India a land of wonders… Whatever I speak about my country is less… I
love my country. I am so lucky to be born in such a country, where every
particle of the soil is enriched with values and morals.
If we look at the history of India, we all know that India was once
known as Golden bird. The history keeps repeating again and again. India again proved
as Golden bird, people all over the world are practicing the traditions amidst
Corona virus pandemic.
A popular song "Jahan Daal
Daal pe Sone Ki Chiriya Karti Hai Basera, Woh Bharat Desh Hai mera, Woh Bharat
Desh hai mera” which I hear on every Independence Day and Republic Day, keeps
reminding me the values our country has taught to the world.
The reason for being popular as
the Golden bird is that Deities ruled our country. This is the country in the
world ruled by God and revealed by God himself. The kingdom of Shri Lakshmi and Shri Narayan, people were rich with
knowledge and peace prevailed in India. The atmosphere was very conducive. Gold
and Jewels were in abundance and life was full of peace and prosperity. India
was rich in every context because there was no shortage of gems and diamonds.
I have also heard about an another story from the history of India, While
Mahmud of Ghazni was returning to his capital in Afghanistan, one of his
generals asked Mahmud Ghazni about why Indians were not showing any resistance
and were fleeing from the battle field without caring about their country,
their families, savings and whatever they had. Mahmud of Ghazni reminded his general
of a game they played in their childhood. They had eagles as their pets and
their favorite past time was to watch their eagles fight. In order to make them
fight, they used to throw a sparrow in the sky and before it can fly away,
their eagles will chase, kill and eat the bird. Whosoever’s eagle killed the bird,
was the winner.
Listening this, his general laughed and told Mahmud of Ghazni that they
are still playing the same game in India and the only difference is that they
are the eagles and the Indians are the birds. Listening this Mahmud of Ghazni
answered, “Yes! We are eagles and they are the birds. But they are the Golden birds!”
This is how India got the name, “The Golden bird- Sone
ki Chidiya” as Indians didn’t stand united to face the threats and invaders not
only defeated the Indians but also took away the resources. India is a country of diversities. Despite so many diversities, people
in India are united and feel proud of their culture and tradition. On the world
stage, either through international film festivals or through beauty pageants,
India regularly displays its talent and culture. Many rulers came but none
could cause any harm to its culture, rather Indians preserved the good values
of their cultures. Today when the whole world is facing crisis due to
the pandemic, its important for us to stay safe and keep ourselves away from
the infection of Corona virus. Its time for us to really prove that we are a “Golden
Bird”. Because of few mistakes by few in the past, we cannot forget the values
and morals our country teaches us.
Going back to the main content of this blog, I got a personal request
from a reader regarding Vedanta Philosophy. I am reading about it since my
childhood and so thought to present my ideas to the world through this blog of
mine.
The roots of Indian culture and civilization can be traced back to more
than 5,000 years ago with an unbroken continuity of traditions, customs and
world-renowned schools of philosophy. Amongst the world's oldest, richest and
most diverse cultures, India represents an amazing confluence of different
creeds, religions, faiths and belief systems, further divided among castes, sects
and sub-sects.
For times
immemorial, India has remained a meeting ground between the East and the West,
a treasure house of knowledge and wisdom. The Vedic culture and Vedic way of
life have struck deep roots in India and are followed by people even today.
Apart from the Vedas, other important scriptures composed during Vedic times
include the Upanishadas, the shrutis and the smritis. India believes in Sarva
dharma samabhava, which means respect for all belief systems. This has allowed
not just tolerance towards religions and beliefs, but the freedom to propound
one's ideas and philosophies.
The Vedanta philosophy comprises of all the various sects that now exist
in India. Vedanta is one of the world’s most ancient spiritual philosophies and
one of its broadest, based on the Vedas, the sacred scriptures of India. It is
the philosophical foundation of Hinduism; but while Hinduism includes aspects
of Indian culture, Vedanta is universal in its application and is equally
relevant to all countries, all cultures, and all religious backgrounds.
Vedanta asserts on the oneness of existence, the divinity of the soul,
and the harmony of all religions.
If we take a closer look at the word “Vedanta”: “Vedanta” is a
combination of two words: “Veda” which means “knowledge” and “anta” which means
“the end of” or “the goal of.”
