FAITH AND THE TRUTH

    There are so many stories that we can learn from  and I though of doing this one today . We  often think that the God does not respond to our prayers I have stated it many a times that I do not know anyone who has seen GOD . But do we ever try  and do we try with full faith and trust that we will see Him ? In Indian culture we offer PRASAD , which usually a food to the God . We usually offer a sweet thing hoping that he will respond by giving us Sweet thing . We tend to offer the things that we like  and also the amount is very small on daily Prasad offering and enough when we have invited many people for  religious celebration. The quantity is judged to be ENOUGH for the number of the people invited  and not for GOD. Because we are sure that once we offer it to God , all of it will be left for US to enjoy . So this a short story of sage Namadeo . when he was a child , his father used to do the daily pooja - the 16 steps devotional service to God , that we are suppose to be done . But one of the days , he had to go for some work  and he did not have enough time for the elaborated Pooja . So he asked the son - Namadeo that he should do the Pooja . The father left and then the young son , may be 8 years of age or so went to do pooja . He did the pooja  and then at the end of it he offered the Prasad.HE BELIEVED THAT THE THE PRASAD WAS FOR THE GOD . So he waied for the God to eat it when he had closed his eyes  and offered it. When he opened the eyes the food was still there  and he was not happy. So he did it again  and then told the GOD that he must eat as he was not going anywhere till he ate it . And the the God did eat it
    When his father came home . he  asked the son as to where was the Prasad, the son answered that the he offered it to the God  and the God ate it . The father was not amused . He did not trust the son. He told the son that he has been doing the pooja for many many years  and he has offered the prasad to God every day and the God has not eaten it ever . He thought the sweet was too good that the son could not avoid the temptation. So he wanted to see if the son was telling the truth or not . So he told him to do it again next day. The son agreed  and so he went to do the pooja next day. The father was hiding thinking that he will catch the son in act of eating the Prasad . But he witnessed something else. As the son closed the eyes had prayed the God to have it the prasad - the food disappeared . The father realized that the DEVOTION of the son was much more intense  and HE the son believed that when we offer the Prasad to the God , HE WILL EAT IT . and the God had no choice .
    If we offer with faith HE WILL RESPOND . If we offer thinking it is only for us , HE is not interested in eating it  

THE SELF AND THE I

    This is the new story from ancient Hindu scripture . This tells us something which has been told to us many times  and we still do not understand it or may be do not accept it or may be we just can't think in that way .

    This is the story of KACHMUNI. He was born from VED VYAS .Vyas is the same Vyas is one of the very old sages . He was devoted , learned  and also had reached the heights of meditation . When his wife was pregnant, the child was not ready to come out after usual 10 months of pregnancy. He stayed in foe several years  and then the sage Vyas had to request the child to come out as it was becoming very difficult for the mother to carry on pregnancy due to the growing child . This was the KACH MUNI. After his birth Ved Vyas taught him all the religious scriptures  and the whatever he knew  and then when he wanted more he told him to go to the King Janaka. (think about it . The sage is sending his son to  a king - who is involved in all sorts of bodily pleasures to teach his son on religion)
    So the Kachmuni started his journey to go to the king Janak. He had to go through the Forrest  and it was long way . His father decided to follow the son . In the small town as they were passing by there was a small lake  and  and there were ladies of the town who were swimming naked . As the Kach muni pass by they did not react and continued to swim  and did not cover them self . As the Vyas passed by they covered their naked bodies with clothes . This was noticed by the Kachmuni  and he thought to himself that the ladies knew that he had no desires  and they were safe , but they were not that sure of his father .
    He reached the Janaka kingdom  and then the palace  and he was stopped at the gates . He sent a message to King Jnaaka  that ,'I the Kachmuni , has come to see him 'the guard gave the message to the king  and the King Janaka send a message to Kachmuni ,'When you have given up everything , you can come in '. The Kachmuni sent a second message that ,'I the Kachmuni has given up everything .' the guard took the message to the king and the king send back the same message , 'when if you have given uo everything , you can come in .
Now the Kachmuni was surprised . He could not understand  and so he sent the same message  and he got the same reply. 
    And then it struck him . In each message he was saying I THE KACHMUNI - which meant that he was referring to the physical body as KACH MUNI   and that showed the attachment to the physical body or he was mistaken to refer I TO THE BODY OF KACHMUNI . The story continues  and when he realized the mistake he was allowed to meet the king and then the king did teach him . There is story of how he tested the new student  and that may be next time . 

