Kathopanishad : ( 04/03/2013. )

 ==================================================================== ==================================================================== Friday, December 24, 2021. 8:00. PM. 1.INTRODUCTION : 4 & 5. ==================================================================== 4.THE SOUL AND ITS CHARIOT : The conscious principle within is the lord of the chariot. The body is the chariot, the intellect is the charioteer or the driver, the mind is the reins, the senses are the horses, the objects of the senses are the roads. This chariot is useful either to drive down or drive up. The body is dragged by the horses of the senses in different directions. The driver is responsible for the movement of the chariot, and this is the intellect, which can either understand or misunderstand, and consequently either ascend with the chariot to the Abode of Vishnu or fall down to the mortal state. Whatever is done through this body, consciously, is done, ultimately, by the intellect. It is the principle o

===================================================================== ====================================================================== Wednesday, December 22, 2021. 8:00.PM. The Secret of the Katha Upanishad : 1.6. Chapter -1.  Post - 6. ====================================================================== =================================================================== The layers of our personality corresponding also to the layers of the outer cosmos speak in their own languages at different moments of time. We do not entirely belong to this earth, because we have other layers of personality which cannot belong to the surface of the physical world. We are not merely social individuals or entities. Our relationship is not one of father and mother, father and son, mother and son, daughter, brother, sister, boss, subordinate, this and that, as we usually imagine. We have within ourselves mysteries which we ourselves do not understand, and cannot understand. This amounts to sayi

 ===================================================================== ==================================================================== Tuesday, December 14, 2021. 7:00. PM. Kathopanishad: The Science of the Inner Life :1-3 1.INTRODUCTION : 3. 3.  THE NATURE OF THE SELF : ===================================================================== The Atman, being the presupposition of all acts of understanding, feeling and willing, is not known to any individualised knower, and so it appears as a mystery, a Wonder of wonders, awe-inspiring. To many, this Atman is difficult to hear of, to many others, even when heard of, it is difficult to understand. Wonderful is the teacher of this; blessed is the obtainer of this; wonderful is the knower of this, who is taught by a blessed teacher. The Atman cannot be known if it is taught by an inferior teacher, even if it is thought of in various ways. Only when the Atman is taught by one who is identical with the Atman (i.e., a Brahmanishtha), it ca

 ======================================================================== ====================================================================== Sunday, December 12, 2021. 7:00.PM. The Secret of the Katha Upanishad : 1.5. Chapter -1.  Discourse No - 5. ====================================================================== =================================================================== But, we have something inside us, an urge that propels us in some other direction, apart from this exoteric urge which directs us to the enjoyment of the objects of sense. This something peculiar within us is the Nachiketas. The son of Vajasravasa Gautama, the progeny of the sage, is the conscience of the sage, which spoke out his heart. In the mythical terminology of the Upanishad, the conscience of Gautama speaks in the language of his son, Nachiketas. While we are after the enjoyment of life, rulership, authority, prestige and power and whatnot, we have also a subtle voice speaking from within us,

 ============================================================================ ============================================================================ Saturday, December 04, 2021. 8:00. PM. Kathopanishad: The Science of the Inner Life :1-2 1.INTRODUCTION : 2. 2. THE GOOD AND THE PLEASANT : ============================================================================== The good is one thing and the pleasant is another. They have different aims, and they drag a person from different directions. Of these two, he who chooses the good obtains blessedness, but he who chooses the pleasant falls from his aim. The good is that which leads one to God or the Absolute. It gives the freedom of Moksha or liberation from Samsara. It is not pleasant, because it is against body-consciousness. It destroys what is pleasant and, hence, is rather painful. The pleasant, on the other hand, is intimately connected with the body, and prevents a person from choosing the good.  One falls down from one's a

 ================================================================================= ================================================================================= Thursday, December 02, 2021. 8:00.PM. The Secret of the Katha Upanishad : 4. Chapter -1.  Discourse No 4. ================================================================================= Nachiketas was made of a different stuff. He was not an ordinary boy. “Why should I not put this question? What is the trouble about it? You give me all these wonders that you have described to me but will not answer this simple question.” “Not even the gods have been able to answer this question. Not all the celestials put together in all the seven heavens can answer this question that you have put. Therefore, child, please do not pester me with this question. You keep quiet. I have made the mistake of telling you that you can ask for three boons, and now you are putting me in this embarrassing situation with a question which I cannot ans

 ==================================================================================== ==================================================================================== Wednesday, November 17, 2021. 8:00. PM. Kathopanishad: The Science of the Inner Life :1-1 1.INTRODUCTION :  ================================================================================ ==================================================================================== 1. INTRODUCTION : 1. The Kathopanishad may be regarded as a most appropriate introduction to spiritual life in general. The story with which the Upanishad begins provides the proper foundation for commencing a study of the science of the higher life of man. From the exoteric ritual of the performance of sacrifice and charity by sage Vajasravasa, the Upanishad takes us to the spiritual longing of the seeker, Nachiketas, which moves along a definite pattern of development.  The three boons requested for by Nachiketas from Yama represent the terrestria

