OM. In this blog I will try to explain the soul and why it goes through birth/re-birth. The soul [atma] is the purest or unmanifest form of the Universe. Whatever we see/feel around [matter] is its manifestation. So God [param atma] is the complete soul.
The purest form has no specific characteristics or to simplify it has everything but highlights nothing. So any manifestation of it has to be in polarities. We can take examples like male/female, good/bad etc. When needed the purest form can manifest to any form. And when everything is taken back we are just left with the complete soul.
Lets simplify life as we see, into 2 forms. One is the matter and the other the soul. The body we possess is the matter and the soul brings it to life. If there is no soul the body would have no importance. So the soul is the one that brings us to life and it has a purpose in doing so. The purpose is to get back to its purest form. So where did the soul attach with the impurity. It did so in the previous birth to be clear. When some living creature dies, the soul leaves the body taking all the memories of the life it had. So the memories stay with the soul and when it incarnates again [re-birth] we can get to those memories using Past life regression. The soul chooses the reincarnation [re-birth]such that it can pay off karma, fulfill any desires attached to it from past life etc. So if the karmas attached to the soul were good it would lead to a good birth or viceversa.Whatever is happening to you is due to your own deeds.
Religious texts simplify all of this with the concept of heaven/hell and ask us to be pious and perform good deeds. If we go deeper we would just come to know that Heaven/Hell are just conceptual and all of this is being taken care of by the soul and the memories attached to it. In this process of paying off karma in a birth, we do some new karmas and attach to them. So the birth-rebirth cycle continues. The cycle would end when you do not attach to the karmas you do and realize that soul is the truth and all of life is maya. Unless we get the atma gyan we would be caught in this cycle.
Lets take 3 examples.
1. Assume you aren't beautiful in this life and you have attached to it so much that the memory is the strongest of all of yours. The soul has to get rid of that
after your death. Lets assume the soul comes to life as a peacock in the next incarnation, it would address that memory. So the soul chooses births accordingly.
2. We have heard of sages in our scriptures who had the power to curse. How did that work. You do something unbearable to someone. First of all, the karma registers itself in your mind and that needs to be addressed. Lets assume the curse from the sage was, you end up in your next birth as a crow. So that birth is needed for remorse and purification of the soul.
3. Astrology says that the 9 planets are controlling us, but if we see truly all these planets are under the control of the Sun which isn't moving anywhere. To extend from it, the memories are taking us for a ride whereas the soul is stationary. So attaining moksha is just giving control to the soul and not let the memories control it.
The souls were the purest in their initial incarnations [krita yug, treta yug] and as time passed and the birth/rebirth cycle has gone a long way, the souls attached to so much that, we just see the attachments instead of the pure soul.To complete the picture the memories are taking us through the birth/rebirth cycles. This is at the individual level. Similarly at the cosmic level God's memories are taking the Universe through cycles. So when the materialistic end comes the souls retreat and bring an end to all the matter. And when the polarities join there is only perfection, the complete soul. OM.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
The Truth
In this blog I? will try to explain life & universe as a whole from the vedantic perspective. I have taken 3 analogies for the same.
a. River: Lets take a flowing river. It goes through mountains, plains and forests before mixing with the ocean. Rivers have their own names but once they join the ocean they are inseparable. Now lets look at the identification before. We have named them according to our wish. Given water from a river, we cannot name the river from which it was taken. That is the crux we need to understand. Lets take a flowing river, it looks beautiful as it flows across the plains and mountains. Now take a glass of water from the river, put it into a packet and leave it at the same place. It would take the same path as the water. Now the packet is the body we are into and the water is the soul [atma]. The river is following the same path as it used to before. It looks different for us now due to the packet that was put in there. The flow looks beautiful if we just look at the water, but once we start looking at the packets the beauty reduces, as the packet tumbles and floats irregularly with the flow. The packet reaches the ocean at the end of its journey. This is a single packet, now take n packets and tie them to one another randomly, few tightly and a few loosely. As we see more packets around we just see chaos in an otherwise orderly flow. The packets are the relationships we are into. If one of them moves slowly it reduces the other packets speed. Imagine someone in your family falling sick.
