DIVERSITY OF Divaalii INTERPRETATIONS AND CELEBRATIONS Divaali is the most celebrated festival among veDik peoples of bhaart (India)...The veDik peoples of bhaart co-exist with the belief in 330 million Daevo (gods and goddesses) and various other major belief systems of this planet earth  despite its apparent major diversity of: At least 5,000 year old known civilization invaded by all peoples of this planet earth 325 languages spoken – 1,652 dialects 18 official languages 29 states, 5 union territories 3.28 million sq. kilometers land area 7,516 kilometers - Coastline 1,000,000,000 people counted in year 2000 World’s first university in Takshila –700 B.C Ayurveda- earliest school of medicine known to humans Sanskrit Language –most suitable for computer software as per Europeans celebrates more than 65 festivals has dance technology with 15 vocal forms and 60 musical instruments As per Albert Einstein: " We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made." As per Mark Twain: "India is:  the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend,  the great grand mother of tradition, Our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only. Please click on the next line to read how Divaalii is celebrated in bhaart by its diversity of peoples in various parts of its land and the diversity of the interpretation of the origin of Divaalii....

DIVERSITY OF Divaalii INTERPRETATIONS AND CELEBRATIONS From website: Deepavali Festival The Diverse Origin of Divaalii or Deepavali: According to Ramayana, Deepavali commemorates the return of Ram, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu and the eldest son of King Dasharath of Ayodhya, from his 14-year exile with Sita and Lakshman after killing the Ravan, a demon king. The people of Ayodhya illuminated the kingdom with earthen diyas (oil lamps) and fireworks to celebration of the return of their king.   In rural areas, Deepavali signifies Harvest Festival. Deepavali which occurs at the end of a cropping season has along with the above custom, a few others that reinforce the hypothesis of its having originated as a harvest. Every harvest normally spelt prosperity. The celebration was first started in India by farmers after they reaped their harvests. They celebrated with joy and offered praises to God for granting them a good crop.   During the reign of Emperor Prithu, there was a worldwide famine. He ordered that all available cultivatable lands be ploughed. When the rains came, the land became very fertile and grains were planted. The harvest provided food not only to feed all of India, but for all civilization. This harvest was close to Deepavali time and was a good reason to celebrate Deepavali with great joy and merriment by a wider community.   When Lord Krishna destroyed Narakasur on the day before Deepavali, the news of it traveled very rapidly thought the land. It gave people who were already in a joyful mood, another reason for celebrating Deepavali with greater pride and elaboration.   In the Adi Parva of the Mahabharat , the Pandavas returned from the forest during Deepavali time. Once more, the celebrations extended beyond the boundaries of India to wherever Hindus lived.   In Sikh perspective, Deepavali is celebrated as the return of the sixth Guru, Guru Hargobind Ji from the captivity of the city, Gwalior. History states two commonly known reasons for his imprisonment. One is that the Muslim Raja approached Guru Hargobind Ji upon his entering Gwalior and told the Guru to denounce his Sikh religion and to join the Muslim faith. With the intention of utilizing the Guru’s great strength and fearlessness needed in battles. Being outraged by this request, the Guru rejected his proposition. In retaliation he captured the Guru and held him against his will. But eventually the Guru managed to free himself of this unjust imprisonment and returned to his beloved town of Amritsar. To commemorate his undying love for Sikhism, the townspeople lit the way to, Harmandhir Sahib (referred to as the Golden Temple), in his honour. Diwali is the anniversary of Guru Hargobind ji being released from the prison at Gwalior Fort. In was on this day in 1619 A D. The kind Guru ji refused to leave the fort of his own and demanded release of other 52 Hindu Rajas. The Moghuls being the cunning rulers they were, decided on a compromise. They said all the Maharajas that can hold onto your Chowla (gown) could walk out free along side you. The Sikhs smartly made a special Chowla with 50 long strips and all the prisoners walked free. Guru Hargobind ji is known as Bandhi Chhor because the imprisoned ones (Bandhi) were released (Chhor) by Him. Upon their return to Amritsar grand celebrations were held. Harmandir Sahib ji (Golden Temple) was illuminated and fireworks were displayed. Gurbani Kirtan (Hymns) and prayers were performed. Guru ji was always prepared to sacrifice his own freedom for the sake of other innocent people. Once Guru ji was accompanying Jahangir, then, a tiger attacked Jahangir. He fired all his shots/arrows but missed attacking on tiger. His accompanying officers failed to respond to his distress call. Brave Guru ji got off His horse and put the tiger to rest with His sword. This incident made Jahangir feel obliged to Guru ji for having saved his life and he began to repent for the sin he had committed by ordering assassination of Guru Arjun Dev ji (Guru ji's father). He visited Guru ji's mother, Mata Ganga ji and apologized for the cruelty. Guru ji demonstrated the extreme and difficult virtue of "forgiveness" when He saved Jahangir's life from an attacking tiger, despite all the hostility and the awful act of ordering assassination of the 5th Guru, Guru Arjun dev ji with an excuse that the latter was a threat to Islam. Diwali of 1737: Bhai Mani singh transcribed the final version of Guru Granth Sahib upon dictation from Guru Gobind Singh ji in 1704 at Damdamma Sahib. After heavenly abode of Guru Sahib in 1708 he look charge of Harmandir Sahib ji's management. In 1737, invitations were rent to the Sikhs all over India to join Bandi Chhor Diwas celebrations at Harmandir Sahib. A tax of 5000 rupees (some say 10,000) had to be paid to the Mogul governor of Punjab; Zakariya Khan. Bhai Mani Singh Ji later discovered the secret plan of Zakariya khan to kill the Sikhs during the gathering. Bhai Mani Singh ji immediately sent message to all the Sikhs not to turn up for celebrations. Zakariya Khan wasn't happy about the situation and he ordered Bhai Mani Singh ji's assassination at Lahore by ruthlessly cutting him limb-by-limb to death. Ever since, the great sacrifice and devotion of Bhai Mani Singh ji is remembered on the Bandi Chhor Diwas (Diwali) celebration.   Swami Dayananda Saraswati,  on the same day of Amavasya , that leonine sanyasin who was one of the first to light the torch of Hindu Renaissance during the last century, passed into Eternity. Swami Ramatirtha who carried the fragrance of the spiritual message of Hindu Dharma to the western world, also passed into eternity. The lights kindled on this day also mark the attempt of their followers to immortalize the sacred memories of those great men who lived to brighten the lives of millions of their fellow beings. The passage of these great men have indeed brought the national-cum-spiritual tradition of Deepavali right up to modern times. Diversity of Divaalii Celebrations: In Punjab, the day following Deepavali is known as tikka when sisters make a paste with saffron and rice and place an auspicious mark on their brother’s foreheads as a symbolic gesture to ward off all harm.   In North India on the day of the Deepavali the children emerge, scrubbed clean to get into their festive attire, and light up little oil lamps, candles and agarbathis the wherewithal for setting alight crackers and sparklers.   In east Bihar and northern India, two days before Diwali is celebrated as Dhanteras in honour of Dhanvantari, the physician of the gods. He is believed to have emerged with a pot of amrita during the samudra manthan. People bathe early in the morning and observe a fast, which is broken only after sunset with sweetmeats, puri and other delicacies. On Dhanteras, new kitchen utensils are bought and kept at the place of worship. The buying of utensils, according to one theory, relates to the myth of Dhanvantari emerging from the ocean with a pot in his hand. Since he is also the physician of the gods, cleanliness and hygiene are essential to this festival.   South India: Though Diwali is equally important in the south and the north, the celebrations are markedly different. In South India, the story widely associated with Diwali is that of Narasimha, the man-lion incarnation of Vishnu. According to a legend, Hiranyakshipu was an evil demon king. He was unjust and cruel to his people. However, he was almost invincible, having extracted a boon from Brahma that he would be killed neither by beast nor man, neither inside nor outside, neither during the day nor at night. When his atrocities became unbearable, the gods sought Vishnu's help. Assuming his fifth incarnation of Narasimha, the man-lion,Vishnu killed Hiranyakshipu with his claws in the courtyard just before day break, hence steering clear of the boundaries of the boon. For this reason in the south, people light diyas in their houses on the day preceding Diwali. The next day begins early. First is the ritual bath, which begins with an oil massage of the hair and body. This is absolutely essential on this day. Its importance probably refers to cleaning oneself thoroughly after the monsoon months. After bathing, people receive new clothes and gifts from their elders, which they are expected to wear. The family then prays to Vishnu for its well-being and prosperity. After the prayers start the main celebrations which, as in the north, consist of bursting crackers and lighting candles. At day break, all celebrations end. People then visit friends and relatives and exchange sweets.   Kerala is probably the only state in India where even Hindus do not celebrate Diwali. The major festival there is Onam.   The people of Maharashtra exchange gifts likewise, on the second day of the month of Kartik, . In Maharashtra, it is the thirteenth day of Ashwin, the trayodasi, that is observed as a festival commemorating a young prince whom Yama, the God of Death, had claimed four days after his marriage. Filled, however, with compassion for the luckless youth, the legend goes, Yama promised that those who observed the day would be spared untimely death—and so the lamps that are lit to mark the festival are placed facing south, unlike on other festive days, because south is the direction mythological assigned to Yama.   Among the Jain festivals, Deepavali is one of the most important one. For on this occasion we celebrate the Nirvana of Lord Mahavira who established the dharma as we follow it. Lord Mahavira was born as Vardhamana on Chaitra Shukla 13 in the Nata clan at Khattiya-kundapura, near Vaishali. He obtained Kevala Gyana on Vishakha Shukla 10 at the Jambhraka village on the banks of Rijukula river at the age of 42. He initiated his shaashan (Jaina-shashana) on Shravana KrashNa 1 at his first assembly at Rajgrah. After having preached the dharma for 30 years, he attained Nirvana at Pava, at the age of 71 years and 6 and half months.   For the Bengalis, it is the time to worship Goddess Kali , yet another form of Durga, the divine embodiment of supreme energy. KALI is the Goddess who takes away darkness. She cuts down all impurities, consumes all iniquities, purifies Her devotees with the sincerity of Her Love. The following is the interpretation of Deepavali in Bengal:   In West Bengal, Kali Puja is performed on Diwali as it is believed that on this day Kali killed the wicked Raktavija. Being one of the main festivals of the trader community, markets are gaily decorated and lit up. Many safety measures and precautions are telecast on television and radio, especially for children. The fire departments are kept on the alert, and the municipal corporations of bigger cities also organize buckets and tankers of water at strategic locations. The second day after Diwali is celebrated as Bhai Duja when sisters apply tilak to their brothers and pray for their long and happy life. In all likelihood, this ritual was originally intended only for married women. Since they celebrated Diwali with their in-laws, this festival allowed them to come to their parents' home during this auspicious time. They got some time to meet the family and to rest after the hectic activity of the preceding week. And it gave their parents an opportunity to give them gifts, an opportunity they did not often get. Nowadays however, among many communities Bhai Duja is observed by both married and unmarried sisters.   Deepavali or Diwali, the most pan-Indian of all Hindu festivals, is a festival of lights symbolizing the victory of righteousness and the lifting of spiritual darkness. The word `Deepavali' literally means rows of diyas (clay lamps). This festival commemorates Lord Rama's return to his kingdom Ayodhya after completing his 14-year exile. Twinkling oil lamps or diyas light up every home and firework displays are common all across the country. The goddess Lakshmi (consort of Vishnu), who is the symbol of wealth and prosperity, is also worshipped on this day. This festive occasion also marks the beginning of the Hindu new year and Lord Ganesha, the elephant-headed god, the symbol of auspiciousness and wisdom, is also worshipped in most Hindu homes on this day.   Another view is that Deepavali is meant to celebrate the destruction of the arrogant tyrant Bali at the hands of Vishnu when the latter appeared in his Vamana (dwarf) avatar. The occasion of Deepavali sees the spring-cleaning and white-washing of houses; decorative designs or rangolis are painted on floors and walls. New clothes are bought and family members and relatives gather together to offer prayers, distribute sweets and to light up their homes.   The Festival of Lights This is one of the oldest Hindu festivals occurring in the month of Kartik, which commemorates the return of Rama to Ayodhya after an exile of 14 years. It also marks the beginning of the new year and is celebrated with the lighting of lamps. Diwali or Deepavali, literally 'an array of lamps', is the festival of lights and is celebrated on the darkest night of Kartik. It is perhaps the most important festival in India. Originally a Hindu festival, it has now crossed the bounds of religion and is celebrated by all in India with fervor and gaiety. This day is a public holiday all over India. Diwali is also perhaps the oldest festival still celebrated today and is mentioned in the Ramayana.   The celebrations include the lighting of lamps and candles, and the bursting of crackers (fireworks). Friends and neighbours exchange special sweets.   People buy new clothes and in fact, in certain communities, it is absolutely essential to wear new clothes on this day.   Diwali in India is equivalent to Christmas in the West. Therefore it is also the time when people get the festival bonus to their salaries. It marks the beginning of the new year for a large majority of Hindus, especially the trader community.   Preparations for the festival begin many days prior to Diwali. It is time for a thorough cleaning of the house, for the belief is that Lakshmi will enter clean and nicely decorated houses. The scientific reason is that the monsoon is a time for insects and fungus to breed. With the end of the monsoon, homes need to be cleaned and painted, and belongings aired and dried before the onset of winter. The festival itself extends over about a week even though the most important day is the new moonday.   The day before Diwali is celebrated as Choti Diwali or 'small Diwali'. It is Diwali on a smaller scale, with fewer lights lit and fewer crackers burst. The morning after Choti Diwali, the women of the house make beautiful, coloured rangoli in the doorway and courtyard. Tiny footprints made out of rice paste are a special feature of the rangolis made for Diwali. They signify the footprints of Lakshmi, as she enters the house. In Hindu homes, Diwali celebrations involve a ritual puja to Lakshmi and also to Rama in the evening. Songs in honour of the gods are sung and arati is performed. Oil or ghee diyas are also lit. The gods are offered kheel, batashe and khilone and various sweetmeats. After the puja, the diyas are placed in and around the house: in the doorway, near the Tulasi plant, the backyard, every room and the back and front gates. After this, crackers are burst, and people meet friends and neighbours to exchange good wishes and sweets.   Since Diwali falls on the new moon night, lamps are lit to brighten this moonless night. According to a myth, Lakshmi will not enter a dark house. The lamps also welcome home the spirits of dead ancestors, who are believed to visit on this auspicious night. In addition, the light frightens away any evil spirit that might be wandering about near the house on this night. In Orissa, lamps are lit to light up the dark path that the spirits of ancestors take back to heaven. In modern times, ghee diyas have been replaced by wax candles and coloured electric bulbs. In many areas, there is a competition of sorts among neighbours as everyone tries to have the brightest lights.    