hare krishna

"While visiting Benares, Kabir always passed by the same man
daily, who was always sitting in his garden. One day, Kabir
said to him, 'Good Sir, instead of merely sitting in your garden
doing nothing, why not sit in meditation and make spiritual
progress?'

"The man replied, 'I have a family. My children are young, and I
cannot find enough time for spiritual practices now. But I will
practice spirituality when the children grow up.'

"Years later, after the children had grown up, Kabir met the
same man again. 'Now that your children are older, do you find time for meditation?'

"This time the man responded, 'I am in the process of getting my
children married off so they can live independently. As soon as they are all married, I will begin my spiritual practices.'

"A few years passed, and Kabir met the man again. He again
inquired about the man's spiritual life. 'Now that your children are
married, do you have time for meditation?'

"'My children have grandchildren, and I am watching them grow up, receive an education, and then marry.'

"Some years passed, and Kabir returned to find that the man had
passed away. Kabir Sahib shook his head and said, 'The poor man has spent his whole life thinking he would find time for meditation, and passed away without devoting any time to discover his soul. His mind led him into such a deep attachment to this world that he did not take any time for his own meditations.'"

 

A nice story - it shows clearly that the time to seek for Him is now - there will always be some reason we can find why it's not possible, and meanwhile, our span of worldly existence races past.............we wait for a tommorrow that never comes.

 

Hare Krishna!

Dear Nicole,

As Bill has said, it is indeed a very nice and inspiring story, thank you.

So let us not stand and stare uselessly any more wasting the precious time which is never to come back again and is ticking off every moment of our life time.

Let us chant and praise His name alone. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With love,

Kumar.

 

Sri Ramakrishna: "He who has God here

(pointing to the heart), has Him also there (pointing

to the external world). He who does not find God

within himself, will NEVER find Him outside of

himself. But he who sees Him in the temple of his own

soul, sees Him also in the temple of the universe."

 

More from Sri Ramakrishna.



“What will you know by reading books? Till you have reached the market place, you can only hear noises like ‘ho-ho’ from a distance. It is quite different when you reach the market. Then you will clearly see, you will clearly hear, ‘Take these potatoes, pay for them.’

‘‘From a distance there is a sound of ‘ho-ho’ from the sea. When you come near to it, you are able to see that so many ships are sailing, the birds are flying and the waves are rising.

“One does not gain the right kind of experience by reading books. It is quite distant. After realizing Him books, scriptures, science all seem to be ‘khadkuto’ (dry straw, grass, twigs, etc.).

“You have to introduce yourself to the master of the house. Before that why are you so eager to know how many houses, gardens and scrips of companies he has? If you approach the servants, they will not even let you stand there. What information they will give you of the company shares? On the other hand, try somehow to meet the master even if you are pushed aside or you have to jump over the fence. Then he will himself tell you how many houses and gardens and shares he has. When you know the master, the servants, the doorkeeper and all others will salute you.’’ (Everybody laughs.)

The Devotee — Now, how to meet the master of the house? (All laugh.)

Sri Ramakrishna — That’s why karma (*action) is needed. It does not avail if you say, ‘God is’ and keep sitting where you are. You have somehow to approach Him. Call upon Him secretly, pray to Him, ‘Grant me Thy vision, grant please.’ Say this and cry with a longing heart. Just as you roam madly for ‘woman and gold’, be a bit crazy for Him too. Let people say that such and such person has gone mad for God. Give up everything for some days and only call upon Him secretly.

“What will it avail just to say ‘He exists’ and do nothing? There are big fish in Haldarpukur. Can you catch fish just by sitting on its bank? To attract it, you have to prepare its food and put it in the pond. The fish will come slowly from the deep water and agitate it. You will then feel happy. Maybe you are able to see a bit of a fish at times. A fish suddenly jumps up and you see it. You are then happier when you see it.

