amaidhi
மலர்மிசை ஏகினான் மாணடி சேர்ந்தார்
நிலமிசை நீடுவாழ் வார்.
manadhil ulla iravanai serndhavarghal , avargalum amaidhiyagi matravargallukkum amaidhi tharuvarghal.
Omni-anything can be very boring
A question which never itself usually comes up for querying is whether God has to necessarily be all-powerful, present everywhere and right about everything each time? If we can move past this seemingly difficult hurdle and answer it — say, in the negative — then a great deal of unresolved problems of theology, metaphysics and philosophy could at least begin to be addressed.
For example challenges like the existence of evil and suffering which have brought some of the greatest thinkers of all time to the point of hurling themselves off cliffs, could have less complicated answers than saying it’s the result of human sin, or to permit free will, or that He moves in mysterious ways.
Because if we look at it dispassionately there is, in fact, no real reason for imbuing a creator with attributes like omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence. It only exteriorises a childish yearning for what is perceived to be an ideal kind of eternal existence with infinite power over everything. Also, positing absolutes leads to paradoxes that can never be satisfactorily resolved. We’re immediately stuck with things like the simplistic “Can He make a stone so big that even He can’t lift it?” to the profound “What is the purpose of His existence?” (For if He does have one, then who gave it to Him and if not then how does He matter?)
But let’s see what happens when we conceive a God with an added power than what we’ve thought He possessed all along: the power to make mistakes or be fallible. Does the entire edifice of our belief system collapse immediately? Not really because it makes Him even more powerful than before. For one thing, instead of getting perfect results each time, He could — and probably does — experiment with all that’s there to create, sustain or destroy. It would also explain — as some faiths indicate — why He loses Himself in us from time to time and then, subsequently, has such a tough time getting back to His being. A perfect existence in all the time there is could never be creative otherwise.
It would explain why He either has the power to make a stone so big that He can’t lift it, or not be able to make any stone that He can never lift — but not both. Does this slight shift in the perception of God really change anything for a true believer — especially if both are, as they both believe, made in each other’s image?
Source: The Economic Times
We can learn more when we’re in doubt
Karna is cast as Mritunjaya (Death-triumpher) in Shivaji Savant’s award-winning novel. Cast away at birth, the eldest Pandava is rescued by a charioteer. Despite his divine looks and ability, Karna is insulted throughout his life for ambition disallowed to his caste. Meanwhile, Arjuna, Karna’s half-brother, leads a charmed life. As he sails smoothly from one triumph to another, he acquires appellations by the dozen, all synonymous with victory, chivalry, dexterity and other virtues.
On the eve of the epic battle, Karna finally gets to know the secret of his parentage yet he vows to spare the lives of his half-brothers except Arjuna, against whom his mind is made up for mortal combat. Arjuna knows nothing of this nor is he told anything because then he would simply refuse to fight.
This trait, and the fact that Arjuna harboured deep misgivings about the fratricidal war, weakens the great archer’s character in the novel, which has Krishna deriding Arjuna as a stuttering, shambling doubter whose failing courage needs to be psyched up with repeated bouts of magic and pep-talk!
Savant thus echoes a widespread prejudice against protagonists who question. Most spiritual traditions advise, train, order, and warn you not to doubt. The doubting soul is ultimately destroyed (samshayatma vinnashyati) says even the Bhagvad Gita. You also find it articulated in the putting down of the female scholar Gargi and in the gagging of the doubting Nachiketas in Kathopanishad. However, the Upanishadic tradition also seems to suggest that doubt is a softer, more open state than closed-minded certitude.
It’s possible to learn more when you’re in touch with doubt than when you are dead certain or condescending. “If you haven’t yet developed your confidence, it’s better to stick with your real situation of doubt than to armour yourself with attitudes of superiority,” says Shambhavi Sarasvati of the Kashmir Shaivite tradition. “Doubting is a middle position.
When we are in doubt, we have not yet decided. We are suspended between or among. We can absorb. We can change. We can learn. Although many traditions recommend faith or belief as an antidote to doubt, my teachers have always advised that belief and faith are of no consequence. Imagine if, instead of confessing his doubt, Arjuna had scoffed at Krishna? The greatest story of the human condition would not have been written.”
Source: The Economic Times
Iyya Comments:
Unlearn to learn
Behavioural pattern and attitude of individuals are formed not necessarily on the considerations of morality, ethics or propriety, but on what an individual rightly or wrongly perceives as being in conformity with one’s interests. It is because of this premise that the process of unlearning is more important than the process of learning. When we subject ourselves to a process of unlearning we are necessarily having to eschew a conviction or pretense of our supposed knowledge.
The process of unlearning which follows the process of learning allows an unprejudiced and objective analysis of the subject matter in question — which facilitate rational thinking leading to an informed choice or an appropriate decision. News paper editorials can be unbiased only when they have objectively examined all issues of the subject matter threadbare after the most elaborate fact-finding and dismissed those propositions whose veracity was in question. The same principle applies to criminal investigation.
However, knowledge has its impermanence. If that were not the case Galileo would not have to had to revise his theory regarding the earth being flat or Wright brothers would not have invented the aeroplane, believing heavier than air objects can’t get airborne. “The sum total of what a man knows is vanishingly small: what seems in the end more important is that one should pursue knowledge” says Bertrand Russell. It is for the above reason that unlearning assumes an even greater importance than learning.
Bible (Proverb Ch 1) says, “the fear of the Lord makes humans sufficiently aware not to tread the path of sin and destruction.” Similarly, Hindu scriptures say human journey through life should follow the norm “asatoma sat gamaya, tama soma jyotirgamaya, mrit yo ma amritam gamaya” (from untruth lead us to truth, from darkness lead us to light and from the cycle of birth and death lead us to immortality). As per this axiom the cycle of birth and death is caused due to human imperfection and the theory of karma.