The origin of Diwali can be traced back to ancient India, when it was probably an important harvesting season. It was thus extremely important to the largely pastoral Vaishya community. Their granaries were full, and the weather was good, at the end of the long monsoon and before the arduous winter. It was therefore a good time to celebrate. The Vaishya community began their new year with this happy occassion, after paying their debts and clearing their ledgers. As the religion developed, various mythological stories and explanations were attributed to this festival to give it religious sanction. However today, this historical explanation is all but lost among the many stories and folklore linked with the origin of the festival.   According to the most popular one, Diwali is celebrated in honour of Rama, his consort Sita and brother Lakshmana, returning to their kingdom Ayodhya after a 14-year exile. To celebrate this event, people at Ayodhya are believed to have lit up their houses with lamps. The illuminations also symbolize the removal of spiritual darkness and the onset of happiness and prosperity. According to another belief, it is on this day that Lakshmi emerged from the ocean during the samudra manthan .Lakshmi Puja commemorates her birth and therefore forms a major part of Diwali celebrations.   Being associated with the goddess of wealth and fortune, Diwali is specially important to the Vaishya community. Most tradesmen close their old ledgers and dealings and start afresh with new ledgers after Diwali.   This day, with its emphasis on money, is also considered lucky for gambling. Giving social sanction to a vice, a popular saying states that one who does not gamble on this day will be born a donkey in his next birth. Casinos and local gambling houses do brisk business during the Diwali week. In most homes, people invite their friends and relatives over to play cards.   Another reason for the celebration of Diwali is that it marks the killing of the evil Narkasura at the hands of Krishna Naraka is believed to have abducted 16,000 women. Krishna killed him and rescued these women whom he later married. Naraka is the personification of hell and is believed to be the monsoon during which all activities come to a standstill.   References to the word 'atishbaji' or'crackers' are found even in ancient literature. The bursting of crackers is today the most important and eagerly-awaited part of the Diwali celebrations. According to one belief, the sound that resounds throughout the universe makes all aware of the great homecoming of Rama. Another belief is that the crackers are an indication of the joy of the people living on the earth, making the gods aware of their plentiful state. Still another possible reason has a more scientific basis: the fumes produced by the crackers kill a lot of insects, found in plenty after the rains. The use of high-tech bomb crackers is fairly recent. At times, Diwali celebrations get ugly, especially in the metropolitan cities. In New Delhi, people start bursting crackers in the evening and this continues till the early hours of the morning. As a result, the city is engulfed in toxic fumes and smoke for almost 10 hours. Another problem with crackers is that their manufacture is usually unregulated. As a result, the manufacturing units are unsafe and the material used is inflammable and toxic. Every year, many units are destroyed in accidental fires, resulting in the death of those employed there.   In Gujraat, Diwali, the festival of lights, commemorates the day when lord Rama returns to Ayodhya, lord Vishnu rescued Goddess Lakshmi from king Bali, and lord Krishna’s victory over the dreaded demon, Naraksura. . The celebrations of lord Rama’s return to Ayodhya, when citizens lit his way with earthen oil lamps (diyas), are re-created by lighting rows of diyas and candles, illuminating buildings, swastik and Rangoli patterns are painted in the fore court of residences as a sign of welcome and revelry. Children light fireworks to light up the sky in an array of designs, an integral part of the celebrations. The lighting of houses is said to attract Goddess Lakshmi, who brings prosperity to her devotees. The Hindu calendar ends with Diwali, the next day is the Hindu new year, which begins with prayer. Relatives and friends get together to celebrate the new year. Visit decorate their cows in a variety of colours, and feed them boiled grains. Bhaibij is the day after the new year when sisters feed their brothers. Five days after Diwali, is Pancham, an auspicious day to commence business. Jains celebrate Pancham or Panchami by worshipping their books and praying for more knowledge. Hindu business men worship Goddess Lakshmi and open their accounts. (From web site: Divaalii- Ahemdabad )   KASHMIRI PANDITS (By Piyaray Lal Raina: e-mail: plraina@hotmail.com)   ORIGIN The origin of Diwali is very obscure. However, present day beliefs for this celebration are as under :   SAGAR MANTHAN Sage Kashyap was married to all the 13 daughters of Sage Daksha Prajapati and from the children born from his first wife ADIT were DEVAS whereas the children from his second wife DITI were DEMONS. DEMONS were physically more powerful and scarred DEVAS who approached Lord VISHNU for help. He suggested away out. That was to churn the ocean for getting nectar, by drinking which the Devas could become immortal and out of reach of Demons harm. Devas agreed to his proposal and got ready for the job. 14 objects emerged from the churning of the ocean. Nectar was 12th which was readily consumed by Devas and they became GODS. 13th object was KAL-KOOT (poison) which no body was prepared to have. In order to save mother Earth from the pollution of poison Lord Shiva came forward to take it. He took it and held it in His throat. By this act His throat turned blue due to the effect of poison and hence He is called by the name of NEELKUNTH as well. Last object to emerge from the churning of the ocean was Goddess LAXMI seated in a lotus, holding precious jewels, wearing garland of imperishable Parijita flowers, looking prettier than anything known till then. She was immediately taken by Lord VISHNU as His consort. Ever since Laxmi came to be associated with not only good fortune and material wealth but also embodiment of loveliness gracefulness and charm. The churning process started on the 11th day of Kartik Krishan paksh and ended on Amavasya as per our Lunar calender.   LORD RAMA'S RETURN Some believe Lord Ram (who is incarnation of Vishnu) returned home on this day after 14 years of exile along with his wife Sita (who is incarnation of LAXMI )   CELEBRATIONS Hindus celebrate this day with great festivity. No other deity's worship requires as much massive cleaning except for Shivratri celebrations by our community. People decorate their houses much in advance in preparation of this festival. Some give a new paint to their homes while others clean their homes thoroughly. This is the occasion for buying new things - a new home, a new car, furniture, clothes, utensils etc. In some parts of India celebrations last for one week starting from Ekadashi and ending two days after Amavasya. Since Laxmi is associated with material aspect of life, it is the most auspicious and important celebration for people associated with any business/commercial activity. It is the beginning of the fiscal year for their accounts/books. On the day of Diwali people get up early in the morning and then put on new clothes, go to temples, and purchase lots of sweets and dry fruit for distribution among friends, relatives and collegues. They also purchase earthen lamps, candles, electric and electronic devices for illuminating their homes and business establishments. For children it is a day of merry making. They enjoy by playing with crackers especially at night time. They also receive cash as Diwali Gifts. All government and private establishments remain closed on this day. Business houses reward their employees with gifts of cash and kind. In some homes gambling and drinking is considered part of celebration process. Winning is considered a sign of good luck for the coming year.   WORSHIP The elders of family keep a fast until evening. Goddess LAXMI along with God GANESH is worshipped after sunset. Some people purchase new 'murties' made of clay or silver or even gold. Prayers are offered with or without a family priest. Sweets, dry and fresh fruits, cereals flowers etc. are offered with prayers.   CELEBRATIONS BY KASHMIRI PUNDITS Deepavali is one of the oldest rituals for Kashmiri Pundits. We find a mention of its celebrations in Nilmat Puran. It was then celebrated as SUKHSUPTIKA which literally means sleep with happiness. The celebration would start from Ekadeshi and last on Amavasya. On Amavasya elders of family would keep a fast and worship goddess LAXMI after sunset. Earthen lamps were placed in temples, on the road crossings, cremation grounds, banks of rivers, streams and lakes hills houses, at the foot of trees, cow sheds, court yards and shops. People would wear new clothes and listen to music. With the passage of time some of these things have become obsolete but the tradition is still there. Since we were not used to eating Sweets in Kashmir, we substituted sweets with sweet puris and offered the same to Lord NARAYAN (incarnation of Lord Vishnu). On the whole we do not celebrate Divaalii with the same gusto as is done by our Hindu brethren outside Kashmir. This could be due to the fact that we are Lord SHIVA worshipers. Diwali is primarily a worship of Lord VISHNU who is very popular in the plains of India.   Goa readies for date with Divaalii with Akash kandils ushering in Divaalii (from web site: GOA WORLD-NET.COM)   When Lord Rama returned to Ayodhya after 14 years in exile, the entire Bharatvarsh (India) lit oil lamps to welcome him and called it Deepavali which in the modern age transformed into Diwali. A thousand years later, Diwali still marks a new beginning in Goa. It is a passage from the old to the new, a change of fortunes and a celebration of life.   The festival is heralded in with the burning of effigies of Narkasur, Effigies of Narkasur dot the suburbs. After 12 midnight they will be burnt symbolising the destruction of evil. According to legend Narkasur was a Rakshas (demon) who was terrorizing the people. He used to come down to the villages and capture and kill the citizens. Lord Krishna killed him and freed people from his terrorism. Till this time there was no peace because of the people's fear of the Narkasur. With his killing, people were in a celebratory mood. They lit up their houses with 'pontis' and hung 'akash divas' above their houses. Krishna was tired and hurting from the long and prolonged fight. His mother massaged his aching body with oil and 'utnem'. She then fed him some sweet dishes made of 'foav' (beaten rice) which was Krishna's favourite dish. There is another legend about why this is Krishna's favorite dish. But that is another story. Early on Diwali day after burning the Narkasur the Hindu men folk will return to their homes to be massaged by their wives / mothers with the same type oil and 'utnem'. The family then visits the local temple and returns to a similar feast of 'foav' sweets.   Diwali tradition in Maharashtra, and specially in Goa, are celebrated with lamps lit to keep alive the memory of Lord Rama's return to Ayodhya after conquering the tyrant Ravana, the evil ruler of Lanka, who had abducted his consort Sita. Diwali symbolizes unity in diversity as every state like Karnataka, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh celebrates in its own special ways. Goa celebrates Diwali in a typical mythological manner by welcoming Lakshmi, goddess of wealth and prosperity. Here people wake up before sunrise and prepare ``mock blood'' by mixing kumkum in oil. Some even have an oil bath using sandalwood paste. With the festive spirit catching up the young and old alike, Goa is expected to witness lots of activities around the city in the next couple of days from now.   Diwali is a four-day event in Goa. Starting from Dhan Trayodashi -- the 13th day of the dark fortnight of Ashwin -- the celebration extends up to Bhau Beej, on the second day of the bright fortnight of the month of Karthik. Each day has its own relevance and is distinct in every respect. Dhan Trayodashi, for instance, is associated with Dhanvantari, a healer who cures all ailments. He is also called the God of Good Health.   Goa has one more peculiarity as Diwali is celebrated twice here, which falls on the full moon day of the month of Karthik. It is called the `big Diwali' although the celebrations are limited to performing the marriage of tulsi plant only. This unique Diwali marks the beginning of marriage season here. The idea of performing marriage of tulsi plant was perhaps mooted to imbibe the importance of plants and trees in maintaining the ecological balance, so vital for human survival.   Animals too play an important role in the socio-cultural and economic development of human society. That is why a pooja of cattle is performed on Balipratipada, the day following Diwali.   Some of the rituals associated with this festival remain unchanged even with the passing of time. Diwali begins early in the day when the sun has not yet appeared in the sky. People get up even before the sun rises and take bath in starlight, after a good oil massage. There is a popular belief that twilight bath on this day is as auspicious as taking a bath in the holy river Ganga. After the traditional early-morning oil bath the little children emerge fresh and well scrubbed to a series of noisy adventures with crackers and sparklers which sometimes become nuisance yet it is accepted under the rationale of theology.   The earthen lamps illuminate the entire house and the surrounding areas, while the ladies in the house busy themselves in the kitchen preparing special delicacies, mostly of puffed rice.   An array of colourful akash kandils which adorn the houses during the festivities could be seen, on the eve of festival, hung up in the shops or fixed along the footpaths by hawkers.   Diversity of Divaalii Rituals: Deepavali is supposed to be a corruption of the word Deepavali, the literal meaning of which in Sanskrit is ‘a row of lamps.’ Filling little clay lamps with oil and wick and lighting them in rows all over the house is a tradition that is popular in most regions of the country. In the north, most communities observe the custom of lighting lamps. However, in the south, the custom of lighting baked earthen lamps is not so much part of this festival as it is of the Karthikai celebrations a fortnight later. The lights signify a welcome to prosperity in the form of Lakshmi, and the fireworks are supposed to scare away evil spirits.   For the grown-ups, there is also a custom of indulging in gambling during Deepavali. It is all in fun, though, in a spirit of light-hearted revelry, and merrymaking. Friends get together to indulge in games of chance, dice or cards. The 'addicts' seek legitimacy for their unusual pastime by referring to the celestial game of dice played by the great lord Shiva with his companion Parvati - a scene superbly sculpted at Kailash temple, Ellora. Others rationalize that this is just to remind oneself of the fickleness of lady luck and to inculcate a sense of balance in our pursuit of material success.   The children can be seen bursting fire crackers and lighting candles or earthen lamps. This is a time of generously exchanging sweets with neighbors and friends. Puffed rice and sugar candy are the favorite fares.   People buy new clothes and in fact, in certain communities, it is absolutely essential to wear new clothes on this day.   Deepavali is a time for shopping, whether for gifts or for adding durable items to one’s own household. The market soars—everything from saffron to silver and spices to silks. Yet, symbolic purchases are to be made as part of tradition during Deepavali.   Deepavali is also the time when people get the festival bonus to their salaries from their employers.   Deepavali marks the beginning of the new year for a large majority of Hindus, especially the trader community.   The amaas day and new year day are a public holiday all over India to celebrate Deepavali. Majority of the educational institutions from schools to universities take a break for a week or two during Deepavali period.   Whatever may be the fables and legends behind the celebrations of Deepavali, all people exchange sweets, wear new clothes and buy jewellery at this festive time. Card parties are held in many homes. Deepavali has become commercialized as the biggest annual consumer spree because every family shops for sweets, gifts and fireworks. However, in all this frenzy of shopping and eating, the steady, burning lamp is a constant symbol of an illuminated mind .

