Lectures by Swami Nikhilanandaji, Tatva Bodh was written by Adi Shankaracharya. Shankaracharyaji salutes his guru Shri Krishna before he starts the text. This is important because before we undertake any study of the scriptures, we have to surrender our ego and identify with the Supreme Reality. Tatva Bodh is not a text for those who are curious or for those who want worldly knowledge. It is not merely a book of theories to be read. It is meant for people who desire Moksha. We all have desires that we try to fulfill in our past time because we think we get happiness when they are fulfilled. The degree of happiness is proportionate to the intensity of the desire. But there are always more unfulfilled desires than fulfilled desires. These desires always give rise to restlessness. Where there is restlessness, there is no peace. Example: “I want water. I am thirsty.” Once this desire has entered your mind, you can not sit peacefully. You go to where this water and drink it or if there is none, you think about where to go and get some. It is natural that we have desires and they propel us. It is even written in the scriptures. (Kaama cheshta – everything is propelled by desire) The rishis analyzed these desires and wondered if one can fulfill all his desires, will he be happy. They classified the desires into four types. 1. Desire to be secure (Survival instinct): This is the first and foremost desire among all living beings. We want to survive. This desire arises from deep within us. Eons ago, the caveman lived in caves and killed animals to survive. Today, we desire to own a house, car, and credit cards to feel secure. (Arthapurushaartha – desire for security) We think money will provide security and so we desire to earn more, own a house with security alarms and smoke detectors. Or we may be physically, socially and financially secure but we feel psychological insecurities. “Why won’t he smile at me? Why doesn’t she like me? Let me make cookies for her.” We may also feel intellectual insecurities. We then use philosophy to feel more secure. “I am an Advaiti. I am a Hindu. I am a Muslim.” We may join a movement or a mission to feel intellectually secure. We must take care to not just calm our insecurities but try to learn and move towards the goal. We also feel secure doing what a lot of people do. We feel more secure with a crowd. We do not want to be alone. Even if God is there and everyone is going towards Him, we prefer to go with everyone rather than go alone to God. These insecurities will remain with us until we have “atma gnana”. Therefore, in Bhagavad Gita, Bhagwan says “Have faith in me. I will make you secure. I will take care of all your needs.” “Yogakshemaam vahaamyaham” – whatever needs to be protected, I shall protect.” Till we understand the greatness of God and till we understand that the greatest security is God within us, we will be insecure and desire for security. 2. Desire to gain pleasure: This is a very strong desire. Almost everything is propelled by these two desires – security and pleasure. We are propelled by fear or pleasure and so many religions use this – “Do this and go to heaven. Don’t do this, you will go to hell.” They create fear or give pleasure to make people do things. There are pleasures at all levels: physically, senses etc. The drawback is pleasure is always followed by pain. There is insecurity in the pleasure – “Will we feel it tomorrow?” Also, a person who always seeks pleasure becomes dull. His thinking capacity is diminished because he becomes totally focussed on acquiring pleasures. It is said in the scriptures: If you want to gain knowledge, forget about pleasure. If you want to gain pleasure, forget about knowledge. Even after trying to gain security and pleasure, we are not happy. So, we desire to gain a superior type of security and happiness – that which is more lasting. This is the third ty pe of desire. 