Robindro Songeet – Ruby Kar

1. Aji jhorer rate tomar obhishaar – Gitanjali 23
2. Dhire dhire bou ogo utol hawa – Gitobitan – Prakriti – 217

Gitanjali 23 – Aji Jhorer Rate Tomar Abhishar

Click the image to Play the Song sung by Ruby Kar

Emptiness of having without being

1. Physical beauty (Roopa) without education (Vidhya)
2. Knowledge (Gyan) without action (Kriya)
3. Intellect (Buddhi) without prowess of will and body (Shakti)
4. Power (Shakti) without values, principles, culture (Sanskar)
5. Wealth (Sampatti) without right conduct (Sadachaar)
6. Faith, respect (Shraddha) without love (Prem)
7. Wealth (Lakshmi) without enterprise (Udhyog)
8. Religion and rituals (Dharma) without work (Karma)

Gitanjali 53 & Chapter 8 Gita

The insight came up while listening to Swami Sarvapriyananda in his The Bhagavad Gita class.

The chapter 8 of Gita starts with the proclamation that one attains Brahman when at the point of death one is able to be focussed and aware of Brahman. During that tiring time of death, when one is scared, in shock, gradually aware of sinking into death, in that point where you know you are leaving everything and everybody in this world, having the thought of God is itself an immensely difficult errand. But, such a goal is achievable only when one has spent their majority of the life in mindfulness of God. Then it becomes natural. Something like when Gandhi was assassinated, automatically the words – “He Ram” came out of his mouth. He remembered Ram.
This ability to have the remembrance of God during the end point of one’s life is beautifully articulated by Tagore in his 53rd verse of the Gitanjali –

He says, during that point of sinking into death, in a jiffy, whatever object a person has in this physical world, burns out into ashes. Not only the physical world, but also the world of emotions, relatedness, love, hate – the sensual world – all that is earthly, is burnt out in that one fierce flash. It is like one last response of life, in the cycle of causation of the law of karma, where the entire pain of life – “Maha Bedona” – is burnt to ashes, only to sharpen and speeden that ultimate awareness – “Tibro Bhishon Chetona” – of that ultimate. This is the gift of that life long pursuit of spirituality, which culminates in the dissolution of all the pains of the physical, subtle and causal world – the world of maya, where all those objects belonged to the poet in his life. And then when he leaves his life, those are burnt, and it results in the revelation of his sharp, pure and deep consciousness that makes him one with God!

Hence life becomes an on going journey of “Tyaga” – giving up – of “Jadata” – objects. And gradually sharpening one’s oneness with the “Chetan” – pure awareness of the infinite. The sadhaka in the path of Jnana Yoga, uses “Viveka” and “Vichara” – discernment and retrospection to gradually give up the objective attachments of the world. Once the worldly attachments to the physical, subtle and causal worlds are given up, it reveals the omnipresent substratum of the Pure Subject – Sakshi. This awareness is the culmination of the journey of the Sadhaka.
Similarly the sadhaka in the path of Devotion, becomes fully in love with the deity, and fills his entire inner and out awareness with the presence of the beloved Deity. This nearness with the God, automatically loosens his proximity with the world of objects, and he attains it in the grace of love and devotion to God, as another object. But this Godly Object, he is aware is beyond name and form and limitness of his particular Deity’s physical form. That Deity of the sadhaka, appears as Viraat – Saguna Brahman – encompassing the entire universe of cosmic mind, panch bhoota, and the causal bodies.

This gradual burning out of the painful physical attachments of both elemental world (“Maha Bedona”), and gradual sharpening of the oneness with that pure subject – (“TIbro Bhishon Chetona”), is the journey of the sadhaka, and that culminates with his last breath before death! The analogy of fire and death with this rise of the pure awareness of the subject – The Sakshi is interesting. Like after death, the name and the form of the person is no more present. What only is present is the pure awareness – The Chetona – that is not comprehensible with the physical senses. Similarly , after gold ornaments are burnt and melted, the name, form and function of the ornaments – tiara, necklace, ring – all merges into that pure liquid gold – from where these names and forms had arisen someday, by the hard work and skill of the goldsmith. So, the point is that, the objective world of name and forms never actually existed and never will exist. It just arose out of the pure gold in this case, out of the years long training of the goldsmith, where he was able to carve out the exquisite name, form and function of the tiara, necklace, ring, and then when the fire of death comes, it again merges these names, forms and functions to the primordial existence that always was – pure molten gold – before and after these ornaments were made and existed!

