Q: Please tell about Jesus, His birth and the meaning of his presence.Guruji : Jesus is the embodiment of love. Just look at how much insult and pain he had to suffer. Jesus took the hurt and the pain with such equanimity and calmness. He was blamed by everyone. Even his own disciples ran away. Imagine how hurtful that must have been for him at that time. When you do all you can for your devotees, and one fine day, they disown you and run away, it is the most terrible hurt that anyone can imagine. But Jesus’ life was like that. And when everyone had forsaken him in the end, he even asked God, ‘Have you also forsaken me?’
So, his was a life of total pain on one side and love on the other side.
Now, this does not mean that anybody who loves will have to undergo so much pain. It is not so. His message to the people was always this, ‘Do not be a fanatic about anything. Do not judge and do not be cruel. Be loving and compassionate towards everyone, for God is Love.' People were living in the head at that time, they were only thinking of sins and punishment. They were only dreaming of heaven and afraid of hell. Jesus came and said, ‘Live in the present moment. Live now and be loving and caring towards all. There is no need to be afraid of God because He is our father, and like a father he is part of us. My father and I are one.'
He gave such a revolutionary message at that time, and made people realize that the journey is from the head to the heart, and not from the head to the heavens and the stars.
He gave that message, but for seventy years no one recorded what He said. Jesus’ message was, ‘Wake up and see that the kingdom of heaven is within you. Know that God is love.'
So, be like a child. A child has no prejudices. Unless you are like a child you cannot get into heaven. This message is getting lost.
A child-like innocence, and sense of belongingness with everybody is missing. This is why there has been so much crime in the name of religion.
When religion started to be mixed with political authority, then it gave rise to communalism. All this has happened because we do not realize the inner light, that we are, the light of our inner being.
Om Namah Shivay
How to Raise Children-2Truth means not deceiving the other person into believing what is untrue. People will have assumptions about you, your life, you don't have to go around clarifying their presumptions. But, when you state something about yourself that you know is not true, that is lying.
The hardest thing about the three virtues is not preaching but practicing them. Your children will look at you and observe you closely to see if you practice compassion, karma and truthfulness. If you do, sooner or later, they'll do too. If you don't, no amount of preaching will cut it. If you meditate, or if you go to the temple and they see you happy and calm, they'll automatically follow you. Children know, they observe, they assimilate, they absorb, they follow.
A father was returning from church with his five-year old.
"The earlier priest was much better. This one always delivers a boring sermon," he remarked.
"Daddy," said the young one, "I thought it was pretty good for the penny we gave today."
Our race suffers the most because we want our children to selectively pick up our behavior, our values and teachings. If truth be told in no uncertain terms, when it comes to raising children, there is absolutely no room for hypocrisy. Practice pretense and you do so at your own peril.
A preacher summed up his years of work in ten short points and named it The Ten Commandments of Raising Children. He would enthusiastically distribute pamphlets to all the parents telling them how they ought to raise their children. A little while later he got married.
After he had been a father for a few years and had two children, he felt the need to change the title of his work to more accurately reflect his understanding. Thus, it now read Ten Suggestions on Raising Children.
A few more years passed and his children were teenagers now. Once again, realizing that the title of his work was not apt, he changed it to Ten Tentative Ideas on Raising Children.
I hope you know where I'm going with this. Nothing teaches like experience. Besides, there are no cookie-cutter methods. There are no absolute teachings. Also, spirituality can't be taught. It can only be practiced, it can only ever be learned.
If I were to dive deep in some ocean of wisdom and fetch you the one most valuable pearl on the current subject, it would be: Practice what you want them to learn. Be what you want them to be. Do what you want them to do. Don't tell, show. Don't lecture, lead. They are your children, after all. They know you.
Om Namah Shivay
Discover Your True Self – You are Not a Body but a SoulYou are a Soul Infinite, Immortal and Perfect.“All spiritual progress is the growth of half-knowledge into clear illumination. In our inspired moments we have the feeling that there is a greater reality within us, though we cannot tell what it is.”-- Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
Nearly 2,500 years ago, the great sages of the Upanishads proclaimed “Know thy own soul, for only then can you know God.” In other words, the path to God lies not through the outer world of matter but through our inner world of spirit.
To become aware of our soul as apart from our body is the first step towards realizing God. For God is the infinite ocean of consciousness and our souls are like individual waves on its surface. If we know the wave then we have known the ocean too.
“We are here to awaken to the reality of our true identity – that we are sparks of the Eternal Imperishable Spirit, who is the source of all Creation and the very essence of our being.”
- Shriram Sharma Acharya
And so the sages proclaimed that we must each discover for ourselves that we are essentially the spirit.
It is only when we have realized the true nature of our soul, that despair will vanish and hope will come; fear and ignorance will vanish and joy will come; infinite power, strength and purity will come, and along with it everything that is excellent will come.