======================================================================= ======================================================================== Tuesday, November 2 2021. 8:57.PM. The Secret of the Katha Upanishad : 3. Swami Krishananda. Chapter -1.  Discourse No - 3. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The story that is the background of this exposition of the Upanishad is something like this—to give you in outline. There was a sage called Vajasravasa, known also as Gautama. He performed a yajna or a sacrifice called Vishvajit, a yajna or a sacrifice by which he aspired to enter the heaven of the gods. This sacrifice was of a very peculiar nature which demanded of the performer that he gave in charity everything that he possessed, dear and near. This Vishvajit sacrifice known as the sarvavedasa yajna was performed by Gautama or Vajasravasa, the sage. In this yajna, through which performance he aspi

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday, November 2 2021. 8:57.PM. Chapter -1.  Discourse No - 2. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Everyone has been caught in this network of things called the world, right from creation up to the present day, and we have no reason to believe that the future generation will not be so caught. The pattern of life is not merely a location of objects for our enjoyment, for our likes and dislikes. The pattern of existence is a tremendously well thought-out involvement, externally as well as internally

 ------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Secret of the Katha Upanishad : 1. Swami Krishnananda ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday, November 1 2021. 4:38AM Chapter -1.  Discourse No. 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- om saha navavatu; saha nau bhunaktu; saha viryam karavavahai; tejasvi navadhitamastu; ma vidvishavahai; om santih; santih; santih. Om! May He protect us both, (the teacher and the taught). May He cause us both to enjoy protection. May we both exert to find out the true meaning of the scriptures. May we never quarrel with each other. Let there be threefold Peace. Om. Peace! Peace! Peace! ----------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, August 4, 2021. 10:19.. PM. Chapter 6: The Meaning of Not Coming Back - 18. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is the message of the Kathopanishad, and of all the Upanishads, and of the Bhagavadgita. This is everyone’s message to everyone else. When one loves another, when one wants status, money, land, property, everything, these are broken glass pieces we hug under the impression that they are the infinites that we are wanting. So we are groping in the darkness of ignorance, searching for the Infinite that we have lost but being satisfied with a little tinsel, a little piece of tin which looks like a shining crystal in the light of the sun. "Manasaś ca parā buddhir buddher ātmā mahān paraḥ; mahataḥ param avyaktam, avyaktāt puruṣaḥ paraḥ puruṣān na paraṁ k

------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, July 29, 2021. 11:07. AM. Chapter 6: The Meaning of Not Coming Back - 17. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- This union is not experienced by reason, argument, inference, deduction and induction, etc. By direct unity all rejoicing, satisfaction or any kind of delight is a loss of personality. The more we lose our personality, the more are we happy. In intense joy, in aesthetic perceptions and experiences, in musical performances which we participate in, and dance performances or even cinema, for instance, if we completely get absorbed in the thing that we see, we do not know that we are existing. The measure of the loss of our self-consciousness is the measure of the joy that we feel. The measure of the loss of self-consciousness means the measure of the loss of the individuality in which we are encased, and the entry into the universality which is our goal. When

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, July 22, 2021. 11:19. AM. Chapter 6: The Meaning of Not Coming Back - 16. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Narada went to Dwarka to see how Sri Krishna was living with 16,000 women. He could not understand how one person can be with 16,000. Narada found the one Lord in each place. In one house, in one palace, he was receiving guests, in another palace he was performing agnihotra and offering sacred oblation in the fire, in a third place he was taking lunch, and in a fourth place he was taking rest. He was there in every place simultaneously. The Universal was present in every particular. Now I am digre

  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, July 14, 2021. 10:03. PM. Chapter 6: The Meaning of Not Coming Back - 15. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This object of our meditation, therefore, is not one among the many objects. The nation is not one person; it is all the persons. Thus it is that the object of our meditation is not one object. The fact that we somehow or other get into the wrong notion that the object on which we are meditating is one among the many things is the reason why the mind jumps from object to object. If we somehow believe that the national spirit is only one little petty thing, how can we love our nation? Unless we are sure that the welfare of the whole nation is our welfare and we are included in it and everybody is included in it, we cannot pay respect to our national spirit. Thus it is that we cannot truly love or pay respect to our object of meditation if

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Wednesday, July 7, 2021. 9:00. AM. Chapter 6: The Meaning of Not Coming Back - 14. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yoga is a difficult thing. It is a mystery because all things that are non-sensory should appear as mysteries. I began by saying this at the very outset. But by discipline, by living with a great Master and receiving his vibrations, and by sincere prayers, gradually one can achieve this most difficult task. Yoga is most difficult of achievement, but not an impossible thing. It is difficult because yoga is the absolution of our phenomenal personality from involvement in space and time, and regaining its originality in its noumenal being. In concentration, in meditation, what do we do then? Again I revert to what I told you yesterday: All reality being infinite, universal, the object of our meditation should be considered as an emblem of