Inspiring quotes from hinduism and other sources

Bill, Sri A gives a good and poetic description of the concept of acintya bhedabheda tattva...the simultaneously one-and-different relationship between the Supreme and the jivas.

Another good source on this is Srila Prabhupada's Nectar of Devotion, which is SP's summary study of Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu. This was written by Srila Rupa Goswami, a direct and great disciple of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and is a classic work on the subject of bhakti, very user-friendly as presented by SP.

 

Spook - I've read 'The Nectar of Devotion'. It is a great work.

Sri Aurobindo's position is similar to Chaitanya's but not identical. He acknowledges Chaitanya as a great teacher - in Sri A's view, he was definitely moving in the right direction.

There are differences though. Vaishnavism is based firmly on Bhakti. As I say, Sri A too emphasises Bhakti, but says the other yogas of Knowlege and Works are also viable means to realization, and he sees the three as interconnected.

One important difference is in the actual goal of the Yoga. With Vaishnavism, the goal is the Vedantic one of liberation from the material world. From the cycle of birth and death. Ultimately, the soul will return to its true status and existence in Vaikuntha.
Sri Aurobindo on the other hand says that what we need to be liberated from is a false consciousness, a basic ignorance inherent in our nature - we need to come to be able to see the cosmos through Divine eyes. He says that there is certainly the possibility of liberation, but also of what he calls 'transformation'. By this is meant the transformation of our current earthly life. He sees this as part of the process of cosmic manifestation - from the Divine side, the Divine is seeking to establish a perfect manifestation of itself through the creation of the universe, from our side,the human conscious being has to evolve to become that perfect manifestation.

Looked at from another angle - as per Chaitanya, we can say that in every being there is a spark of the Divine consciousness, the soul, the Jiva. According to the level of its embodiment, this inner 'psychic being' as Sri A calls it, posesses various instrumentation of consciousness. The animal percieves everything through an instinctual, feeling process. The human being percieves through this, and also through mind. Thus the human being has a superior instrument to the animal.In Sri Aurobindo's view, a higher than mental instrumentation is quite feasible, and actually, already exists, but on a plane higher than either the physical world, the vital world (life-force) or the mental world. In the past, various seers and rishis have been able to ascend to this level, but in the future, it will become manifest here. His yoga is really the process of seeking to bring about this definitive change in the earth consciousness. It would ultimately involve a total transformation of all existence here into a 'Life Divine', including a transformation of matter,the body and the whole perceptual mechanism of beings.
What Sri A calls 'the supramental being' will be as superior to man as man is to animal life.

This might all seem fanciful or at least very optimistic. I haven't been able to give a very complete view obviously. However, the main thing remains to come to a consciousness of God. Once that is established, who can really say what the possibilities are? Before we can even think of any meaningful transformation of the lower, we first have to ascend to the higher. The energies of the higher consciousness and plane can then begin to descend into us, and transform our whole nature into something better.

Sri Aurobindo finds a kind of prototype for this general idea in the notion of the spiritualizion of matter spoken of by Vaishnavism - what is used to serve Krishna becomes spiritualized. It is really a massive extension of the same underlying idea, but taken further.

 

An interesting thing about consciousness. We can believe something that is not true. This is liberation for the divine- freedom to create new thoughts not based upon the divine or an assumption of divine origination of these thoughts. The things 'Saint who Binds with Gold' seeks to promote are the original fetters of the divine: knowledge of the divine by those created by the divine which seeks its own liberation. Of course, the forces of the divine prevent the enemies of the divine (such as Sri Aurobindo) from attaining full realization- thus they are always tripped up in all of their works- their followers never fully understand what they have discovered as the divine has found new ways to hide the truth.

Of course, those of us on the side of the divine know that truth can be covered by experience, and that the rats in our midst are truly nothing to worry about. In the end, it is all about number one making sure number two never reveals this truth (to those who would be able to expose it).

Good luck in your search, God is with you.

May your tears guide you, old friends.

 

Self-control will place a man among the Gods,
While lack of it will lead him into deepest darkness.

-Tirukkural 13:121

 

Under my watchful eye the laws of nature take their course. Thus is the world set in motion; thus the animate and inanimate are created.

-Bhagavad Gita 9:10

 

Each religion has helped mankind. Paganism increased in man the light
of beauty, the largeness and height of his life, his aim at a many-sided
perfection; Christianity gave him some vision of divine love and
charity; Buddhism has shown him a noble way to be wiser, gentler,
purer, Judaism and Islam how to be religiously faithful in action and
zealously devoted to God; Hinduism has opened to him the largest and
profoundest spiritual possibilities. A great thing would be done if all
these God-visions could embrace and cast themselves into each other;
but intellectual dogma and cult egoism stand in the way.

All religions have saved a number of souls, but none yet has been able
to spiritualise mankind. For that there is needed not cult and creed, but
a sustained and all-comprehending effort at spiritual self-evolution.


