Month: February 2012

Shivaratri – Union for Creation

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It has been miracle galore as far as I am concerned (ever since I took my Art Of Living path seriously) – have repeatedly done 3 days of Absolute Blissful Silence (unthinkable for anyone who knows me) Rocks may absorb water, but Suresh can’t shut his gab would be their response, first up. It can be a fluke Once but remember! I did it so times now during my AOL’s Advanced Course. So it was by design and not by chance. Thanks to HH Sri Sri Ravishankarji life cannot get better (you can follow HIM on X (Formerly Twitter: https://x.com/Gurudev )

Now Now! hear me – another shocker! I am patting on my back as I am writing this. I concluded a day’s fasting successfully too last year. Again! people who know me would forward the same argument, Rock may absorb water but Suresh going hungry is a bigger Myth than those associated with Shivaratri. Anyways, I chose a great occasion of the holy Shivaratri to test my resolve. AOL Satsang teams rocked the city with melodious renditions of our Bhajans (I know it was enjoyed by the town because I have no reports of anyone receiving rotten eggs or chappals so far – nor did I get any ). Apart from the whole day’s fasting – I swear I had nothing but a few cups of TEA the whole day and night, I partook two Satsangs, 1 at a residence and another in a temple on the outskirts of the city (along with my Centre’s team).

This time my whole family was with me and my son so typical of him, stumped all of us asking us, “Why is it that none of our Boy Gods (he called it Boy God’s to mean Male God) have moustaches? All demons in my comics have Moustaches and look terrible” He was insisting me to knock my moutsaches off. Everyone around us were truly left speechless for a moment because, off hand the reply should have been, Bad Guys are shown with Moustaches – but for him his father was not bad (I agree with his views) For courtesy’s sake (and to my fortune) none replied to him that way.

And this Shivaratri (on 20th Feb 2012) with Gurudev Sri Sri Ravishankar being in Art of Living International Ashram is going to be very special with a Maha Sudarshana Kriya being directly guided by HIM. Don’t miss the Shivaratri special Satsang – an evening filled with Music, Knowledge and Fun 🙂

So the question was left open for the night. Early this morning he was pestering us for an answer and I promptly went and blogged on my favourite e-hangout (I am sure I will find the answers to his question as soon as people start seeing this).

While at it let me put out the significance of the festival (just a reproduction of what my friends Mrs and Mr. Hiremath of Mississuagua, Toronto sent me)

Shivaratri and Shiva

  1. Auspicious festival of Mahashivaratri falls on the 13th or the 14th night of the new moon during Krishna Paksha in the Hindu month of Phalgun.
  2. The Sanskrit term, Krishna Paksha means the period of waning moon or the dark fortnight and Phalguna corresponds to the month of February – March in English Calendar.
  3. Shivaratri Festival is celebrated on a moonless night (Chaturdashi to Amavasya).

According to Hindu mythology,

  1. Shivaratri or ‘Shiva’s Great Night’ symbolizes the wedding day of Lord Shiva and Parvati.
  2. Many however, believe, Shivaratri is the night when Lord Shiva performed the Tandava Nritya – the dance of primordial creation, preservation and destruction.

Celebrating the festival in a customary manner

  1. Devotees give a ritual bath to the Lingam with the panchagavya .
  2. Celebrations of Shivaratri Festival mainly take place at night.
  3. Devotees of Lord Shiva throng Shiva temples across the country and spend ‘the Night of Lord Shiva’ by chanting verses and hymns in praise of the Lord.

Shivaratri Pooja has been given tremendous significance in Hindu mythology. It is said that ritual worship of Lord Shiva on a Shivaratri day pleases Lord Shiva the most. Devotees further believe that by pleasing Lord Shankara on the auspicious Shivaratri day, a person is absolved of past sins and is blessed with Moksha or salvation.

Merits of Shivaratri Puja

According to Shiva Purana, sincere worship of Lord Shiva yields merits including spiritual growth for the devotees. It also provides extensive details on the right way to perform Shivratri Puja. Shiva Purana further says, Performing abhisheka of Shiva Linga with six different dravyas including milk, curds, honey, ghee, sugar and water while chanting Sri Rudram, Chamakam and Dasa Shanthi pleases Lord Shiva the most.

According to mythology, each of these dravya used in the abhisheka blesses a unique quality .

· Milk is for the blessing of purity and piousness.

· Yogurt is for prosperity and progeny.

· Honey is for sweet speech.

· Ghee is for victory.

· Sugar is for happiness.

· Water is for purity.

Besides, worship of Lord Shiva on Shivratri is also considered to be extremely beneficial for women. The festival holds special meaning for the ladies.

