Grahasthasramam : ( 24/05/2013. )

========================================================================= Sunday,  21  May, 2023. 05:30. Chapter 2: The Religious Ideal of God-realisation - 2.1. ======================================================================== Now bring your minds back to where we left during the previous session, and continue the thread of the analysis. A study of the phenomena of waking and dream has given us an indication that we are perhaps neither the body nor the mind. A very strange circumstance seems to overtake us when we are fast asleep. Very few might have found time to contemplate the mystery and the enigma that is hidden behind this experience called sleep. We generally just go to sleep as if everything is fine and it is all a simple affair, but it is not so simple as it appears. There is an indescribable satisfaction that follows our entry into the state of deep sleep. Everyone knows the importance of getting into the state of sleep. It brings us not merely a novel type o...

Chinmaya International Foundation (CIF) : Hari Om. The maternal birth-home of Sri Adi Sankaracharya, the Melpazhur Mana, renamed as Adi Sankara Nilayam by Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda, is more than 1200 years old and has witnessed the vidyarambha and the upanayana ceremonies of this great Acharya. The illom which is a ‘naalukettu’ (a four winged building) is located at Veliyanad in the Ernakulam district of Kerala. A panchaloha idol of the great Guru has been installed in the birth-room, with an ‘akhandajyoti’, a lamp that is kept lit throughout the year. Regular prayers are offered in this room by the devotees and visitors. The sanctity of the room provides an ideal ambience for the mind to effortlessly glide into the depths of meditation. The illom stands facing in the westerly direction, which is a rare style according to the architectural tradition of Kerala. It houses a number of murals that narrate the life story of Adi Sankara – the saint, philosopher, poet, commentator, re...

======================================================================== Monday, March 13, 2023. 06:00. Chapter 1: We are Mysterious Somethings - 5. ========================================================================= In dream a teacher may come and tell us there is such a thing called waking, but we will never understand what it is until we wake up. What is the use of going to a dream college and learning dream lessons from a dream professor in the dream world? Whatever he says has no relevance to reality because waking is something different from whatever is told and heard in the dream world. Such is the learning that we have. Whatever is told to us has no sense finally because all this knowledge is connected to this three-dimensional world which, we are told, is not the true world. It is not the true world, and what we learn from it is also not the truth. We can only infer the presence of a fourth dimension, just as in the dream world we can only infer that there is such a thin...

========================================================================= Monday, January 30, 2023. 06:00. Chapter 1: We are Mysterious Somethings - 4. ========================================================================= Many times you may feel, “I am unwanted, helpless, a poor nothing. Who cares for me?” This kind of feeling may sometimes enter into your mind. But be certain, at least from this moment onwards, that you are not a helpless nobody. Every moment you are seen by somebody. Millions of eyes are looking at you, and everything that you do is known everywhere, just as any occurrence in any part of your body is known to the whole body. If a stone hits a toe of your foot, it is not only the toe that knows that this event has taken place. The whole body knows that the toe has been hit by a stone. This analogy will explain your relationship to things. The universe is your family. Calcutta, New York—these are not your locations. This little example that I placed before you of t...

 ======================================================================= ======================================================================== Thursday, December 08, 2022. 06:00. Chapter 1: We are Mysterious Somethings - 3. ======================================================================== I can give a very humorous example to illustrate this. It is very simple, but it will open your eyes to some startling facts. There is a watch, and it is supported by something. What is it that supports this watch? This little desk, this small table is the support of this watch. What is it that supports this small table? This floor. If the floor were not there, the table would not be standing here, and the watch would not be in this position. What is it that supports the floor? The beams underneath. If the beams were removed, the whole floor would collapse. What is it that supports the beams? The walls underneath. What is it that supports the walls? The Earth at the bottom. What is it th...

======================================================================== ========================================================================= Sunday, October 30, 2022. 08:30. Chapter 1: We are Mysterious Somethings - 2. ========================================================================= When we begin to get introduced into our relationship with the community outside, education starts. Education begins the moment we begin to realise that we are not confined only to the family—parents, brothers, sisters, etc. The art of conducting ourselves harmoniously in relation to the community and to the people outside the family may be said to be the beginning of education. We know very well how important it is to be harmoniously coordinated with people outside the family also. Then education expands. It is not enough if we know only our little community. We are introduced into the larger background of the geography and the history of the place in which we are living. Our comprehension e...