There are 6 additional comments.

#1 Posted by v lalita on 10/29/2004

the topic is very good and interesting, i got to know as to how the festival is celebrated in different parts of the country at a glance.

#2 Posted by bhattathiri on 2/6/2006

Your website is beautiful, informative and Excellant. Article by M.P. Bhattathiri, Retired Chief Technical Examiner , to The Govt. of Kerala. Humble request that it may be published in your website and magazine after editing if necessary. Bhagavad Gita and management Mind is very restless, forceful and strong, O Krishna, it is more difficult to control the mind than to control the wind ~ Arjuna to Sri Krishna Introduction The ancient (nearly 5000 years old) Indian philosophy of keepiing mind and body for the well being, has entered the managerial, medical and judicial domain of the world. Today it has found its place as an alternative to the theory of modern management and also as a means to bring back the right path of peace and prosperity for the human beings. One of the greatest contributions of India to the world is Holy Gita which is considered to be one of the first revelations from God. The Bhagavad-Gita is the essence of Vedic Literature and a complete guide to practical life. It provides “all that is needed to raise the consciousness of man to the highest possible level.” , reveals the deep, universal truths of life that speak to the needs and aspirations of everyone. Arjuna got mentally depressed when he saw his relatives with whom he has to fight.( Mental health has become a major international public health concern now). To motivate him the Bhagavad Gita is preached in the battle field Kurukshetra by Lord Krishna to Arjuna as a counseling to do his duty while multitudes of men stood by waiting . It has got all the management tactics to achieve the mental equilibrium and to overcome any crisis situation. The Bhagavad Gita can be experienced as a powerful catalyst for transformation. Bhagavad gita means song of the Spirit, song of the Lord. The Holy Gita has become a secret driving force behind the unfoldment of one's life. In the days of doubt this divine book will support all spiritual search.This divine book will contribute to self reflection, finer feeling and deepen one's inner process. Then life in the world can become a real education—dynamic, full and joyful—no matter what the circumstance. May the wisdom of loving consciousness ever guide us on our journey. What makes the Holy Gita a practical psychology of transformation is that it offers us the tools to connect with our deepest intangible essence and we must learn to participate in the battle of life with right knowledge. The Holy Gita is the essence of the Vedas, Upanishads. It is a universal scripture applicable to people of all temperaments and for all times. It is a book with sublime thoughts and practical instructions on Yoga, Devotion, Vedanta and Action. It is profound in thought and sublime in heights of vision. It brings peace and solace to souls that are afflicted by the three fires of mortal existence, namely, afflictions caused by one’s own body (disease etc), those caused by beings around one (e.g. wild animals, snakes etc.), and those caused by the gods (natural disasters, earth-quakes, floods etc). Mind can be one's friend or enemy. Mind is the cause for both bondage and liberation. The word mind is derived from man to think and the word man derived from manu (sanskrit word for man). "The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone's heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy." There is no theory to be internalized and applied in this psychology. Ancient practices spontaneously induce what each person needs as the individual and the universal coincide. The work proceeds through intellectual knowledge of the playing field(jnana yoga), emotional devotion to the ideal(bhakti yoga) and right action that includes both feeling and knowledge(karma yoga). With ongoing purification we approach wisdom. The Bhagavad Gita is a message addressed to each and every human individual to help him or her to solve the vexing problem of overcoming the present and progressing towards a bright future. Within its eighteen chapters is revealed a human drama. This is the experience of everyone in this world, the drama of the ascent of man from a state of utter dejection, sorrow and total breakdown and hopelessness to a state of perfect understanding, clarity, renewed strength and triumph. Introduction Management has become a part and parcel of everyday life, be it at home, in the office or factory and in Government. In all organizations, where a group of human beings assemble for a common purpose, management principles come into play through the management of resources, finance and planning, priorities, policies and practice. Management is a systematic way of carrying out activities in any field of human effort. Its task is to make people capable of joint performance, to make their weaknesses irrelevant, says the Management Guru Peter Drucker. It creates harmony in working together - equilibrium in thoughts and actions, goals and achievements, plans and performance, products and markets. It resolves situations of scarcity, be they in the physical, technical or human fields, through maximum utilization with the minimum available processes to achieve the goal. Lack of management causes disorder, confusion, wastage, delay, destruction and even depression. Managing men, money and materials in the best possible way, according to circumstances and environment, is the most important and essential factor for a successful management. Management guidelines from the Bhagavad Gita There is an important distinction between effectiveness and efficiency in managing. · Effectiveness is doing the right things. · Efficiency is doing things right. The general principles of effective management can be applied in every field, the differences being more in application than in principle. The Manager's functions can be summed up as: · Forming a vision · Planning the strategy to realise the vision. · Cultivating the art of leadership. · Establishing institutional excellence. · Building an innovative organisation. · Developing human resources. · Building teams and teamwork. · Delegation, motivation, and communication. · Reviewing performance and taking corrective steps when called for. Thus, management is a process of aligning people and getting them committed to work for a common goal to the maximum social benefit - in search of excellence. The critical question in all managers’ minds is how to be effective in their job. The answer to this fundamental question is found in the Bhagavad Gita, which repeatedly proclaims that “you must try to manage yourself.” The reason is that unless a manager reaches a level of excellence and effectiveness, he or she will be merely a face in the crowd. Old truths in a new context The Bhagavad Gita, written thousands of years ago, enlightens us on all managerial techniques leading us towards a harmonious and blissful state of affairs in place of the conflict, tensions, poor productivity, absence of motivation and so on, common in most of Indian enterprises today – and probably in enterprises in many other countries. The modern (Western) management concepts of vision, leadership, motivation, excellence in work, achieving goals, giving work meaning, decision making and planning, are all discussed in the Bhagavad Gita. There is one major difference. While Western management thought too often deals with problems at material, external and peripheral levels, the Bhagavad Gita tackles the issues from the grass roots level of human thinking. Once the basic thinking of man is improved, it will automatically enhance the quality of his actions and their results. The management philosophy emanating from the West, is based on the lure of materialism and on a perennial thirst for profit, irrespective of the quality of the means adopted to achieve that goal. This phenomenon has its source in the abundant wealth of the West and so 'management by materialism' has caught the fancy of all the countries the world over, India being no exception to this trend. My country, India, has been in the forefront in importing these ideas mainly because of its centuries old indoctrination by colonial rulers, which has inculcated in us a feeling that anything Western is good and anything Indian is inferior. The result is that, while huge funds have been invested in building temples of modem management education, no perceptible changes are visible in the improvement of the general quality of life - although the standards of living of a few has gone up. The same old struggles in almost all sectors of the economy, criminalisation of institutions, social violence, exploitation and other vices are seen deep in the body politic. The source of the problem The reasons for this sorry state of affairs are not far to seek. The Western idea of management centres on making the worker (and the manager) more efficient and more productive. Companies offer workers more to work more, produce more, sell more and to stick to the organisation without looking for alternatives. The sole aim of extracting better and more work from the worker is to improve the bottom-line of the enterprise. The worker has become a hireable commodity, which can be used, replaced and discarded at will. Thus, workers have been reduced to the state of a mercantile product. In such a state, it should come as no surprise to us that workers start using strikes (gheraos) sit-ins, (dharnas) go-slows, work-to-rule etc. to get maximum benefit for themselves from the organisations. Society-at-large is damaged. Thus we reach a situation in which management and workers become separate and contradictory entities with conflicting interests. There is no common goal or understanding. This, predictably, leads to suspicion, friction, disillusion and mistrust, with managers and workers at cross purposes. The absence of human values and erosion of human touch in the organisational structure has resulted in a crisis of confidence. Western management philosophy may have created prosperity – for some people some of the time at least - but it has failed in the aim of ensuring betterment of individual life and social welfare. It has remained by and large a soulless edifice and an oasis of plenty for a few in the midst of poor quality of life for many. Hence, there is an urgent need to re-examine prevailing management disciplines - their objectives, scope and content. Management should be redefined to underline the development of the worker as a person, as a human being, and not as a mere wage-earner. With this changed perspective, management can become an instrument in the process of social, and indeed national, development. Now let us re-examine some of the modern management concepts in the light of the Bhagavad Gita which is a primer of management-by-values. Utilisation of available resources The first lesson of management science is to choose wisely and utilise scarce resources optimally. During the curtain raiser before the Mahabharata War, Duryodhana chose Sri Krishna's large army for his help while Arjuna selected Sri Krishna's wisdom for his support. This episode gives us a clue as to the nature of the effective manager - the former chose numbers, the latter, wisdom. Work commitment A popular verse of the Gita advises “detachment” from the fruits or results of actions performed in the course of one's duty. Being dedicated work has to mean “working for the sake of work, generating excellence for its own sake.” If we are always calculating the date of promotion or the rate of commission before putting in our efforts, then such work is not detached. It is not “generating excellence for its own sake” but working only for the extrinsic reward that may (or may not) result. Working only with an eye to the anticipated benefits, means that the quality of performance of the current job or duty suffers - through mental agitation of anxiety for the future. In fact, the way the world works means that events do not always respond positively to our calculations and hence expected fruits may not always be forthcoming. So, the Gita tells us not to mortgage present commitment to an uncertain future. Some people might argue that not seeking the business result of work and actions, makes one unaccountable. In fact, the Bhagavad Gita is full of advice on the theory of cause and effect, making the doer responsible for the consequences of his deeds. While advising detachment from the avarice of selfish gains in discharging one's accepted duty, the Gita does not absolve anybody of the consequences arising from discharge of his or her responsibilities. Thus the best means of effective performance management is the work itself. Attaining this state of mind (called “nishkama karma”) is the right attitude to work because it prevents the ego, the mind, from dissipation of attention through speculation on future gains or losses. Motivation – self and self-transcendence It has been presumed for many years that satisfying lower order needs of workers - adequate food, clothing and shelter, etc. are key factors in motivation. However, it is a common experience that the dissatisfaction of the clerk and of the Director is identical - only their scales and composition vary. It should be true that once the lower-order needs are more than satisfied, the Director should have little problem in optimising his contribution to the organisation and society. But more often than not, it does not happen like that. (“The eagle soars high but keeps its eyes firmly fixed on the dead animal below.”) On the contrary, a lowly paid schoolteacher, or a self-employed artisan, may well demonstrate higher levels of self-actualisation despite poorer satisfaction of their lower-order needs. This situation is explained by the theory of self-transcendence propounded in the