PARROTING

  I have started doing some stories  and the moral conclusion out of it. I did one with Lord Krishna . Now I will do one that I heard about and it may or may not be true. I am sure some of you might have heard of the story ,but never thought it had some educational value.
  This is a story of Einstein. When he had published the theory of the relativity, he became very famous  and every university and every association wanted to call him and give a lecture . He was not very happy ,but he had to go for lectures . He was getting bored . So one day he had was invited for the lecture. He  was going to the place  and his driver was driving. He did not need to prepare for the lecture as he had given same lecture many times and he knew the subject as he was the one that had the theory published. So he was talking to his driver. The driver had also attended the lectures in the past  and he was smart . So when Einstein state that he was just tired of giving the same lecture over and again, he suggested that they can change the cloths  and Einstein can become the driver and driver can give lecture. Einstein agreed . They changed the clothes  and now Einstein was wearing the driver's uniform . When they reached the place , the driver went in as Einstein and gave the lecture. He had heard it many times  and he could rattle out the same words again without understanding anything.
    The lecture was over  and the driver was trying to get off the stage as he did not not the real thing . But the moderator wanted to have some Q and A session. So he asked if anyone had questions . One from the audience stood up and asked a question . The driver had stop and stay in his chair . He had no understanding of the subject  and so it was beyond his ability to answer  any questions . He was in trouble , but he was smart  and he stood up  and said .'The question is so simple that even my driver could answerer it ' and called his driver - Einstein ,from the audience.
   Let us for a second leave aside the possibility of such a thing really happening . Not very likely .But we do it all the time . We give comments based on what we have heard from experts  and we have not understood much . But it sounds good  and we can remember the answers. We do this all the time when we talk about the scriptures . We don't always understand nor we we follow the path. But we are ready to TEACH the others , only because we can remember and talk like parrot. 

THE DEVOTION

    To continue in this blog, I have decided to tell some stories that have some moral element to it  and these may be related to scriptures or otherwise. so let me start the first one with Lord KRISHNA.
    When Krishna was born . his parents were jailed  and the King Kaunsa was aware of the fact that the child born to his sister will kill him. But when Krishna was born, there was heavy rains  and river Yamuna was flooded. His father Vasudev decided to take the child out of jail . He was not too sure as to how he could do it . He put a child in a basket  and then the guards went in deep sleep and the jail doors open on own and then when he went to the river Yamuna , Krishna touched the water with little toe  and the river parted . He was taken to GOKOOL  and the new set of parents did the upbringing . They did not have  any child of own and they wanted to do big ceremony for KRISHNA . But they knew that the King Kaunsa will know so they did smaller ceremony. The priest performed the religious function and he then did shower in the river and had cooked his own food and then sat  and offered the food to the LORD / GOD . When he opened his eyes he saw baby Krishna eating the food . He was upset . He called the mother Yashoda  and told her to control the child  and did whole process again . Sower, cooking and then offering the food to Lord . He had closed his eyes  and the when he opened them he saw same thing , Krishna was eating food . He was locked in room and he still got out  and messed the food . The priest did this third time  and the same time happened.
      This time he REALIZED that he was offering the food to GOD/ LORD  and was not expecting that the LORD / GOD would eat it . But KRISHNA was the GOD and when offered, he was EATING the food .
      We often offer the Lord food -PRASAD . We always offer what WE like . We never for a second think that HE WOULD EAT IT . We decide the quantity based on how many guests we have invited ,not on how much God would like. We don't expect that GOD IS ACTUALLY GOING TO EAT IT..
We do not have FAITH in our own prayers  and devotions. So when the food is gone we are surprised  and this is the problem .We do religious ceremony for our own satisfaction and we do have unconditional love faith .
                                                WE NEED TO HAVE THAT!!!

