Continuation of analogy (What Parasara Advocates...)

[Guest guest]

Dear Souvik,

 

Thanks for the nice quote from Swami Sivananda and clarification on your statement on Shiva!

 

Let me go back to my previous analogy of a diamond with many faces, which can be used for understanding many concepts of spirituality. If you missed the analogy, please go back and read the part in

 

sohamsa/message/5714

 

that is in blue color.

 

You can imagine that various faces of the diamond that I described as having various gunas (attributes) to be very thick. Imagine that each face of the diamond that is a few miles long & wide to be many yards deep too. From a distance, the face may seem to have gunas. As you go closer to the face and travel through the face and get close to the inner edge of the face (that is in contact with the core of the diamond), you will lose most of those attributes and perceive an aakaasa tattva manifestation of that particular deity.

 

The difference between various deities is huge from the outer layer of the face (i.e. lower level manifestation). As you travel towards the inner layer that touches the core of the diamond, the difference slowly disappears. As Swami Sivananda wisely says below, Vaishnavas and Shaivas may be describing the same when they talk of the higher forms of Vishnu and Shiva respectively.

 

Of course, when you jump through the innermost layer (aakaasa tattva manifestation) of the face into the core (Brahman, with no gunas and no manifestation), what you jump into is absolutely the same, irrespective of which you face came from.

 

Those who have already made up their mind and are in no need of further input in spiritual matters may kindly ignore me. I am just an idiot, who got a little knowledge from his guru and wants to share it with others *just in case* it is useful to them. If it is useless to you or a waste of your time, you will do well to just ignore this idiot.

 

But, those are open-minded will do well to consider the analogy I put forward. This analogy is from my spiritual guru and simply the most brilliant analogy I have ever heard to explain the concepts of many gods, duality, non-duality etc. A lot of concepts will become very clear if you try to construct this analogy in your mind.

 

* * *

 

On Saturday, we did a 4.5 hour Ganapathi homam and a 4 hour Satya Narayana vratam at my house. Both went very well. Though it was a cloudy and rainy day without Sun, Sun came out briefly for a minute during the Poornahuti time and sunlight came inside the room. He again went behind the clouds after Poornahuti was done and we did not see him for the entire day. It was very striking. Given that both of us doing the homa are grossly inexperienced, it can only be the blessings of gurus.

 

Unfortunately, I am not yet proficient enough in performing homas and so not willing to do it for others. But I am always happy to include other people's names in our monthly Satya Narayana vratam, in which I have more experience. Any of you who are in troubles and want me to add your name to our monthly Satya Narayana vratam can send me your gothram, name, janma nakshatram and janma raasi. I will try to include the name in the sankalpam of our Satya Narayana vratam for the next month. The next vratam will be in a month, on Guru Pournima.

 

May the light of Brahman shine within,

Narasimha

-------------------------------

Free Jyotish lessons (MP3): http://vedicastro.home.comcast.net

Free Jyotish software (Windows): http://www.VedicAstrologer.org

Sri Jagannath Centre (SJC) website: http://www.SriJagannath.org

-------------------------------

 

> Dear Bharatji and Narasihmaji,

>

> Apologies for jutting in but could not help but comment on this

> piece by Narasimha ji.

>

> I am in the process of completing (I could have completed by now if

> not for my laptop crash) the audio version of Swami Sivanada's free

> e-book on Shiva Tattwa.

>

> I would like to mention a section of this book here:

> "The Mahavishnu of Vishnu Purana corresponds to Param of Saiva

> Siddhantins. Narayana or

> the higher Vishnu corresponds to the Param-jyoti of Appar or Saiva

> Siddhantins. The lower Vishnu

> does the function of preservation. He corresponds to the lower Siva."

> (Page 32, lordshiva.pdf)

>

> Narasihmaji, however, this can be understood and appreciated by

> people who are in the path of Ketu, the moksha karaka, where forms

> have no meanings at all, where Rama, Krishna, Kali, Shiva and

> Ganesha are all same. These souls are not affected by Sade-Sati,

> adverse Dasas, wearing stones, even not concerned if they eat or

> they donot as they are in they upward motion in the Kalachakra

> towards Divinity.

>

> Also, I donot see Shiva only for marriage . It is true that when I

> give Shiva the domain of Vivah, I mean only the lower forms of Shiva.

> An article on my blog reads:

> "I have always said that Shiva is much more than kailash-vasi

> damrudhari Shiv, much more than Sada Shiva who spoke the vedas."