Also very interestingly, this is 53rd verse in the Gitanjali. And the topic is recollected in the chapter 8 of the Bhagavad Gita. 5 +3 = 8! Mysterious are His ways!

The Bhagavad Gita – 8.1 – 8.5

These are the class notes scribbles from Swami Sarvapriyananda’s Bhagavad Gita Class

1. 18 chapters of Bhagavad Gita – 1st 6 – self, 2nd 6 – God – saguna Brahman, 3rd 6 – How self and God are same.
2. middle 6 chapters is a preponderance of devotion. central takeaway of chapter 8 is that one must remember God at the point of death. This is possible only when one is God conscious throughout the life. Focus, memory and emotion on God. What are you remembering – God. What are you feeeling for love , surrender, reverance – God.
3. The occasion is – 7th chapter ends with 30th verse – Sri Krishna mentions mentions some technical terms – beginning of 8th chapter. 29th verse of 7 chapter – those who strive for freedom from decay and death, they take refuge on me – Brahman, Adhyatma(inner self), Karma . 7.30 introduces – Adhibhuta (reality of all beings), Adhidaiva(reality of all Devatas), Adhiyajna(realiy of all rituals). prayana kale – yukta chetasa – those who put their mind focussed on me during dying they are always settled on me.
4. Arjuna asks – 7 questions. 6 related to the 6 terms – Brahman, Adhyatma, Karma, Adhibhuta, Adhidaiva, Adhiyajna, prayana kale how yogis puts devotion on you. 7th – how we maintain a devtional bhava at the point of death.
5. the highest imperishable principle is Brahman. Askharam Pramam Brahman. The utlimate and undecaying reality is Brahman. This chapter is known as Akshara Bhraman Yoga. Akshara has two meanings – letter and undecaying. shara means that decays. akshara is that which does not change, does not decay. Brahman that is eternal, it is something that is beyond time. Time, space and causation does not apply to it. Only after you accept time, you say Brahman is eternal. Only when you accept space, you can say Brahman is all pervading. Only when you accept objects, you say Brahman is transcending. Brahman is that what expands without limit. Vast. Vast what. Nothing. without any qualification. Infinite. Nothing is excluded from that. Brahman means infinite, limitless. There is an ultimate reality of this universe – being itself, awareness itself, culmination of all values, I am, I am aware, I am seeking, you isness is Brahman. All living beings, non living universe, all is culvination is rushing towards Brahman. It is existence itself. It is more than existing things. Gold is not a tiara, necklace or any ornament. But it is more important than any ornament, because gold makes them. Existence, awareness in itself, not is about awareness of some thing, or existence of something. Awareness is what makes all what is in life. All the urges in this life, is an attempt to get fulfillment. It is the culmination of all efforts towards fulfillments – Ananda.
6. Adhyatma – inner reality – svabhava adhyatma muchiyata – when Brahman is your reality, it is inner reality. The brahman that is within you, is the existence within yourself. Existence of that ultimate reality within one self. There is one absolute reality now, when because of maya, that absolute reality itself appears as a mind, (upadhi), by the presence of updahi, mind, antahakarana – mind, ego, etc – maya appears in brahman. the same brahman through the presnce of the mind, becomes a knower – an individual. in that brahman thenames and forms appear – tables chairs body- that brahman appears as existing things – subjects knows objects. you start loving, hating, knowing, touching, seeing etc. Same Brahman appears as objects because of the appearnce of the names and forms in maya. One alone exists, that appears as nature (object) and soul (subject). Like in dream the mind becomes subject and object and the subject experiences the objects. in waking state, this brahman appears as subject and object. krishna, arjuna, we are all subjects. you are that ultimate reality. you are appearing through the prism, upadhi of the human mind.
7. Karma – Bhoot Bhava Kara Vasarga Bhavo Samhita – all the mass of actions that we undertake – all of these is Karma. It is cause and effect – the causality – there is subject, objects, and also actions. These actions has effects. these effects cause future of the unvierse. there is a point of the existence of the universe. the point is you. the whole universe is the consequence of the actions of sentient beings. God has not created this universe arbitarity. It is caused based on the actions that we undertake, their results. We go from lifetime to lifetime propelled by the results of our actions. The point is about attaining liberation. This from a conventional point of view. the karma is the fuel for this life. what i have done in last life results in the present life. It is also same collectively for all living and non living beings. animals are not all that different from humans. there is this program coming up in new york university – do all dogs go to heaven. Karma is that which fuels all this universe. btw so everything that happens in our life is karma. when miserable things happen due to our karma. pain and pleasure will come due to karma. suffering is not due to karma. suffering is due to ignorance. we do not know who we truly are. pain is not the cause of suffering. it is the in the same world, the enlightened and unenlgihtened being exsit. the enlightened being will not suffer. the same past karma will bring pain for the enlgihtened being. but suffering is optional. People sometimes suffer a lot. It is only very young and very stupid says all is fine. It is silly to say accept the pain, accept the joy. say this to a person who has been a victim of a terrible crime! Spiritual life saves you a great deal of suffering. By knowledge, devotion, doing good to others – all of them protect us from suffering. All the actions that gave rise to appearance and development of all sentient beings in the world is Karma. Vedic Karma too and all the karma too. All karma has consequences, that fuels this world. Everything is driven by cause and effect.
8. Pershiable is Adhibhuta. The impresishable is Adhidaiva. Me is Adhi
   The one pure consciousness Brahman associate with the power of maya is known as Ishwara. Maya is called the causal state or causal body. THis is the seeed of the entire universe. The same Ishwara with the power of maya, creates this subtle elements. These subtle elements combine subtle bodies – anthakarana – subtle cosmos that is created. All the minds together created – the hiranya garbha – all the powers of thinking and feeling – gyana, ichcha, kriya shakti – all minds together. consciousness + all causal + subtle body = hiranyagarbha.. Hiranyagarbha + physical elements of living and non living being – Viraat – the vast. you see yourself as subtle body, physical body, consciousness all! in deep sleep we have causal state. right now we have all three states together. you are not physical, subtle or causal body. But you are concisouness itself which is limited by these cuasal, physical, subtlle bodies.
   