The ocean gets many packets from various rivers. Now the cleaning starts. The packets are taken back and put back into the rivers at an appropriate place [karma]. You can think of this whole process as the birth/re-birth cycle. How can this end. You have to understand the truth from within the packet. The flow will continue but you only see water around, instead of the imaginary packets.
b. Astrology: I was reading a book recently [http://old.garudabd.org/books/] and the topic of discussion was Astrology and how it evolves from the unity. The polarization starts with unity and it separates to two. We can take an example. Suppose you find a snake somewhere, you might just think about the venom it carries. But venom is required to make its anti venom. Venom with some transformations gives the anti venom. So if we see "venom/anti venom" is a polarity and if we mix them there is unity [perfection]. Lets see polarity in astrology and how opposites attract to reach perfection. Lets take the well known Sun Signs. Assuming you know nothing about them, lets assign each month a sign for ease. We get 12 signs as the 12 months. Lets take January and look for its opposite. You might assume December, but it isn't as they are next to each other. Make a circle with the 12 months and you would find that July is the opposite of January. Similarly November opposites May. Scorpio and Taurus are the 2 sun signs and their symbols Scorpion and Bull. If you watch Disocvery or Animal planet you would never see a bull roaming around on its own. You would find it always in a herd. Similary a scorpion is never seen in a group. So the polarity is here. One wants to be without company and the other with loads of company and they attract eachother to gain perfection. It's like you are only seeing one side of the coin and you need the other to complete it. If you take the venom to be the Scorpio Sun sign then the anti-venom will be the Taurus Ascendant[astrological term]. 2 becomes 3[cardinal,fixed,mutable signs] and so on it continues.
So if we meet someone who balances the imperfection within us we find compatiblity and if not we feel the incompatibility. If we can come over the imperfections within us, we find the World to be perfect, having just the oneness[Advaita].
c. 1 0 and infinity: Most of Vedanta revolves around getting us to The Truth which is the oneness of the Universe. We don't see/feel the oneness around us. We see ourselves and the materialistic world around us. So the link is missing somewhere. We will try to understand the same here. Lets represent the oneness by 1. We ourselves are represented by 0 and the world around us as Infinity[inf]. 0 and inf, both are part of 1 as said in the scriptures. To understand the truth we can proceed by analyzing one of these three [1 0 inf]. Vedanta gives more importance to 0 and its connection to 1 whereas Science revolves around understanding inf. Suppose you have a cold and you have to cure it. There are 2 ways - do nothing [0] or keep taking all kinds of medicine [inf], the end result would be the same. It cures itself in 7 days [1]. Going the inf way would give relief to an extent. So whatever you do or do not the end result would be the same here. Lets take anything and we would have to go to infinity to find the answer. Something like what is the best exercise regime for anyone. There is 2 ways. You exercise and feel the changes within you [0] or read books and get info about various exercises [inf]. I find people eating all sorts of food without any health problems and people exercising regularly but facing health issues, so there is something else going on altogether[1]. So the result cannot be as expected, always. So, we either look at the bigger picture [1] or get stuck with 0 or inf. So either change yourself or
try changing the world you would come across the truth, which doesn't change, in the process.
Relative truths change, like I am a human now[time based - in this birth]. I have named this blog 'The Truth' because the absolute truth is the one that never changes no matter what. There is no concept of I?, there is only 'The Truth'
This is most likely the last post for this blog.
a. River: Lets take a flowing river. It goes through mountains, plains and forests before mixing with the ocean. Rivers have their own names but once they join the ocean they are inseparable. Now lets look at the identification before. We have named them according to our wish. Given water from a river, we cannot name the river from which it was taken. That is the crux we need to understand. Lets take a flowing river, it looks beautiful as it flows across the plains and mountains. Now take a glass of water from the river, put it into a packet and leave it at the same place. It would take the same path as the water. Now the packet is the body we are into and the water is the soul [atma]. The river is following the same path as it used to before. It looks different for us now due to the packet that was put in there. The flow looks beautiful if we just look at the water, but once we start looking at the packets the beauty reduces, as the packet tumbles and floats irregularly with the flow. The packet reaches the ocean at the end of its journey. This is a single packet, now take n packets and tie them to one another randomly, few tightly and a few loosely. As we see more packets around we just see chaos in an otherwise orderly flow. The packets are the relationships we are into. If one of them moves slowly it reduces the other packets speed. Imagine someone in your family falling sick.
