Broaden your vision and deepen your roots

Answer: I am hearing a new word today! Well, don’t divide life: this is spiritual or this is materialistic. Take a holistic view of life. There is also food in a temple. In that sense both material and spiritual aspects are there. Music is both a form of entertainment and spirituality. We even put ornate clothes on our deities. Ancient people never separated the spiritual and material. They enjoyed putting precious jewels in temples.
In South India, in Madurai, kings gave away most of their precious jewels to the temples. Everything co-existed. In the same way, you can treat work as worship. Spirituality has entered our material life.

Lord Krishna says, “Janma karma samay divya”. All actions are divine. Lord Krishna himself was very much of the material world except for his discourse to Arjuna. All he did was materialistic. He ruled the country, advised as a minister, and so on. Life should not be compartmentalized. Materialism and spirituality are not opposed to each other.
However, money earned through unethical means is never spiritual. It will pinch your heart. The spirit is awake in you. It is your natural instinct. If you have a plate full of food and someone comes to you, you will not be able to eat it alone. It is such a natural part of your life that you cannot renounce one for the other. Charity is in very nature of humans. You want to be compassionate, but how can you be when you have nothing to give away. Charity cannot happen with an empty bowl.
Narayana is the pinnacle of spiritual life and Laxmi is the symbol of wealth. Both Narayana and Laxmi go together. In Indian mythology Narayana is married to Laxmi, which symbolizes if you are truly spiritual, you are definitely rich.
Saraswati, the visualization of Divine energy of Knowledge, sat on a rock. The knowledge that you have gained will always be with you. Laxmi sits on a lotus which floats on water. You can't rely on what happens in the share market, but the wisdom you have acquired is always part of you. Wealth is unsteady just as a lotus floating on water. These are the eternal symbols that convey truth. Grasp what is needed. This is very important.

Answer: Firstly, people should know about symbols. It is said that there are millions of Gods and Goddesses in India. Also, it is said that God is one. There is deep science behind it, behind the energies given various names. In the Indian culture, we talk about families of God, a Goddess is depicted as riding a tiger, Gods have children, and there are disputes amongst Gods and Goddesses. For an argumentative mind, such depictions are difficult to accept.
God is Sat Chit Anand (Truth, Consciousness and Bliss). He has five karmas (actions) – Srishti (Creation), Sthiti (Preservation), Samhara (Destruction), Anugrah (Blessing) and Tirdhana (Veiling).
He is everywhere, yet not visible. Just like air is everywhere, but we feel it only when the fan is switched on, or when wind blows. Ancient sages say that there are many levels of creation. Gold is one, but we can make so many different things out of it. Similarly with wheat, you can make bread as well as chapatti.
Just like that, One God displays itself in many names and forms, one Omkar is present in Brahma (Creator), Vishnu (Operator) and Mahesh (Destroyer).
When a single ray of sunlight falls on a drop of water, we see all the seven colors of a rainbow!
Before Creation, the Operator was there. Vishnu was present before Brahma. For instance, grass is present in creation, and then the goat comes, a mother develops milk before she gives birth. Otherwise the creation won’t sustain! The Polar bear sleeps for six months, and develops hunger only after the grass has sprung up.
Vishnu is depicted as resting in a lying down posture. The Master of the Creation is resting since the task of maintenance is so easy for him. This does not mean that man can afford to sleep all the time. Vishnu’s sleep is different- He is sleeping on a bed of snake, which is symbolic of heightened awareness. When one rests in awareness, it is called Yog Nidra (yogic sleep) or Samadhi (Meditation).
In a human body, the navel is the center of gravity. Brahma, the Creator, emerges from a lotus raised from Vishnu’s navel. That may not be so clicking until you understand the vision. It was only when Newton and Einstein rested that they could make new inventions. Newton rested under a tree and he received the knowledge of gravity. When Archimedes was in the bath tub, he got the idea of what he was looking for since a long time.
Today, scientists say that in creative people the solar plexus inside the navel is bigger than usual. When the navel blossoms, one becomes creative. In ancient India, they represented this as Brahma being born through Vishnu’s navel - the seat of creativity.
Brahma, the Creator has four faces. This shows that he gains knowledge from all the four directions. In some temples also, four gates are kept.
One drop of semen and an egg alone creates the entire human body. From just one anu (atom) different organs of the human body - nails, hair, ears etc are formed, and even the texture of skin is different throughout.  So, the One has the intention and capability to be varied. Similarly, in one God, many God and Goddesses can be formed.
Human DNA has characteristics of all the living beings on Earth, which means we can create all the living beings on the planet, right from a lizard to an elephant, from a single drop of the human saliva.So, this is the power in one drop of chromosome. This itself is God. The whole creation is filled with God.
The Sanatan Dharma is very close to the modern science. When you listen to scientists, you feel as if you are listening to Vedanta.
God is present in every atom of the creation, not just the outside world but within our body as well. That is why before worshiping, we start with invoking the energies within our own body.
Devo Bhuvata, Devo Bhuje – Be immersed in God and worship Him.
Do some research; go deep in knowledge, then you will feel amazed at the minds of the people who created the Puranas.
Different energies are revered as God-Goddesses. God-Goddesses are within us, are our very own so they showed human flaws of anger, jealousy etc in them as well. So, that you don’t feel guilty when such emotions arise in you. The purpose of the Puranas was to bring you closer to God. Thus stories were created for the purpose of joy, entertainment, knowledge and science.
In Hindi the word ‘Purana’ means old whereas in Sanskrit, it means completely new, ultra modern.