   The reality of all these physical things – sharo bhava – all these are impermanent – living bodies are born, develop, decay and die. The non living thing are also created, breakdown and decompose. They are momentary. Moment by moment they perish. For all that is created, all that is born, die.
   
   The cosmic being, hiranyagarbha – consciousness + subtle universe – each of the sutbtlties of the mind, hearing, tasting, smelling – each of these subtle powers have Devas behind them. The collection of all these dieties is Hiranyagarbha. All desires, sensory powers = your inner mind. The unlimited consciousness + causal power of maya + cosmic mind = hiranya garbha = the golden egg = from where all the unverse come from. The cosmos emerges from the gold egg. Adhidaivatam = the one cosmic being that is a sum total of all gods you worship.
   
   The Adhiyajna – the reality to whom all Vedic rituals are directed = Ishwara = God of all religions = Aham = I = Krishna. He is the incranation of God. Saguna Brahman = Adhijana.
   
   Same God + all powers , dieties = Hiranjagarbha = Adhidaivatam.
   
   Same Adhidaivatam + physical = world universe.
   
   This pure concsiousness is within you. I am the ishvara is in all bodies. THe lord of the universe – Bhagavan – and we the sentient beings are same. Ocean is nothing but water. The wave is nothing but water. As Brahman you are God is same real being. But in vayavharik world we are separate.
9. Being centered in God at the time of death – you attain liberation. To be able to be centered in me during the end of the life, you will have to focussed on God throughout your life. When one is scared, in pain and in shock, when you are sinking to death, you become aware of God.
10. Swami Vivekanda says good good, bad bad, whoever wears the chain…all comes from karma. Karma is a chain. one thing before one and the other before one. None escapes. But far beyond name and form – spirituality is beyond causation. It breaks the chain of causation. that is freedom. Karma, causation is worldliness. it is not a spiritual teaching. Karma is about describing the samsara. Getting out of Karma is spirituality. We learn from causality, we are learning to use the law of karma to benefit our life. it is still worldly. it is enlightened wordly life a person who understsands karma. it is a terrible life for whom who does not understand karma. spirituality is about going beyond karma. Gyana, Bhakti, Raja and Karma Yoga is about going beyond causality. Karma – i dont need result. Bhakti – I dont need love in return. Gyana – Advaita Vedanta I am knowing. Meditation can take you beyond causality.

The trap of righteousness

• 

When he caved into
That dark, remote, alienated exile,
Vigorously cutting off his relatedness
To the entire spectrum of the panorama out there,
In all its colors, shines, glitters, and radiance,
With all the music, dance, and voice..

When there was no love, no listening,
No understanding, no relatedness,
There was this strained heavy presence,
Presence of only the ego, and just the ego.
Where the sense of “I” was so huge, so vast, so all pervading,
That there was no space of even one breath of peace.
All was lost, but he was basking in his own glory,
For his head was held high, in righteousness strong and eerie.

