Messages

11521

General topics / Re: Tevaram - Some select verses.

« on: February 19, 2016, 08:08:43 AM »

Verse  12:


பயில்வடுப் பொலிந்த யாக்கை 
    வேடர்தம் பதியாம் நாகற்
கெயிலுடைப் புரங்கள் செற்ற
   எந்தையார் மைந்த ரான
மயிலுடைக் கொற்ற வூர்தி
   வரையுரங் கிழித்த திண்மை
அயிலுடைத் தடக்கை வென்றி
   அண்ணலார் அருளி னாலே.



The grace of victorious and glorious Muruga
-- The long-armed wielder of the spear, who rode
The majestic peacock and smote the Krauncha hill,
The very son of our Lord Siva who smote the triple cities --,
Visited Nakan the leader of the hunters
Whose bodies were intrenched with deep scars.   

Arunachala Siva.

11522

General topics / Re: Tevaram - Some select verses.

« on: February 19, 2016, 08:06:29 AM »

Verse 11:


வாரணச் சேவ லோடும்
   வரிமயிற் குலங்கள் விட்டுத்
தோரண மணிகள் தூக்கிச்
   சுரும்பணி கதம்பம் நாற்றிப்
போரணி நெடுவே லோற்குப்
   புகழ்புரி குரவை தூங்கப்
பேரணங் காடல் செய்து
   பெருவிழா எடுத்த பின்றை.


They offered him chanticleers and speckled peacocks;
They planted festoons and hung thereon bells;
They wove beauteous garlands of Katampa blooms
Buzzed over by bees, as votive offering to Him;
Again for Lord Muruga of the long spear
They arranged the festival of grand Ananku-dance   
Where his glories were hymned in melody.

Arunachala Siva.

11523

The teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi / Re: Our Bhagavan-Stories

« on: February 19, 2016, 06:47:20 AM »

Natesan was the barber, and was the nephew of Subbarayan who served Bhagavan in tonsuring
His head on full moon days for years.  Natesan continued the service of his uncle.  He also used to play Nadaswaram, a pipe.

On one occasion, Niranjananda Swami called Natesan and asked him to start the work an hour earlier,
for he thought that in the heat of the summer, it could be more convenient for Bhagavan.  Natesan
turned up, earlier than usual, at the newly appointed hour on the next full moon day.  In response to Bhagavan's questioning gaze, he narrated the arrangement of Sarvadikari.  Bhagavan said that the
heat was of no consequence to Him and the former timetable was restored.

Once when Natesan was shaving Bhagavan, his uncle Subbarayan came and told him, that he should
go to the town to play Nadaswaram for some festival.  On hearing this Bhagaan remarked:  It seems
that Natesan has to go to the town by noon for some pipe music and he might not have taken any food
in the morning.  His attendants nearby took the hint and brought some hot lunch for Natesan.
Barbers are normally treated as out-castes and caste Hindus would offer food to them only after
they themselves had finished their meals. 

Natesan was overwhelmed by the compassion of Bhagavan Ramana and felt with tears in his eyes,
that only Bhagavan Ramana could love other beings like this.

Arunachala Siva.   

11524

The teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi / Re: Our Bhagavan-Stories

« on: February 19, 2016, 06:43:26 AM »

Both Subbarayan and Natesan, barbers, were great devotees of Bhagavan Ramana and they
did their work every full moon day. Once when Subbarayan had been quite old, he missed one
or two hairs on Bhagavan's head while tonsuring.  Sarvadhikari said:  You are not having good
eye sight. Why not you find someone else?

Bhagavan Ramana said:  What if?  Even if one or two hairs have been missed while shaving, it
does not matter to me.  Why are you chiding him?

After this incident, I think, Subbarayan deputized his nephew for the work.

Arunachala Siva.

11525

General topics / Re: Veda Parayanam - Eduardo Linder -

« on: February 18, 2016, 03:37:42 PM »

There are, of course, different tones, lengths of syllable chanted, emphasis of particular sounds and volumes
uttered, ranging from faint, whispers to great bellowing sounds which literally 'shake the walls'.
While the chanting alternates between two groups, it is termed as Charchai. Ghanam can only be chanted
for the Samhita portion of the Vedas.  A very interesting and advanced technique of chanting is called
Varna Kramam known only to highly qualified Ghanapatins. Even though it sounds rather simple, it is
very difficult as each word in the Vedas is slowly analyzed for its deeper significance, starting from where
in the body the sound originates, how it travels up through the throat and finally how the tongue is positioned
to utter the holy sound.  The purpose is to maintain the purity of the chanting and it is possible to ascertain
very precisely whether a pundit is chanting a specific pada correctly or not.  Some eminent pundits know
Varna Kramam for every single word in the Vedas.