All the Vedantists agree on three points.
They believe in God, in the Vedas as revealed, and in cycles. The belief about
cycles is as follows: All matter throughout the universe is the outcome of
one primal matter called Aakaasha; and all force, whether gravitation,
attraction or repulsion, or life, is the outcome of one primal force called Praana. Praana acting on Aakaasha is creating
or projecting the universe. At the beginning of a cycle, Aakaasha is
motionless, unmanifested. Then Pra ana begins to act, more and more, creating
grosser and grosser forms out of Aakaasha — plants, animals, men, stars, and so
on.
After an incalculable time, this evolution
ceases and involution begins, everything being resolved back through finer and
finer forms into the original Aakaasha and Praana, when a new cycle follows.
Now there is something beyond Aakaasha and Praana. Both can be resolved into a
third thing called Mahat — the Cosmic Mind. This Cosmic Mind does not create Aakaasha
and Praana but changes itself into them.
According to Vedanta, God is infinite existence, infinite consciousness,
and infinite bliss. The term for this impersonal, transcendent reality is
Brahman, the divine ground of being. Yet Vedanta also maintains that God can be
personal as well, assuming human form in every age. Most importantly, God
dwells within our own hearts as the divine Self or Atman. The Atman is never
born nor will it ever die. Neither stained by our failings nor affected by the
fluctuations of the body or mind, the Atman is not subject to our grief or
despair or disease or ignorance. Pure, perfect, free from limitations, the
Atman, Vedanta declares, is one with Brahman. The greatest temple of God lies within
the human heart.
Here I would like to add something, which I think
people must understand, the important of inner beauty. Outer looks fade away.
Beauty is like an air bubble. We must try to increase our inner beauty, since
that is what we carry with us as our personality. We should strive to bring
smile on someone's face rather than sending them hate by mocking for their
outer looks.
Everyone is unique and beautiful. Not everyone could be able to see it.
It takes the right person to see the beauty of a person. People should start
finding the beauty inside someone's heart rather than pointing at their colour.
Mocking someone for their gloomy or bad looks is the most pathetic thing one
can do.
No beauty, no money or jewelry passes the gates of heaven. What goes
with us is our character which is formed from our inner beauty. One can stay in
the hearts of people even after their death if he or she reflects his or her
inner beauty all over the world. We live in a world where people are wonderful critics,
giving free judgement. People ready to judge others, forget about understanding
others. What matters is, how we see ourselves. To be beautiful means to be
yourself. You need not be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself first.
Nobody is perfect in this world. All have their own flaws. Stop complaining. Flaws make us, a unique and special creation. Inner beauty should be most important part of
improving one's self. We must be grateful for what we have. Being born as a
human is the greatest achievement. Appreciate everything that brings smile on our
face. Stop complaining or demotivating others. Don't strive for looking
beautiful externally.
Getting back to our topic, Vedanta asserts that the goal of life is to
realize and to manifest our own divinity. This divinity is our real nature, and
the realization of it is our birth right. We are moving towards this goal as we
grow with knowledge and life experiences. It is inevitable that we will
eventually, either in this or in future lives, discover that the greatest truth
of our existence is our own divine nature.
Self-actualization is the most important stage of our life. We must understand
the reason for our birth. Make your life easier and simpler. We humans are all
connected and so one should help the other in the process of self-actualization.
The Vedas are divided mainly into two portions: The Karma-kaanda and the
Jnaana-kaanda — the work-portion and the knowledge-portion. To the Karma-kaanda
belong the famous hymns and the rituals of Brahmanas. Those books which treat
of spiritual matters apart from ceremonials are called Upanishads. The
Upanishads belong to the Jnaana-kaanda, or knowledge-portion. It is not that
all the Upanishads were composed as a separate portion of the Vedas. Some are
interspersed among the rituals, and at least one is in the Samhita, or
hymn-portion. Sometimes the term Upanishad is applied to books which are not
included in the Vedas — e.g. the Gita, but as a rule it is applied to the
philosophical treatises scattered through the Vedas. These treatises have been collected
and are called the Vedanta.
The Upanishads are said to be one hundred and eight in number. Their
dates cannot be fixed with certainty — only it is certain that they are older
than the Buddhistic movement.