Life in the ultimate analysis can be best lived by anyone who has the uncanny ability to make the right choice, be it pertaining to one’s career, life partner or anything else. Once a person is erroneously deceived by the thought that his or her learning is complete, he or she will stumble into a road block.
Source: The Economic Times
Where are you headed this time?
A traveller started his journey towards the holy city of Varanasi. He started from his hometown after making a few preliminary enquiries. Having travelled far and fearing he may have lost his way, the traveller asked a sanyasin who seemed to be returning from Varanasi, “Oh Master, how far away is Varanasi from here?”
The sanyasin said, “Before I reply, you must answer two of my questions.”
The traveller found this strange, and having no choice agreed.
The sanyasin asked, “Do you clearly know why you want to go to Varanasi?”
The traveller felt that this question was foolish and the answer was obvious. He said, “Oh, Varanasi is a holy place. I will be blessed if I go there, scriptures say.”
The sanyasin asked the second question, “Before starting, have you thoroughly enquired about the path to reach Varanasi?”
The traveller felt that this too was irrelevant and said, “Yes, I enquired a little bit. I left it at that, thinking that I can find out more as I travel further.”
The sanyasin calmly said, “If you had had clarity as to why you should go to Varanasi and had known clearly all the details about Varanasi, you would not have asked me as to how much distance you should travel further to reach Varanasi.”
Thoroughly confused and irritated, yet still polite, the traveller said, “Oh master, you have not replied my question at all.”
The sanyasin said, “You have already come forty miles beyond Varanasi.”
We are much like the traveller not knowing where he is going and why. We rarely question: Why we have taken birth in this world? Why do we continuously struggle and suffer so much? Where are we headed? All of us lead our life in search of some goal or other. It may be any material goal like a good education, good job, fame or wealth, or it may be something different. One’s mental set up determines the type of desire one has.
The desires may be many, but the aim of all these desires is only one: Peace, Joy, Bliss. Every one journeys in his own way, only to achieve these goals. There is nothing wrong at all in this journey, this searching. Problems arise when you embark on the journey without knowing the path. Spirituality through meditation helps you define the path. Once you are in the right path, the destination happens by itself.
Source:
The Economic Times
Iyya Comments:
enna panromnu therinju pannunga…
Holistic vision
The correspondence between the individual (microcosm) and the universe (macrocosm) is fundamental to Vedanta spirituality. All created beings are aggregate of the basic elements in nature and hence in spiritual life it becomes necessary to understand the interconnectedness between man and nature to grasp the unity of the individual Self (Atman) and the Absolute Self (Brahman). This especially becomes important when a spiritual seeker embarks on meditation in which he has to conceive the Absolute in the cosmos he is familiar with.
In her discourse, Swamini Satyavratananda said the Chandogya Upanishad underscored that the universal Self must be contemplated in the universe. This meditation is termed as Vaisvanara Upasana and it explains how six spiritual seekers approached King Asvapati to learn the meditation technique. When he questioned them to explain specifically how they meditated on the Vaisvanara Self (cosmic Self), each related an aspect, which he contemplated as the whole. The king replied that they were all only grasping a part of the Reality and hence wrong. He proceeded then to teach them how to meditate on the totality.
This meditation of visualising the individual in the cosmic Self is akin to the description of the cosmic Self in the Vedic hymn Purushasukta and in a verse in the Vishnu Sahasranama, which personifies the universe as the Lord. Sankara in his commentary on this section of the Chandogya cites the story of a group of blind men trying to describe an elephant.
Each one touched a part of the animal’s body and compared it to an object he knew. A person who saw the elephant described it correctly. Similar is the case of a spiritual seeker who tries to meditate on the Absolute Reality. Hence only the Self-realised person can guide him to get the holistic vision. The correspondence between the individual and the cosmos is all-encompassing, so much so, even the basic act of eating food is considered a sacrifice (Agnihotra) in which the satisfaction that a person derives in eating food is extended to all beings in a prayer to derive the same contentment.
Source: The Hindu
kaalam
கொக்கொக்க கூம்பும் பருவத்து மற்றதன்
குத்தொக்க சீர்த்த இடத்து.
nenachadhu udane nadakaadhunga, adhukku kalam varanum, aana kalam varumbodhu adhai mudikka thayaraga irrukannum…
heart
a book reading goes like the atman is in the heart. But the heart is not the physical heart as u all know…
Iyya comments:
ullam nu sollrangilla. adhaan un ullathai thottu sollu apdinu kekaraangilla. adhukku unmai mattum thaan theriyum. neenga poi sollumbodhu adhu ulla irundhu fasta adikkum saying idhu unmai illa…
Top ‘n’ ayya comments
1) kozhappanga…
2) aadu maadu yellam exercise pannudhungala ?…. athu paatukku iruku….
3) sthirama irunga…
4) naan yeppovum vazhthittu thaanga irukkaen …yaenga ungalukku puriyamattengudhu ….
5) moocha gavaninga…
6) nenachittey irundhean… correcta vandhuteenga …nalla maatram varattum…
7) orutharum seri illai…
8) kadamaiya ozhunga pannaley podhum…vaendadhada vechittu avasthai padarom…
9) suriyan vaera.. kathu vaerayaa …?
10) ellam kaathu thaanga, moochu pona aal poiduvaan …
11) late aachu ungalukku.. kelambunga …
12) timenu onnu kidayaadhunga, ellam naamaloda karpanainga…
13) ellam avan vilayattunga… pazhasa vittutaaley podhunga…
14) naama serviceku vandhutonga….uyaranunga …
15) adhu illeenga ….