AJAPA MANTRA-अजाप मंत्र

 

“So hum”, hummed the Yogi.

"So Hum ?" asked the snake

“You and I, are one”, said the Yogi; “more appropriately, you are one with God, so, am I, thus we are one with one another. How does one and one make one? meditate on this”

“I have heard mention of the so hum mantra by the great ones”, said the snake.

“The seed of Ajapa is resting in your very breath, said the Yogi, “lest you forget. This is a great mantra. Literally, it means ‘I am He’. Here, ‘He’ stands for God.
But chanting a mantra without understanding it, is like blowing on a flute without understanding its contraption, only a wasteful wind will come out the other end. Have you heard of the man from the land of the fan?
There was once a man who voluntarily got into a time machine and went back a few years to a land, where electricity existed but there were no fans.
The man tried his best to explain the concept of the fan to the natives, but try as he did, his own knowledge was limited to being an end user, so, he could not go beyond drawing sketches. This knowledge was very frustrating for him, he couldn’t do anything except wait for an engineer to land from his time or someone else to be able to follow his words to a re-invention.
Such is the state of wisdom today. We draw yantras, chant mantras, and speak in parables about fantastic achievements; these are truths from ancient memory, not just wild imaginations, what we need is engineers, not just users; deep love of Divinity, not just terminological interest”.

~ The Yogi and the snake

अजाप  मंत्र

 "सो हम", योगी गुनगुनाए। "आप और मैं, एक हैं", योगी ने कहा; "अधिक उचित रूप से, आप भगवान के साथ एक हैं, और में भी भगवान् के साथ एक हूं, इस प्रकार हम एक दूसरे के साथ एक हैं। एक और एक , एक कैसे बनते हैं? इस पर ध्यान करो"
"मैंने महान लोगों द्वारा सो हम मंत्र का उल्लेख सुना है", सांप ने कहा।
योगी ने कहा, " अजाप का बीज आपकी सांस में आराम कर रहा है," ऐसा न हो कि आप भूल जाएं। यह एक महान मंत्र है। इसका शाब्दिक अर्थ है 'मैं वह हूं'। यहाँ 'वह' का अर्थ ईश्वर है। लेकिन बिना समझे किसी मंत्र का जाप करना, बांसुरी को फूंकने के समान है, दूसरे सिरे से केवल व्यर्थ की हवा निकलेगी।
क्या आपने पंखे की भूमि के आदमी के बारे में सुना है? एक बार एक आदमी था जो स्वेच्छा से टाइम मशीन में शामिल हो गया और कुछ हज़ार साल पहले एक ऐसे देश में चला गया, जहां बिजली मौजूद थी लेकिन पंखे नहीं थे। उस व्यक्ति ने मूल निवासी को पंखे की अवधारणा समझाने की पूरी कोशिश की, लेकिन जैसा उसने किया, उसका अपना ज्ञान एक अंतिम उपयोगकर्ता होने तक सीमित था, इसलिए, वह रेखाचित्र बनाने से आगे नहीं जा सका। यह ज्ञान उसके लिए बहुत निराशाजनक था, वह अपने समय से एक इंजीनियर के उतरने की प्रतीक्षा करने के अलावा कुछ नहीं कर सकता था या कोई और उसके शब्दों का पुन: आविष्कार करने में सक्षम था। आज बुद्धि की स्थिति ऐसी ही है। हम यंत्र बनाते हैं, मंत्रों का जाप करते हैं, और शानदार उपलब्धियों के बारे में दृष्टांतों में बोलते हैं; ये प्राचीन स्मृति के सत्य हैं, केवल  कल्पनाएं नहीं, हमें केवल उपयोगकर्ताओं की नहीं, इंजीनियरों की आवश्यकता है; दिव्यता का गहरा प्रेम, केवल पारिभाषिक हित नहीं"।

Hindi translation by Yash NR 

Shiv Kailash | cover by Harish Mathur

 

Shiv Kailash 

YASHODA AND SHIVA

 

YASHODA AND SHIVA

“I am but a simple mendicant, come from far, very far indeed, to have a darsana of your child…” implored Shiva.

But Yashoda backed off even more, further alarmed at the yogi’s words. “Take what you want!” she exhorted. “Here… pearls, gold, jewelry… but see my baby, you cannot!”

“Of what use are these to a mendicant?” replied Shiva wistfully. “These are of no use at all in the forests. Please let me have one glimpse of Krishna.”

“Not at all! Go away, please, I say!” Yashoda’s voice had assumed a slightly aggressive tone.

~ SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller.

SHIVA -THE DESTROYER

 

SHIVA -THE DESTROYER

The most popular belief had Him listed as The Destroyer.

The ancient Indians, who propitiated many Gods, had three principal deities at the helm of affairs. Brahma, the creator of the universe; Vishnu, who handled its running; and then, there was another amazing aspect that no one really understood:

The ancients had emphasised that there existed a God who destroys the universe at the end, and that God was Shiva.

So it was, that He shared Godhead with the other two.

~ SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller.

PASUPATI

 

PASUPATI

He was here in their midst, as Pasupati. Just His presence seemed to exorcise them of an age-old sense of being unwanted. They began to think of Him as God.

~ SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller.

AND THEN, ONE DAY SHIVA APPEARED!

 

AND THEN ONE DAY, SHIVA APPEARED

And then, one day, Shiva appeared.
He was magnificent.
Tall, and beautifully chiseled. His chest was large and firm.
A cobra wrapped around His neck was peering down at this chest, as if he had being doing that for an eternity.
Sensing Sati’s presence, the cobra arose swiftly from what seemed a blissful slumber, and darting out a forked tongue, looked at her with hypnotic eyes, putting her into almost a magical spell.

Shiva wore a tiger skin and innumerable brown beads. The beads were woven together like rosaries and cosied themselves all along His upper torso. They were also draped around His arms in tight embrace as amulets. In His right hand He held a rustic looking trident, the Trisula.Tied on the top of the trident was a little drum, shaped like an hourglass.
Sati noted that even as the trident was held perfectly motionless and steady in Shiva’s secure grip, the stringed beads on the drum were still in a gentle motion.
It was as if the perfect centerpiece to the forest symphony had arrived, a subtle and strangely seductive rhythm.
The rustle of the leaves was now like a heart beat. Or was it indeed Her own heart that was becoming louder in a most indiscreet way? She realised She was losing control, and that this heart had a mind of its own. How She longed to be that cobra,who was both possessive and possessed; or that Trisula, or even those beads, or somehow, all of them!
She swooned and fell into His empty arm, in a perfect fit, like it was indeed an embrace waiting for Her, as a balance to the Trisula.

~ SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller. by Shail Gulhati

SHIVA BARAAT LILA.

 

SHIVA BARAAT LILA.

“Who is this uncouth man? What is he doing in Shiva’s baraat, why has he been allowed here? And why don’t Shiva’s men throw him out?” asked Mena with extreme consternation.

“He, verily is Shiva, dear Mena…” replied Brahma with a twinkle in His eye.

“He is who??” cried Mena.

“Your son- in -law to be. Behold Shiva, the Great God of the universe!” replied Brahma with a chuckle, enjoying the Shiva lila.

But Mena fainted.

~ SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller.

TO CUT OFF ATTACHMENT, LITERALLY

 

TO CUT OFF ATTACHMENT, LITERALLY

“Shiva, you know I love you like a brother… I loved Sati like my sister…” began Vishnu.

“Loved?” said Shiva quietly.

“Yes, I mean I love Her like a sister. I mean She has gone now, so I loved Her.”

“Gone?”

“Shiva, Shiva! Come on, it’s the most terrible thing that could have happened, but you have to compose yourself. She is gone now, and we must go on, it’s what She would have wanted,” said Vishnu.

“Go on?”

“Shiva, you cannot be like this, you cannot behave like this,” Vishnu was almost pleading.

Nandi shifted uneasily.....

~ SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller.

आओ शिव शक्ति के रंग में रंग लें अपना जीवन Come, let us join the play of Shiva Shakti

 

All Shiva Bhakts know that this world is the creation of the Father Shiva and Mother Shakti out of love. Shiva and Shakti want all beings of this Universe to be happy, to be playful, to be good and to be Godly in their own outlook. This in short, is the purpose of the Shiva Lila.

But what happens is that we get so involved in our social duties  such as household work, office work, children's school, parents care etc, all these things are important and should be handled with responsibility, but they sometimes take our mind away completely from the original mission, of being Godly in our own outlook
.
But our heart always wants to connect to happiness, to connect to God. So how do we do that?
The answer is lying in the same heart that wants God: To be near to God, we need to become the same what we want God to be.

We know God is Kind, so we should also be kind. We know God is generous, so we should also be generous. We Know God keeps His body fit, so we should also keep ourselves fit.We know God shares only happiness and positive thoughts, so we should also be like that to the others we come across.To play Shiva lila, we should be like the perfect child of God, the perfect Bhakt of God, by being an absolutely good and divine person ourselves.
The Shiva bhakt knows that Shiva likes it when His Ganas are as Good as Shiva Himself in their behaviour. So let us colour ourselves in the great colours of God,
आओ शिव शक्ति के रंग में रंग लें अपना जीवन
Come, let us join the play of Shiva Shakti.
Aum Namah Shivaye!

Shail Gulhati is the Author of the books :
SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller.
The Yogi and the snake
Shiva Poetry
NAAM ROOP- A Tribute to the Divine
And Life Said.