COPY CAT -2

   I told the story of copy cat last time  and as we saw  doing a copy without understanding the reason for an action makes a mess and the result is not pretty. Ronald Regan once stated that Imitation is best form of Flattery. But when it is done without understanding the action is useless and may be harmful or makes  it laughable. So this is the second story. 

   In India there was a man who used to wake  and take shower and then do the Pooja. When in those days or even today when someone does the Pooja , they are suppose to wear a special cloth called SOVALE. This is a silk cloth may be about 6 yards  and it is used only at the time of Pooja. The idea is that it is clean. One day he had to go out of town very early in the morning and so had to catch a train early. So he told his elder son to do the Pooja. The eldest son had seen the father doing Pooja and knew the rituals and the Mantra  and the Arti .Once the father left ,the son took shower  and then prepared for the Pooja. The mother had cooked the food for offering it to the God. The son did the Pooja rituals  and then called everyone in the house for ARTI. He was standing  and since the Statues of the God were at lower level he had to bend down  and do the Arti. So everybody gathered for the Arti  and so the son bent down and took out part of the Sovale from behind  and then was to start the Arti. (I understand that those of you who have no idea as to what is Sovale or DHOTI may not understand. The way in which this simple 6 yard cloth is used as a garment, is it is wound around the waist  and then part of it is rolled  and stick at the back side )As the son was to start the Arti he took out the part of the cloth which was at the back , he pulled it out and then started to do the Arti The mother was surprised and asked him as to what he was doing. The son answered that he has observed his father do the Arti and the the cloth from back part is always pulled out by the father. The mother started laughing. Then she explained that when one bends down the back part may sometimes  come out as it is stretched  and that is not part of doing Pooja. So it does not need to be pulled out which son was doing. So the observation of son was partly correct but he did not realize the reason for that and so when he did it on own without it occurring it accidently, it becomes laughable thing. So whenever one does any action one must know why he is doing it.

COPY CAT

     We often copy people that are successful or we think are better than us . In day to day life we tend to copy things without understanding the reason beyond the action. When we do just do a  the action without the knowledge or reason for the action, then we get different result. So that is the story for today. 

   In India there was this man who used to have a monkey and he used to travel from a town to town and the monkey would do some tricks and mischiefs  and the crowd would be entertained and he would make some money. So after a busy morning he decided to take a rest  and went and sat under a big tree. It was summer and the temperature was high and so he was resting under a big tree . He ate some food and the monkey also had some food . While they were sitting under the tree he saw a Scorpion crawling in the dirt. He had a stick and so he hit the Scorpion with the stick and killed it. The monkey was watching it . The man then went to sleep . The monkey was awake. As the man was sleeping a fly came and rested on his face . The man  waved his hand  and the fly flew and then again  came and rested on his face . He did it again. The monkey was watching this and realized that fly was disturbing his master . So as the fye sat on his face again , the monkey took the stick and hit the fly with it . The fly flew away and the stick landed on his face  and he had a bruise. He woke up and was very mad. 

    So the monkey did what the man had done to scorpion with stick. But the monkey did not realize that the scorpion does not fly but the fly does  and so doing the copy it  caused the injury to the master . 

   

MAHABHARAT AND DRUTARASTR AND PANDU

      So in last blog I tried to explain how the characters in Mahabharat are related to the origin of universe. If one would read the Patanjali Sutra Yoga that precedes these blog posts, he will find the origin of universe discussed as I understand in Hindu religion or theology. It has some similarities to the BIG BANG theory. But in this blog I want to try to explain some other characters in Mahabharat as it pertains to the story and origin of the universe. 

   In the story of Mahabharat, Satyavati has  3 children. She is same as Masygangha - one with smell of fish and was daughter of a fisherman, Parashar Rhushi  saw her and fell in love and wanted to have a child from her and she refused  and then he promised her that no one would know and so he created darkness and a child was born which is none other than VYAS who wrote the Mahabharat. So then Parashar with his power gave her boon and she lost the fish smell  and had beautiful fragrance as her aroma . She then was married to Shantanu and had 2 other children namely CHITRAGADA AND VICHITRAVIRYA. 

   Chitragada dies soon after birth  and Vichitravirya could not have children.So his step brother Bhushma kidnapped the 3 girls  and asked Vyas to help. Vyas being the step brother could do it.Ved Vyas was dark color and had long hair and beard  and so one girl AMBIKA closed her eyes  and so the child born was blind - DRUTARASHTRA . Other one AMBALIKA became white with fear  and so the son born was white - Pandu. 

    So symbolically this is the origin of universe. Vyas is consciousness of relativity and discriminating  power. Positive Chitragada is the Primordial element or MAHAT TATVA. and Vichitravirya is Dive Ego. Ambika is Negative Doubt  and Ambalika is Positive Discriminating Faculty. So when negative Doubt comes together with consciousness of relativity the product is MIND and Mind is blind and so Drutarashtra is Blind . When the Consciousness of relativity and discrimination, comes in contact with Positive Discriminating Faculty the Intellect is born and Intellect or BUDHHI is clear and so WHITE.