The ocean gets many packets from various rivers. Now the cleaning starts. The packets are taken back and put back into the rivers at an appropriate place [karma]. You can think of this whole process as the birth/re-birth cycle. How can this end. You have to understand the truth from within the packet. The flow will continue but you only see water around, instead of the imaginary packets.
b. Astrology: I was reading a book recently [http://old.garudabd.org/books/] and the topic of discussion was Astrology and how it evolves from the unity. The polarization starts with unity and it separates to two. We can take an example. Suppose you find a snake somewhere, you might just think about the venom it carries. But venom is required to make its anti venom. Venom with some transformations gives the anti venom. So if we see "venom/anti venom" is a polarity and if we mix them there is unity [perfection]. Lets see polarity in astrology and how opposites attract to reach perfection. Lets take the well known Sun Signs. Assuming you know nothing about them, lets assign each month a sign for ease. We get 12 signs as the 12 months. Lets take January and look for its opposite. You might assume December, but it isn't as they are next to each other. Make a circle with the 12 months and you would find that July is the opposite of January. Similarly November opposites May. Scorpio and Taurus are the 2 sun signs and their symbols Scorpion and Bull. If you watch Disocvery or Animal planet you would never see a bull roaming around on its own. You would find it always in a herd. Similary a scorpion is never seen in a group. So the polarity is here. One wants to be without company and the other with loads of company and they attract eachother to gain perfection. It's like you are only seeing one side of the coin and you need the other to complete it. If you take the venom to be the Scorpio Sun sign then the anti-venom will be the Taurus Ascendant[astrological term]. 2 becomes 3[cardinal,fixed,mutable signs] and so on it continues.
So if we meet someone who balances the imperfection within us we find compatiblity and if not we feel the incompatibility. If we can come over the imperfections within us, we find the World to be perfect, having just the oneness[Advaita].
c. 1 0 and infinity: Most of Vedanta revolves around getting us to The Truth which is the oneness of the Universe. We don't see/feel the oneness around us. We see ourselves and the materialistic world around us. So the link is missing somewhere. We will try to understand the same here. Lets represent the oneness by 1. We ourselves are represented by 0 and the world around us as Infinity[inf]. 0 and inf, both are part of 1 as said in the scriptures. To understand the truth we can proceed by analyzing one of these three [1 0 inf]. Vedanta gives more importance to 0 and its connection to 1 whereas Science revolves around understanding inf. Suppose you have a cold and you have to cure it. There are 2 ways - do nothing [0] or keep taking all kinds of medicine [inf], the end result would be the same. It cures itself in 7 days [1]. Going the inf way would give relief to an extent. So whatever you do or do not the end result would be the same here. Lets take anything and we would have to go to infinity to find the answer. Something like what is the best exercise regime for anyone. There is 2 ways. You exercise and feel the changes within you [0] or read books and get info about various exercises [inf]. I find people eating all sorts of food without any health problems and people exercising regularly but facing health issues, so there is something else going on altogether[1]. So the result cannot be as expected, always. So, we either look at the bigger picture [1] or get stuck with 0 or inf. So either change yourself or
try changing the world you would come across the truth, which doesn't change, in the process.
Relative truths change, like I am a human now[time based - in this birth]. I have named this blog 'The Truth' because the absolute truth is the one that never changes no matter what. There is no concept of I?, there is only 'The Truth'
This is most likely the last post for this blog.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Distant Relatives
In the earlier post I have said that Planets can affect on our brains. I will try to explain the same here.
