roll over in slumber

He comes, scarce knowing what he seeks

He breaks the hedge; he enters there;

The color flies into his cheeks;

He trusts to light on something fair;

For all his life the charm did talk

About his path, and hover near

With words of promise in his walk,

And whispered voices in his ear.

The Sleeping Beauty

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Aurobindo jayanti

Sri Aurobindo came to tell us,

"One need not abandon the world to enter into relation with the Divine.
The Divine is everywhere, in everything.
And if he is hidden, it is because we do not take the trouble to find him."

- The Spirit of Auroville, by Huta. 

Chinmaya Aradana 2017

Arjuna falls silent at end of the 14th.

And Krishna is free to talk about what he really cares - the 15th chapter.

A picture is painted about a tree which shelters horses - Aswattha.

With vedas as leaves,  sense-objects as buds, branches growing downward and rooted skyward.

And he speaks about cutting down this invisible tree with the weapon of dis-association.

In the absence of a pictorial Body- Mind- Intellect chart, we see the use of a peepul tree imagery.

In any organisation, there is hierarchy - with roots at the CEO, board of directors, branches of various departments, executives, foliage of staff and so on.

A pyramidal array exists unseen in every organisation, institution. And aren't the most important elements always at the top?

- Swami Chinmayananda

four month slumber

She sleeps: her breathings are not heard
In palace chambers far apart

the fragrant tresses are not stirred
that lie upon her charmed heart

She sleeps; on either hand upswells, 
the gold fringed pillow lightly prest

She sleeps, nor dreams, but ever dwells 
A perfect form in perfect rest.

Sleeping Beauty,     
Alfred Lord Tennyson

Walluwar Jayanti

Rosary and manuscripts symbolize skills and knowing.

Shiwa as polar, south-facing Dakshinamurti and Dewi as Saraswati, hold these.

Manuscripts symbolize knowing.

Presently, it looks like being skilled and being in the know, are mutually exclusive.

In past, all skills were means, to dissolve ego and lead one to the Supreme.

Therefore the saying, 'Widyaa winaya sampanney' - skill development embedded in humility.

Thiru-Walluwar asks, 'Of what value is any skill, if it disables one to bow down, to the Divine?'

Catradanaal aaya payan en koll, Waalarivan nar-taal tozhaa-ar enin?

-  Shri Chandrashekarendra Saraswati,   Kanchi.

J Krishnamurti jayanti

In this constant battle which we call living, we try to set a code of conduct - according to the society in which we are brought up.

Tradition becomes our security.

And when the mind is secure, it is in decay.

- J  Krshnamurti

Chinmaya jayanthi

It is kama, it is krodha - - love and hate, that bloom from one's own Rajasic tendencies
Great gobbler, great adversity; Foe who stands between knower and knowing.

- Ch.4,  verse 37, Battlefield Counsel.

Christian traditions talk of devil as tempter.
Islamic traditions too speak of satan, the distractor.

Even Buddhists talk of Mara, the tempter.
Images show, distractions that hover and dance around, a Buddha in meditation.

But Krishna, is not so ambiguous.

He pin points and light up the culprit, as one's own Rajasic hues.

Clearly, he seems to speak from the Samkhya stream, of classical thought.

- Swami Chinmayananda.