Kathopanishad : ( 04/03/2013. )

 ======================================================================= ======================================================================= Wednesday, October 05, 2022. 06:00. Discourse -3.  Post -16. ========================================================================= Now, what is knowledge? Why is it regarded as so subtle? The subtlety of it really lies in the fact that it is not an object of knowledge. Anything that is an object of our understanding or mind can be regarded as a gross presentation definable in character—spatial and temporal in its location, and causal in its connection. The whole world is a network of space, time and cause. Everything is somewhere in space. Everything is sometime in the passage of the temporal process of events, and everything is connected with something else in a causal chain. Everything is a cause, and everything is an effect. This is the way we try to understand things. But this supreme mystery about which Nachiketas put the thi...

 ======================================================================== ========================================================================= Monday, September 19,2022. 06:00. Discourse -3.  Post -15. ======================================================================== Now, the Guru should have a double qualification. He must be living what he teaches, and also he should have the power to express what he knows. That is a brahmanishtha and a shrotriya, beautifully blended. Such a person is an ananya. You have no other alternative than this. You approach a Guru who is established in the knowledge which he has acquired, in whom knowledge has become a part of his being and life and practice, and who has also the blessing of the power of expression; otherwise, this truth cannot be known. This knowledge cannot be obtained through mere study for oneself, by private enterprise, merely. It requires the grace of a Master. Knowledge acquired through a Guru is living knowledge....

 ======================================================================== Chinmaya International Foundation (CIF) 03.09.2022 Hari Om. On 31 August, the auspicious occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi, the CIF Family, including staff and Vedanta Sadhaka Course (VSC) students, gathered together to welcome Ganapati Bappa, with decorations in the Illom and preparation of naivedya and sweets. Br. Ved Chaitanya led the team to setup the altar and install the murti of Ganesha Bhagavan, and offered an elaborate puja with abhisheka of 11 dravyas. VSC Students along with CIF Staff and residents devotedly chanted the Ganapati Atharvashirsha 21 times followed by an offering of Ashtottara namavali. Special naivedya of modak, sweets and fruits was offered to Bhagavan. The puja concluded with joyous chanting of the Ganapati Aarti and chants of “Ganapati Bappa Moraya!” ======================================================================== Saturday, September 03,2022. 06:40. Discourse -3.  Post -14....

 ======================================================================== ========================================================================= Sunday, August 14, 2022. 06:00. Discourse -3.  Post -13. ======================================================================== Now, Yama comes to the main argument of the whole Upanishad, and the heart and soul of the aspiration of Nachiketas. How can one know it? There must be something extremely difficult about it; else, Yama would not have been so reluctant to speak of it. However much you may scratch your head, rack your brain or think about it, or argue, or read, or speak, you cannot understand it. nāyam ātmā pravacanena labhyo na medhayā, na bahunā śrutena. Even if you ponder over it in all possible ways, you will not gain an access into this knowledge. So difficult is its deep significance to grasp. That is why Yama thought it better if he kept quiet about it. But Nachiketas would not leave him. na nareṇāvareṇa proktā eṣa...

 ======================================================================== ========================================================================= Sunday, July 24, 2022. 20:30. Discourse -3.  Post -12. ======================================================================== The great impediments to spiritual progress are known as avidya, kama and karma—ignorance, desire and action. These three aspects of the obstacle are really a single obstacle presenting itself in three different ways. An ignorance of the true and ultimate nature of things is called avidya. We call it ignorance, or nescience, or the absence of knowledge, or darkness, etc. This ignorance, avidya, breeds a desire for the external objects of sense—kama. An ignorance of the character of reality, which is avidya, at once presupposes an affirmation of personality, ahamkara—and a desire to contact other personalities. Avidya causes ahamkara simultaneously. They are almost inseparable, like the heat and the light o...

====================================================================== ===================================================================== Friday, June 17, 2022. 17:00. Discourse -2.  Post -11. ========================================================================= The third asking of Nachiketas is a wondrous asking. Wonderful is the asker of this question! Wonderful is the answer to this question! The answer was given to Nachiketas finally, because Nachiketas was made of such a stern stuff within him. He rejected all the tempting objects of the world. Even universal knowledge was not sufficient to Nachiketas. The Vaishvanara-Agni-Vidya was not adequate.  And what is this question of Nachiketas, the third question? ye-yam prete vicikitsā manuṣye ystī-tyeke nāyam astīti caike; “Does the soul exist, or does the soul not exist? What is it? Is it, or is it not? What do you mean by the soul?” The question whether the soul exists or not can be answered only when we know what the...

 ======================================================================= ====================================================================== Sunday, May 29, 2022. 19:00. Discourse -2.  Post -10. ======================================================================= The second boon represents the cosmical identification of the individual psychological unit. You become cosmically aware of things.  While in the first stage of your union with the physical forces of nature—the result of the first tapas, the first fast, the effect of your attunement with the physical universe—you become abundant in material possession, rich in every sense of the term,  now, in the second stage, you become rich in knowledge, also. A yogi is rich physically, and also psychologically.  A yogi is not a poor person. He has everything with him. Even the richest man of the world cannot be equal to the yogi in the wealth of possession.  He can command everything in the world.  H...