We all have heard of family trees spanning many generations. Starting from your great great ... n times grand parents. Just visualize the tree. You are one of its leaf/node and your parents one of the branch etc. Let us assume you come across a distant relative of yours in some city. You probably wouldn't even know that he/she is your relative because nothing is visible from the outside. You both have many things in common[skin texture, eyes etc] but to prove the relationship you have to dig down to the level of DNA may be. Now I will extend the argument and say that you and the planet Saturn are related. How deep do we have to dig, to prove this relationship?
We all have heard of the big bang theory. What does it say about the universe. The Universe was a singularity at the time of its birth and there was a big bang and matter started to form.The universe was of the size of a ball after a short time. So what can we make of it. Whatever matter we see around today has come from that ball. So whether its you, your friends, relatives,enemies or the big planets, the Sun etc all come from the same basic particles. So all are your relatives to say in one word. Scientists are already in search of those basic particles using particle
colliders [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider]
Everyday we hear of many people dying or suffering in news but we don't feel so bad about that. Now if you hear that one of your close relatives has met with an accident or if your friend has been detected with cancer how would you feel. The news would bring sorrow to you. Similarly at the cosmic level the Universe is very big but only the 9 planets and the Sun are affecting you.The planets are going round the Sun in cycles and things happen in your life accordingly.
One question remains unanswered, who is sending the message here. You might get the good news like the birth of your sisters daughter over phone from US. But the position of some planet like Uranus must reach us[because its apparent position is affecting our life]. We could define something [invisible] like Gravity to explain the effects. But the fact remains that Planets can
affect our brains.
I am trying to build up on things step by step. As said that the Universe started with a singularity, there must be something which should summarize anything and everything.
I too am trying to understand that one truth. Some name it God, some call it the universal energy or any other name. But the essence of life is to get to that truth, whether you do it in this life or the next. Don't deny its existence. If no one has read this blog that doesn't mean that it never existed.
We all have heard of family trees spanning many generations. Starting from your great great ... n times grand parents. Just visualize the tree. You are one of its leaf/node and your parents one of the branch etc. Let us assume you come across a distant relative of yours in some city. You probably wouldn't even know that he/she is your relative because nothing is visible from the outside. You both have many things in common[skin texture, eyes etc] but to prove the relationship you have to dig down to the level of DNA may be. Now I will extend the argument and say that you and the planet Saturn are related. How deep do we have to dig, to prove this relationship?
We all have heard of the big bang theory. What does it say about the universe. The Universe was a singularity at the time of its birth and there was a big bang and matter started to form.The universe was of the size of a ball after a short time. So what can we make of it. Whatever matter we see around today has come from that ball. So whether its you, your friends, relatives,enemies or the big planets, the Sun etc all come from the same basic particles. So all are your relatives to say in one word. Scientists are already in search of those basic particles using particle
colliders [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider]
Everyday we hear of many people dying or suffering in news but we don't feel so bad about that. Now if you hear that one of your close relatives has met with an accident or if your friend has been detected with cancer how would you feel. The news would bring sorrow to you. Similarly at the cosmic level the Universe is very big but only the 9 planets and the Sun are affecting you.The planets are going round the Sun in cycles and things happen in your life accordingly.
One question remains unanswered, who is sending the message here. You might get the good news like the birth of your sisters daughter over phone from US. But the position of some planet like Uranus must reach us[because its apparent position is affecting our life]. We could define something [invisible] like Gravity to explain the effects. But the fact remains that Planets can
affect our brains.
I am trying to build up on things step by step. As said that the Universe started with a singularity, there must be something which should summarize anything and everything.
I too am trying to understand that one truth. Some name it God, some call it the universal energy or any other name. But the essence of life is to get to that truth, whether you do it in this life or the next. Don't deny its existence. If no one has read this blog that doesn't mean that it never existed.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Made in Heaven
These days astrology has started to fascinate me. It started with a friend of mine saying that the Sun signs match a persons qualities to a great extent. I started reading my sun sign description and found that, quiet matching my personality. Then I went on to an other sign as I wanted to know that person. Even that matched. You could get the sun sign descriptions at this link [http://www.cyberspacei.com/englishwiz/library/names/zodiac/contents.htm]. Please read them and I hope they match your personality to quite some extent.