They pray to Goddess Parvati also called ‘Gaura’, the giver of ‘suhag’ for good husbands, marital bliss and a long and prosperous married life.

While, married women pray to Shiva for the well being of their husbands and sons, unmarried women pray for a husband like Shiva, who is considered to be the ideal husband.

What is significance of Shiva Linga—“The Linga is just a symbol, a sign, an illustration, of the beginningless, the endless, the limitless – for it has no limbs, no face, no feet, no front or back, no beginning or end. Its shape is like the picture one imagines the Niraakaara (Formless) to be. In fact, linga means – leeyathe (that in which all forms and names merge) and gamyathe (that towards which all names and forms are proceeding, to attain fulfillment). It is the fittest symbol of the All-pervasive, the All-knowing, the All-powerful”.

A blog of mine without a story? Impossible So here is a mythological story as to how this practice of Shivratri Vrat came about:

Once there was a hunter, and he one day went into the forest to procure meat for his family by hunting some animal. He wandered up and down in the forest from morning till night in search of game but was unable to shoot any. At last, when night overtook him, he climbed up a Bael tree to escape from a wild animal that was pursuing him, being roused from its lair by the hunter. The animal was lying down at the foot of the tree quite certain that the man would fall down either from sleep or from exhaustion, and that he might eat him. The hunter, exhausted as he was from his exertions and hunger, wished to scare away the animal by throwing handful of bael leaves. These leaves dripping with water on account of the recent shower, fell on a Siva-Lingam that was near. The night happened to be the Maha-Sivaratri night. He had fasted during the whole day since he could not find anything to eat. The drenching rain constituted a bath and his action of throwing the bael leaves on the Siva-Lingam, the wor­ship of Siva on the Sivaratri night. Though his actions were not intentional to worship Siva, yet he is said to have gained heaven as he had observed the Sivaratri – Vratha unwittingly.

The basic principle underlying the observance of the Maha-Sivaratri Vratha appears to be to emphasize the fact that death is sure to follow birth, night is sure to follow day,Pralaya, active cosmic life and so on, and consequently people should always bear in mind while enjoying the one its opposite and regulate their life accordingly. They should not be elated at success nor should they allow themselves to be carried away by despair at failures but always have trust in God and worship him.

Namah Parvati Pathe! Har Har Mahadeo!!!

PS: The photograph is of Lord Shiva in Banagiri Shri Siddhivinayaka Temple, Banashankari