3. Desire to be good: This is the desire to become a better and more righteous person. There is pleasure in eating but there is more pleasure in feeding others. There is pleasure in being protected but there is greater pleasure in protecting others. This indicates rise of Dharma and goodness and giving up of selfishness. We should try to gain security without making the other person insecure. We should try to be happy without making others miserable. Dharma says – “Live and let live.” If you want to gain something, do so by adhering to certain rules (“niyams”) so that you do not harm others. Even the worst person has this desire to be good in him. He has the potential that is deep within him and that is inborn in him to be a saint. The Gita says the moment an evil person desires to be good, he becomes a saadhu. (Example: Valmiki) When a person follows Dharma, he feels more secure and happier in this world. This seems very strange but is true. A dharmic person feels very secure (Example: Sitaji, Ramji). An adharmic person feels very insecure. (Raavan, despite all his strength and wealth he felt insecure all the time.) Dharmorakshathi rakshathaha One, who follows Dharma, is protected by Dharma. He feels God, Goodness, Righteousness is on his side and so he gains unshakeable strength. Nothing can affect him. Mahatma Gandhi was small, frail, without money, without even the full complement of garment to cover his body, not owning even as much earth as might be held on the point of a needle, yet he was so much stronger than the mightiest of empires. The British feared him. One who follows truth: His words gain power, even the Gods must obey him. Example: Anasuya. When someone approached her for help, her husband was cursed to die at sunrise the next day, Anasuya had the power to stop the Sun from rising because she followed dharma. When a person follows dharma, he feels more secure and happier, he feels joy in just being and existing (Example: Mahatmas). They work not because of sense of duty and not because of aspiration but because of inspiration. But a Dharmic person still feels a sense of bondage, a sense of limitation by rules. He will have to be born in this body, eat, sleep and drink with this body. Living in this world becomes bondage. Mumukshatwam (desire to be free from bondage) arises in him. 4. Desire to gain Moksha: This is the desire to free from bondage of desires, body etc. It is subtlest of all desires. Example: No matter how much pleasure we gain from being awake, we do not want to turn away from sleep. We always want rest and sleep. A mumukshu is one who has intense desire for freedom, liberation and Moksha. The Tatva Bodh is written for such a mumukshu. This liberation that he seeks can be gained from knowing the Self. There is no need to go elsewhere or outwards. The liberation lies within. Knowing the true self is freedom. Transcribed by Neena Venugopalan
Swami Radhananda gives a satsang talk at Yasodhara Ashram focusing on memory. “What do you remember? Do you remember the good or the bad? How do you build a foundation on the things that you have done well and the things you learned? How do you recognize that Divine Mother has been with you every [...]
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Sri Raghavendra Sri Raghavendra was the greatest author and preacher in the line of Madhva in the last 500 years. He wrote countless books establishing Krishna as the Absolute Truth. He gave special stress to the chanting of the names of Krishna, and in particular he recommended the chanting of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra. While he was present in the world, he performed many miracles, including bringing the dead back to life. After completing his preaching work, he chose to enter “jiva-samadhi”, where a saint is buried in his samadhi while still living. Before entering the samadhi he told his disciples he would live physically for 100 years, in his books for 300 years, and in his samadhi for 700 years. He ordered his disciples to place 1,008 shalagrama shilas on top of his head, and then cover him with dirt. Till this day Sri Raghavendra is still living within the samadhi in mantralaya. He has manifested himself to many people, including a British government officer who came to confiscate the ashram’s lands. This instance was recorded by the British officer in the government gazette at the time. The scriptures establish Sri Raghavendra as a partial incarnation of Bhakta Prahlada, the great devotee of Sri Narasimha Avatara. You will find in Raghavendra temples, the utsava murti (festival deity) is not of Raghavendra, but of Bhakta Prahlada. The main “deity” will be a replica of his samadhi (called a Brindavana) with dirt taken from the original samadhi in Mantralaya. In front of this will be a deity of Bhakta Prahlada. They treat the samadhi as the body of Sri Raghavendra and bathe, dress, and apply twelve tilaks to it just as we do to our body. Devotees of Sri Raghavendra pray to him with the following mantra: pujyaya raghavendraya satyadharmarataya ca bhajatam kalpavrikshaya namatam kamadhenave Sri Raghavendra is like a kalpa-vriksha (a desire fulfilling tree) for he always takes care of his devotees’ spiritual needs.
