Maha kirtan HH Aindra Das

Embedded in my heart and soul.  It simply doesn't get any better than this.  At Krsna Balaram Temple in Vrindvana, Uttar Pradesh:  Aindra Prabhu, ki jai, you live on through your kirtan, although I deeply miss your darshan. May the whole world hear and remember who they really are through your transcendental devotion and music from the spiritual platform.

Vedic philosophy: Inconceivable oneness and difference

Gurudeva

Two things: contradictory but functioning nicely together. This is Vedic culture and it is difficult for Westerners to understand, as we do not have the capacity to deal with contradictory things happening at the same time. So do not labour under the materialistic place of duality, of either-or, which we see because we are not connected to the Supreme Absolute Truth, where there can be no duality.  The place of inconceivable oneness and difference (acintya-bhedābheda-tattva) is the Vedic philosophy, not a philosophy.  This is the transcendental platform, where seeming contradictions don't contradict each other at all.  The oneness is there, and although acintya-bhedābheda-tattva is separate from other systems of Vedic thought, at the same time it includes the others. It will take more thoughtfulness to appreciate, however. Other systems are more easily, directly appreciated.   BVPS, Ki Jai.  

Gurukula at Mayapur, West Bengal

All you need is love ....

I don't remember hearing love described so beautifully from anyone who was not living the renounced life. Please enjoy and share Jason Silva's ecstatic take on love.


LOVE from jason silva on Vimeo.

The three golden keys

Love, peace and wisdom ... my first meditation teacher introduced me to Bliss .. I hope you enjoy it.

Find Bliss at http://www.last.fm/music/Bliss/Through+These+Eyes/Love+Peace+and+Wisdom 

Enlightenment .. it's personal

All grasping is fruitless, all hoping is in vain 

For hope is of a future which may or may not exist.

Expectation only bears sorrow, running only takes you in a circle.

For all paths lead to the one source.

And if you touch that source even for a timeless second

It's as if every bird had composed a song of joy especially for that moment.

As if every loving exchange you had ever encountered came flooding back 

to fill your heart and your dream-time.

The subtle sweetness of this meeting is silent. boundless

Beyond the clumsy search of words

And it will change you

Cell by cell, fibre by fibre, for all time.

Apology:  I do not remember where I heard these thoughts, and an extensive online search has not helped me identify the source.  I trust the being with such beauty within is fulfilled by their publication.

Aindra Das ..farewell! Your music unlocked my soul

 "No desire for fame or prestige. He was completely committed and received the blessing to uplift everyone in his presence. He became the most incredible musician, composer and singer. He showed by his example how one can become a vibrant manifestation of divine grace if one wants nothing else."  

These are the words of Kausthuba Das, a devotee and yogi I met (all too briefly) in Vrindavan who has shared on, his Bhakti Collective website beautiful pictures and a recording of Aindra  at the Krishna Balaram temple and his own tribute to Aindra Das.

As for me, dear Aindra Das, your music, your presence,  pierce my soul.  Eternally.  To have been in Vrindavana at the temple and to participate in your ecstatic kirtans has been the greatest of blessings.  Embedded within my deep sadness I am overwhelmed with gratitude for those times.

I'm remembering now, through tears of separation while I listen to you,  how each day in Vrindavan,  as the sunlight softened  I would  start longing  for 6pm.   That moment was the one when you would start to play, bringing the brilliance of the sun right back with you,  enveloping us all in your massive golden aura of absolute truth, and transporting us from Maya  directly to an experience of Goloka Vrindavana.  

The experience is beyond any words I am capable of writing.  In Vrindavan, absorbed in the kirtan of Aindra Das, one would experience His mercy.  Sat-cid-ananda vigraha.

Today he has returned to Goloka Vrindavana.  

Thank you Radhe Shyamasundra for lending Aindra Das to us.


"And so, O Brāhmaṇa Vyāsadeva, in due course of time I, who was fully absorbed in thinking of Kṛṣṇa and who therefore had no attachments, being completely freed from all material taints, met with death, as lightning and illumination occur simultaneously."   SB 1:6:27

How to maintain spiritual consciousness amidst the material energy

Finding that fine place of balance where I am applying the principles of my spiritual practice in the world of business has definintely become  my life's work.   Constantly I fall down in my efforts.  Constantly I need to find ways to live a life of love and truth.  Today this wonderful advice from Swami Satcidananda (spiritual master of my dear friend, Jan Stewart) popped into my inbox and I thought you might enjoy it.

