Monday, March 18, 2013

Inspirational Quotes and Short Stories - The Gospel of Ramakrishna Paramhansa !

Dear Readers - Enclosed here are some marvellous short stories, Tales and Fables with an Inspiring message which are extracts from the Gospel of Shri Ramakrishna Paramhansa.
Ramakrishna's message was delivered to the common man through short stories that they could understand -emphasizing  the "Oneness of God" and were aimed at increasing " God Consciousness" and devotion in the minds of men who were increasingly  obsessed with only the material things in Life.



Worldly people have no time for spiritual practice: Akbar and the Holy man
"When Akbar was Emperor of Delhi there lived a hermit in a hut in the forest. Many people visited the holy man. At one time he felt a great desire to entertain his visitors. But how could he do so without money? So he decided to go to the Emperor for help, for the gate of Akbar's palace was always open to holy men. 

The hermit entered the palace while the Emperor was at his daily devotions and took a seat in a corner of the room. He heard the Emperor conclude his worship with the prayer, 'O God, give me money; give me riches', and so on and so forth. When the hermit heard this he was about to leave the prayer hall; but the Emperor signed to him to wait. 

When the prayer was over, Akbar said to him, 'You came to see me; how is it that you were about to leave without saying anything to me?' 'Your Majesty need not trouble yourself about it', answered the hermit. 'I must leave now.' 

When the Emperor insisted, the hermit said, 'Many people visit my hut, and so I came here to ask you for some money.' 'Then', said Akbar, 'why were you going away without speaking to me?' The hermit replied: 'I found that you too were a beggar; you too prayed to God for money and riches. Thereupon I said to myself, "Why should I beg of a beggar? If I must beg, let me beg of God." ' "



Parable of the chameleon
"Listen to a story. Once a man entered a wood and saw a small animal on a tree. He came back and told another man that he had seen a creature of a beautiful red colour on a certain tree.
The second man replied: 'When I went into the wood, I also saw that animal. But why do you call it red? It is green.'
Another man who was present contradicted them both and insisted that it was yellow. Presently others arrived and contended that it was grey, violet, blue, and so forth and so on. At last they started quarrelling among themselves.
To settle the dispute they all went to the tree. They saw a man sitting under it. On being asked, he replied: 'Yes, I live under this tree and I know the animal very well. All your descriptions are true. Sometimes it appears red, sometimes yellow, and at other times blue, violet, grey, and so forth. It is a chameleon. And sometimes it has no colour at all. Now it has a colour, and now it has none.'
"In like manner, one who constantly thinks of God can know His real nature; he alone knows that God reveals Himself to seekers in various forms and aspects. God has attributes; then again He has none. Only the man who lives under the tree knows that the chameleon can appear in various colours, and he knows, further, that the animal at times has no colour at all. It is the others who suffer from the agony of futile argument.

"Kabir used to say, 'The formless Absolute is my Father, and God with form is my Mother.'
"God reveals Himself in the form which His devotee loves most. His love for the devotee knows no bounds. It is written in the Purana that God assumed the form of Rama for His heroic devotee, Hanuman.


Dogmatism condemned
MASTER: "It is not good to feel that one's own religion alone is true and all others are false. God is one only, and not two. Different people call on Him by different names: some as Allah, some as God, and others as Krishna, Śiva, and Brahman. It is like the water in a lake. Some drink it at one place and call it 'jal', others at another place and call it 'pani', and still others at a third place and call it 'water'. The Hindus call it 'jal', the Christians 'water', and the Mussalmans 'pani'. But it is one and the same thing. Opinions are but paths. Each religion is only a path leading to God, as rivers come from different directions and ultimately become one in the one ocean.


Oneness of God
"The Truth established in the Vedas, the Puranas, and the Tantras is but one Satchidananda. In the Vedas It is called Brahman, in the Puranas It is called Krishna, Rāma, and so on, and in the Tantras It is called Śiva. The one Satchidananda is called Brahman, Krishna, and Śiva."
The devotees were silent.
A VAISHNAVA DEVOTEE: "Sir, why should one think of God at all"
MASTER: "If a man really has that knowledge, then he is indeed liberated though living in a body.