What then is the nature of our soul?
The Nature of the Soul
The Sanskrit word for the soul is Atman, which means the “breath of life”. The soul is the differentiating element which separates dead and dull matter from life. The soul is what exists when the body dies.
We place before you some key conclusions that have been reached about the characteristics of the soul. As always it is important to note that these conclusions are not mere idle theories or speculation but they are the greatest of truths, perceived directly by countless teachers and prophets in the highest states of super-consciousness. Presented below are rational arguments in support of what has already been witnessed.
The Soul is Not Bound by the Laws of the Material Universe
“This Universe is a meeting point of that which is eternal and that which is manifested in time.”
- Svetasvatara Upanishad
Often we make the mistake of assuming that the material Universe is all that exists, and nothing else prevails besides it. But it is only part of the picture. The world that we live in is actually a meeting point of two universes: one of matter and the other of consciousness. And while our bodies are a part of the former, our souls belong to the latter.
The material universe which governs our physical bodies originated in a big bang some 14 billion years ago. The big bang gave birth to matter, space and time, and the entire universe works under their laws.
The laws of matter govern our motion. For example: no object can travel faster than the speed of light. The laws of space confine our existence to the 3-dimensions and also localize us i.e. we are only present in one place at a given time (the exception being subatomic particles). The laws of time govern the cycles of birth and death. Each body of matter is born, exists for a finite amount of time and dies. From the sun, to the moon, to the physical bodies of plants, animals and man, in fact the entire Universe itself, is bound by the cycle of time.
“Consciousness is not subject to the strictures of quantum physics because it is neither matter, nor is it restricted by space or time.”
- Glen Kezwer, Scientist
But our souls are not a part of any of this. They belong to the universe of consciousness. God is the primal absolute force, the Supreme Consciousness whose existence precedes the birth of the material Universe itself. Since the godly force of consciousness came before matter, space and time, it is unaffected by their laws.
Our souls being a part of this immense ocean of consciousness therefore remain unbounded by the conditions of matter. Their very essence is freedom.
Om Namah Shivay
* Lord Ganesha on Indonesian 20,000 Rupiah Currency *
Ganesha is worshiped as god of education which fits the main theme of the note — education. Indonesian 20,000 rupiah currency note is released first time in 1998 .If you look at the backside of the note, you'll see a picture of typical classroom activity in Indonesia . The use of Hindu's deities and symbols is common in Indonesia as in the early centuries, Indonesian archipelago was heavily influenced by Hinduism.
MANTRASMantras are a chant,a thought ,an empowerment,but more than that, they are a Realisation.{ Shail Gulhati
, author of The Yogi and the snake
}
Architects are known to make a blueprint before they plan their buildings .So too, the wise know that
Lord Shiva is the blueprint for all things..and ask
you to make your plans accordingly!
Shail Gulhati
Understanding the Many Gods in Hinduism-1“Ekam sat vipra bahudha vadanti” – “God is One, whom the sages call by various names.” – A Sanskrit verse from the Rig Veda that beautifully captures the idea behind the many Gods in Hinduism.Why do Hindus worship so many Gods? Is Hinduism a polytheistic religion? Why is the cow sacred? Why is the river Ganges considered so holy? Why is the sun worshiped?
These are some of the questions that naturally arise in most people’s minds when they look at Hinduism from the outside.
For those of us who have grown up in the rich Hindu tradition of India, when someone asks us these questions, often we too are puzzled, because these form such an integral part of our daily existence that we have never really stopped to think about it.
So here is a beautiful and profound explanation, for those of us on the inside, as well as the outside, gathered from the spiritual works of the great modern-day gurus of India.
The Worship of Many Gods in Hinduism, Has its Genesis in the Discovery of the Ultimate Reality, the Source of all Creation, by the Ancient Sages of the Vedas
The religion of the Hindus has its roots in the Vedas, the sacred books whose philosophy forms the firm foundation upon which it rests. Of the 4 Vedas, the oldest is the Rig Veda, whose hymns date to at least 4500 BC or earlier.
Besides detailing ceremonies and worships aimed at refining a person’s inner character, the Vedas contain records of stupendous truths concerning the nature of our Universe, as witnessed by the ancient rishis (sages) in the super-conscious states of meditation.
The sections of the Vedas that detail these transcendental truths are called the Upanishads, and the philosophy that they propound is called Vedanta.
Apart from chronicling facts about our world that are strikingly congruent with the discoveries of modern science, such as evolution, the theory of space, time and causation, as well as the atomic structure of matter; the sages of the Vedas speak in tremendous detail, of the presence of an Ultimate Reality, which is the source of all Creation.
They call this Reality, Brahman or God and describe it to be an extremely subtle, all pervading and infinite ocean of consciousness.
It is From This Ocean of Consciousness, That Both Matter and Living Beings Originate
Om Namah Shivay