"The lotus is considered to he a very holy and divine flower. Not just because of its beauty, hut also because of its qualities. A lotus flower grows in very shallow water, usually in a muddy area. Though it comes out of the mud and mire, it rises as a beautiful flower that lives in the water without being affected by it. The lotus flower is always given as an example for one who wants to live spiritually in the world. It is said, "Live like a lotus in the water." The lotus leaf is right in the water, hut it's never moistened by the water When you pick it up, it's completely dry. It never gets wet. If you throw a little water over it, the water will roll off and scatter around like pearls.

Aperson should live like the lotus, being in the world but not affected by it. You should always express your natural beauty, though you may grow in a dirty place. Nothing from outside should affect you.

The lotus is a symbol of love and devotion also. If you ever see the Goddesses Lakshmi or Saraswati you would see that they're standing on a lotus. Wherever Lord Buddha placed his foot, a lotus appeared to hold it. The feet of a holy person are called the "lotus feet."

The lotus flower turns its head towards the sun always. That means it always turns towards the light; it receives the light constantly. So you can say it's an ever-enlightened flower."

Love and light.

From "The Golden Present"

Daily Inspirational Readings by Swami Satcidananda

True friendship, online and off.

A young friend shared an article on my facebook page today. From the UTne Reader and titled "Faux Friendship" the author of the article was comparing online and real life friendships as two separate things, finding "online"  guilty of eroding the values of true friendship.  


Reading the article made me wonder whether the author had experienced - both in real life and online - the pure joy of sharing and communicating with like-minded souls in ways that are "authentic, transparent, wise" (as Soren Gordhamer  says).  I wondered, too, if he (the author) was exasperated by perhaps not having found what he was searching for on facebook or other online forums.


"Friendship" he said, "was a high calling, demanding extraordinary qualities of character, rooted in virtue and dedicated to the pursuit of goodness and truth.".  Was?   To me friendship is friendship... online and offline.  The online environment is purely a platform for people to connect. As my favourite swami says "The pots and pans are not the cooking".


Another thing I wondered was whether the author had taken the opportunity to join one of the thousands of online communities, where individuals befriend each other, sharing thoughts and resources to bring about positive change, actions for good, benefiting the millions in our world disadvantaged by a lack of connectedness? Here are just two awesome examples of connecting for change by "online" friends: Eddie and Venessa .


Last month in Silicon Valley a group of amazing people (including Eddie and Venessa) met face-to-face, having connected through social media to share a three day conversation about being mindful in a digital world.   Please enjoy a taste of the values of true friendship as experienced here at the Wisdom 2.0 Summit.


In me those three days sparked a beautiful realisation that "the moral content of classical friendship, its commitment to virtue and mutual improvement" is not lost, but  infinitely enhanced by our online connections.

"Absolute Truth"

"The Absolute Truth is realized in three phases of understanding by the knower of the Absolute Truth, and all of them are identical.  Such phases of the Absolute Truth are expressed as Brahman, Paramatma, and Bhagavan." (Bhag. 1.2.11) 

These three divine aspects can be explained by the example of the sun, which also has three different aspects, namely the sunshine, the sun's surface and the sun planet itself. 

One who studies the sunshine only is the preliminary student. One who understands the sun's surface is further advanced. And one who can enter into the sun planet is the highest. 

Ordinary students who are satisfied by simply understanding the sunshine -- its universal pervasiveness and the glaring effulgence of its impersonal nature may be compared to those who can realize only the Brahman feature of the Absolute Truth. (one with our soul energy)

The student who has advanced still further can know the sun disc, which is compared to knowledge of the Paramatma feature of the Absolute Truth.(the supersoul).  And the student who can enter into the heart of the sun planet is compared to those who realize the personal features of the Supreme Absolute Truth. Therefore, the transcendentalists who have realized this Bhagavan feature of the Absolute Truth, are the topmost transcendentalists, although all students who are engaged in the study of the Absolute Truth are engaged in the same subject matter. 

The sunshine, the sun disc and the inner affairs of the sun planet cannot be separated from one another, and yet the students of the three different phases are in three different states of realisation.