Gita. Self-transcendence involves renouncing egoism, putting others before oneself, emphasising team work, dignity, co-operation, harmony and trust – and, indeed potentially sacrificing lower needs for higher goals, the opposite of Maslow. “Work must be done with detachment.” It is the ego that spoils work and the ego is the centrepiece of most theories of motivation. We need not merely a theory of motivation but a theory of inspiration. The Great Indian poet, Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941, known as "Gurudev") says working for love is freedom in action. A concept which is described as “disinterested work" in the Gita where Sri Krishna says, “He who shares the wealth generated only after serving the people, through work done as a sacrifice for them, is freed from all sins. On the contrary those who earn wealth only for themselves, eat sins that lead to frustration and failure.” Disinterested work finds expression in devotion, surrender and equipoise. The former two are psychological while the third is determination to keep the mind free of the dualistic (usually taken to mean "materialistic") pulls of daily experiences. Detached involvement in work is the key to mental equanimity or the state of “nirdwanda.” This attitude leads to a stage where the worker begins to feel the presence of the Supreme Intelligence guiding the embodied individual intelligence. Such de-personified intelligence is best suited for those who sincerely believe in the supremacy of organisational goals as compared to narrow personal success and achievement. Work culture An effective work culture is about vigorous and arduous efforts in pursuit of given or chosen tasks. Sri Krishna elaborates on two types of work culture – “daivi sampat” or divine work culture and “asuri sampat” or demonic work culture. · Daivi work culture - involves fearlessness, purity, self-control, sacrifice, straightforwardness, self-denial, calmness, absence of fault-finding, absence of greed, gentleness, modesty, absence of envy and pride. · Asuri work culture - involves egoism, delusion, personal desires, improper performance, work not oriented towards service. Mere work ethic is not enough. The hardened criminal exhibits an excellent work ethic. What is needed is a work ethic conditioned by ethics in work. It is in this light that the counsel, “yogah karmasu kausalam” should be understood. “Kausalam” means skill or technique of work which is an indispensable component of a work ethic. “Yogah” is defined in the Gita itself as “samatvam yogah uchyate” meaning an unchanging equipoise of mind (detachment.) Tilak tells us that acting with an equable mind is Yoga. (Bal Gangadhar Tilak, 1856-1920, the precursor of Gandhiji, hailed by the people of India as "Lokmanya," probably the most learned among the country's political leaders. For a description of the meanings of the word "Yoga", see foot of this page.) By making the equable mind the bed-rock of all actions, the Gita evolved the goal of unification of work ethic with ethics in work, for without ethical process no mind can attain an equipoise. The guru, Adi Sankara (born circa 800 AD), says that the skill necessary in the performance of one's duty is that of maintaining an evenness of mind in face of success and failure. The calm mind in the face of failure will lead to deeper introspection and see clearly where the process went wrong so that corrective steps could be taken to avoid shortcomings in future. The principle of reducing our attachment to personal gains from the work done is the Gita’s prescription for attaining equanimity. It has been held that this principle leads to lack of incentive for effort, striking at the very root of work ethic. To the contrary, concentration on the task for its own sake leads to the achievement of excellence – and indeed to the true mental happiness of the worker. Thus, while commonplace theories of motivation may be said to lead us to the bondage or extrinsic rewards, the Gita’s principle leads us to the intrinsic rewards of mental, and indeed moral, satisfaction. Work results The Gita further explains the theory of “detachment” from the extrinsic rewards of work in saying: · If the result of sincere effort is a success, the entire credit should not be appropriated by the doer alone. · If the result of sincere effort is a failure, then too the entire blame does not accrue to the doer. The former attitude mollifies arrogance and conceit while the latter prevents excessive despondency, de-motivation and self-pity. Thus both these dispositions safeguard the doer against psychological vulnerability, the cause of the modem managers' companions of diabetes, high blood pressure and ulcers. Assimilation of the ideas of the Gita leads us to the wider spectrum of “lokasamgraha” (general welfare) but there is also another dimension to the work ethic - if the “karmayoga” (service) is blended with “bhaktiyoga” (devotion), then the work itself becomes worship, a “sevayoga" (service for its own sake.) Along with bhakti yoga as a means of liberation, the Gita espouses the doctrine of nishkamya karma or pure action untainted by hankering after the fruits resulting from that action. Modern scientists have now understood the intuitive wisdom of that action in a new light. Scientists at the US National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, found that laboratory monkeys that started out as procrastinators, became efficient workers after they received brain injections that suppressed a gene linked to their ability to anticipate a reward.The scientists reported that the work ethic of rhesus macaques wasn't all that different from that of many people: "If the reward is not immediate, you procrastinate", Dr Richmond told LA Times. (This may sound a peculiarly religious idea but it has a wider application. It could be taken to mean doing something because it is worthwhile, to serve others, to make the world a better place – ed.) Manager's mental health Sound mental health is the very goal of any human activity - more so management. Sound mental health is that state of mind which can maintain a calm, positive poise, or regain it when unsettled, in the midst of all the external vagaries of work life and social existence. Internal constancy and peace are the pre-requisites for a healthy stress-free mind. Some of the impediments to sound mental health are: · Greed - for power, position, prestige and money. · Envy - regarding others' achievements, success, rewards. · Egotism - about one's own accomplishments. · Suspicion, anger and frustration. · Anguish through comparisons. The driving forces in today's businesses are speed and competition. There is a distinct danger that these forces cause erosion of the moral fibre, that in seeking the end, one permits oneself immoral means - tax evasion, illegitimate financial holdings, being “economical with the truth”, deliberate oversight in the audit, too-clever financial reporting and so on. This phenomenon may be called as “yayati syndrome”. In the book, the Mahabharata, we come across a king by the name of Yayati who, in order to revel in the endless enjoyment of flesh exchanged his old age with the youth of his obliging youngest son for a thousand years. However, he found the pursuit of sensual enjoyments ultimately unsatisfying and came back to his son pleading him to take back his youth. This “yayati syndrome” shows the conflict between externally directed acquisitions (extrinsic motivation) and inner value and conscience (intrinsic motivation.) Management needs those who practise what they preach “Whatever the excellent and best ones do, the commoners follow,” says Sri Krishna in the Gita. The visionary leader must be a missionary, extremely practical, intensively dynamic and capable of translating dreams into reality. This dynamism and strength of a true leader flows from an inspired and spontaneous motivation to help others. "I am the strength of those who are devoid of personal desire and attachment. O Arjuna, I am the legitimate desire in those, who are not opposed to righteousness," says Sri Krishna in the 10th Chapter of the Gita. In conclusion The despondency of Arjuna in the first chapter of the Gita is typically human. Sri Krishna, by sheer power of his inspiring words, changes Arjuna's mind from a state of inertia to one of righteous action, from the state of what the French philosophers call “anomie” or even alienation, to a state of self-confidence in the ultimate victory of “dharma” (ethical action.) When Arjuna got over his despondency and stood ready to fight, Sri Krishna reminded him of the purpose of his new-found spirit of intense action - not for his own benefit, not for satisfying his own greed and desire, but for the good of many, with faith in the ultimate victory of ethics over unethical actions and of truth over untruth. Sri Krishna's advice with regard to temporary failures is, “No doer of good ever ends in misery.” Every action should produce results. Good action produces good results and evil begets nothing but evil. Therefore, always act well and be rewarded. My purport is not to suggest discarding of the Western model of efficiency, dynamism and striving for excellence but to tune these ideals to India's holistic attitude of “lokasangraha” - for the welfare of many, for the good of many. There is indeed a moral dimension to business life. What we do in business is no different, in this regard, to what we do in our personal lives. The means do not justify the ends. Pursuit of results for their own sake, is ultimately self-defeating. (“Profit,” said Matsushita-san in another tradition, “is the reward of correct behaviour.” – ed.) A note on the word "yoga". Yoga has two different meanings - a general meaning and a technical meaning. The general meaning is the joining together or union of any two or more things. The technical meaning is “a state of stability and peace and the means or practices which lead to that state." The Bhagavad Gita uses the word with both meanings. M.P.Bhattathiri. Let us go through what scholars say about Holy Gita. "No work in all Indian literature is more quoted, because none is better loved, in the West, than the Bhagavad-gita. Translation of such a work demands not only knowledge of Sanskrit, but an inward sympathy with the theme and a verbal artistry. For the poem is a symphony in which God is seen in all things. . . . The Swami does a real service for students by investing the beloved Indian epic with fresh meaning. Whatever our outlook may be, we should all be grateful for the labor that has lead to this illuminating work." Dr. Geddes MacGregor, Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Philosophy University of Southern California "The Gita can be seen as the main literary support for the great religious civilization of India, the oldest surviving culture in the world. The present translation and commentary is another manifestation of the permanent living importance of the Gita." Thomas Merton, Theologian "I am most impressed with A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada's scholarly and authoritative edition of Bhagavad-gita. It is a most valuable work for the scholar as well as the layman and is of great utility as a reference book as well as a textbook. I promptly recommend this edition to my students. It is a beautifully done book." Dr. Samuel D. Atkins Professor of Sanskrit, Princeton University "As a successor in direct line from Caitanya, the author of Bhagavad-gita As It Is is entitled, according to Indian custom, to the majestic title of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. The great interest that his reading of the Bhagavad-gita holds for us is that it offers us an authorized interpretation according to the principles of the Caitanya tradition." Olivier Lacombe Professor of Sanskrit and Indology, Sorbonne University, Paris "I have had the opportunity of examining several volumes published by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust and have found them to be of excellent quality and of great value for use in college classes on Indian religions. This is particularly true of the BBT edition and translation of the Bhagavad-gita." Dr. Frederick B. Underwood Professor of Religion, Columbia University "If truth is what works, as Pierce and the pragmatists insist, there must be a kind of truth in the Bhagavad-gita As It Is, since those who follow its teachings display a joyous serenity usually missing in the bleak and strident lives of contemporary people." Dr. Elwin H. Powell Professor of Sociology State University of New York, Buffalo "There is little question that this edition is one of the best books available on the Gita and devotion. Prabhupada's translation is an ideal blend of literal accuracy and religious insight." Dr. Thomas J. Hopkins Professor of Religion, Franklin and Marshall College "The Bhagavad-gita, one of the great spiritual texts, is not as yet a common part of our cultural milieu. This is probably less because it is alien per se than because we have lacked just the kind of close interpretative commentary upon it that Swami Bhaktivedanta has here provided, a commentary written from not only a scholar's but a practitioner's, a dedicated lifelong devotee's point of view." Denise Levertov, Poet "The increasing numbers of Western readers interested in classical Vedic thought have been done a service by Swami Bhaktivedanta. By bringing us a new and living interpretation of a text already known to many, he has increased our understanding manyfold." Dr. Edward C Dimock, Jr. Department of South Asian Languages and Civilization University of Chicago "The scholarly world is again indebted to A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Although Bhagavad-gita has been translated many times, Prabhupada adds a translation of singular importance with his commentary." Dr. J. Stillson Judah, Professor of the History of Religions and Director of