Answer: How can you keep them together? They are already one. Where is the question of combining them? In the nature of form, it is world, and same is God in its formless nature. You don’t have to do anything to bring them together.

Answer: There are two schools of thought. One is you visualize dream and work for it. Other school of thought says surrender everything to God, whatever God gives you is the best, and God will take care of everything for you. Where is the compatibility? They appear to be completely opposite. One is your own visualization, your own dream and your perseverance, and another is having trust in God and leaving everything on God. They appear to be incompatible but I would say they are very much compatible. It is good to have an intention or a goal. You don’t keep on visualizing your goal 24*7, but continuing to work for that, you leave it to the Divine. Only the combination of two will work.

It is beautifully described in Scriptures: You take a vision or goal, and then you offer it to the Divine while working for that – “This is what I want and you know what is best for me. If this or anything better, I am ready to accept.”
Sometimes you don’t know what you want. If you know what you want, it is not difficult to get it. Half the time we are unsure of what we want. Often you find if you are persistent to get something, you don’t want the same thing the next week, the next month or the next year. So, before you take an intention, you expand your awareness.

So, put an intention in the universe - I want this or anything better.

Now, what is the difference between a desire and an intention? Suppose you want to go to Mumbai from Bangalore. You buy a ticket and travel for around three hours and go there. But you don’t keep chanting in your mind all this time that you want to go to Mumbai and you are going to Mumbai. You may even land up in a mental Hospital like this! Desire is the feverishness that clogs on to an intention. An intention is a desire free from feverishness. And then working towards your intention, this faith is to be there whatever nature brings back is for my growth.

Answer: I don’t use the word dispassion much because it has been distorted so much. I have seen so called dispassionate people who have no glow or happiness on their face. Dispassion means absence of any kind of feverishness but a joy is there. Adi Shankaracharya has beautifully said that there is no joy which dispassion cannot give you. Dispassion means - You don’t run after joy but you are joyful from within. When you do actions without feverishness, that is dispassion.

Answer: The sound of ‘Om namah shivaya’ includes all the five elements – Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether. Hinduism is not a religion as such. People have been chanting this for thousands of years. Mantras are those sounds which you hear from deep within during meditation and the aim is to bring one back to the source. During later days, people started putting faces and drawings to these mantras. Mantras have got certain vibrations/ energy. They are universal.
Even in churches in Latin America ‘Marnah nath’ is used. Its translation in Latin and Sanskrit is so close. For ‘Lord’ the word in Latin is nath, and also in Sanskrit the word nath is used to refer to ‘Lord’. So the word marnah nath meaning ‘My lord’, is actually a Sanskrit word.
Sanskrit is the oldest language known to mankind. It has a deep impact on the consciousness. We welcome all songs – Japanese, Korean, Spanish. Any song that you want to sing is welcome. We sing a lot of songs in Spanish and Portuguese in Satsangs in South America. Of course, in India everybody easily connects with ancient mantras. Take any language that you want, but along with it take this also. How many of you feel singing and chanting these mantras creates some vibrations? It’s obvious. In Vedic chanting, many times you don’t know even the meaning but it has some effect. It enriches the subtle.
In the morning we did Rudra Abhishek, this has been practiced for over thousands of years. We use crystal, milk, yoghurt and flowers etc. They all create a certain impact and send out positive vibrations.

Answer: Best pilgrimage is Inward Journey! A pilgrimage is an opportunity for people to come and pray together. As you know, praying together generates more energy, a synergy. But don’t think that God is only in pilgrim centers! God is omnipresent and omniscient. Ancient Saints meditated in some places and put all that energy in some idol there, and the place became a center of pilgrimage. The scriptures talk about God as having no name and no form. There is freedom to worship God in any form or any name. Wisdom from everywhere was acknowledged!

Answer: When there is rise in tamogun* in the body, you become lazy. Lying down in this state may give you a little rest or energy, but if your mind keeps on struggling with desires and feverishness, it doesn’t get complete rest. The rest you get after doing work is the actual rest. When your body gets complete rest, your mind is also joyful. That gives you strength and your positive intentions start getting fulfilled.




Tamo gun: The factor which brings sleep, however, if imbalanced leads to depression and lethargy.

The term ‘Yoga’ is derived from the Sanskrit root ‘yuj’, meaning union; the union of the individual consciousness with the universal consciousness.

Yoga is not merely a form of exercise for the body, but a path towards total harmony of body, mind and spirit. It is an ancient wisdom for a healthier, happier and more peaceful way of living that ultimately leads to self-realization, the union with the Self.

Yoga brings the mind to the present moment, improving clarity, and alertness in the mind. The mind becomes peaceful, and is able to deal with day-to-day stress.

To know more about yoga, click here