ADDITION

    I have been writing on this Blog on Patanjali Sutra Yoga  and i have come to end .
I just wanted to let you know that I have started on KATHOPNISHAD IN MY NEW BLOG
KATHOPNISHAD.BLOGSPOT.COM.
   I hope you will read it  and support it  and also comment on it.
   I have also done a book on Patanjali Sutra Yoga which is available at Amazon books as E book as well as print form. It is little different than the Blog itself .
    I hope you will check it out , Thanks  

KATHOPANISHAD KATHA UPANISHDA 1

        Since the PATANJALI SUTRA YOGA was completed , I decided to continue the same blog  and not changing the name . But I want to start on UPANISHADS. There more than 100 Upanishads  and some are considered very important . There are 10 or 12 Upanishads that are considered very important  and the Katha Upanishads is one of them . It is also very popular and has been discussed  and critique by many and one of the first one that I read many years ago. I have told the story of the Kathopanishada to many including non-Indians  and it is impressive . There are several reasons why I like it  and I will try to tell them in this first Blog.

     The meaning of the Upanishad is 'sitting next to '.The typical format of the Upanishads is to start with a prayer  and then there is a story and the story has the 'teaching ' by the teacher. This is a conversation between the GURU or Teacher  and the SHISHYA or disciple or student. The story itself has teaching and that is the way it differs from the ISAP NITI OR PANCHTANTRA. (For those who are not familiar with the Isap Niti -Isap was a slave  and he has these famous stories where he could Understand the language of the animals  and that created the story  and at the end of the story was 'moral teaching. In Panchtantra there were animal stories  and that had again the moral teaching)
   In Upanishads we have knowledge of  BRAHMAN-so it is Brahma Vidya.The scriptures are always complicated  and written in mystic form. This is true for the Vedic religion and also for the other Abrahamic religions , namely Christianity , Islam and Judaism. From Adam and Eve story to statements like You chop off your arms  and then I will receive you to I am the only God that you should worship - are all the examples of things that are open to interpretation and misunderstandings and then the fights.  So this Upanishad is straight forward . It also deals with Life and Death.We do not know what happens to us after the death (of physical body) and so we are concerned and we are curious  and afraid. But the Death as we know is death of physical body  and not our True Nature or SELF. So this Upanishad addresses it as to what happens after the so called DEATH.
    We have had discussions on reincarnation and so Vedic religion believes that we have several lives  and we are reborn and the BIRTH AND DEATH ARE CYCLES  and there is o end to it unless---?.
So this Upanishad does affirms the idea of reincarnation.
    We have also heard in our life about the Gods doing this  and that  and we often give HUMAN qualities to the Gods . The God is merciful and God will forgive  and God will get mad  and God will punish etc. But then on other hand we also talk about the PURUSHA which has no Gunas  and he is independent observer . So what is the Truth . Is there a God of that has these qualities . Is there a GOD OF DEATH the YAMA or YAMARAJ ? This Upanishad has the answer  and the YAMA the God of death is teaching about LIFE  AND LIFE AFTER DEATH !
    So I will try to start the real verses in my next blog .

PLEASE VISIT MY NEW BLOG ON KATHOPNISHAD.BLOGSPOT.COM

NEWS FLASH

    THE PATANJALI SUTRA YOGA IS DONE WITH. I AM STILL TRYING TO GRASP IT AND MAY BE ONE DAY DO A E BOOK OUT OF IT  AND I AM WORKING ON WHAT I WROTE FOR LAST FEW YEARS.

BUT I ALSO WANTED TO LET YOU KNOW THAT I HAVE ANOTHER BLOG
WWW.BRAINSTORM-AVINASH1.BLOG SPOT.COM
AND I HAVE MANY GOOD STORIES THAT WILL ENTERTAIN AND MAKE YOU THINK .
I HAVE DONE THAT BLOG FOR MORE THAN 5 YEARS . PLEASE VISIT AND LET ME KNOW HOW YOU LIKE IT. I HAVE  BLOGS ON MEDICINE, WEIGHT LOSS , HEALTH CARE AND THINGS LIKE GOD PARTICLE, DARK ENERGY PRAYERS, DARK MATTER  AND MANY MORE TOPICS .
    I ALSO STARTED A YOU TUBE CHANNEL CALLED JUST A TALK .
   YOU WILL GET TO IT IF YOU GO ON YOU TUBE  AND LOOK FOR JUST A TALK .
BLACK CIRCLE WITH J IN THE MIDDLE IS MY CHANEL . PLEASE CHECK THAT OUT .
   
    I HAVE PLAN TO START ONE OF THE INTERESTING UPANISHADS  MOST LIKELY KATHOPANISHAD SOON ON THIS BLOG SITE . SO LOOKING FORWARD TO THAT.