The sword of righteousness meticulously shredded the fabric.
Fabric of simplicity, the fabric of bonding, the fabric of connections,
Exposing the bestial nature in all its grotesque nakedness.
The savageness is not visible, it is not tangible, it is not objectified,
Only to indirectly leave its trails with violence, destruction, and death –
Whatever it lay its sight.

He remained trapped and imprisoned,
In the cold hard dark dungeon
Ever trapped in his righteousness,
Spending his lives after lives,
Devoid of all that is Life!

5.142 – 6.146

Chapter 5 – cont – The master and Keshav

1. Somehow see the image of divine mother and realise God. Then work if He imparts power, then you can do good to others; otherwise not!
2. Do just that what is needed for your day to day living. Don’t go all over the board. Do all work in spiritual way. Divinize everything you do. All chores. In today’s world, being competitive, and pushy is futile. If you win the rat race, you are still a rat. Do enough to support yourself and livelihood and family support. Now, dedicate your time and energy for God realization. Spiritual goal in life, salvation, nirvana, moksha – that is the ultimate goal of life. One has to realize this as soon as possible. Rest of it is just a structure to maintain your presence in the world. That is not the purpose of your life.
3. Kalighat is the oldest Kali temple in India. It is not to give alms to the poor and not getting time to see Kali. Catch hold of God first, and then do good! The school, the college and all the worldly work becomes your sadhana to realize God. Shivajnane Jiva seva! We cannot delve 24 hours to god realization. If you keep sadhana apart from this, there will be very little time and energy for sadhana. The work itself must become sadhana. Spirituality comes first. Then philanthropy! Otherwise you think you are selfless, but you actually turn selfish. You will notice people doing philanthropy, it starts with idealistically, but eventually the being human turns out. We need some kind of satisfaction, that inner satisfaction. Then personally people start wanting it for themselves. So, God realization is something that saves us from this trap of being human. God has to be pursued for the sake of God. God is not the by product.
4. The path of Bhakti is direct and useful. Ritually approach in Vedas is very difficult in this day and age. You need fast for example. In current day and age, people are food centered. For the path of Jnana yoga, in the path of Advaita Vedanta, Bhakti Yoga, Raja Yoga, Karma Yoga – all three are very essential for Chitta Shuddhi. Our desires are in the level of prana – heart. It is different level of mind. Bhakti works in the level of heart – prana. You cannot have a raging desire for cookie and overcoming love for God at the same time. If a person is engaged in the Jnana Yoga in the same time, it works very well!
5. Atmarupananda Ji – North Caralina born. Bible belt. Every other church used to say we are right, others are wrong. Then he felt may be they are all wrong. Years later, the book Vedanta for western world came to his hand, and that idea that all these are correct, came to his realization. Listen carefully what they teach. That is useful. Ignore what they criticize.
6. KIT – Mr. Achyutananda Samanta – One person who started doing service of teaching poor boys.

Chapter – 6 – The master with Brahmo devotees

1. In the monastry we have young men from different parts of the world and country – Armenia, Japan, Argentina! When people in the same family cannot get together, how such diverse people get together! With such enormously different background, we are tied together with a very noble and sublime aspiration – Love of the Divine. One Hemp smoker feels happy to meet one another!
2. Some friends have come to see Sri Ramakrishna. One friend is facinated. The others are not. The other friend is impatient and goes out and sits in boat.
3. Himalaya monk – Who was not at all exposed to seva – Krishna ashram – does nothing. Some rituals and puja. Do nothing. There are people to do that. He is deeply deeply unhappy. He was very appreciative of the fact that Ramakrishna order does so much Karma Yoga. In Gangotri. He was invited to Ashtavakra Gita class as 4 am. But very soon he was fidgeting. Unless there is some sadhana in life, suddently listening to Ashtavakra has no impact. He came once or twice, then he stopped coming. Someone who does not do any spiritual discipline, they will end up in this state! Sit in the boat!
4. If you are doing the party in 20. Its fine. In 30, it is not good. If you are doing in 50, it is disastrous! Cultivating spiritual discipline in some form is a sign of maturity.
5. Chaitanya and Nitai’s idea of soup of magur fish and embrace of a woman after chanting the name of God!
6. The man who did not trade the name of Krishna with money : As many names of Krishna you write, you will get the money as much. The man would wake up inspired, and he became maniac. He employed all literate people in the village to write the name of Krishna – more and faster. He would keep chanting. At the end of the year, many many notebooks filled with the name of the Krishna. Then address was the temple of Jagannatha in Puri. He sets out to the journey to Jagannatha in Puri, with all the books. Jagannatha temple is more than 1000 years old. He sees the little boy who came in his dream. The little boy said give me the Krishna naam, and take money. The man burst in tears, saying that dont take away the name of Krishna from me. I dont need to money. He does not want the money any more. He just needs the name of God.