This description does not of course communicate the experience of listening intently to the Vedas chanted
directly, where often a state of immense peace is felt by the listener, highlighting the divine origin of these
great ancient texts.  Bhagavan stated that merely listening to the Vedas, even without understanding them,
was sufficient to purify the listeners and to alter their state of consciousness to a deeper level within themselves.

concluded.

Arunachala Siva.                 

11526

General Discussion / Re: The Best of Friends - Bhagavan and Chadwick - Part II -Louis Buss:

« on: February 18, 2016, 11:30:35 AM »

So Chadwick gritted his teeth and stayed in the Asramam, but it was far from easy.  He was not the only
Englishman who refused to quit India after all, and in this great crisis the Indians took out their frustrations
on him, crowing over every Allied set back and missing no opportunity to tell him that London would shortly
fall.  Chadwick found this so maddening that he decided to take a vow of silence, just to make his tormentors
leave him alone.  But Bhagavan told him that was a bad idea, and so the plan had to be dropped.

Denied the refuge of silence, Chadwick sought solace in poetry, and it is to this crisis that we owe some of
his best loved works.  The poet bemoans his exile, his inability to return home, and mourns  over all he has
given up.  He curses himself for his own failure to make any spiritual progress.  At times he all but curses
his beloved Bhagavan for the terrible limbo in which he finds himself.  But in the end, the poems are
celebrations of what was proved.  His friendship and love.  For perhaps even Chadwick did not realize just
how hopelessly devoted he had become to Ramana Maharshi until England called, and he found himself
unable to answer.

The writing of poetry may have provided a few moments of solace, and it has bequeathed to future generations a little treasury of religious devotion, but it was hardly enough to solve Chadwick's agonizing
dilemma.  In the summer of 1940, while England faced her greatest peril, Chadwick's health collapsed.
The timing is not certain, but the evidence suggests that he fell ill during the Battle of Britain itself.
While a handful of young pilots saved the world for democracy, Chadwick lay stricken in his little room,
too sick even to complete the short walk to the Old Hall and see the man for whom he had betrayed his
country.  Any Englishman who fell so seriously ill at the height of the Indian summer stood in danger of his
life.  So the symbolism is perfect: Chadwick's fate, like England's, hung by a thread.  Eventually, after a fortnight that must have seemed like an eternity, Alan's best friend came to visit him, appearing at the doorway of the little cottage on his afternoon stroll through the Asramam.  Yet Chadwick's reaction suggests it was more than a friend he saw. The relaxed informality of those early visits was gone. Now Chadwick's hair
stood on end and he made weak efforts to rise from his sick bed so that he could fall at the feet of his Lord.

Arunachala Siva.           
   

11527

General Discussion / Re: The Yoga of the Uncontradictable: Meditative Absorption Vs. Ultra Mystic ....

« on: February 18, 2016, 11:19:57 AM »

At the bottom of all the stream of thoughts the philosopher perceives always the divine Thought.
Without falling into trance, without closing his eyes, without shutting his ears and without folding
his legs like ordinary yogis, he successfully keeps his awareness of the immaterial, formless, matter-less
Reality.  When he can transcend the need of trance he arrives at the perception that the differences
between Thought and thoughts, the distinction between Mind and its manifestations exist only from the
standpoint of human beings and not in these things themselves.  That everything is gathered up in a
sublime unity in God; that everything is a manifestation or representation of reality, and that in very truth
the whole world is a showing forth by God.

Thus the ultimate state to which the evolution tends and man attains is one of conscious rest in Mind and
not one of conscious idleness, one where sense activity survives but not its tyranny, one where being
continues but domination by personal being and one where the wheels of thinking whirr on but do not
run away with the thinker himself.

contd.,

Arunachala Siva.       

11528

General Discussion / Re: The Cuckoo Spirit in Search for Wholeness: Wasyl Nimenko.