Libraries Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California "Srila Prabhupada's edition thus fills a sensitive gap in France, where many hope to become familiar with traditional Indian thought, beyond the commercial East-West hodgepodge that has arisen since the time Europeans first penetrated India. "Whether the reader be an adept of Indian spiritualism or not, a reading of the Bhagavad-gita As It Is will be extremely profitable. For many this will be the first contact with the true India, the ancient India, the eternal India." Francois Chenique, Professor of Religious Sciences Institute of Political Studies, Paris, France "It was as if an empire spoke to us, nothing small or unworthy, but large, serene, consistent, the voice of an old intelligence which in another age and climate had pondered and thus disposed of the same questions which exercise us" Emerson's reaction to the Gita "As a native of India now living in the West, it has given me much grief to see so many of my fellow countrymen coming to the West in the role of gurus and spiritual leaders. For this reason, I am very excited to see the publication of Bhagavad-gita As It Is by Sri A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. It will help to stop the terrible cheating of false and unauthorized 'gurus' and 'yogis' and will give an opportunity to all people to understand the actual meaning of Oriental culture." Dr. Kailash Vajpeye, Director of Indian Studies Center for Oriental Studies, The University of Mexico "The Gita is one of the clearest and most comprehensive one, of the summaries and systematic spiritual statements of the perennial philosophy ever to have been done" __________________________________________Aldous Huxley "It is a deeply felt, powerfully conceived and beautifully explained work. I don't know whether to praise more this translation of the Bhagavad-gita, its daring method of explanation, or the endless fertility of its ideas. I have never seen any other work on the Gita with such an important voice and style. . . . It will occupy a significant place in the intellectual and ethical life of modern man for a long time to come." Dr. Shaligram Shukla Professor of Linguistics, Georgetown University "I can say that in the Bhagavad-gita As It Is I have found explanations and answers to questions I had always posed regarding the interpretations of this sacred work, whose spiritual discipline I greatly admire. If the aesceticism and ideal of the apostles which form the message of the Bhagavad-gita As It Is were more widespread and more respected, the world in which we live would be transformed into a better, more fraternal place." Dr. Paul Lesourd, Author Professeur Honoraire, Catholic University of Paris "When I read the Bhagavad-Gita and reflect about how God created this universe everything else seems so superfluous." Albert Einstein "When doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in the face, and I see not one ray of hope on the horizon, I turn to Bhagavad-gita and find a verse to comfort me; and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming sorrow. Those who meditate on the Gita will derive fresh joy and new meanings from it every day." Mahatma Gandhi "In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavad-gita, in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seem puny and trivial." Henry David Thoreau "The Bhagavad-Gita has a profound influence on the spirit of mankind by its devotion to God which is manifested by actions." Dr. Albert Schweitzer "The Bhagavad-Gita is a true scripture of the human race a living creation rather than a book, with a new message for every age and a new meaning for every civilization." Sri Aurobindo "The idea that man is like unto an inverted tree seems to have been current in by gone ages. The link with Vedic conceptions is provided by Plato in his Timaeus in which it states 'behold we are not an earthly but a heavenly plant.' This correlation can be discerned by what Krishna expresses in chapter 15 of Bhagavad-Gita." Carl Jung "The Bhagavad-Gita deals essentially with the spiritual foundation of human existence. It is a call of action to meet the obligations and duties of life; yet keeping in view the spiritual nature and grander purpose of the universe." Prime Minister Nehru "The marvel of the Bhagavad-Gita is its truly beautiful revelation of life's wisdom which enables philosophy to blossom into religion." Herman Hesse "I owed a magnificent day to the Bhagavad-gita. It was the first of books; it was as if an empire spoke to us, nothing small or unworthy, but large, serene, consistent, the voice of an old intelligence which in another age and climate had pondered and thus disposed of the same questions which exercise us." Ralph Waldo Emerson "In order to approach a creation as sublime as the Bhagavad-Gita with full understanding it is necessary to attune our soul to it." Rudolph Steiner "From a clear knowledge of the Bhagavad-Gita all the goals of human existence become fulfilled. Bhagavad-Gita is the manifest quintessence of all the teachings of the Vedic scriptures." Adi Shankara "The Bhagavad-Gita is the most systematic statement of spiritual evolution of endowing value to mankind. It is one of the most clear and comprehensive summaries of perennial philosophy ever revealed; hence its enduring value is subject not only to India but to all of humanity." Aldous Huxley "The Bhagavad-Gita was spoken by Lord Krishna to reveal the science of devotion to God which is the essence of all spiritual knowledge. The Supreme Lord Krishna's primary purpose for descending and incarnating is relieve the world of any demoniac and negative, undesirable influences that are opposed to spiritual development, yet simultaneously it is His incomparable intention to be perpetually within reach of all humanity." Ramanuja The Bhagavad-Gita is not seperate from the Vaishnava philosophy and the Srimad Bhagavatam fully reveals the true import of this doctrine which is transmigation of the soul. On perusal of the first chapter of Bhagavad-Gita one may think that they are advised to engage in warfare. When the second chapter has been read it can be clearly understood that knowledge and the soul is the ultimate goal to be attained. On studying the third chapter it is apparent that acts of righteousness are also of high priority. If we continue and patiently take the time to complete the Bhagavad-Gita and try to ascertain the truth of its closing chapter we can see that the ultimate conclusion is to relinquish all the conceptualized ideas of religion which we possess and fully surrender directly unto the Supreme Lord. Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati "The Mahabharata has all the essential ingredients necessary to evolve and protect humanity and that within it the Bhagavad-Gita is the epitome of the Mahabharata just as ghee is the essence of milk and pollen is the essence of flowers." Madhvacarya Yoga has two different meanings - a general meaning and a technical meaning. The general meaning is the joining together or union of any two or more things. The technical meaning is “a state of stability and peace and the means or practices which lead to that state." The Bhagavad Gita uses the word with both meanings. Lord Krishna is real Yogi who can maintain a peaceful mind in the midst of any crisis." Mata Amritanandamayi Devi. Prajnanam Brahma Consciousness is Brahman (Aitareya Upanishad 3.3, of Rg Veda) Other Translations: Brahman is pure consciousness; Brahman is knowing; Brahman is intelligence In the sentence, ‘Prajnanam Brahma’ or Consciousness is Brahman, a definition of Reality is given. The best definition of Brahman would be to give expression to its supra-essential essence, and not to describe it with reference to accidental attributes, such as creatorship etc. That which is ultimately responsible for all our sensory activities, as seeing, hearing, etc., is Consciousness. Though Consciousness does not directly see or hear, it is impossible to have these sensory operations without it. Hence it should be considered as the final meaning of our mental and physical activities. Brahman is that which is Absolute, fills all space, is complete in itself, to which there is no second, and which is continuously present in everything, from the creator down to the lowest of matter. It, being everywhere, is also in each and every individual. This is the meaning of Prajnanam Brahma occurring in the Aitareya Upanishad.** Ayam Atma Brahma This Self is Brahman (Mandukya Upanishad 1.2, of Atharva Veda) Other Translations: Brahman is this Self; This Self is Brahma The Mahavakya, ‘Ayam Atma Brahma’ or ‘This Self is Brahman,’ occurs in the Mandukya Upanishad. ‘Ayam’ means ‘this,’ and here ‘thisness’ refers to the self-luminous and non-mediate nature of the Self, which is internal to everything, from the Ahamkara or ego down to the physical body. This Self is Brahman, which is the substance out of which all things are really made. That which is everywhere, is also within us, and what is within us is everywhere. This is called ‘Brahman,’ because it is plenum, fills all space, expands into all existence, and is vast beyond all measure of perception or knowledge. On account of self-luminosity, non-relativity and universality, Atman and Brahman are the same. This identification of the Self with Absolute is not any act of bringing together two differing natures, but is an affirmation that absoluteness or universality includes everything, and there is nothing outside it.** Tat Tvam Asi Thou art that (Chandogya Upanishad 6.8.7, of Sama Veda, Kaivalya Upanishad) Other Translations: That is how you are; That art thou In the Chandogya Upanishad occurs the Mahavakya, ‘Tat Tvam Asi’ or ‘That thou art.’ Sage Uddalaka mentions this nine times, while instructing his disciple Svetaketu in the nature of Reality. That which is one alone without a second, without name and form, and which existed before creation, as well as after creation, as pure Existence alone, is what is referred to as Tat or That, in this sentence. The term Tvam stands for that which is in the innermost recesses of the student or the aspirant, but which is transcendent to the intellect, mind, senses, etc., and is the real 'I' of the student addressed in the teaching. The union of Tat and Tvam is by the term Asi or are. That Reality is remote is a misconception, which is removed by the instruction that it is within one’s own self. The erroneous notion that the Self is limited is dispelled by the instruction that it is the same as Reality.** Aham Brahmasmi I am Brahman. (Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.10, of Yajur Veda, Mahanarayana Upanishad) In the sentence, ‘Aham Brahmasmi,’ or I am Brahman, the ‘I’ is that which is the One Witnessing Consciousness, standing apart form even the intellect, different from the ego-principle, and shining through every act of thinking, feeling, etc. This Witness-Consciousness, being the same in all, is universal, and cannot be distinguished from Brahman, which is the Absolute. Hence the essential ‘I’ which is full, super-rational and resplendent, should be the same as Brahman. This is not the identification of the limited individual ‘I’ with Brahman, but it is the Universal Substratum of individuality that is asserted to be what it is. The copula ‘am’ does not signify any empirical relation between two entities, but affirms the non-duality of essence. This dictum is from the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad.** Karma, Bhakti, and Jnana are but three paths to this end. And common to all the three is renunciation. Renounce the desires, even of going to heaven, for every desire related with body and mind creates bondage. Our focus of action is neither to save the humanity nor to engage in social reforms, not to seek personal gains, but to realize the indwelling Self itself. Swami Vivekananda (England, London; 1895-96 ) "Science describes the structures and processess; philosophy attempts at their explaination.----- When such a perfect combination of both science and philosophy is sung to perfection that Krishna was, we have in this piece of work an appeal both to the head annd heart. " ____________Swamy Chinmayanand on Gita I seek that Divine Knowledge by knowing which nothing remains to be known!' For such a person knowledge and ignorance has only one meaning: Have you knowledge of God? If yes, you a Jnani! If not, you are ignorant.As said in the Gita, chapter XIII/11, knowledge of Self, observing everywhere the object of true Knowledge i.e. God, all this is declared to be true Knowledge (wisdom); what is contrary to this is ignorance." Sri Ramakrishna . Maharishi calls the Bhagavad-Gita the essence of Vedic Literature and a complete guide to practical life. It provides “all that is needed to raise the consciousness of man to the highest possible level.” Maharishi reveals the deep, universal truths of life that speak to the needs and aspirations of everyone. Maharshi Mahesh Yogi The Gita was preached as a preparatory lesson for living worldly life with an eye to Release, Nirvana. My last prayer to everyone, therefore, is that one should not fail to thoroughly understand this ancient science of worldly life as early as possible in one’s life. --- Lokmanya Tilak I believe that in all the living languages of the world, there is no book so full of true knowledge, and yet so handy. It teaches self-control, austerity, non-violence, compassion, obedience to the call of duty for the sake of duty, and putting up a fight against unrighteousness (Adharma). To my knowledge, there is no book in the whole range of the world’s literature so high above as the Bhagavad-Gita, which is the treasure-house of Dharma nor only for the Hindus but foe all mankind. --- M. M. Malaviya ref. bbt.org, kamakoti.org, amritapuri.org, mahrshi.com, sai.org,chinmaya.org, vivekanada.org,neovedanta/gospel.com,spirituality.indiatimes.com