Pride goeth before a Fall

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Allow me to start with something that most of  us know – The organization Art of Living, organization may not be appropriate description, since AOL is more a philosophy , founded by great Guru of Joy, Sri Sri Ravishankar (you can follow Him on Twitter here https://twitter.com/#!/SriSriSpeaks )  who gifted basic breathing techniques and profound knowledge in the simplest of terms – helping a layman easily walk the spiritual path without getting lost in the maze – so simple even I am practising them religiously for the past so many years . Like in any place we also have intellectuals coming, doing their 2 bits and then are bent on complicating things and pretending to be more knowledgeable on the subject than what they actually know . Personally if you ask me to pick a great quality of our Gurudev, Sri Sri, it is HIS unfailing ability to put forth very complicated concepts in so simple terms, we look silly for not having thought about it earlier. Read/Listen to HIS commentaries on Narada Bhakti Sutras/Ashta Vakra Gita/Patanjali Yog Sutras/Yogasara Upanishads – you name it. It is prodound knowledge simplified unbelievably for ordinary mortals.One day got back home after my morning AOL followup classes and got a telephone from a friend who happened to attend a spiritual talk from a self proclaimed enlightened soul who was displaying all his oratarial skills in a local dialect laced with liberal doses of hitech Anglicised Sanskrit terminologies. I believe the attempted use of big words were his way of proving to the audience that he was knowledgeable . This person was trying to chart his own course using the tools and knowledge provided benevolently to us by Master Himself, to be guarded against misuse but at the same time ensuring that it is not overprotected in order to reach out to maximum populace especially in these modern times. He started pretending (and worse still believing) to be more knowledgeable than the sculptor who carved a beautiful scultpure with a rough rock that he was earlier. Today he met more than his match, when someone asked him a few questions innocently and trying to wriggle out of the hole he dug himself was a pathetic sight. If only pride had not clouded this man’s judgement, the day would have been saved. But it was not to be, threw into a fit of rage, criticising Guruji (assuming that the questioner was related to his past background of being from that organization) and lost the day. I just recollected a nice story in this gentleman’s moment of truth.
There was a young student-archer who reached such proficiency in his art that he could shoot an arrow into a tree and then cleave that arrow into two with the next shot. He began to boast that he was a greater archer than his guru.
One day his guru, a venerable old man in his 70’s, asked the youth to accompany him on a trip across the hills. The journey was uneventful until they came to a deep chasm.
A single log spanned the chasm. The guru walked down to the centre of the log, unshouldered his bow and taking an arrow shot it into a tree on the other side. His next shot cleaved the first arrow into two.
“Now it’s your turn,” he said, walking back to where his student was standing. The youth stepped gingerly on the log and very slowly and carefully made his way to the middle. But his heart was in his mouth. He knew that if he lost his footing, he would plunge to his death. His hands trembled as he strung an arrow into his bow. Preoccupied with the danger he was in, he found it hard to focus on the target. Consequently when he let go of the arrow, it missed the tree altogether. Whimpering, he turned around.
“Help me!” he shouted to his guru. “I’ll fall!”
The old man walked up to him, took his hand and stepping backwards led him to safety.
Neither of them said a word on the return journey but the boy had much to think about. He had realised that to be a master of his art it was not enough to know how to control the bow, he had to learn how to control his mind (and mouth) too.
As a well wisher of this gentleman, I have just forwarded this story to him. This goes on to prove that Ingratitude towards your Master/Guru has its pitfalls and it is good for each one of us to realize that without HIS grace we are nonentities. Some more examples comes to my mind that goes on to prove that Pride invariably precedes the sure Fall from grace. All the despots, dictators paid the price for their pride and since they seemingly perched so high, greater was the impact of the fall. (Saving a personal anecdote on this theme for a later date). Though very hypothetical considering the IQ of Bush, would the situation of Iraq and Saddam been any different had the inspectors of WMD been allowed to inspect without the false pride standing in the way clouding judgements (by the way, I dont advocate bending backwards to accommodate fancies of a particular nation or person at the cost of national pride – but it was utter stupidity to have put the whole nation at risk just to satisfy one person’s ego). Sadly for me, as much as I hate to admit this, Saddam’s was a case of “from palaces to the pits (literally)”  only due to his personal pride. Today the US of A led by Obama is falling into the same trap clouded by Bush’s misplaced pride.
PS: At the risk of diverting from the basic theme of this entry, I would consider the wheels of fortune to have come the full circle when all the dictators/despots meets the same fate (if only life followed a mathematical equation where 1 + 1 is always 2 – for similar crimes similar punishments or proportional punishments).

Guru Exist!!!

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Rewind Mode! Going Back to a few years…..to write out a lovely story…this time related by My Pujya Gurudev Sri Sri Ravishankarji (Follow Him on @SriSriSpeaks – https://twitter.com/#!/srisrispeaks) Himself in Bangalore Ashram in response to a question from the audience.He related using a story about His favourite Character, yes yes, it is Mullah Nasruddin.

Do MASTER exist? (Of course, we say – but why? read on)

Once Mullah Nasruddin falls sick and visits the doctor. They were very good friends and after exchanging pleasantries, the doctor went about doing the job – checked him up and then treated him all the while both were discussing various topic and then it came to concept of Master/Guru.

The doctor says, “there is no such thing as a Master. If he/she really existed, there would be no ignorance in this world. You have to agree all the problems in this world is due to this single biggest factor “IGNORANCE”. If a Master truly existed there would be no ignorance and earth would have been Heaven.

Mullah Nassruddin, the intelligent fool was stumped. It appeared that he lost out on this one for a change. However much he revolted mentally against the doctor friend’s statement, he also realized that what he just heard had some truth but he knew there was something more to it and it was not the reality. He did not want to argue since he had no answers at that time.

The treatment over, Mullah walks out of the clinic thanking the doctor for his wonderful treatment, he was almost feeling normal. He walked a few yards, finds a really sick person, who almost is unable to walk stumbling, mumbling unconsciously. He runs back to the doctor and panting heavily says…”Doctors do not exist in this world…there are no such things called Doctors”

Doctor says, “Nooooo… How can you say that? I am here and I just treated you and you were so happy with what I did”

Mullah says “No, If doctors existed, then there wouldnt be any sick people like that man lying unconscious across the street”

Doctor with a sad face says, “But Doctors do exist, what happens is that he did not come to me”

Mullah says “Yes!!! that is the whole point. People dont go to the MASTER nor look for HIM. They also dont follow what HE says. That is the reason for IGNORANCE and all the problems in this World”

This touched me very much, because it was almost the very first talk I was attending after my rebirth in Art Of Living. And there was so much Truth and I felt that I was very much the doctor of this story.