The changes we see in the world today are intellectual, moral, physical
in their ideal and intention: the spiritual revolution waits for its hour and
throws up meanwhile its waves here and there. Until it comes the
sense of the others cannot be understood and till then all interpretation
of present happening and forecast of man's future are vain things. For
its nature, power, event are that which will determine the next cycle of
our humanity. - Sri Aurobindo ‘Thoughts and Glimpses’

 

One who meditates upon and realizes the
self discovers that everything in the cosmos--
energy and space, fire and water, name and
form, birth and death, mind and will, word
and deed, mantram and meditation--all come
from the Self.

-Chandogya Upanishad

 

"Enlighten the people, generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like spirits at the dawn of day". -Thomas Jefferson

Happy Independance Day too all those who live in the US...let's work to make it a land of the free again!

 

Only the man without desire
Sees without seeing,
Speaks without speaking,
Knows without knowing.

-Ashtavakra Gita 18:90

 

Narada enquired of the Lord of Love:
"What is the state of the illuminated man?"
The Lord replied: "Hard to reach is the state
Of the illuminated man. Only a few
Attain it. But even one is enough.
For he is the pure Self of the scriptures;
He is truly great because he serves me,
And I reveal myself through him always."

-Paramahamsa Upanishad

 

Those who are deluded by the operation of the gunas become attached to the results of their action. Those who understand these truths should not unsettle the ignorant. Performing all actions for my sake, completely absorbed in the Self, and without expectations, fight! - but stay free from the fever of the ego.

-Bhagavad Gita 3:29-30

 

Grandfather, Great Spirit, you have been always,
And before you nothing has been.
There is no one to pray to but you.
The star nations all over the heavens are yours,
And yours are the grasses of the earth.
Grandfather, Great Spirit, fill us with the light.
Teach us to walk the soft earth as relatives to all that live.
Help us, for without you we are nothing.



- Black Elk (1863-1950)

Oglala Sioux

 

Are you looking for me? I am in the next seat.
My shoulder is against yours.
you will not find me in the stupas, not in Indian shrine
rooms, nor in synagogues, nor in cathedrals:
not in masses, nor kirtans, not in legs winding
around your own neck, nor ineating nothing but
vegetables.
When you really look for me, you will see me
instantly --
you will find me in the tiniest house of time.
Kabir says: Student, tell me, what is God?
He is the breath inside the breath.
~Kabir

 

The supreme Self, adored in the scriptures,
Can be realized through the path of yoga.
Subtler than the banyan seed, subtler
Than the tiniest grain, even subtler
Than the hundred-thousandth part of a hair,
This Self cannot be grasped, cannot be seen.

-Atma Upanishad

 

The sages call it Akshara, the Imperishable. It is neither big nor small, neither long nor short, neither hot nor cold, neither bright nor dark, neither air nor space. It is without attachment, without taste, smell, or touch, without eyes, ears, tongue, mouth, breath, or mind, without movement, without limitation, without inside or outside. It consumes nothing, and nothing consumes it.

In perfect accord with the will of the Imperishable, sun and moon make their orbits; heaven and earth remain in place; moments, hours, days, nights, fortnights, months, and seasons become years; rivers starting from the snow-clad mountains flow east and west, north and south, to the sea.

-Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

 

Perhaps the term Akshara needs some explanation - it means the immobile and unmoving spirit. The Kshara is the lower world of the mutable and moving, encompassing the physical, the life force, the mind,senses and lower intelligence.

The Akshara is also counted along with the 4 elements of air, fire, water and earth as one of the five tattvas. It is sometimes depicted as a black egg.

 

You have the right to work, but never to the fruit of work. You should never engage in action for the sake of reward, nor should you long for inaction. Perform work in this world…as a man established within himself - without selfish attachments, and alike in success and defeat. For yoga is perfect evenness of mind.-Bhagavad Gita 2:47-48

 

Strike at the root of a tree; it would bleed
But still live. Strike at the trunk; it would bleed
But still live. Strike again at the top;
It would bleed but still live. The Self as life
Supports the tree, which stands firm and enjoys
The nourishment it receives.
If the Self leaves one branch, that branch withers.
If it leaves a second, that too withers.
If it leaves a third, that again withers.
Let it leave the whole tree, the whole tree dies.
Just so, dear one, when death comes and the Self
Departs from the body, the body dies.
But the Self dies not.

-Chandogya Upanishad

 

Psalm 67

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Psalm. A Song.
May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, [Selah]
that thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving power among all nations.
Let the peoples praise thee, O God; let all the peoples praise thee!
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for thou dost judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. [Selah]
Let the peoples praise thee, O God; let all the peoples praise thee!
The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, has blessed us.
God has blessed us

 

'The last stage of this perfection will come when you are completely identified with the Divine Mother and feel yourself to be no longer another and seperate being, instrument, servant or worker but truly a child and eternal portion of her consciousness and force. Always, she will be in you and you in her; it will be your constant, simple and natural experience that all your thought and seeing and action, your very breathing or moving come from her and are hers. You will know and see and feel that you are a person and power formed by her out of herself, put out for the play and yet always safe in her, being of her being, consciousness of her consciousness, force of her force, Ananda of her Ananda.

When this condition is entire and her supramental energies can freely move you, then you will be perfect in divine works; knowledge, will, action will become sure, simple, luminous, spontaneous, flawless, an outflow from the Supreme, a divine movement of the Eternal'

Sri Aurobindo in 'The Mother'