Three yogas explained by Master
"Innumerable are the ways that lead to God. There are the paths of jnāna, of karma, and of bhakti. If you are sincere, you will attain God in the end, whichever path you follow. Roughly speaking, there are three kinds of yoga: jnanayoga, karma yoga, and bhaktiyoga. 

"What is jnanayoga? The Jnāni seeks to realize Brahman. He discriminates, saying, 'Not this, not this'. He discriminates, saying, 'Brahman is real and the universe illusory.' He discriminates between the Real and the unreal. As he comes to the end of discrimination, he goes into samādhi and attains the Knowledge of Brahman. 

"What is karmayoga? Its aim is to fix one's mind on God by means of work. That is what you are teaching. It consists of breath-control, concentration, meditation, and so on, done in a spirit of detachment. If a householder performs his duties in the world in a spirit of detachment, surrendering the results to God and with devotion to God in his heart, he too may be said to practise karmayoga. Further, if a person performs worship, japa, and other forms of devotion, surrendering the results to God, he may be said to practise karmayoga. Attainment of God alone is the aim of karmayoga. 

"What is bhaktiyoga? It is to keep the mind on God by chanting His name and glories. For the Kaliyuga the path of devotion is easiest. This is indeed the path for this age. Source:http://www.belurmath.org/gospel/chapter24.htm



Master's conception of Kāli
M: "But with him the meaning of Kāli is different. What the Vedas call the Supreme Brahman, he calls Kāli. What the Mussalmans call Allah and the Christians call God, he calls Kāli. He does not see many gods; he sees only one God. What the Brahma jnanis of olden times called Brahman, what the yogis call Ātman and the bhaktas call the Bhagavan, he calls Kāli.
http://www.belurmath.org/gospel/chapter47.htm

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Source and credits :
Visit our "Life Transforming Books Section" to read the Gospel of Shri Ramakrishna Paramhansa.

Friday, March 15, 2013

A guest post from SpiritualBee.com - Five cherished photos and anecdotes from Swami Vivekananda's Life

A fantastic article and must read guest post from Spiritualbee.com:


"Of all the photographs associated with the life of Swami Vivekananda, a few are especially memorable. Presented below is a collection of 5 cherished snapshots, along with some enlightening anecdotes from the life of this great teacher of Vedic spirituality.

Swami Vivekananda Makes His Debut at the Parliament of Religions and Electrifies the Audience with His “Sisters and Brothers” Address

The Parliament of Religions was the platform that catapulted Swami Vivekananda from a relatively unknown monk, to a world famous and beloved teacher of Vedanta.

On 11th September 1893, Swami Vivekananda arose for the first time, to address an august gathering of 7,000 people, with the words “Sisters and Brothers of America” (instead of the customary “Ladies and Gentlemen”). This simple, yet sincere greeting from an unknown monk, so moved the audience that the entire hall immediately stood up to an applause which lasted for a full two minutes (Vivekananda a Biography, page 133: World, India).

Newspapers of the time report, that by the time his speech ended, the crowd was so enamored that people were clamoring over benches to get near him.

Later Swami Vivekananda reminiscing about the incident explained how the pure and noble thoughts, which he had meticulously cultivated all his life, had become the storehouse of so much power, that just a few words were sufficient to touch the hearts of many:...................."

To view these "one of a kind" memorable pictures of Swamiji and read the complete post, please click the link below: 

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Monday, March 11, 2013

Scientific explanation of Lord Shiva and the symbolism of the Shivling- Video in Hindi

The enclosed video is a short 15 minute capsule on the scientific explanation  of Lord Shiva and the symbolism of the Shivling in Vedic religion. Today we know with certainity that  The ancient Indian Rishi's formed symbols to explain to the common man (in ways they could then understand) the scientific and eternal truths that they experienced and saw through their spiritual eyes. 

With modern day scientific equipment  we can now see 3D images of space, electrons, neutrons, protons, DNA streams  and can therefore make informed  links between the symbols of ancient times and scientific realities of space, time and creation as evidenced today. With the help of this knowledge we   can now  properly and fully understand  and contextualise what the ancient Sages experienced through advanced meditative stages  . 