Extract 2:2 Contents of the Gita Summarised

Gaura Purnima Festival - Lord Caitanya's appearance day

Happy Birthday Lord Caitanya, born on the day of the full moon in Feburary 1486. He was also known as Gaura (the golden one). It was he who started chanting Hare Krishna. Read about him here

My dear friend, Krishna Balaram Das, a deeply knowledgeable and pure young bramacari from Vrindavana - sent me this beautiful verse in honour of Caitanya Mahaprabhu's special day.

"All glories to that inconceivable Lord who descended to bestow the gift of perfect love for His own lotus feet. He is an ocean filled with many kinds of sweetness, and He always bears the fragrance of fresh youth. In His form as Çré Caitanya He has realized the last extreme of transcendental experience, the love residing eternally in the gopés."
brhad bhagavatam 1.1.1

J Krishnamurti on Love and doing nothing

Thoughts I've heard in conversations this week...love, absolute truth, connectedness, oneness... inspired me to revisit J.Krishnamurti's teachings....

"Love is something that is new, fresh, alive. It has no yesterday and no tomorrow. It is beyond the turmoil of thought. It is only the innocent mind which knows what love is, and the innocent mind can live in the world which is not innocent.

To find this extraordinary thing which man has sought endlessly through sacrifice, through worship, through relationship, through sex, through every form of pleasure and pain, is only possible when thought comes to understand itself and comes naturally to an end. Then love has no opposite, then love has no conflict.

You may ask, `If I find such a love, what happens to my wife, my children, my family? They must have security.' When you put such a question you have never been outside the field of thought, the field of consciousness. When once you have been outside that field you will never ask such a question because then you will know what love is in which there is no thought and therefore no time.

You may read this mesmerized and enchanted, but actually to go beyond thought and time - which means going beyond sorrow - is to be aware that there is a different dimension called love. But you don't know how to come to this extraordinary fount - so what do you do? If you don't know what to do, you do nothing, don't you? Absolutely nothing. Then inwardly you are completely silent. Do you understand what that means? It means that you are not seeking, not wanting, not pursuing; there is no centre at all. Then there is love."

Read more of J Krishnamurti on Love here

Changing consciousness with Dadi Janki

My first ever spiritual guide, HH Dadi Janki, was in Sydney, Australia briefly tonight. She hasn't been here for a long time but she's attending the World Religious Forum over the next few days in Melbourne so she dropped in. Despite her 90 something years and a long flight from Delhi she sparkled, inspiring several hundred people to cultivate peace, love and absolute truth so as to be in a state of happiness. The habit of daily meditation, she promised, allows us with practice to never need to feel that 'something is missing'. The power of Dadi Janki's presence in two meditations was awesome. It is difficult to describe in words. One enters an altered state of being, bathed in golden light, transcending the consciousness of oneself as a 'heavy' material body, then merging with the light, finding oneself quietly in bliss. Here peace and love merge to become absolute truth. This is who I am. Nothing missing. Nothing at all. Afterwards, there remains a consciousness of total well-being.

Just read Anand Giridharadas "Once Clear thoughts..." post published in today's NY Times. As always his words resonate with the heart and soul of a country - (surprisingly a democratic country) which has lodged itself forever in my heart and soul. "Why is more culture flowing in than out of India now" Giridharadas asks. My answer - to Anand and others of Indian parentage who have commented on his article - "Because you are too humble to realise that India has it all, has always had it all. And the world needs what it has, more than ever! The rest of us are yearning whether we know it or not, for what India has. The world's most magnificent, most opulent country at every level despite and because of her poverty, disease and, yes, her filth, India is brilliant, sparkling, radiant, grand. From her harsh but colourful northern deserts to the majestic Himalayas, her beautiful coastlines and lush tropical centre, her sacred rivers, from busy villages right to the midst of her teeming, vibrant cities - everything is grand scale. From villages to urban centres one sees 'filth' if that's where one's perception lies - just on the outer fringe of consciousness. Our eyes will see that if they are only observing, not feeling, not engaged, not truly conscious. It's the physical view. And India is so, so much more than that. She infuses every level of one's being - material, emotional, intellectual, spiritual! Most of all India's magnificence is held within her people, who wear their hearts and soul on the outside. They can't help it! No matter how hard they try to fit what they think is some standard 'international' or 'world-class' behaviour, they just are how they feel. Indian people embody all the opulences of her grand history and ancient Vedic culture, yet remain so humble as to think they have nothing to offer the world. I think democracy was always meant to have a soul, like the people it is supposed to serve. Like India. I so hope she doesn't lose that soul but perhaps one day share with us in the West the depth of an ancient civilisation we can only imagine, and her take on today's democracy. In return, western style democracy will not exploit her further, but will repay her by helping lift millions out of poor health, illiteracy and starvation."