>

> Regards,

>

> Souvik

>

>

>

> sohamsa, "Narasimha P.V.R. Rao" <pvr@>

> wrote:

> >

> > Dear "Anuj" of Rama, :-)

> >

> > > "As what you wear is recognized as Ma, and what you desire is

> also

> > > recognized as Ma"

> > >

> > > Wear=Fear in the above sentence.

> > >

> > > Please pardon the typos. Too many in one email.

> >

> > Yaar, sometimes profound statements come out of even mistakes made

> by learned people!

> >

> > At the core, we are just Brahman, the Atman. We "wear" many layers

> of conditioning that make us who we are now (or "aren't" really,

> depending on your perspective). All those layers of conditioning are

> indeed part of Ma. It is Ma who covers us with all those layers of

> conditioning (and hence it is Ma who can be the key to unravelling

> them).

> >

> > Thus, your typo is IMHO a very profound statement!

> >

> > > > Ma Kali is therefore, not Tamas and Ma is not afflicted by

> Gunas. She has

> > > > lordship over them, being the Prakriti herself.

> >

> > Yes, She is the Prakriti Herself. Though Lakshmi, Saraswati and

> Kaali are all Prakriti only, they have lordship over different gunas

> within the Prakriti.

> >

> > However, it is correct that She is "not affected by Gunas". I

> completely agree with you. I now understand why some people were

> upset when I associated Kaali with tamas! Thanks for your mail.

> >

> > What you said above is true of most heigher deities. They are

> personifications of various guna combinations, but not affected by

> gunas. They are all muktas (already liberated). Being muktas, they

> are untouched by the gunas of the specific form they occupy. They do

> the work of the form they occupy, with the most perfect realization

> that they are the formless Brahman. Thus, the form they occupy has

> gunas but they are untouched by them. They exist in a form like that

> for a specific time and then they get moksha, i.e. their form merges

> with the formless Brahman.

> >

> > For example, Maharshi Vasishtha described the time periods of

> Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. During the lifetime of one Vishnu, so many

> Brahmas come, do their job and get moksha (don't confuse this

> creator Brahma with formless Brahman). Similarly, during the

> lifetime of one Shiva, so many Vishnus come, do their job and get

> moksha. That is what Vasishtha taught Sri Ramachandra.

> >

> > All these heigher deities have long time periods to spend in a

> form and do so as muktas who are untouched by the gunas of the form

> they occupy.

> >

> > All these heigher deities who are muktas while existing in a form

> have the ability to operate at the low level and grant low level

> wishes or operate close to formlessness and give moksha.

> >

> > For example, Sanjay keeps on writing about the 12th house, Pisces

> and aakaasa tattva link to argue that only Vishnu gives moksha. But

> what the 12th house, Pisces and aakaasa tattva links suggests is

> that any deity who gives moksha is of aakaasa tattva and is close to

> formlessness.

> >

> > By worshipping Shiva as merely the giver of marriage (as Souvik

> wrote) or by worshipping Ganesha as merely the remover of obstacles

> or Mahaalakshmi as merely the giver of wealth or Mahaasaraswati as

> merely the giver of knowledge or Mahaakaali as merely the giver of

> victory in battles (as Sanjay wrote), you are merely worshipping a

> low level form of the deity and can only get limited results. But,

> as you worship them and get close to them, you may start realizing

> the unlimited nature of those deities.

> >

> > For example, if you worship Ganesha with Atharva Seersham and

> understand the meaning, you will see that he is lauded as the one

> from whom the whole universe originates, in whom the whole universe

> is stationed and into whom the whole universe merges at the time of

> Destruction, the one who also takes the forms of Brahma, Vishnu,

> Rudra, Indra, Agni etc etc. Only if you imagine such a higher

> aakaasa tattva form of Ganesha that is close to formlessness can

> Ganesha give you moksha.

> >

> > Similarly, with all higher deities who are muktas even as they

> exist in a form, you can worship the lower form for specific limited

> results or worship the higher forms that are close to formlessness

> and get moksha from them.

> >

> > Enough for today..

> >

> > May the light of Brahman shine within,

> > Narasimha

> > -------------------------------

> > Free Jyotish lessons (MP3): http://vedicastro.home.comcast.net

> > Free Jyotish software (Windows): http://www.VedicAstrologer.org

> > Sri Jagannath Centre (SJC) website: http://www.SriJagannath.org

> > -------------------------------