« on: February 18, 2016, 11:09:11 AM »

Non attachment:

Addicts and their families and friends cannot be helped unless they themselves feel that is a need and they
are ready to be helped. It is only when there is nowhere worse to be that their 'hopelessness' is recognized
and help is sought by family's friends and the addicts. The well meaning efforts of family members can stop
addicts from getting the help they so desperately need.  It is as if there has to be a 'gutter moment'.  Likewise
there may be a 'gutter moment' for family members and friends when they feel they will go crazy unless
they leave the relationship or get some help. The naked truth about this time is best seen and understood
by a parallel example in nature, as told in the following story.

A young boy found a cocoon and knowing what was inside it he brought it into his house where he waited
for it to open up.  He waited for hours looking at the cocoon. He eventually fell asleep and woke in the
morning to find a hole had appeared in the cocoon. He watched it for a long time and finally in the afternoon
a  black leg appeared out of a hole struggling to make the hole bigger. There was little progress by the
evening and so the boy thought he would help.  He went into his Granny's sewing basket where he found
a delicate pair of scissors that she used for crotchet work.  He went back to the cocoon where the leg was
still struggling to open it.  He delicately cut a line along the opening and out emerged the creature.

contd.,

Arunachala Siva.         

11529

General topics / Re: Veda Parayanam - Eduardo Linder -

« on: February 18, 2016, 10:52:25 AM »

In Sri Adi Shankara's Viveka Choodamani, it is stated that it is difficult to obtain a human birth, more
difficult to be born a Brahmin, more difficult still to walk the path of Vaidika Dharma in which the Vedas
are chanted, but still more difficult to become a perfect scholar.  Yet it is pointed out that all of this is
still not enough 'to attain wisdom born of experience of the Self', which is what Bhagavan intimately knew
for which it is not necessary to follow the path described above.

One comment worth quoting with respect to the reason for the more complex types of chanting was
made by the late Shankaracharya of Kanchipuram Mutt, Sri Chandrashekhara Saraswati, who was
recognized throughout India as a saint and sage.

'Our forefathers devised a number of methods to preserve the unwritten Vedas in their original form,
to safeguard their tonal and verbal purity.  They laid down rules to make sure that not a syllable was
changed in chanting...  and they insured that the full benefits were derived from intoning the mantras.

'When we listen to the Ghanapatin chant the Ghanam we notice he intones a few words of the mantra
in different ways, back and forth.  It is most delightful to the ear.  Similarly, in other methods of chanting
like  Krama, Jata, Moola, and so on the intonation is nothing less than stately, indeed divine.'  (Hindu
Dharma - Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.)

As a small example of the various modes of chanting, a simple mantra is transliterated below, giving the
principal forms that are taught and chanted:

Namo Somaya cha (moolam)
Namo Somaya somaya cha (kramam)
Namo somaya somaya namo, nama somaya (jattai)
Nama somaya somaya, namo, nama somaya cha-cha somaya namo, nama somaya cha (ghanam)

In Jattai two words are joined in the chanting and each word is repeated six times, while in Ghanam there
words are joined together and each word is repeated thirteen times.  A rough guide to the sequence
in which Ghanam, is chanted is given below:

1-2-2-1-1-2-3-3-2-1-1-2-3-2-3-3-2-2-3-4-4-3-2-2-3-4-3-4-4-3-3-4-5-5-4-3-3-4-5.

contd.,
     
Arunachala Siva.       

11530

The teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi / Re: The Many Sides of Ramana - David Frawley:

« on: February 18, 2016, 10:40:33 AM »

Lord Skanda and Ramana:

Up to that point I had only a limited understanding of the role of deities in spiritual practice.  I had
almost no knowledge of Lord Skanda, though He is a very popular deity in South India, and one sees
His picture everywhere.  I did not understand His connection with Ramana, though I had some idea
about it, recalling having read about it before. So I was somewhat shocked to come into contact with
such an entity, not some mere fantasy but as a very concrete and vivid experience penetrating to the
core of my being.  That the process of Self Inquiry would be aligned to a deity, in which my personality
was swallowed as it were, was not something i had heard of or even noted in the teachings.

In time I learned much about Skanda and Ramana. Skanda is the incarnation of the power of pure
wisdom.  He is the Self born of Self Inquiry, the inner child born of experience of the death of the ego.
The child of the innocent mind is the warrior hat destroys all the demons, all of our negative conditioning,
with his spear of Self Inquiry.  Coming to Tiruvannamalai was an experience of that inner fire (tejas),
which was Ramana and Skanda.

contd.,

Arunachala Siva. 
       

