The most sublime form of faith

The most sublime form of faith.

It’s called graceful surrender. How do I define this form of faith? 

It is as finely chiseled as a straw of grass and as strong as the roots of a banyan tree. It is because of this faith that even God hesitates before letting loose His wrath. The God lover or Godchild, who has this faith flowing through the soul, has no questions and no demands. There is just pure grace and surrender. If a disaster takes place, the person’s very foundations are not shaken as he/she does not believe that ‘I have full faith that my Master will resolve this problem’ or ‘my Master will never let me down’ or ‘I have complete faith in my Master/God/Prayer that this catastrophe/problem/ adverse situation will be taken care of and I will come out unscathed’.

No.

When a catastrophe does strike, the child of true faith, first of all is aware that whatever is taking place, it is so, with the approval of his/her Master. The consequences could be caused due to free will or karmic ramification, but the individual knows only one thing, that whatever the reason, the Master is aware of the situation, and if the Master is aware of the situation, and still has allowed the individual to go through the experience of discomfort or grief or pain, then the individual is fine with it.

Thus whatever unpleasantness is happening around, the person of this kind of sublime faith, is certain that the hard experience has arrived only after his/her Master’s knowledge and thus approval. The person of true faith is certain that the Master has allowed the circumstances to enter his/her life for a purpose and the individual does not want to know the reason or purpose. He or she is content in the knowledge that nothing, good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant, joy or grief, can enter his or her life, without the consent of the Master. If it has the consent of the Master, then whatever the unpleasant experience be... death, illness, separation, betrayal, bankruptcy, agony, grief, ill repute, slander... whatever; it has arrived with a reason and the Master knows the reason and the Master has willed it and if something has been approved and blessed by the Master, then, that is all that matters.

The person will give his or her best to life and do all that is required to overcome the issue but it is done with no questions, no doubts, just pure and complete surrender.

Om Namah Shivay. 

source : FB

NO LACK OF RESOURCES FOR A SINCERE SPIRITUAL PRACTITIONER

NO LACK OF RESOURCES FOR A SINCERE SPIRITUAL PRACTITIONER : 

For a sincere spiritual practitioner, there is no lack of resources. Outwardly it may seem that you don’t have enough money, or enough time but still if you take a leap of faith, with courage, and give everything that you’ve got for service, and then everything needed will be provided by His loving grace. Be rest assured, things will almost magically fall into place.

Om Namah Shivay.

SHIVA JAAP

SHIVA JAAP

In pictures , where Shivji is shown praying, It may well be asked, the world prays to Shivji, who is shivji praying to?

To Godhead. Even the God has to revere and honour His own principles:)
Lord Shiva is the first votary to Sivafield, sivaness, sivahood, and therefore to all of siva creation, which is everything:)
But it can also be said Shiva prays to Shakti,
who IS everything.
Aum Shiva Shakti Namaha!!

Also, sometimes we have pictures where the resemblance between God and His beloved becomes pronounced. There is also a great meaning in pictures where the appearance of Shiva is a lot like parvati, or the appearance of Radha becomes like Krishna.
It is said, once Radha Rani wanted to know what it was, to be krishna Himself. so she meditated on His form , till she actually became krishna:
and then she was startled to find herself crying 'Radhe Radhe'.

The meaning of this beautiful tale is to convey the culmination of Para bhakti: the seeker and the sought , the lover and the beloved actually become One.
Shivji can also be praying to Ramji(vishnuji) and in turn Ramji can be found installing a shivlinga(Rameshwaram)
But the ultimate shaivite understanding is that Shiv and shakti are the cosmic couple and it is impossible to conceive shiva without shakti, It is said without shakti, shiva is a shava-corpse. And definitely, without Shivji (GOD) There is no point of Shakti(World manifestation), without Shaktiman, who will enjoy the manifestations of Shakti! So Shivji prays for the welfare of the whole world, in Shivshakti.!!
Aum Namah Shivaya!

source : FB

Understand others rather than judge them.

Learn to expand your mind. Understand others rather than judge them.

Lord Shiva gave boons to both Gods and Demons, he favored none over the other because all are equal and capable of good, as both are equal and capable of detrimental things.

One who loves the universe does not choose who to love, or what to love.

Shiva is more pleased......................

"This is the gist of all worship: to be pure and to do good to others. He who sees Shiva in the poor, in the weak, and in the diseased, really worships Shiva. And if he sees Shiva only in the image, his worship is but preliminary. He who has served and helped one poor man seeing Shiva in him, without thinking of his caste or creed or race or anything, with him Shiva is more pleased than with the man who sees Him only in temples"
¤°.¸¸.•´¯`»Jai BholeBaba«´¯`•.¸¸.°¤

The King who saw God in Everything

The King who saw God in Everything

(Tamil version of this article is posted separately: Swaminathan)

Varaguna Pandya was a great devotee of Lord Shiva. Dalavaipuram Copper Plates of Pandyan Paranthaka Veeranarayan praised ‘Varagunan as one who always kept Shiva’s name in his heart’. 