Much of the scientific knowledge contained in the Upanishads and Vedas was lost -as India experienced invasions from other races and countries and remained under foreign  rule for centuries. We saw many educated people alienating themselves from Vedic Spirituality as the spiritual symbols lacked proper scientific expalnations that were relevant and in keeping with  our times. 

Shantikunj, the scientific spirituality  reserach laboratory established by Acharya Shriram Sharma is making concerted efforts to rediscover, re-establish and disseminate lost scientific knowledge underlying  our Vedic heritage. The enclosed video is one of the many steps in that direction.

The below mentioned video, released by Shantikunj on the occassion of Mahashivratri explains the symbolism of Lord Shiv and the Shivling with respect to Creation and Destruction. 

To watch this excellent and informative video, please click the following link :http://youtu.be/Xi0WeNtrkUk

If you found this video informative, may we request you to share this knowledge with others who may benefit from the same.                                        
Source and credits : awgp.org

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Sunday, March 3, 2013

युवा पीढ़ी को उज्जवल भविष्य का मार्गदर्शन - Book of Quotes in Hindi from Acharya Shriram Sharma's Vangmay !

The book " युवा पीढ़ी को उज्जवल भविष्य का मार्गदर्शन " (Yuva Pidhi Ko Ujjwal Bhavishya ka Margdarshan) is a compilation of one page easy to read thought provoking quotes in Hindi. All Quotes are excerpts from Acharya Shriram Sharma's "Vangmaya" series of Books.

Vangmay's are individual books structured around a specific topic, much like encyclopedia Britannica. Each Book or each Vangmaya, is an Upanishad by itself.

This book has a fantastic collection of Quotes in Hindi aimed mainly at giving direction to the youth on how to live their life. It has pointers on How we can "Build a successful Life while living righteously". Like all other books by Acharya Shriram Sharma , this book makes for a great motivational and inspirational read for both the young and all adults.



Sample Quotes from the book:

यह दुर्भाग्य ही है की आज धन को सर्वप्रथम स्थान और सम्मान मिल गया ! इसका दुष्परिणाम यह हुआ की व्यक्ति अधिकाधिक धन सँग्रह करके बडे से बड़ा सम्मानीय बनना चाहता है , जबकि धन का उपयोग बिना उसे रोके निरंतर सत्यप्रयोजनो में प्रयुक्त करते रहना ही हो सकता है !
गड्ढे में जमा किया पानी तथा पेट में रुक हुआ अन सड़ जाता है , और अपने संग्रह्कर्ता को उन्मादी बनाते है और अनेक विकार पैदा करता है !तिजोरी में बंद नोट अपने संग्रहकर्ता को उन्मादी बनाते है और और सारे समाज में बदबू भरी महामारी फैलाते है !

इसलिए धन उपार्जन की प्रशंसा के साथ साथ यह तथ्य भी जुड़ा हुआ है की महत्वपूर्ण अवश्यताक्ताओं की पूर्ती के लिए उसे तत्काल प्रयुक्त करते रहा जाये ! ( Vangmaya Nos 66)

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संसार में कांटे बहुत हैं ! उन सबको हटा देना बहुत कठिन हैं ! यह सरल हैं की अपने पैरों में जूते पहने और बिना कांटे कंकडों से कष्ट पाये निश्चिनतिता पूर्वक विचरण करे !

सारी दुनिया को अपनी इच्छा अनुकूल चलाने वाला नहीं बनाया जा सकता , पर अपना सोचने का ढंग ऊँचा उठाकर लोगों से बिना टकराये सरलता पूर्वक अपने को बचाकर रखा जा सकता हैं और बिना टकराए वक्त गुज़र सकता हैं !
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हमें यह जानना चाहिए की इश्वर किसी के भाग में कुछ और किसी के भाग्य में कुछ लिख कर पक्षपात नहीं करता और ना ही भविष्य को पहले से तैयार करके किसी को कर्म की स्वतंत्रता में बाधा डालता हैन.

हर आदमी अपने इछानुसार कर्म करने में पूर्ण स्वतंत्र है ! कर्मो के अनुसार ही हम सब फल पाते हैं ! इसलिए भाग के ऊपर अवलंबित ना रहकर मनुष्य को कर्म करना चाहियें !


To read or download the Balance Quotes , please click the BOOK TITLE below.