   There is more to come but for now this is enough. 

MAHABHARAT AND MYSTICISM

     I started in my last blog the story of MAHABHARATA. The story continues for long time and the Mahabharata is the longest poem in any language literature. But to start with we saw lots of things that do not follow the standard or good behavior on part of many characters. So how do we explain them?

   I do not have all the answers, but I have some understandings of these things as explained by evolved souls like Paramhauns Yoganand . Mahabharat was written by Vyas  and it appears that to some extent it is telling us the ORIGIN OF UNIVERSE. The king Shantanu represents PARABHAHM  and Ganga the Universal Consciousness . As one may recall that in Hindu philosophy the universe comes in to existence  and continues and the dissolves. There are people who believe that the God is ONE ONLY and then some believe that there is PURUSH and PRAKRUTI - SPIRIT AND NATURE . So at the beginning  of the universe they come together and the process starts - the so called big bang. So the Ganga represents Universal consciousness  and that pervades everything . But when it is limited by 3 bodies we have living being. So the freedom from the mortal world is achieved when our Limited consciousness merges with Universal Consciousness. THIS IS THE REASONS HINDU DO ASTHI VISARGJAN -throwing the remains of our body after death in GANAGA. The hope is that our consciousness will be one with universal consciousness.

   Satyavati or Masyagandha represents primordial nature. 

   So one could say that the Shantanu is the Father and the first step is to split in to 2 or arises from him are the CHAITANYA and NATURE -Ganaga and Satyavati. The eight children that Ganga had are the 6 intelligences that control the 3 micro universes and 3 macro universes  and consciousness  and the universal EGO -namely BHISHM. (Gross, Astral and Causal or STHUL, SUKSHMA, KARAN are the 3 universes at individual level and at Macro level)

  I am sure that your head must be spinning with all this stuff so we will talk simple things next time !

MAHABHARAT AND IT'S CHARACTERS AND MYSTICISM

    I have written about the Patanjali Sutra Yoga  and there is question in many of us if the Geeta  and Mahabharat has any mention of it . So I thought that I will write about some of the mysticism related to characters in Mahabharata . Let me mention something to start . The story in Mahabharata are such  that ordinary people will have many questions . For those who have not heard of theses stories ,I will tell some of them quickly and see if I can explain the meaning of the some of the stories which sound not easy to explain. 

  King Shantanu was married to Ganga  and she had made him promise that she will do whatever she wants to do with her kids . And she killed her first 7 children . The 8th one was born and she wanted to kill that and Shantanu asked as to why she is doing it  and requested not to kill . So Ganga  agreed not to kill and then left Shantanu. This child was BHISHMA. Then Shantanu fell in love with fisherman's daughter -Satyavati. But she refused as she did not want her child to be not the next King and so then Bhishma promised that he will not be the next King and promised that he will never marry ,so that his children will not be born  and claim to the throne. Styavati had 2 children  and one dies  and Bhishma kidnapped 3 princes from the the Swayamvar  and that created problem. One of the daughter was in love with another king and so she asked Bhishma to let her go  and hi did . But the king that she was in love with her refused  and so she came back to Bhishma  and requested him to marry and he refused. She requested many to help and they could not fight with Bhishma . So then Parshuram came and agreed to help and then there was war  and after 21 days it was declared as draw at the request of many. She was disappointed and then she prayed  and got a garland  and was told that who so ever will be garlanded will defeat Bhishma , but no one would agree. Then she committed suicide  to be born as SHIKHANDI. Shikhandi became the cause of Bhishma's death.When he was injured and was on deathbed , the Sun was moving SOUTHWARD called Dakshinayan  and so he decided to wait till Sun started moving Northward as person dying in Dakshinayan does not have good life after death.

    Then kidnapped girls -Amba  and Ambalika  and Ambika  had to be impregnated to have heir and since the Vichitrvirya was incapable of doing it and Bhishma had decided to have life long celibacy, He had to call in VYAS -his stepmother's son from first encounter. Vyas was horrible looking and so one girl closed her eyes when he entered the bedroom and so from Ambika a child born was BLIND , from Ambalika - as she became pale with fear, was born Pandu who was white  and may be anemic. 

    There are many more characters and the stories are difficult to explain. And if your head is not spinning with abnormal behavior then there are more stories. But for now I will point to some of the things that I have stated above. 

Why would mother  and that too Ganga herself , would drown her children?

Why would highly evolved Rhushi Parashar would be attracted sexually  for Mashygandha- fisher-woman with foul smell of fish ? 

How do you justify kidnapping of 3 girls at the time of their wedding? and that too by well educated BHishma. 