Tamil books such as Tirukkovaiyar of Manikavasagar and Pattinathar Poems also praised his devotion to Lord Shiva. He lived in the ninth century AD. There are very strange stories about his blind devotion. He stood as an example of nine qualities attributed to a Bhakta/devotee by the Bhagavatha Purana.

Sravanam: Hearing about God

Kirtanam: Reciting God’s name

Sramanam: Remembering him in everything he sees or hears

Padasevanam: Service of him as manifested in all beings

Arachanam: Worshipping him in images and holy places

Vandanam: Showing proper respect to all holy images, holy persons, symbols

Dasyam: Feeling as his servant

Sakhyam: Treating God as his intimate friend

Atma nivedanam: Surrendering oneself to Him.

Appar alias Tirunavukkarasu also said the same thing about Bhakti/ devotion in his Thevaram verse. It is like a girl falling madly in love with a man. Then she sees him everywhere and in everything. We have lot of such references in the Sangam literature.

Pattinathar’s book ‘Tiruvidai Marudur Mummani Kovai’ is included as the Eleventh book (Tirumurai) in Saivite canon. Pattinathar has given all the anecdotes about Varaguna Pandya in his verse:

1.When Varaguna Pandya was staying in Tiruvidai Marudur, his guards caught a thief and brought him to the king. The thief wore holy ash on his forehead. Immediately Varaguna was reminded of Lord Shiva. He ordered his guards to release him at once.

2.When the foxes howled in the night, he thought they are saying the name of Lord Shiva and immediately he called his servants and asked them to give shawls to the animals so that they feel warm in the cold.

This is not new to the Tamils. Chieftain Pari provided his chariot for the jasmine climber as a support. Another chieftain Bekan gave a shawl to the dancing peacock thinking that it was shivering in the cold.  They are among the Seven Philanthropists of Tamil speaking world. King Kulasekara ordered his army to march to provide support to Rama who was fighting the demons. This happened while he was just listening to Ramayana. Rama lived several thousands of years before King Kulasekara.

3. When the frogs croaked in the nearby ponds Varaguna heard only Shiva’s name and asked the servants to throw gold coins and flowers in to the ponds.

4. Sesame seeds were dried in the hall of the local temple. It was meant for the sesame oil for the temple lamps. Varaguna saw a person eating it. He chastised him for eating God’s sesame seeds and asked whether he knew the consequences. Immediately he replied that he knew that he would be born as a bull that is used in the temple Oil Expeller unit. That oil will be used to light the lamps in the Shiva temple. As soon as the king heard it, he made him to spit the sesame seeds and ate it. Now it was the turn of the man to question. He asked the king why he ate the spat. Varaguna told him at once, the Oil Expeller needs two bulls to operate and he wanted to be the second bull.

5.While he was circling the temple , he saw a skull in the temple complex. He prostrated before the skull saying that the person must have done a lot of good things in his life to be this lucky.

6.When he saw some dog’s mess in the temple, though he was a king,  he himself cleaned it saying that it was a big service to Shiva.

7.Wherever he saw the fruits of Neem tree he was reminded of Shivlinga form and so he ordered to install sheds (shelter) on top of those fruits.

8. When his ministers brought the women of defeated kings for him to marry, he ordered them to be offered at the temples for service.

All these anecdotes are in a single verse of Pattinathar. King Varaguna was an extremist in Bhakti. If we look at his deeds superficially, we may think that he had gone mad. If we look deeper in to his activities, we would appreciate his devotion. At the end of the day, his activities never hurt anyone, never harmed anyone. We have such examples in several leaders’ lives. The disciple of a Guru or the follower of a leader does  something like this for the sake of his or her Master.

Tamil References mentioned above are given in the Tamil version of this article:

பாண்டிய மன்னனின் அளவற்ற பக்தி!

Contact: swami_48@yahoo.com

source : speakingtree

THE WORLD IS ONE BIG FAMILY............

Aum Namah Shivaya!

The world is one big family, God is the father, Nature the mother, and we the siblings. Sometimes we wrong the mother, Father reacts, sometimes we ignore the Father, Mother reacts.

Most of the times we fight one another, both react. 

But they, being parents, when Father is annoyed, mother rescues and when mother is annoyed, Father intervenes.

And so we barely manage. This is the state today. 

There is a possibility of all being harmonized, if only the siblings grow up and realise the strength of a happy family. We must set aside our differences, and convince our parents of our maturity, in order to share their abundance. 

{The yogi and the snake}