Swami Radha invites us to explore some difficult questions, to clarify our lifes purpose. As an aspirant, these are questions we have to constantly explore for ourselves, and which lay the foundation for further spiritual … Swami Sivananda Radha Yasodhara Ashram Yoga Satsang Study Retreat Course Kundalini Lightwaves British Columbia
Yasodhara Ashram resident, Deborah Pohorski speaks during Satsang about relationships and cultivating a relationship with the Divine. … Yasodhara Ashram Yoga Satsang relationships divine karma lightwaves study course kootenay bay british columbia
Voltaire(1694-1778) Author and Philosopher It does not behove us, who were only savages and barbarians when these Indian and Chinese peoples were civilized and learned, to dispute their antiquity Aldous Huxley(1894-1963) English novelist The (Bhagavad) Gita is one of the clearest and most comprehensive summaries of the perennial philosophy ever to have been done. Hence its enduring value, not only for the Indians, but also for all mankind. It is perhaps the most systematic spiritual statement of the perennial philosophy Rudyard Kipling(1865-1936) “Now it is not good for the Christian’s health to hustle the Hindu brown. For the Christian riles and the Hindu smiles and weareth the Christian down ; And the end of the fight is a tombstone while with the name of the late deceased and the epitaph drear, A fool lies here who tried to hustle the east’ John Archibald Wheeler(b-1911) Theoretical Physicist, who coined “Black Hole “I like to think that someone will trace how the deepest thinking of India made its way to Greece and from there to the philosophy of our times Guy Sorman author of “Genius of India” Temporal notions in Europe were overturned by an India rooted in eternity. The Bible had been the yardstick for measuring time, but the infinitely vast time cycles of India suggested that the world was much older than anything the Bible spoke of. It seem as if the Indian mind was better prepared for the chronological mutations of Darwinian evolution and astrophysics.” Adam Smith (1723-1790) Father of economics, and author of “Wealth of Nations” The difference between the genius of the British constitution which protects and governs North America, and that of the mercantile company [British East India Company] which oppresses and domineers in the East Indies[India], cannot perhaps be better illustrated than by the different state of those countries H.G. Wells (1866-1946) Sociologist, and Historian and Author of “Time Machine” and “War of the Worlds” “The history of India for many centuries had been happier, less fierce, and more dreamlike than any other history. In these favourable conditions, they built a character – meditative and peaceful and a nation of philosophers such as could nowhere have existed except in India.” Jean-Sylvain Bailly (1736-1793) French Astronomer The motion of the stars calculated by the Hindus before some 4500 years vary not even a single minute from the tables of Cassine and Meyer (used in the 19-th century). The Hindu systems of astronomy are by far the oldest and that from which the Egyptians, Greek, Romans and – even the Jews derived from the Hindus their knowledge George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) Irish dramatist, literary critic, socialist spokesman The Indian way of life provides the vision of the natural, real way of life. We veil ourselves with unnatural masks. On the face of India are the tender expressions which carry the mark of the Creator’s hand. Dr David Frawley American Teacher, Doctor, Author, Speaker, Historian “India possesses a great indigenous civilization dating back to 7000 BC, such as recent archaeological discoveries at Mehrgarh clearly reveal. It had the most extensive urban culture in the world in the third millennium BCE with the many cities of the Indus and Sarasvati rivers. When the Sarasvati river of Vedic fame dried up in the second millennium BCE, the culture shifted east to the more certain rivers of the Gangetic plain, which became the dominant region of the subcontinent. Gone is the old idea of the Aryan invasion and an outside basis for Indian culture. In its place is the continuity of a civilization and its literature going back to the earliest period of history. Unfortunately, over the first fifty years since Independence, India has not discovered its real roots. Its intellectuals have mimicked Western trends in thought. They have forgotten their own profound modern sages like Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo who projected modern and futuristic views of the Indian tradition. While Westerners come to India seeking spiritual knowledge, Indian intellectuals look to the West with an adulation that Annie Wood Besant (1847-1933) British Theosophical Society After a study of some forty years and more of the great religions of the world, I find none so perfect, none so scientific, none so philosophical and none so spiritual than the great religion known by the name of Hinduism. Make no mistake, without Hinduism, India has no future. Hinduism is the soil in to which India’s roots are stuck and torn out of that she will inevitably wither as a tree torn out from its place. And if Hindus do not maintain Hinduism – who shall save it? If India’s own children do not cling to her faith who shall guard it? India alone can save India and India and Hinduism are one.”