‘‘Turn the milk into curds, churn it and only then you will get butter.”

 

Hare Krishna!


OM RAMAKRISHNAYA NAMAH
OM RAMAKRISHNAYA NAMAH
OM RAMAKRISHNAYA NAMAH




Dear BBB,

Wonderful ! Beautiful ! Thank you for presenting the matchless pieces from the Master, Thakur Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa. These very inspiring talks tell us everything about God and how to go about attaining God-realization.

Thank you again, dear brother.


Love,


Kumar.

 

Dearest Andrew,

Thank you for those too beautiful pieces.

*Peace and Love*
Nicole

 

The Divine Image by William Blake

To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
All pray their distress;
And to these virtues of delight
Return their thankfulness.

For Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
Is God, our father dear,
And Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love
Is Man, his child and care.

For Mercy has a human heart,
Pity a human face,
And Love, the human form divine
And Peace, the human dress.

Then every man, of every clime
That prays in his distress,
Prays to the human form divine
Love, Mercy, Pity, Peace.

And all must love the human form,
In heathen, turk, or jew;
Where Mercy, Love, & Pity dwell
There God is dwelling too

btw...I think that when he says the "human form" that he is talking about the Spirit/the Self...but that was just my interpretation.

 

Thanks for that Nicole. There is much debate and discussion about the true meaning of Blake's works. Myself I think that when he says 'the human form divine' he means the body. I know that might seem like a contradiction, but I think that Blake did see the body as a form manifested by the Divine. There is a lot in his works that gives rise to that idea, for example, the following extract from 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell':


'The Voice of the Devil'
All Bibles and sacred codes have been the causes of the two following errors:
1. That man has two real existing principles, viz. a body and a soul.
2.That energy, called evil, is alone from the body; and that Reason, called good, is alone from the soul.
3. That God will torment man in Eternity for following his energies.
But the following contraries to these are true:
1. Man has no body distinct from his soul; for that called body is a portion of the soul discerned by the five senses, the chief inlets of the soul in this age.
2. Energy is the only life, and is from the body; the reason is the bound or outward circumfrence of energy.
3. Energy is Eternal delight.

The key (as always in Blake) is in Christianity. When Christ became One man, He became all men. He 'divinized' the human form. It is in such a form that the Lord Himself advents Himself among us.
Also, Blake was perhaps seeking to establish a kind of respect for the body against a background of medieval Christian ideas about the body's inherent sinfulness. See also his painting 'Glad Day' - Blake's celebration of the simple and unadorned human form.

On the other hand, Blake is not 100% consistent in what he says - he was, after all, a poet and not a philosopher or theologian. Hence, we get a different view expressed in 'To Tirzah', a poem he added to the original manuscript of 'Songs of Experience' some 20 years after it's composition.

To Tirzah.

What'er is born of mortal birth
Must be consumed with the earth
To rise from generation free
Then what have I to do with thee?

The sexes sprung from shame and pride,
Blowed in the morn, in evening died;
But mercy changed death into sleep;
The sexes rose to work and weep.

Thou, Mother of my mortal part,
With cruelty didst mould my heart,
And with false self-decieving tears
Didst bind my nostrils, eyes and ears;

Didst close my tongue in senseless clay,
And me to mortal life betray:
The death of Jesus set me free:
Then what have I to do with thee?

Which gives again a more orthodox picture. But I think ultimately what he means by 'Human Form Divine' is the human form redeemed through Jesus Christ.

 

Hmm...that's really interesting...thank you for sharing Andrew.

 

I thought this was pretty:

O Christ Jesus,
when all is darkness
and we feel our weakness and helplessness,
give us the sense of Your presence,
Your love, and Your strength.
Help us to have perfect trust
in Your protecting love
and strengthening power,
so that nothing may frighten or worry us,
for, living close to You,
we shall see Your hand,
Your purpose, Your will through all things. ​

- St. Ignatius of Loyola

 

The Plums Tasted

The plums tasted
sweet to the unlettered desert-tribe girl-
but what manners! To chew into each!