To give thee my all – Gitanjali 50

I had gone a-begging from door to door
In the village path,
When thy golden chariot appeared in the distance,
Like a gorgeous dream
And I wondered
Who was this King of all kings!

My hopes rose high and me thought,
My evil days were at an end,
And I stood waiting for alms to be given
Unasked and for wealth scattered o all sides in the dust.

The chariot stopped where I stood.
Thy glance fell on me
And thou camest down with a smile.
I felt that the luck of my life had come at last.
Then of a sudden,
Thou didst hold out thy right hand and say,
“What hast thou to give to me?”

Ah, what a kingly jest was it
To open thy palm to a beggar to beg!
I was confused and stood undecided,
And t hen from my wallet I slowly took out
The least little grain of corn and gave it to thee.

But how great my surprise
When the day’s end I emptied my bag,
On the floor to find a least little grain of gold,
Among the poor heap.
I bitterly wept and wished that,
I had had the heat to give thee my all!

– Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore

Being impacted naturally

Can you let our self be impacted by what nature made..exactly as it is?
As watching a stunning landscape,
Without the mental chatter of human judgement!
How exquisitely beautiful and natural
Is the human body, mind, thoughts, feelings, actions, words, and behaviors!
Especially when viewed as one of nature’s many elegant creations.

How beautiful would be the goal of life,
To allow one’s heartbeat match the beat of the universe,
To match one’s own nature with Nature!

How precious it is the opportunity to be human,
Where consciously you, forgo all inhibitions and fear,
All self doubts, and self wisdom and vision..
Only to be impacted naturally with that subtle blossoming,
That works out in the soul,
Watching the handwriting of God,
In all that is natural,
In the human body, mind, thought, feelings, actions, words, and behaviors!
As in the exquisiteness of hills, valleys, streams, waves and sky.

Beauty is what makes our heart beat stronger.
Beauty is the reason to live,
What must we do more than what we can,
To preserve this beauty!

There is no happiness, without pain,
There is no light, without darkness,
There is no love, without hate,
There is no belonging without abandonment.

Forgoing the workings of will,
The rackets of mind,
The rationalizations of intellect,
The judgement of conditioning,
How beautiful it is to let go,
And being impacted naturally,
In all terror, in all temptation, in all death, In all blossoming!
Shining forth the naturalness of Nature,
In all its pristinity,
In the ever shining golden glow of the light of Being.

A Poison Tree

William Blake

I was angry with my friend; 
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.

I was angry with my foe: 
I told it not, my wrath did grow. 
And I waterd it in fears,
Night & morning with my tears: 
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles. 

And it grew both day and night. 
Till it bore an apple bright. 
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine. 
And into my garden stole, 
When the night had veild the pole; 
In the morning glad I see; 
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.

– By William Blake

Some critical analysis –

1. Being authentic and sharing one’s anger with friend, ended the wrath, and restored humanity. Friends are not always itching each other’s back. They express their opposition openly. There is a mutual respect that founds a true friendship where one knows no fear of losing the other just by being truthful.
2. It is only foes (no friends) who needs a consistent congeniality. There are always smiles, nods, and agreement that hides the true hatred, oppositions, and disagreement, in such relationships. And such relationships spoil both the sides. The one that is playing the charade becomes menial to that extent that they do not stop from killing the other too. From a human being they become a demon, without even knowing it, being always eerily righteous about themselves.
3. The foe of the speaker who never got a feedback about the anger and hatred. He continued his own old ways. Knowing fully that the apple was his friends, he stole them at night. He continued his nether ways. And he faced death for that. So, it did not do any good to the foe of the speaker.
4. For speaker himself, he observes his own self how he was gradually defiling himself, and stooping to lower and lower levels. He observes how he has been keeping his anger, and hatred for his foe deep within his heart, and kept on watering and sunning his downfall, till it culminated to the most heinous crime a human can commit – to kill another person.
5. Friendship, kinship, relatedness, belongingness – These keep us being human. And maintaining the sanctity of such authentic bonding is difficult. But worthwhile goals. For the other alternative is the bottomless pit of a hellish life of a beast.