Peru: Exploitation of people and resources...will it ever end?

All over the web and especially throughout social media I find sites and pages and followers and friends seeking to bring about a pure world, a conscious world, a world where there is no exploitation of any living beings or of nature itself. There is activity everywhere, there is belief and there is hope. It is inspiring. But the rough reality remains. We are all talking of change and a new, more compassionate world, but perhaps no-one is listening? Or we are all just talking among ourselves, oblivious and ignored. Because there is no true change in how the world works. No change of heart, anyway.

Looking at the situation in Peru this week it seems that global corporates and the world's wealthy nations have ignored the lessons many of us hoped would be by-products of the GFC. Wasn't it all about greed and exploitation of people and resources? So if it's all over for greed in developed nations, and destroying the environment at home is not good for the share price, then it looks like targeting third world nations and their indigenous populations is the new greed. So far the Peru story is not making mainstream news headlines.

If you search Google news - but you need to search - or you follow an environmental group on twitter, you may have caught up with the uprising of indigenous Peruvians and their supporters in the last ten days or so. They are protesting about the exploitation of the Amazon's resources by global corporations and investors. They are protesting because their own rights are being trodden to the ground. All cards are, as usual, in the hands of the first world players. If the Peruvian government tries to protect its people it will cross swords with the big powers who will seek for a ruling on unrestricted free trade (GW Bush!). Foreign investors could have the power to stop the Peruvian government legislating on behalf of its own people, as well as on behalf of its own resources. The latter is the norm in the 3rd world - think Timor Leste! In the meantime, blood is being shed and lives are being lost in clashes between Peruvians - government troops against indigenous groups, students and environmentalists. The usual.

Will there ever be another consciousness? What ever can we do?

This last week in India has felt like another lifetime. Since last post I've been embraced by the land of Lord Siva. Rishikesh, totally vegetarian this home of yoga nestles in the lap of the lower Himalayan foothills where the sacred, powerful Mother Ganges, jade and crystal clear still close to her source, meanders here, surges there, on her journey past the communities of Laxman Jhula north of town and on the East Bank Swarg Ashram (also called Rama Jhula). I'm absorbed by the spirit of this place, the vista of temples, yogis, ashrams, visiting pilgrims. Majestic suspension footbridges span the river carrying cows, women in saris, tourists, saddhus all travelling on foot, boys on bicycles, couples on scooters from the winding mountain road to the colourful, bustling village lanes of the two Jhulas. Rishikesh wears its spirit on the outside. Life is about yoga and meditation, ayurvedic health and massage, astrology, reiki, chanting, offerings, peaceful souls, smiling, greeting, namaste. Gentle, graceful energy radiates everywhere and from everyone. Perched on a partially submerged boulder on the banks of Mother Ganga as she flows serenely past me with the ancient, towering Himalayas behind me, I feel so incredibly blessed.

What a round-the-clock effort to get to the airport on Friday, clearing the desk, packing, it was 5am and the car was outside before I knew it. What a great idea to stop for six hours at Singapore airport - time to catch up on sleep in a comfortable hotel room before heading on to Delhi.

Every city has a smell that greets you even before you leave the plane and intensifies as you get closer. Perhaps the smell is just one part of a unique atmosphere of place. Whatever, smell is the sense that always hits me first. I haven't even started to sift and separate the assault of tastes, sights, sounds, smells, feelings that are Delhi, but if I smelled those smells at home - petrol, ghee, smoke, dust, earth, sewage - they'd offend me. If the sounds and the constant traffic jams and crowds were part of my daily life, I'm sure I'd find it overwhelming. But here in India I love it all and feel myself smiling inside as I reconnect, heart and soul, to India.