She was ungainly, low-caste, ill mannered and dirty,
but the god took the fruit she'd been sucking.


Why? She knew how to love.
She might not distinquish
splendor from filth
but she'd tasted the nectar of passion.


Might not know any Veda,
but a chariot swept her away-
now she frolics in heaven, esctatically bound
to her god.


The Lord of Fallen Fools, says Mira,
will save anyone who can practice rapture like that-
I myself in a previous birth
was a cowherding girl
at Gokul.

- Mirabai

 

Hare Krishna!


To add to the beautiful contributions from BBB and SGB here is another one :

" I must devote myself to becoming a great saint. That sounds conceited, of course, when you consider how imperfect a creature I was, and still am, after eight years in religion. But this daring ambition of aspiring to great sanctity has never left me. I don't rely on my own merits, because I have not any : I put all my confidence in him who is virtue, who is holiness itself. My feeble efforts are all he wants; he can lift me up to his side and, by clothing me with his own boundless merits, make a saint of me."

.......From Autobiography of a Saint (Saint Therese of Lisieux.)


I am so very grateful to BBB for presenting this wonderful book to me.


With love,

Kumar.

 

Hare Krishna!


Dear BBB and SGB,

Thanks for the inspiring pieces on William Blake. They are wonderful.

And the pieces on Jesus (By Saint Ignatius of Loyola) and The Plum Tasted by Mira Bai are superb. It is a pity that even after reading all these we get subdued every minute by arguments and consequent doubts.


With love,

Kumar.

 

Thank you for sharing that...its very beautiful.

*Peace and Love*
Nicole

 

Ah - She is such an inspiration! Thanks for posting that quote, and also to SGB for the two pieces.

 

Hari Om!

I am currently in Chicago enjoying the truly beautiful bhagavata kathamrita from the lips of my beloved guruji. And we havent even got to Sri Krishna yet, his birth shall be tomorrow! I am excited

krishna krishna bolo radhe shyaam!

 

Dearest Bhaskar,

Glad to hear you are having a wonderful time!

My love to you and your dear guru...I hope your journey continues well...

*Peace and Love*

Nicole

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hari Om!

I am currently in Chicago enjoying the truly beautiful bhagavata kathamrita from the lips of my beloved guruji. And we havent even got to Sri Krishna yet, his birth shall be tomorrow! I am excited

krishna krishna bolo radhe shyaam!
__________________
Jai Sri Ram .......From Bhaskar
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Hare Krishna!


Dear Bhaskar,


My pranam at the lotus feet of your Guru, Swami Tejomayanandaji. Wish you all the best during this time when you are with your Guruji. I have heard His explanations of the Gita on cassettes, it was wonderful. You are very fortunate to be in your Guruji's company, try to make the best of it.

You have already got to Krishna, look at your Guruji .......nothing will enter your ears .......no Gita-jnan.......no talks.......no surrounding existences.......only Krishna will be there.....Guru-Krishna, Krishna-Guru..... birthless.....deathless...ananda...chaitanyananda.

Guru kripahi kevalam...Guru kripahi kevalam...Guru kripahi kevalam.

Jai guru! Jai guru! Jai guru!



With love,

Kumar.

 

Thank you for your lovely post, Kumar bhaiya!

Today's katha was especially charming, but the best part was singing the mahamantra with Guruji and I closed my eyes and I could see various forms of krishna flitting through my mind and tears filled my eyes and when I opened them, Guruji was before me...the blisss of that moment cannot be explained.

dhyana moolam gurormurtihi
pooja moolam gurorpadam
mantra moolam gurorvakyam
moksha moolam gurorkripa

The root of meditation is the Guru's form, the root of worship is the Guru's feet. The root of a mantra is the guru's words and the root of liberation is Guru's grace.