#3 Posted by bhattathiri on 1/13/2007

Your website is beautiful, informative and Excellent. Article by M.P. Bhattathiri, Retired Chief Technical Examiner , to The Govt. of Kerala. Humble request that it may be published in your website and magazine after editing if necessary. Where is God? Where is God? Somebody's (especially kids andyouth) curious enquiry .The parents and elders face the problem how it can be explained?. The only answer is that "God is everywhere means in living and nonliving things yet localized, all-pervading yet aloof. He walks yet doesn't walk. He is far away yet very near as well. also like taste of water , ligt of sun " Such contradictory statements are not whimsical. Rather, they indicate God's inconceivable power.We can only feel and enjoy. The Absolute Truth, Krshna,Chirst, can be realized in three phases: Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan. or father, son pure soul.These aspects of the Absolute Truth are comparable to the sunshine (Brahman), the sun's surface (Paramatma) and the sun planet (Bhagavan);three different features of the same reality. The Brahman aspect of God is the beginningless, impersonal form of the Lord, the effulgence of Krshna's transcendental body. Just as the root of a tree maintains the whole tree, Krsna, the root of all things, maintains everything by His energies: He is the heat in fire, the taste of water, the light of the sun ;the underline principle or foundatio of everything. Although Krshna spread Himself throughout His creation, He retained His own personality. "Unintelligent men, who do not know Me perfectly, think that I was impersonal before and have now assumed this personality," Krshna explains in Bhagavad-gita. "Due to their small knowledge, they do not know My higher nature, which is imperishable and supreme" (Bg. 7.24). Although impersonalists may eventually achieve the Lord, their path is fraught with difficulties, for it is unnatural for the embodied soul to conceive of the unembodied, which is only a partial aspect of the Absolute Truth. Realization of God as "Paramatma," the Supersoul in the heart of every embodied soul, is compared to knowing the sun disc in the sky. The Paramatma is the supreme proprietor, witness and permitter, and He accompanies the wandering soul through its 8,400,000 embodiments. Acting as the soul's friend, He remains the soul's constant companion during his sojourn in the material world, no matter what type of body the soul inhabits;in pig, mosquito, philosopher, demigod. The Supersoul helps him fulfill his desires by supplying knowledge, remembrance, and forgetfulness. Although the Supersoul appears to be divided among all beings, He is never divided. Rather, He is situated as one and all;like the sun reflected in millions of buckets of water. Paramatma can be perceived through total surrender, meditation, cultivation of knowledge, working without fruitive desires and finally devotion. A person in full knowledge of Paramatma understands that the Supersoul is the localized aspect of the Supreme Personality of Godhead within this material world and that the next step is to worship Him as Bhagavan. The word "Bhagavan" refers to one who possesses in full all opulences that we possess in minute degree: riches, strength, fame, beauty, knowledge and renunciation. Although everyone can claim some degree of these opulences, only the Supreme Personality of Godhead can claim them all absolutely. "Although I am unborn and My transcendental body never deteriorates," Krshna tells Arjuna in the Bhagavad-gita (4.6), "I still appear in every millennium in My original transcendental form." Krshna appears in this world "to deliver the pious, annihilate the miscreants, and to reestablish the principles of religion" (Bg. 4.. He does not change His body when He appears, like a common living entity, who appears in body after another. Rather, He appears in His original eternal form, with two hands, holding a flute. Still, it appears that He takes birth like an ordinary child and grows to boyhood and youth. But He never ages beyond youth. At the time of the Battle of Kuruksetra, He was more than one hundred years old by material calculations, but He looked like a young man. He is the oldest person, but neither His body nor His intelligence ever deteriorates or changes. To know Krshna as Bhagavan is a privilege reserved for bhakti-yogis. "I am never manifest to the foolish and unintelligent," Krshna explains (Bg. 7.25). "For them I am covered by My internal potency, and therefore they do not know that I am unborn and infallible." "One can understand me as I am, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, only by devotional service. And when, by such devotion, one is fully conscious of Me, one can enter the kingdom of God" (Bg. 18.55). The Vedic scriptures declare that Bhagavan Sri Krshna is the source of both the Supersoul and Brahman and the origin of all avataras. Avataras are scheduled incarnations who descend from the spiritual world to execute the Lord's mission of protecting the devotees and annihilating the miscreants. Their descent is foretold in the scriptures so that unscrupulous persons can be checked from claiming to be avataras. . A common misconception of uninformed students of the Bhagavad-gita is that Krsna's universal form (described in the Eleventh Chapter) is the last word in God realization. The universal form is most impressive and spectacular: "If hundreds of thousands of suns were to rise at once into the sky, their radiance might resemble the effulgence of the Supreme Person in that universal form. Arjuna could see in the universal form of the Lord the unlimited expansions of the universe situated in one place although divided into many, many thousands" (Bg. 11.13). The universal form frightened Arjuna and boggled his mind, especially the kala-rupa, the form of time that was devouring and chewing up all the combatants on the battlefield of Kuruksetra. Arjuna therefore requested Krshna to withdraw His terrifying universal form and show him His four-armed Visnu form. Krshna agreed. Then, reverting back to the two-armed form that Arjuna was accustomed to see, the Lord declared, "This form of Mine you are now seeing is very difficult to behold. It cannot be understood simply by studying the Vedas, nor by undergoing serious penances, nor by charity, nor by worship. Only by undivided devotional service can I be understood as I am, standing before you, and can thus been seen directly" (Bg. 11.53-4). The kingdom of God is called Vaikuntha, the place without anxiety, and it lies far beyond this world of matter. It is eternal, and every single one of its atoms is fully conscious and blissful. Shaped like a lotus flower whose petals are the countless spiritual planets where the Visnu expansions of Krshna reside, Vaikuntha has a whorl called Goloka Vrindavana, a planet where every word is a song and every step is a dance, where trees fulfill all desires, palaces are made of touchstone, and transcendental cows supply unlimited milk. The original Krshna enjoys life there as a cowherd boy with His loving devotees. Those who reach that supreme abode never return to the material world.In this Kaliyuga we are fortunate to see and worship Lord in the form of krishna, christ, allah, Budha to remove all our hurdles. Everywhere in this universe, in one respect man’s condition is the same. No matter how vastly different he may be in the outer appearance of his life, different countries, different races, different cultures, different languages, different ways of living, eating, dressing, etc., he may be completely different in all of these aspects, but there is one thing that is the same to all human individuals. And it is this factor that binds them into a global unity. If analyzed, it will be discovered that all humanity is engaged ceaselessly, day after day, from the cradle to the grave, only in trying to avoid painful experiences and in trying to attain that which gives them happiness. Yet, beloved seeker, let me ask you this one very important question. Since the time of creation, is there one single individual who has been born onto this earth who can stand up boldly and declare, "In my life I have never experienced any sorrow or pain or suffering whatsoever. My whole life has been a life full of joy, full of happiness, full of bliss". You will find that there is not even one single individual on earth who has not had at some time or another some type of pain or suffering or grief or sorrow. This is a world of pain and sorrow. With a few minutes thoughtful reflection you will see that this is so. Many painful experiences are brought about by natural forces beyond our control—floods, earthquakes, tidal waves, cyclones, fires, famines. Then there is suffering brought about by other forms of life—germs, microbes, bacteria, viruses, insects, reptiles, animals. But by far the greatest source of suffering is caused by man himself. It is suffering that is self-created, that arises within our own psychological self due to desire and attachment for worldly objects—love and hate, anger and passion, fear, worry, tension, anxiety, jealousy, envy, greed, frustration, disappointment, disillusionment, the sorrow of separation, bereavement, and all other varieties of restlessness of mind due to our multitude of desires. Everyone thinks happiness is to be found in objects and experiences. Everyone thinks, "If I could only attain certain objects, if I could only possess them, if I could experience them, I will get happiness." In spite of countless disappointments and disillusionments, man never learns. There is not an iota of happiness in earthly objects. No object is perfect. They do not have in them the power or ability to give you lasting happiness or joy because they are finite and they are imperfect. Otherwise, they must be able to give a homogeneous state of happiness to all beings at all times under all conditions. But what do you actually see? If you like milk and you take a glass full of sweetened milk flavoured with spices, the first glass may give you satisfaction. And if you are pressed upon to take another glass, the second glass may give satisfaction, but it is not the same degree of happiness or pleasure as was the first glass. And if your stomach is already full with two glasses of milk, if you try to take a third glass of milk, it becomes unpleasant, it becomes undesirable. And if it is forced upon you, a fourth glass of milk produces nausea and you will have to throw it up. Where then is real happiness? Daily life can be made happier. It is a matter of choice. It is our attitude that makes us feel happy or unhappy. It is true, we meet all kinds of situations during the day, and some of them may not be conductive to happiness. We can choose to keep thinking about the unhappy events, and we can choose to refuse to think about them, and instead, relish the happy moments. All of us constantly go through various situations and circumstances, but we do not have to let them influence our reactions and feelings. If milk had in it the power of giving happiness, it must be able to grant you this happiness at all times, under all conditions. It cannot change its nature. Such examples show that all experiences derived from the contact of senses with their respective sense-objects ultimately are experiences that end in disappointment. Therefore, the great world teacher, Lord Krishna had this very important insight to impart to us when he said: "O Arjuna, all these experiences brought about by the contact of one or other of the five senses with their respective sense objects, these experiences are ultimately the source of sorrow. There is no real happiness in these sense contacts and sense experiences. They are but mere momentary sensations afterwards giving you pain." REF. bbt.org, kamakoti.org, amritapuri.org, mahrshi.com, sai.org,chinmaya.org , vivekanada.org,neovedanta/gospel.com, spirituality.indiatimes.com, bhavan's journal.