We made it from the airport into Delhi around 11.30pm. I always feel as though I've 'made it' in India when I arrive anywhere. Must be to do with the rally conditions you experience driving anywhere...navigating around tuk-tuks, scooters, buses, vans, horse-drawn trailers, cars, sadhus, bicycles with trailers and of course, cows. Constant beeping, blaring of horns. Just a few minutes away from the little downtown hotel, the familiar landmarks, looking forward to arriving the car came to a complete stop. Gridlock. The street, with stalls spilling onto the dusty road, was chock-a-block carnival - alive with light, music and colour. A wedding parade was in full Bollywood. White horse drawn carriage, bejewelled bride, all adorned with shining red and glittering gold ornaments, brass band, uniformed musicians straight from the British raj, hundreds upon hundreds of guests, well-wishers, followers, all pouring, jam-packed together, down our street. Cacophony! Car horns blaring, trumpets blasting, cymbals clashing, dogs barking, people singing and laughing. Sparkling crystal and ruby glass chandeliers held aloft by members of the dancing wedding party, strung one to the next with old electrical cables...surreal spotlights, randomly lit scenes. Pure India, at its brilliant best. For a weird but amusing few minutes I felt what it must be like to be a star and be 'mobbed'. We were surrounded. The hindquarter of a white horse just an inch from my window and at the driver's window squashed red, gold and white uniformed musicians. Bodies came tumbling across the bonnet and boot, pushing between the horse, the car, jostling the band. Past the windscreen hundreds of ecstatic, laughing, soulful eyes, faces pushed up to the glass, banging on the windows to the music, waving, happily.

Of course the parade moved on and we were face to face with a wall of traffic coming the other way. We edged forward, little by little, manouvering through tiny gaps, up and over kerbs, around through the back of a couple of stalls, past scooters, bikes, rickshaws, tuk-tuks and vans - all coming towards us and all, like us manouvering sideways, backwards, forwards.

Then just as suddenly as the parade had stopped us, the road cleared and we were outside the hotel. Delhi. I'm loving it.

Three things about me a) I spent half my life in the world of hidden persuaders (and not so hidden ones now I think about it) and b) I've spent the other half searching for the truth. Well, actually, I've spent all my life searching for Absolute Truth, but I only found that out fairly recently. Oh and c) I just realised this week that living one's truth means a big bonus - we get a natural, automatic connection to Absolute Truth. This is liberating and nurturing all at once. No either-or. Just a taste of bliss, love and happiness. Fortunate associations with wise women and men have brought me to this place. I find myself here more and more often. Like right now. I could stay focused on a few worldly matters like vaccinations and packing and catching up on some sleep. But it's okay. All is as it should be and India is not far away.

With just a few days to go before I slip out of the material energy, the easier it seems to let day-to-day responsiblities slip past too. And that's a little scary when there's so much to be done. This detachment is reminding me of an advanced traveller at a spiritual retreat I attended in New Zealand last January. "You are so conscious" she responded to a question about day-to-day trivia, like arranging schedules, or car keys, or whatever. Clearly my energy, straight out of a frantic Sydney materialistic December, was preventing me from detatching and just enjoying the moment. "That's good" she assured me, kindly noting my devastation at not having made it to the transcendental world. I was a new one here, among full-time transcendental experts. But by the end of the retreat, which was a pretty intense learning experience, I was no longer conscious ... of where were the keys, or the mobile phone charger (having survived more than a week without reception) or even about yesterday. Time seemed unimportant; possibly something to do with rising before 4am daily for meditation? Anyway, a few days in Auckland post-retreat in my newly unconscious state, sharing time and stories with friends from another lifetime, was absolutely blissful. Perhaps I simply haven't regained consciousness! It should be an interesting week.

It's not that one needs physically to be in India to experience transcendence, duh! True transcendentalists are just that. But for me the energies in India are not so in-your-face material, so it's like getting instant access to the exquisite taste and touch of a lighter energy - energy not to do with the physical, or with things, but connected to me, to my heart and soul. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying India's all bliss, yoga and chanting and certainly material energy is in full, vibrant evidence at its best and worst. It's just that in spite of it all, permeating everything, is something rich and beyond words, an unfathomable depth of absolute knowledge long lost, forgotten and out-of-reach in the west, but always there within easy access, if you're open to it.

Next week's trip back to India I've been dreaming about for the last 11 months - that's a month after getting home last time. It feels like a lifetime ago to me, but to everyone else it's 'didn't you just come back from India?' Rishikesh will be a new experience but Vrindavana is the ultimate destination.