Petty Ego Trip

People who visit Himalayas for the first time or umpteenth time, claim this ‘I feel my ego is reduced to nothing when I stand in front of the gigantic mountains or when I sit for meditation (!) in front of the Ganges’. This is so hollow as their claim. Why? I ask why, when you visited the nearby ocean or the mountain or river you did not feel anything.

And for me, the annihilation of the ego need not be gained by a trip. When we stand in front of the big mass of people in the city or town, one comes from, do we not feel anything. Everyone in the group wants to make a name for himself / herself. And what greater folly can there be than this.

When people come to me, I ask a simple question – whether they have any idea who Sri Shankaracharya is (though I always refer to him as bhagavan bhashyakara, other cannot remember this great ones name, leave alone the reference to him through His life). If they are in the path of spirituality, they will claim to know about him, claim? Let me explain, now we follow the path of this great one, nut know nothing about him, and again claim to follow him J or L. Ask about His parents, or the place of His birth. Many a time, you will receive a blank stare, displaying the great ignorance of what we ‘believe’ in. (for the ones who want to know His father’s name is Sri Shivaguru (son of Sri Vidhyadhiraja) and mother’s name is Smt Aryambha (daughter of Sri Magapandita).

Now tell me, when we do not know or care to know somebody of such a great stature, is it not utter foolishness to think that people will remember us. All our ego trips, to establish a name of / for oneself, is nothing but making a greater fool of ourselves. This I am not talking about the “naïve” householder but the “learned” Sadhus too. What not they do to establish themselves in a greater pedestal than the other famous swami, of equal or unequal stature. They establish Ashramas and places for living for the disciples, for both one following the sadhu life and the householder life. And run from pillar to post to expand or maintain it, being afraid till the end of their life, about the security of even their stay in the ashram, such a pity. And what happens after, there will be a power-play, to usurp the power, by the trusted trustees or the disciple who has completely surrendered himself to the Guru.

And even after all this, who will remember him. At the most, the one who was able to wrest the power, and mist often than not, scolding the founder of the ashram for every problem, real or imaginary, he faces. And at the most, as the history of the ashram, in the third generation. And after that, no one really cares or bothers about him. At least, for the householder, in a family which performs the shraaddha (ancestoral worship), they do remember till the great-grand father stage.

But, we may argue, we will be remembered by the people of our times, rightly said, but who are they, they too fall in the same circle of people who are not note worthy in the aftermath.

Smart Mauni speaks “The bright side - If people forget great men, and if they forget us too, we are great men”. 

Shankara Jayanti

Today is a day of Great Joy for all of us. It is the day of the Great Acharya, Bhagavan Bhashyakara Sri Shankaracharya incarnating in this world, to save us from the Samsara.
As Shankara Dig Vijaya clearly says, Shambo murti charati shankara rupa - Shiva himself came into this world in this form as Shankaracharya.

The strange thing is that Acharya, unlike anyother, not just preached a time-imemorial philosophy, but lived it too.

The crux of the teaching, the world is illusory. This is very well established, as we see the fight going to establish the date of his Birth, whether it is AD or BC. Where He attained Samadhi, is it in Kedharnath or is it in Kancipuram.
The only thing for sure is he was here to solve OUR problems. As the teaching says, the world is pratitimatram. just a transient existence.

Problems and Solutions - in Purascharana

 After seeing a large number of people interested in knowing about the purascharana, i thought to write some of the “problems” on may face in the period of purascharana.

The most important of all the other problem one faces during one starts a purascharana is the increase of ‘heat; in the body. People who are familiar with this concept can easily understand what i mean, but this has no equivalent term in the allopathy, at best, we can translate this phenomenon as biliousness (bile). Majority of the people who do a lot of sadhana, including purascharana, face this. I tried many forms of remedy, but the best i found is what is given here :

1                  1.       Eating a small ball of butter. For those who worry about their cholesterol level, there are other methods. But, this is the best treatment i found handy during the purascharana.

                    2.       Drinking jeera (Tamil – jeeragam, English – cumin seed) water, better if the jeera is roasted a little. Boil water with jeera and drink it throughout the day.

                    3.       Roast methi seed (Tamil - vendhayam, English - fenugreek), soak some 10/12 seeds in a glass of water in the night and drink and eat it in the morning.

                    4.       When during this period, for lack of following the above methods, if i get ulcer in the mouth, i used to take B-complex capsules for 3/4 days.

                    5.       But if one has an excessive amount of bile, causing heavy head, nausea etc this is the best treatment – take a mixture of some raisins (dry grape), ginger, jeera and sugar.

The next important problem is concentration. After a period of time, if we are not used to meditating for a longer period, the eyes automatically open. The best thing to do during this time is, let it be in that state (open) for some time before closing it again.

The mind will start to wander, mostly thinking about the long period of time we are meditating, in reality it will only be less than an hour, again, chant the mantra in soft tone (murmur), before continuing with the meditation in mind.

After completing the chanting for the day, do not get up immediately, for this will cause temporary or permanent cramp in the legs. Just let the blood flow through before stretching the legs completely. In case we get some cramps etc, use salt water fomenting for some time.

Whatever problems you may face, never give-in to your weakness, because the whole point of doing the purascharana is to strengthen your will-power, therefore challenge the weaknesses as and when one arises.