#4 Posted by bhattathiri on 1/13/2007

Ok Where is God? Where is God? Somebody's (especially kids andyouth) curious enquiry .The parents and elders face the problem how it can be explained?. The only answer is that "God is everywhere means in living and nonliving things yet localized, all-pervading yet aloof. He walks yet doesn't walk. He is far away yet very near as well. also like taste of water , ligt of sun " Such contradictory statements are not whimsical. Rather, they indicate God's inconceivable power.We can only feel and enjoy. The Absolute Truth, Krshna,Chirst, can be realized in three phases: Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan. or father, son pure soul.These aspects of the Absolute Truth are comparable to the sunshine (Brahman), the sun's surface (Paramatma) and the sun planet (Bhagavan);three different features of the same reality. The Brahman aspect of God is the beginningless, impersonal form of the Lord, the effulgence of Krshna's transcendental body. Just as the root of a tree maintains the whole tree, Krsna, the root of all things, maintains everything by His energies: He is the heat in fire, the taste of water, the light of the sun ;the underline principle or foundatio of everything. Although Krshna spread Himself throughout His creation, He retained His own personality. "Unintelligent men, who do not know Me perfectly, think that I was impersonal before and have now assumed this personality," Krshna explains in Bhagavad-gita. "Due to their small knowledge, they do not know My higher nature, which is imperishable and supreme" (Bg. 7.24). Although impersonalists may eventually achieve the Lord, their path is fraught with difficulties, for it is unnatural for the embodied soul to conceive of the unembodied, which is only a partial aspect of the Absolute Truth. Realization of God as "Paramatma," the Supersoul in the heart of every embodied soul, is compared to knowing the sun disc in the sky. The Paramatma is the supreme proprietor, witness and permitter, and He accompanies the wandering soul through its 8,400,000 embodiments. Acting as the soul's friend, He remains the soul's constant companion during his sojourn in the material world, no matter what type of body the soul inhabits;in pig, mosquito, philosopher, demigod. The Supersoul helps him fulfill his desires by supplying knowledge, remembrance, and forgetfulness. Although the Supersoul appears to be divided among all beings, He is never divided. Rather, He is situated as one and all;like the sun reflected in millions of buckets of water. Paramatma can be perceived through total surrender, meditation, cultivation of knowledge, working without fruitive desires and finally devotion. A person in full knowledge of Paramatma understands that the Supersoul is the localized aspect of the Supreme Personality of Godhead within this material world and that the next step is to worship Him as Bhagavan. The word "Bhagavan" refers to one who possesses in full all opulences that we possess in minute degree: riches, strength, fame, beauty, knowledge and renunciation. Although everyone can claim some degree of these opulences, only the Supreme Personality of Godhead can claim them all absolutely. "Although I am unborn and My transcendental body never deteriorates," Krshna tells Arjuna in the Bhagavad-gita (4.6), "I still appear in every millennium in My original transcendental form." Krshna appears in this world "to deliver the pious, annihilate the miscreants, and to reestablish the principles of religion" (Bg. 4.. He does not change His body when He appears, like a common living entity, who appears in body after another. Rather, He appears in His original eternal form, with two hands, holding a flute. Still, it appears that He takes birth like an ordinary child and grows to boyhood and youth. But He never ages beyond youth. At the time of the Battle of Kuruksetra, He was more than one hundred years old by material calculations, but He looked like a young man. He is the oldest person, but neither His body nor His intelligence ever deteriorates or changes. To know Krshna as Bhagavan is a privilege reserved for bhakti-yogis. "I am never manifest to the foolish and unintelligent," Krshna explains (Bg. 7.25). "For them I am covered by My internal potency, and therefore they do not know that I am unborn and infallible." "One can understand me as I am, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, only by devotional service. And when, by such devotion, one is fully conscious of Me, one can enter the kingdom of God" (Bg. 18.55). The Vedic scriptures declare that Bhagavan Sri Krshna is the source of both the Supersoul and Brahman and the origin of all avataras. Avataras are scheduled incarnations who descend from the spiritual world to execute the Lord's mission of protecting the devotees and annihilating the miscreants. Their descent is foretold in the scriptures so that unscrupulous persons can be checked from claiming to be avataras. . A common misconception of uninformed students of the Bhagavad-gita is that Krsna's universal form (described in the Eleventh Chapter) is the last word in God realization. The universal form is most impressive and spectacular: "If hundreds of thousands of suns were to rise at once into the sky, their radiance might resemble the effulgence of the Supreme Person in that universal form. Arjuna could see in the universal form of the Lord the unlimited expansions of the universe situated in one place although divided into many, many thousands" (Bg. 11.13). The universal form frightened Arjuna and boggled his mind, especially the kala-rupa, the form of time that was devouring and chewing up all the combatants on the battlefield of Kuruksetra. Arjuna therefore requested Krshna to withdraw His terrifying universal form and show him His four-armed Visnu form. Krshna agreed. Then, reverting back to the two-armed form that Arjuna was accustomed to see, the Lord declared, "This form of Mine you are now seeing is very difficult to behold. It cannot be understood simply by studying the Vedas, nor by undergoing serious penances, nor by charity, nor by worship. Only by undivided devotional service can I be understood as I am, standing before you, and can thus been seen directly" (Bg. 11.53-4). The kingdom of God is called Vaikuntha, the place without anxiety, and it lies far beyond this world of matter. It is eternal, and every single one of its atoms is fully conscious and blissful. Shaped like a lotus flower whose petals are the countless spiritual planets where the Visnu expansions of Krshna reside, Vaikuntha has a whorl called Goloka Vrindavana, a planet where every word is a song and every step is a dance, where trees fulfill all desires, palaces are made of touchstone, and transcendental cows supply unlimited milk. The original Krshna enjoys life there as a cowherd boy with His loving devotees. Those who reach that supreme abode never return to the material world.In this Kaliyuga we are fortunate to see and worship Lord in the form of krishna, christ, allah, Budha to remove all our hurdles. Everywhere in this universe, in one respect man’s condition is the same. No matter how vastly different he may be in the outer appearance of his life, different countries, different races, different cultures, different languages, different ways of living, eating, dressing, etc., he may be completely different in all of these aspects, but there is one thing that is the same to all human individuals. And it is this factor that binds them into a global unity. If analyzed, it will be discovered that all humanity is engaged ceaselessly, day after day, from the cradle to the grave, only in trying to avoid painful experiences and in trying to attain that which gives them happiness. Yet, beloved seeker, let me ask you this one very important question. Since the time of creation, is there one single individual who has been born onto this earth who can stand up boldly and declare, "In my life I have never experienced any sorrow or pain or suffering whatsoever. My whole life has been a life full of joy, full of happiness, full of bliss". You will find that there is not even one single individual on earth who has not had at some time or another some type of pain or suffering or grief or sorrow. This is a world of pain and sorrow. With a few minutes thoughtful reflection you will see that this is so. Many painful experiences are brought about by natural forces beyond our control—floods, earthquakes, tidal waves, cyclones, fires, famines. Then there is suffering brought about by other forms of life—germs, microbes, bacteria, viruses, insects, reptiles, animals. But by far the greatest source of suffering is caused by man himself. It is suffering that is self-created, that arises within our own psychological self due to desire and attachment for worldly objects—love and hate, anger and passion, fear, worry, tension, anxiety, jealousy, envy, greed, frustration, disappointment, disillusionment, the sorrow of separation, bereavement, and all other varieties of restlessness of mind due to our multitude of desires. Everyone thinks happiness is to be found in objects and experiences. Everyone thinks, "If I could only attain certain objects, if I could only possess them, if I could experience them, I will get happiness." In spite of countless disappointments and disillusionments, man never learns. There is not an iota of happiness in earthly objects. No object is perfect. They do not have in them the power or ability to give you lasting happiness or joy because they are finite and they are imperfect. Otherwise, they must be able to give a homogeneous state of happiness to all beings at all times under all conditions. But what do you actually see? If you like milk and you take a glass full of sweetened milk flavoured with spices, the first glass may give you satisfaction. And if you are pressed upon to take another glass, the second glass may give satisfaction, but it is not the same degree of happiness or pleasure as was the first glass. And if your stomach is already full with two glasses of milk, if you try to take a third glass of milk, it becomes unpleasant, it becomes undesirable. And if it is forced upon you, a fourth glass of milk produces nausea and you will have to throw it up. Where then is real happiness? Daily life can be made happier. It is a matter of choice. It is our attitude that makes us feel happy or unhappy. It is true, we meet all kinds of situations during the day, and some of them may not be conductive to happiness. We can choose to keep thinking about the unhappy events, and we can choose to refuse to think about them, and instead, relish the happy moments. All of us constantly go through various situations and circumstances, but we do not have to let them influence our reactions and feelings. If milk had in it the power of giving happiness, it must be able to grant you this happiness at all times, under all conditions. It cannot change its nature. Such examples show that all experiences derived from the contact of senses with their respective sense-objects ultimately are experiences that end in disappointment. Therefore, the great world teacher, Lord Krishna had this very important insight to impart to us when he said: "O Arjuna, all these experiences brought about by the contact of one or other of the five senses with their respective sense objects, these experiences are ultimately the source of sorrow. There is no real happiness in these sense contacts and sense experiences. They are but mere momentary sensations afterwards giving you pain." REF. bbt.org, kamakoti.org, amritapuri.org, mahrshi.com, sai.org,chinmaya.org , vivekanada.org,neovedanta/gospel.com, spirituality.indiatimes.com, bhavan's journal.