On top of that how do you justify VED VYAS the one who wrote the Mahabharata and some of Puranas to come to impregnate these girls?

And the blind King Dhrutarashtr  and Pale , anemic King Pandu born out of that union?

After life is determined by the TIME OF DEATH or by how we live our life ?

I will address these questions in next blog and also bring out some more stories  and questions .

FAITH

    We often talk about the faith. We often say that one should have faith. It may in the team that you love in sport or in God or in many other things that sometimes are not certain or sometimes look impossible

    This story that I am going to narrate is again related to Paramhauns Yoganand. I told you one of his story when he was not a Yogi. So when he had started going to his future Guru, he still had friends and had regular life outside the hermitage. He had a childhood friend  and his father was sick . The doctor had seen him and told the family that he was not going to survive. He had multiple problems  and so the Yoganand went to his Guru and told him that his friend's father is dying and he should help the man . The Yuketshwar looked at him and told him that he will take care and help the friend/s father for now . But he may not last long unless he changes the lifestyle like smoking and drinking and all the other vices that he had and that kind of behavior had brought in all the problems. Yoganand was pleased  and asked him when would he be cured, Yukteshwar told him by tomorrow morning he will be cured , The regular doctors had told the family that the patient will dye soon . The evening came in and the patient went in coma  and his hands and feet were colder to touch  and the blood pressure had dropped and breathing was slower . The patient was unresponsive. So Yoganand ran to his Guru and asked him that he had promised that his friend's father will be cured by morning and he his condition seems to be worsening. Yukteshwar was quiet , he told him have a faith and that he promises him that patient will bee OK by morning. Midnight passed and the condition got worse instead of getting better as promised by Giru. So Yoganand went back to his Guru and complained. He said , 'you have not done anything and given anything anything to help my friend's father and how do you expect that he is going to get better. Please do something give me something that I can take it to the patient and he will be helped by the God's blessings.". So Yukteshwar told him take few drops of oil from the lamp that was burning near by . He told him to put 3 drops in the mouth every hour  and that will hep and the patient will wake up in the morning if he does as told . Yoganand took the oil from the lamp and ran back to the patient . He faithfully started the treatment with oil from the 'sacred' lamp . As the dawn came and the sun was rising the patient started moving and his eyes were open and he became conscious . His body was warm and the blood pressure was better. The doctor cam in the morning and the patient was better and  was conscious  and awake  and talking . The doctor could not figure out as to what has happened. But he told the family that patient was out of danger  and as time went on he was cured. 

    In the morning Yoganand went to his Guru  and told him the success story  and asked him ,'You knew that the oil was the treatment and had the magical power of curing my friend's father , then why did  you not give me that in first place . What were you waiting for ? 'The Guru answered  and aske the student to bring him the lamp  and told him to check the oil . He told him that the oil  was ordinary oil and had no magical powers, but Yoganand wanted something magical and did not have faith in the words of the Guru and so he had to use something  and so he told him to use oil. 

So one has to have FAITH  and the rest will follow .

TELEPATHY

    We have seen magic shows. We  see that the magician READS mind  and can do what is called telepathy where he can communicate without actually talking to the person. But similar things  and if you want to call magic - have been done by many  and not by cheating or doing some tricks . The story that I will narrate is from Autobiography of Yogi. Paramhauns Yoganand wanted to be a YOGI since he was 4 years old . He did run away from house at one time . When he had encounter with Yukteshwar - his Guru, the Guru told him to finish the college education before joining the heritage for becoming Yogi.So he joined the college  and used to go to hermitage in summer vacation. The hermitage used to have lunch and dinner  and so someone has to support the expense. So Yoganand had brought some cauliflower heads with him when he came to hermitage. In the morning the Guru used to walk on beach across the street from the hermitage with his students. So day after Yoganand came to the hermitage they all started the walk . Yoganand was the last to leave . As they started to walk, Yukteshwar looked at the hermitage  and asked as to who was the last one to leave the hermitage . Yoganand - that was not his name at that time answered it was he who was the last one . The Guru asked him if he locked the gate . Yoganand was not sure . Yukteshwar told him that he has not done it  and since he has not done his regular duty in the mortal world , he will have to pay price for the lack of it. He told that one can not be careless in this world. He told them to watch . As the group was watching  a man was seen walking on the street singing a tune . He passed the hermitage  and then suddenly turned back  and opened the gate  and went inside. He came out with a head of cauliflower  and ran away. As the students looked at the Guru , he was laughing. He told them that in future people will be in position to 'capture' sound waves  and can communicate at far distances - television was not invented at that time - but this time I communicated with that man  and told him to take away one head of cauliflower as punishment for your careless behavior. Yoganand went inside the hermitage , his wallet wrist watch and everything else was untouched !

   So this is telecommunication which is nit a trick as done by magicians.