Vedanta further affirms that all religions teach the same basic truths
about God, the world, and our relationship to one another. All the religions
are different ways to reach the same almighty. Thousands of years ago the Rig
Veda declared: “Truth is one, sages call it by various names.” The world’s
religions offer varying approaches to God, each one true and valid, each
religion offering the world a unique and irreplaceable path to God-realization.
According to the Vedanta teachings there are four paths we can follow to achieve the goal
of understanding our divine nature. These paths are known as the Four
Yogas.
Bhakti Yoga is
the path of love and devotion. The devotee approaches God through a loving
relationship. This path emphasizes practices such as prayer, chanting, and
meditation on God as a loving presence in our lives. Mirabai the devotee of God
Krishna chose the Bhakti Yoga.
Jnana Yoga is
the path of knowledge. In this path the seeker uses reason and discernment to
discover the divine nature within by casting off all that is false, or unreal.
This practice shows us that the Supreme Reality resides within.
Karma Yoga is
the path of selfless work. Those who follow this path do work as an offering to
God and expect nothing personal in return. Karma Yoga teaches us to practice
detachment and equanimity in our work, and to understand that the results of
any actions are beyond our control.
Raja Yoga is
the path of meditation. Meditation is an important practice in all the paths as
it allows us to experience higher states of consciousness, where we achieve a
deeper understanding of our divine nature. Sri Ramakrishna, a modern-day saint
and his student Swami Vivekananda, who brought Vedanta to the western world,
emphasized the use of a mantra-based meditation technique and symbolic images
of the divine.
The Vedas is a storehouse of knowledge from God. It is the greatest body
of knowledge known to mankind. The material world goes through changes, but the
Vedic knowledge is eternal, so it is always relevant to the world. The Truth
about the world does not change. The Truth is always true, no matter what time
or state the world is in.
In school, I remember learning about the ancients - the Greeks, the
Romans, the Egyptians, Mesopotamia - never once did we hear so much as a squeak
about the Vedic culture, the most ancient, advanced, glorious culture to ever
grace the planet. Our system neglected to tell us, that at the time when
people in Europe carried clubs and lived in caves, or in the middle-ages when
people were burned for saying that the sun is in the center- in the Vedic
culture they had already described advanced mathematics, the universe and its
planets in minute detail.
In today’s world where the values, morals, goodness of man are depleting
and eroding, we need to follow Vedanta and footsteps of Swami Vivekananda. Some
of the gravest problems that the world is facing today are the environmental
problems such as ecological imbalance, climate change, global warming,
pollution, etc. Two factors that contribute to environmental crisis are – one,
the belief that human beings are separate from and superior to nature, and two,
man’s indiscriminate exploitation of nature, unmindful of the consequences of
his actions.
According to Vedas, the structure of the world is Nature – oriented. The
central theme of Atharva Veda is the fellowship of man and nature.
Many verses of Atharva Veda reflect the earnest wish of human beings
to live in harmony with nature. The following is the English translation of
verses from the Atharva Veda Book XII (Bhumisukta):
Earth,
upon which this moving, breathing life exists;
May she bestow on us the finest of her harvests!
Earth, the all-sustaining, treasure-bearing, resting-place;
Golden-breasted Earth, home of all life,
Who bears the sacred fire.
Pleasant be thy hills, O Earth,
Thy snow-clad mountains and thy forests.
On this Earth do I stand,
Unvanquished, unslain, unhurt.
Set me, O Earth, amidst the nourishing strength
That emanates from thy body.
The Earth is my mother, her child am I;
Infinite space is my father,
May he fill us with plenty.
Peaceful, sweet-smelling, gracious Earth.
Whatever I dig from thee, O Earth,
May that have quick growth again,
May we not injure your vitals or your heart.
Full of sweetness are the plants,
And full of sweetness these my words.
And with things that are full of sweetness,
I prosper in a thousand ways.
The
existence and welfare of the human society depend upon maintaining a balance
with nature. Amidst COVID19 pandemic outbreak in the world, I Srividya Gurugubilly
would like to say that, “Every problem in the world has a solution and every
solution needs a support”. In today's context we need the support and team work by all individuals to keep all others safe.
Corona virus Precautions by my daughter:
