HEAVEN

 

HEAVEN

He was a Time traveller; He had been to many lands in many times and had known many different people. But, no matter where it was that He sat, at the thought of Heaven, images of snow-clad mountains and a certain indescribable joy of togetherness would inevitably come rushing to His mind. Another image almost always linked itself to the landscape: A gypsy tribe of fierce men and gorgeous women dancing around a bonfire of pure warmth, in a bonhomie that was incomparable in the entire Universe.

~ SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller.

YOUR NAME, AND HIS BEING.

 

YOUR NAME, AND HIS BEING.

Life is a walk you are having with God.

your feet and His Travel.

your eyes and His seeing.

your name, and His being.

~ Shail Gulhati: Shiva and Mysticism.

MEDITATION

 

“ Life is a process of learning, every moment of unfolding is a learning. Life is ever on the move, never stagnating. It is like a meditation, a meditation in being.” said the Yogi.
The snake had known what it was to be in meditation. But he wondered why the Yogi talked of ‘meditation in being’.
“This is an echo process you know” , said the Yogi. “Being in meditation, being in meditation, and then meditation in being”. “Tell me” , said the Yogi, “what do you know of being in meditation, and I shall tell you of meditation in being”.

"Since I had no formal teaching in meditation. I made my own improvisations, said the snake, I took a blanket, folded it for a seat, closed my eyes and meditated upon what there was when there was nothing".

"Good" , said the yogi, "This is a direct way of looking for the source, the beginning. What did you realise?"

"The curious mind, which has, so far identified itself with its conditioning, thoughts, and own conceptions, yearns to transcend itself, to know the truth about the truth, to reach the unreachable. Meditation, is a step to introduce this mind to the truth.During meditation, the meditator strives for maximum awareness." said the snake.

   " Yes, and this striving is paradoxical too, it comes only after complete relaxation and ‘at easeness’. One should not be, therefore, rigid or conditioned even about approaches to meditation. Continue", said the Yogi.

" In due course, it perceives many new sensory lights, sounds and smells, which of it, did not exist earlier. These serve as indicators of progress. The mind now knows that there is nothing known as soundless. That in fact, the absence of noise which we call silence, alone leads to anahata, the eternal reasonance, vibrating the universal hum. Similarly, that, which we have known as darkness, is actually permeated by lights.Then, the meditator becomes conscious of an energy formation that rises slowly, up the spine. This is a higher awareness and the arrangement is being made for the mind to meet the self, through (within) the meditator. The steadily rising energy reaches the brain and explodes into permeation. This one moment of culmination is spontaneous and the mind meets with, knows, and fuses into the self, all at once. This is the highest awareness. There is nothing more to be seen, heard or smelled; only a knowingness.This knowingness is known by itself.  The mind that has been so stilled by the meditator into perfect awareness, knows that it has transcended itself, that it stands in the truth. That, it is experiencing eternity, void, nothingness, everythingness, all at once. There is the experience of the great ‘I am’ness and all previous conceptions of duality between the meditator and the self stand erased. You are at once the knower and the known, the experiencer and the experienced." said the snake.

  "Do not forget the vital links", said the yogi," You are not only the experiencer and the experienced you are the experience. You are the knowing."

   "The concept of time too, stands radically altered, because you know you have taken a cosmic journey in a split second; indeed, you have experienced time immemorial in a fraction of the present. Later, when the mind returns to the level of intellect, and then reflects upon the experience, it may be called ‘near death’ since there was no body or mind consciousness at the time; and you are trying to understand it through memory. You are filled with the wonderment again, who was it that experienced all that?" Exclaimed the snake.

    "Only pure consciousness reflecting upon pure consciousness", said the Yogi. A declaration of the primordial state of being. So did you realise what there was, when there was nothing?Pure consciousness, pure energy, pure transcendence; no matter, no manifestation, nothing of dynamics, only lots of potential energy. Nothing gross, only a subtle state. Like a seed not sprouted, an egg not hatched, a baby not born to the outer world; Prakasa!"

~ From the book The Yogi and the snake ( conversations with God Shiva)

Shaivism Today Soul Speak ( 7) Alone -ness

 

There always comes a time in our life when we know that we are alone, that we are all that we have for ourselves. What was your first awareness of being on your own, in this world?

Mine was, when as an eleven year old, I was sent away more than a thousand miles from home to a boarding School. On the very first day, we were woken up in the early morning by the matron with her crisp and authoritative voice, calling us by our School numbers. So it was not  ' Wake up Shailendra', but rather ' Wake up 314'. Right there, away from ' home' , in the middle of a dormitory of 12 boys, a class of 35, and a school of 700 students, i realized that i was just a number. Oh, the miserable feeling that only i knew my own thoughts and emotions, and that i had to keep them closely to myself. I knew right then , that i had to make my own place for myself in the middle of all the 'Others'. And the knowing that i was alone in this ,was indeed a sad one.
And then came the  more amazing realisation that actually, the 'Others' were also in the same situation.  Hmm.

It is the same with our Cosmopolitan world today. We sometimes realize all too deeply that we are just a number ; This realization can come to you anywhere, when you view and understand how many  'multitudes' of people are present in your world, even though you don't know many of them. Especially for example, when you look at the thousands of windows in a  'High- rise'  apartment complex, and though you cannot see them, you know that thousands of people live somewhere inside these windows. .. And there,as a witnessing bystander in the middle of this Universal circus, you may become determined to make some good sense of this beautiful life that has been gifted to you by God:
You want to shine out much beyond your ‘ Just one of many thousands’ status.

Am i right?

But wait, the world of God isn’t just a huge challenge after all, there is another beautiful phenomenon that we come by.
Togetherness.

What was your first realisation of sharing the world?
Mine was when i held my soulmate's hand during our wedding ceremony. Right there, in the middle of a crowd of friends who had gathered for our event, i realised the world was going to be totally different from now on. Somewhere between alone and together, the binary of life started to make itself known - There always comes a time in your life , when you know that it was meant to be lived in Togetherness...

And i knew then, that Alone-ness is not meant by Nature as a way of life. The Alone -ness we get, is for providing us Ekaant, Kevalya; it is good for us to think, to introspect, to wonder about the purpose of life, the challenges and the opportunities; And then, to come out into the world ready to share it with a beautiful partner and together dance this binary dance of Shiva and Shakti…And that fabulous feeling that i can share my thoughts and emotions, that i don't have to keep piling them up like a heap of secrets that only i can know or think about, but rather, that i can share my inner world, every little fairy tale i hold in the heart of the eleven year old child, with my partner in life.
Meditate upon this.
Aum Namah Shivaye.
~ From the notes of Shail Gulhati, Author of SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller.

Shiva, the family man

 

There are so many things we love about Shiva, because there are so many interesting and amazing things about Him to love! But one most endearing quality is that He is a family man. Totally devoted to His wife and children.That is why we see as many pictures of Him with Parvati, Kartikeya , and Ganesh ( Time for family) as we see Him in Dhyana ( Time for Himself ). And this is one quality we must ourselves imbibe from the Great God.

By Himself, Shiva loves wilderness, whether it is in the snowy ranges of the Himalayas, were no one reaches physically, or then ,the cremation grounds of river ghats,where no one likes to go mentally.Both the places afford Shiva 'Ekant- all aloneness'. Shiva loves His aloneness because it affords Him the time and the opportunity to dwell into Dhyana, a deep meditation .We must note that to be alone is not to be lonely. You can be in the company of dozens and yet be lonely, or then you can be by yourself and not lonely, knowing well that you too, are a part of this great Universe.

But the amazing thing is that while He loves His aloneness for Dhyana, Shiva makes time to play with His Younger son Ganesh, and He takes time to teach the elder son Kartikeya.
Shiva is also a great chieftain to His tribes, the ganas of Kailash. He is always there to counsel them as their Kulapati, the father of the tribe.

And then, there is Devi Parvati. Their love stories are legendary. Shiva does not do anything without her consent, or then without explaining His motives to her.
We are indeed lucky that the Great Mahadev has someone to whom He always listens.
And thus His role as a Grihasthi is of paramount importance.
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.

THEIR STORIES SING THE MOUNTAINS!

 

THEIR STORIES SING THE MOUNTAINS!

Their stories sing the mountains till eternity...

on every stone the commandment of loving bliss.......

somewhere ,

in the deepest prayer a seer did see

Siva Sailendra,

The Mountain King,

And He, in Majestic magnificence did decree

the vision of love,

" From love shall all be!'

Then She, who abounds in parvats , beloved Parvati,

manifested the Divine wish,

somewhere in the mountains, a Rishi did see,

the eternal bliss:

She manifested! Ah!

and by the side of her Mountain King

forever joined,

their stories the mountains did sing!

echoes of love resounding eternally

earth to sky ,

Namah Shivaye, Aum Namah Shivaye!

~ From the book ' Shiva poetry Vol2' by Shail Gulhati: Shiva and Mysticism.

TO LOVE SHIVA GO BEYOND JUST LISTENING, TO LIVING IN HIS EXAMPLE.

 

TO LOVE SHIVA GO BEYOND JUST LISTENING, TO LIVING IN HIS EXAMPLE. 

“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”. 

~ From The Yogi and the snake ( Conversations with Shiva ) by Shail Gulhati 

शिव को प्यार करना सिर्फ उनको सुनने से नहीं होताअपितु उनके उदाहरण में जीने से होता है । सांप ने कहा, "मैंने महान लोगों द्वारा इस मंत्र का उल्लेख सुना है।" "अजाप मंत्र का बीज आपकी सांस में आराम कर रहा है,” योगी ने कहा," ऐसा न हो कि तुम भूल जाओ। यह एक महान मंत्र है। शाब्दिक रूप से, इसका मतलब है 'मैं वह हूँ'। यहाँ, 'वह' भगवान के लिए है। लेकिन बिना समझे किसी मंत्र का जाप करना, उसकी प्रबलता को समझे बिना बांसुरी पर उ फूक भरने जैसा है, केवल एक बेकार हवा दूसरे और से निकलेगी। क्या आपने पंखे के देश से आये आदमी की कहानी के बारे में सुना है? एक बार एक आदमी था जो स्वेच्छा से एक टाइम मशीन में घुस गया और कुछ वर्षों के लिए एक प्राचीन समय की भूमि पर वापस चला गया, जहां बिजली का अस्तित्व था, लेकिन कोई पंखे नहीं थे । उस शख्स ने मूल निवासियों को पंखे की अवधारणा समझाने की पूरी कोशिश की, लेकिन, उसका खुद का ज्ञान एक अंतिम उपयोगकर्ता होने तक ही सीमित था, इसलिए, वह रेखाचित्रों से आगे नहीं बढ़ सका। यह ज्ञान उसके लिए बहुत निराशाजनक था, वह अपने समय से एक इंजीनियर के इंतजार के अलावा कुछ भी नहीं कर सकता था, या किसी और को फिर से आविष्कार करने के लिए अपने शब्दों का पालन करने में सक्षम होने के लिए। ऐसी आज ज्ञान की स्थिति है। हम मंत्रों को आकर्षित करते हैं, मंत्रों का जाप करते हैं, और शानदार उपलब्धियों के बारे में दृष्टांतों में बोलते हैं; ये प्राचीन स्मृति से सत्य हैं, न कि केवल जंगली कल्पनाओं से, जो हमें चाहिए वे इंजीनियर हैं, न कि केवल उपयोगकर्ता; देवत्व का गहरा प्रेम, न कि केवल पारिभाषिक हित 

”। Hindi translation by Yash N R