesterday suddenly I had an epiphany. I understood the greatness of Rama Nama.” In a tongue-in-cheek retort, he said, “Why… Did any foreigner make a mention of it?” We all know that situation is still prevalent. 

Once, a devotee went to Dakshinesvar to see Ramakrishna Paramahaṁsa and addressed him, “O Guru, yesterday suddenly I had an epiphany. I understood the greatness of Rama Nama.” In a tongue-in-cheek retort, he said, “Why… Did any foreigner make a mention of it?” We all know that situation is still prevalent. 

Lord Warren Hastings (Governor General British India 1773-1784 C.E.) learned the principles of Bhagavadgita from an Indian subordinate officer. He brought the greatness of Gita to the world and the Indian masses. He was instrumental in getting Gita translated and popularized all over the world. On his request, Charles Wilkins (Sir Charles Wilkins, KH, FRS (1749 – 13 May 1836), at the request of Hastings translated Bhagavadgita.

(Charles Wilkins. Sir Charles Wilkins, KH, FRS (1749 – 13 May 1836), was an English typographer and Orientalist, and founding member of The Asiatic Society. He is notable as the first translator of Bhagavad Gita into English.—Wikipedia)

Hastings wrote the foreword, which was greatly important.

Well aware of the Gita's universal bearing, Hastings included a prophetic expression in his preface:

The writers of the Indian philosophies will survive when the British Dominion in India shall long have ceased to exist, and when the sources which it yielded of wealth and power are lost to remembrance.

As one scholar has written, "no text could, by its profound metaphysics and by the prestige of its poetic casting, more irresistibly shake the hold of the tradition of a superior race."

I hesitate not to pronounce the Gita’s performance of great originality of sublimity of conception. Reasoning and diction almost unequalled and a single exception amongst all the known religions of mankind.’

Warren Hastings said:

‘The writers of the Indian philosophies will survive when the British dominion in India shall long have ceased to exist. 
The west extolled the intrinsic worth of Bhagavadgita. Anne Besant translated Bhagavadgita and spread its message all over the world. Multitudes of our countrymen hold the view we do not have the power of thinking and the opinions of the scientific west are always right.  Since the west extols Bhagavadgita, there is proof that some of us hold wrong views towards our own worth.

The tree will grow.

Ādisankara acquires Jñāṉam from a dog walker.

Jagatguru Ādisankara instructed the world that everyone has Braḥmam inside as revealed by the great saying, ‘Aham Brahmāsmi.’

Once he was walking along the pathway by the Ganges River, a Pulaiyan (low-caste pedestrian) was walking towards him. His dirty body wore rags and matted hair on the head, accompanied by four dogs. Ādisankara emerged from the Ganges river after bathing, wore sacred ash and seeing him from a distance thought that his pure body should not be defiled by the canine owner. He moved to the side of the path, sprinkled sacred water on the path and continued walking.  The low-caste Pulaiyan stood before him as if he was blocking him.

“What sight made you move to the side? Is it the sight of the body, appearance or the soul?”

Ādisankara thought he heard from the Pulaiyan: “You utter ‘Aham Brahmāsmi,’ and believe that God as the Universal Soul abides in all and yet on seeing me, you stepped aside.” That moment, Pulaiyan did not appear as a dog walker but as Sākṣāt Paramesvara to Ādisankara.

Āṉma is one despite differences in body habitus, intellectual power, and differences in mental attitude.  That is the fragment of Divine Sakthi. There are no parts in it.  Ādisankara realized it; later, he taught it to the world.

Āṉma is the imperishable divine power immanent inside everyone. The Sadhanas we do with it is the supernatural human Sakthi.