In this blog I will try to explain this "Marriages are made in heaven" concept using astrology. Might be difficult but lets see how it goes. Now assuming you know nothing about astrology. Take any given year. That year has got 12 months. If I ask how the weather was in the month of May in 1975, what would you answer. Simple answer is "Must have been hot". You probably weren't even born then, as myself, but you know that May is summer and it will be hot whatever the year may be. Now extend it- how about someone born in may 1975. Can we say anything about that person. The answer is yes. Now why is May always hot. Because Sun is closer to the earth. Now how about someone born in may. The "Sun sign" has a role to play there. So here comes the Sun sign. April and May might have somewhat similar weather but same is not the case with Sun signs. They are quite different. Now how about Moon doesn't it have a role to play. Yes, it too has a role to play. The Moon sign comes in. Why leave out the planets and stars, they too do something to our brains.
Looks weird but its a fact. The only force we know of celestial bodies is gravity and how could it shape our personality. No answer at least for the time being. One of the dialogues from the movie Matrix says "You have already made the choice, you just have to execute it". Similarly Astrology says that "Your personality is already shaped, you just have to live it".
Sun sign is very basic in astrology and astrologers do not give it a very high priority but it has its significance and is easy to find out as you just have to know the persons birthday. The link given above has the signs and the dates, please check that to know your sun sign. Moving on to our weather example. If I ask how would the weather, tomorrow be exactly. You would have to wait until tomorrow morning atleast to see the rising Sun and say that today would be a sunny day if the sun is bright and cloudy if the Sun is behind the clouds etc. To say simply if you look east at the time of sunrise you get a feel of how the day would be. Now if you have to know how someones personality would be, you have to look east at the time of his/her birth. That[Zodiac Constellation] gives you something called Ascendant[Lagna] which is very important in astrology. I am giving all the confusing terms. Let me try to make it simpler.
Einstein said that Space & Time is like a smooth fabric and celestial bodies create dents in it. Similarly your brain is like a raw piece of tissue and the planets and stars print something onto it as and when you take your first breath. Now you might ask how about the 9 months in the womb, do these celestial bodies sit idle all these 9 months. As said in the matrix example, they too have already made a choice and they are just executing it. Like as and when you are born your future is decided and so does the no. of children you have etc. Palmistry would prove that I guess. To go further, in ancient days we had a muhurat for first night too. Recently I was watching a spiritual channel and in one of the programs the discussion was on this. The person said that the muhurat for first night is very important and you shouldn't just simply jump into making love.
Coming back to our made in heaven concept. There are 12 zodiac signs like the 12 months. The stars are fixed i.e these zodiac signs are fixed in space and only we [Earth] are moving. If you go to any astrologer or any astrology website to know what the future holds for you they would ask for your birth date, time and place. If you know these you can get the position of planets with respect to Earth at that very specific time from astronomy. Now we come to something called natal chart and is the one that is used by astrologers to say anything or everything about you. Getting the natal chart is a 2 step process to say. As and when someone is born draw a line from their birthplace to the center of earth. Draw an other line perpendicular to it [lets forget latitudes and tilt for the time being] in the east west direction. This is your co ordinate system to say, with yourself on the +Y axis and East direction on the negative -X axis. The negative X - axis points to the ascendant. and +Y axis the Mid heaven and +X axis is the descendant, -Y is the Imum coil. Draw lines at 30 degrees to divide the plane into 12 parts. Place the planets according to their positions.
Your natal chart is ready. Who is the perfect match for you. We have always heard that "Opposites make a good match". Astrology echoes that saying you are attracted to someone who has your descendant as their ascendant. So whatever is being missed by you would be taken care of by your soul mate. Planets bring in some asymmetry but lets ignore it for the time being. Your ascendant is on the -X axis so your matches ascendant should be on +X axis. You are on the +Y axis so your match will be on the -Y axis. As I have said earlier +Y axis is your mid heaven and -Y axis is the mid heaven for your match. So where did your match take shape. "In HEAVEN".
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