#5 Posted by bhattathiri on 1/13/2007

Ok Where is God? Where is God? Somebody's (especially kids andyouth) curious enquiry .The parents and elders face the problem how it can be explained?. The only answer is that "God is everywhere means in living and nonliving things yet localized, all-pervading yet aloof. He walks yet doesn't walk. He is far away yet very near as well. also like taste of water , ligt of sun " Such contradictory statements are not whimsical. Rather, they indicate God's inconceivable power.We can only feel and enjoy. The Absolute Truth, Krshna,Chirst, can be realized in three phases: Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan. or father, son pure soul.These aspects of the Absolute Truth are comparable to the sunshine (Brahman), the sun's surface (Paramatma) and the sun planet (Bhagavan);three different features of the same reality. The Brahman aspect of God is the beginningless, impersonal form of the Lord, the effulgence of Krshna's transcendental body. Just as the root of a tree maintains the whole tree, Krsna, the root of all things, maintains everything by His energies: He is the heat in fire, the taste of water, the light of the sun ;the underline principle or foundatio of everything. Although Krshna spread Himself throughout His creation, He retained His own personality. "Unintelligent men, who do not know Me perfectly, think that I was impersonal before and have now assumed this personality," Krshna explains in Bhagavad-gita. "Due to their small knowledge, they do not know My higher nature, which is imperishable and supreme" (Bg. 7.24). Although impersonalists may eventually achieve the Lord, their path is fraught with difficulties, for it is unnatural for the embodied soul to conceive of the unembodied, which is only a partial aspect of the Absolute Truth. Realization of God as "Paramatma," the Supersoul in the heart of every embodied soul, is compared to knowing the sun disc in the sky. The Paramatma is the supreme proprietor, witness and permitter, and He accompanies the wandering soul through its 8,400,000 embodiments. Acting as the soul's friend, He remains the soul's constant companion during his sojourn in the material world, no matter what type of body the soul inhabits;in pig, mosquito, philosopher, demigod. The Supersoul helps him fulfill his desires by supplying knowledge, remembrance, and forgetfulness. Although the Supersoul appears to be divided among all beings, He is never divided. Rather, He is situated as one and all;like the sun reflected in millions of buckets of water. Paramatma can be perceived through total surrender, meditation, cultivation of knowledge, working without fruitive desires and finally devotion. A person in full knowledge of Paramatma understands that the Supersoul is the localized aspect of the Supreme Personality of Godhead within this material world and that the next step is to worship Him as Bhagavan. The word "Bhagavan" refers to one who possesses in full all opulences that we possess in minute degree: riches, strength, fame, beauty, knowledge and renunciation. Although everyone can claim some degree of these opulences, only the Supreme Personality of Godhead can claim them all absolutely. "Although I am unborn and My transcendental body never deteriorates," Krshna tells Arjuna in the Bhagavad-gita (4.6), "I still appear in every millennium in My original transcendental form." Krshna appears in this world "to deliver the pious, annihilate the miscreants, and to reestablish the principles of religion" (Bg. 4.. He does not change His body when He appears, like a common living entity, who appears in body after another. Rather, He appears in His original eternal form, with two hands, holding a flute. Still, it appears that He takes birth like an ordinary child and grows to boyhood and youth. But He never ages beyond youth. At the time of the Battle of Kuruksetra, He was more than one hundred years old by material calculations, but He looked like a young man. He is the oldest person, but neither His body nor His intelligence ever deteriorates or changes. To know Krshna as Bhagavan is a privilege reserved for bhakti-yogis. "I am never manifest to the foolish and unintelligent," Krshna explains (Bg. 7.25). "For them I am covered by My internal potency, and therefore they do not know that I am unborn and infallible." "One can understand me as I am, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, only by devotional service. And when, by such devotion, one is fully conscious of Me, one can enter the kingdom of God" (Bg. 18.55). The Vedic scriptures declare that Bhagavan Sri Krshna is the source of both the Supersoul and Brahman and the origin of all avataras. Avataras are scheduled incarnations who descend from the spiritual world to execute the Lord's mission of protecting the devotees and annihilating the miscreants. Their descent is foretold in the scriptures so that unscrupulous persons can be checked from claiming to be avataras. . A common misconception of uninformed students of the Bhagavad-gita is that Krsna's universal form (described in the Eleventh Chapter) is the last word in God realization. The universal form is most impressive and spectacular: "If hundreds of thousands of suns were to rise at once into the sky, their radiance might resemble the effulgence of the Supreme Person in that universal form. Arjuna could see in the universal form of the Lord the unlimited expansions of the universe situated in one place although divided into many, many thousands" (Bg. 11.13). The universal form frightened Arjuna and boggled his mind, especially the kala-rupa, the form of time that was devouring and chewing up all the combatants on the battlefield of Kuruksetra. Arjuna therefore requested Krshna to withdraw His terrifying universal form and show him His four-armed Visnu form. Krshna agreed. Then, reverting back to the two-armed form that Arjuna was accustomed to see, the Lord declared, "This form of Mine you are now seeing is very difficult to behold. It cannot be understood simply by studying the Vedas, nor by undergoing serious penances, nor by charity, nor by worship. Only by undivided devotional service can I be understood as I am, standing before you, and can thus been seen directly" (Bg. 11.53-4). The kingdom of God is called Vaikuntha, the place without anxiety, and it lies far beyond this world of matter. It is eternal, and every single one of its atoms is fully conscious and blissful. Shaped like a lotus flower whose petals are the countless spiritual planets where the Visnu expansions of Krshna reside, Vaikuntha has a whorl called Goloka Vrindavana, a planet where every word is a song and every step is a dance, where trees fulfill all desires, palaces are made of touchstone, and transcendental cows supply unlimited milk. The original Krshna enjoys life there as a cowherd boy with His loving devotees. Those who reach that supreme abode never return to the material world.In this Kaliyuga we are fortunate to see and worship Lord in the form of krishna, christ, allah, Budha to remove all our hurdles. Everywhere in this universe, in one respect man’s condition is the same. No matter how vastly different he may be in the outer appearance of his life, different countries, different races, different cultures, different languages, different ways of living, eating, dressing, etc., he may be completely different in all of these aspects, but there is one thing that is the same to all human individuals. And it is this factor that binds them into a global unity. If analyzed, it will be discovered that all humanity is engaged ceaselessly, day after day, from the cradle to the grave, only in trying to avoid painful experiences and in trying to attain that which gives them happiness. Yet, beloved seeker, let me ask you this one very important question. Since the time of creation, is there one single individual who has been born onto this earth who can stand up boldly and declare, "In my life I have never experienced any sorrow or pain or suffering whatsoever. My whole life has been a life full of joy, full of happiness, full of bliss". You will find that there is not even one single individual on earth who has not had at some time or another some type of pain or suffering or grief or sorrow. This is a world of pain and sorrow. With a few minutes thoughtful reflection you will see that this is so. Many painful experiences are brought about by natural forces beyond our control—floods, earthquakes, tidal waves, cyclones, fires, famines. Then there is suffering brought about by other forms of life—germs, microbes, bacteria, viruses, insects, reptiles, animals. But by far the greatest source of suffering is caused by man himself. It is suffering that is self-created, that arises within our own psychological self due to desire and attachment for worldly objects—love and hate, anger and passion, fear, worry, tension, anxiety, jealousy, envy, greed, frustration, disappointment, disillusionment, the sorrow of separation, bereavement, and all other varieties of restlessness of mind due to our multitude of desires. Everyone thinks happiness is to be found in objects and experiences. Everyone thinks, "If I could only attain certain objects, if I could only possess them, if I could experience them, I will get happiness." In spite of countless disappointments and disillusionments, man never learns. There is not an iota of happiness in earthly objects. No object is perfect. They do not have in them the power or ability to give you lasting happiness or joy because they are finite and they are imperfect. Otherwise, they must be able to give a homogeneous state of happiness to all beings at all times under all conditions. But what do you actually see? If you like milk and you take a glass full of sweetened milk flavoured with spices, the first glass may give you satisfaction. And if you are pressed upon to take another glass, the second glass may give satisfaction, but it is not the same degree of happiness or pleasure as was the first glass. And if your stomach is already full with two glasses of milk, if you try to take a third glass of milk, it becomes unpleasant, it becomes undesirable. And if it is forced upon you, a fourth glass of milk produces nausea and you will have to throw it up. Where then is real happiness? Daily life can be made happier. It is a matter of choice. It is our attitude that makes us feel happy or unhappy. It is true, we meet all kinds of situations during the day, and some of them may not be conductive to happiness. We can choose to keep thinking about the unhappy events, and we can choose to refuse to think about them, and instead, relish the happy moments. All of us constantly go through various situations and circumstances, but we do not have to let them influence our reactions and feelings. If milk had in it the power of giving happiness, it must be able to grant you this happiness at all times, under all conditions. It cannot change its nature. Such examples show that all experiences derived from the contact of senses with their respective sense-objects ultimately are experiences that end in disappointment. Therefore, the great world teacher, Lord Krishna had this very important insight to impart to us when he said: "O Arjuna, all these experiences brought about by the contact of one or other of the five senses with their respective sense objects, these experiences are ultimately the source of sorrow. There is no real happiness in these sense contacts and sense experiences. They are but mere momentary sensations afterwards giving you pain." REF. bbt.org, kamakoti.org, amritapuri.org, mahrshi.com, sai.org,chinmaya.org , vivekanada.org,neovedanta/gospel.com, spirituality.indiatimes.com, bhavan's journal.

#6 Posted by bhattathiripad on 1/13/2007

Ok Where is God? Where is God? Somebody's (especially kids andyouth) curious enquiry .The parents and elders face the problem how it can be explained?. The only answer is that "God is everywhere means in living and nonliving things yet localized, all-pervading yet aloof. He walks yet doesn't walk. He is far away yet very near as well. also like taste of water , ligt of sun " Such contradictory statements are not whimsical. Rather, they indicate God's inconceivable power.We can only feel and enjoy.

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