11531

The teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi / Re: Viveka Chudamani - Sri Sankara:

« on: February 18, 2016, 10:30:43 AM »

Verse  254:


Caste, laws, family -- beyond all these; name, form, qualification, defects --free from all these;
beyond time and space is Brahman.  - thou art That. Think of That in thy Self.

Verse 255:


That which is beyond all words, and which can be known only by pure understanding, is concretized
consciousness.  It is beginningless substance -  Brahman -- know that as thine own Self in thy self.


Verse 256:

Untouched by these conditions of decay, death, hunger, thirst, grief, and delusion, which can be
thought of by the Yogis alone, whom the senses cannot know, and the intellect cannot comprehend
-- that glorious One, Brahman -- think of Him within thine own self as thy Self. Thou art That.

Verse 257:

This world which is produced from ignorance, remains based on that Brahman, who is the basis
of all.  He, the self existent, different from manifested and unmanifested, without parts, incomparable
-- know Him in thy self. Thou art That.

contd.,

Arunachala Siva.               

11532

General topics / Re: Tevaram - Some select verses.

« on: February 18, 2016, 10:18:04 AM »

Verse  10:


பொருவருஞ் சிறப்பின் மிக்கார்
   இவர்க்கினிப் புதல்வர்ப் பேறே
அரியதென் றெவருங் கூற
   அதற்படு காத லாலே
முருகலர் அலங்கற் செவ்வேல்
   முருகவேள் முன்றிற் சென்று
பரவுதல் செய்து நாளும்
   பராய்க்கடன் நெறியில் நிற்பார்.


All did declare that this peerless couple
Would not be blessed with a child at all;
But their desire to have a child waxed great;
So they daily adored at the shrine of Muruga,
The wearer of fragrant wreaths of flowers
And the holder of the ruddy spear.
Thus they dedicated themselves to Him on purpose.

Arunachala Siva.   

11533

General topics / Re: Tevaram - Some select verses.

« on: February 18, 2016, 10:15:18 AM »

Verse  9:


அரும்பெறல் மறவர் தாயத்
   தான்றதொல் குடியில் வந்தாள்
இரும்புலி எயிற்றுத் தாலி
   இடையிடை மனவு கோத்துப்
பெரும்புறம் அலையப் பூண்டாள்
   பீலியுங் குழையுந் தட்டச்
சுரும்புறு படலை முச்சிச்
   சூரரிப் பிணவு போல்வாள்.

She hailed from a great and hoary family
Of a warrior race; her taali-cord was set with
The teeth of tigers and beads of shells,
And it dangled down the nape of her neck.
She wore a flowery wreath stuck with the feathers
Of peacocks and tender shoots buzzed over by bees,
On her coiffure, and she looked a dreadful lioness.   

Arunachala Siva.

11534

General topics / Re: Tevaram - Some select verses.

« on: February 18, 2016, 10:13:20 AM »

Verse  8:

 பெற்றியால் தவமுன் செய்தான்
   ஆயினும் பிறப்பின் சார்பால்
குற்றமே குணமா வாழ்வான்
   கொடுமையே தலைநின் றுள்ளான்
விற்றொழில் விறலின் மிக்கான்
    வெஞ்சின மடங்கல் போல்வான்
மற்றவன் குறிச்சி வாழ்க்கை
    மனைவியும் தத்தை யென்பாள்.



Though he had of yore wrought askesis,
By reason of his birth, he did only evil
And deemed it good; he reveled in cruelty.
He was a mighty bowman who was like an angry lion;
His housewife was called Thatthai.

Arunachala Siva.   

11535

General topics / Re: Tevaram - Some select verses.

« on: February 18, 2016, 10:11:17 AM »

Verse  7:


மைச்செறிந் தனைய மேனி
   வன்தொழில் மறவர் தம்பால்
அச்சமும் அருளும் என்றும்
   அடைவிலார் உடைவன் தோலார்
பொச்சையி னறவும் ஊனின்
   புழுக்கலும் உணவு கொள்ளும்
நச்சழற் பகழி வேடர்க்
   கதிபதி நாக னென்பான்.


The foresters were inky dark in complexion;
Violent were they and knew neither dread nor mercy;
They were clad in thick hides; they ate rice minced with meat
And quaffed wild honey; they wielded poisonous darts fiery;
The leader of these hunters was called Nakan.

Arunachala Siva.