WHY ARE WE ALL HERE?

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Dear Friends,

     Before you proceed to read today’s article, please pause for a while and answer my question. What was the most frequently asked question in your life either by you or by your parents, siblings, friends and well - wishers? If your answer is any one of the following:

       1. What is your aim?

       2. What are planning to do?

       3. What do you want to achieve in life?

Then, continue reading further because this article is for the one who contemplates on the prime question in life!

         Questions shape our life because they help us to think deeply. Hence our ancient thinkers encouraged healthy questioning as a process of derivative learning i.e. prashna and pariprashna. All our Upanishads are in the form of answers given by Self Realised Sadgurus to the questions asked by Mature and Learned disciples in pursuit of Absolute Knowledge!

            All of us have made conscious decisions at prime junctures of our life regarding the selection of an academic course, deciding our career path, getting married and having children, building assets etc. Our plans, actions, activities and our entire life style is centred round this single question,    “What do I want do in this life?” We ask this question and build up our external world i.e. our academics, profession, status, relationship so on and so forth. Have these pursuits and the so called achievements given us an everlasting happiness and satisfaction? The answer is a BIG NO! They only left us hungrier, greedier and thirstier for fame and wealth. Why has this happened?

                That sense of dissatisfaction is because we failed to ask our inner self, what we want to do. What is it that will give us eternal happiness and satisfaction? What were we actually born for? When we thus start our introspection our inner spark is ignited. We begin our path of sadhana through contemplation and our ignorance starts slowly fading away!

              This inner search must be carried out by each one of us. We should use our intellect (BUDDHI) as our tool and observe our mind (MANAS). It is a good exercise and a great experience to observe the mind; its mood swings, the attitudes it develops, its fickleness as well its steadfastness, its likes and dislikes etc. It is like sitting alone on a sea shore and watching a roaring sea; the huge waves and wavelets rising and falling as it reaches the shore. People who frequently gaze the vast sky and the mighty ocean feel an inexplicable calmness. This is because the mind opens up and resonates harmoniously with the vastness and abundance of nature. When the mind is open, there is no prejudice, hatred, dislike, anger or frustration. There is a feeling of completeness in our own self and in everything around us. There is only PURE LOVE which is UNCONDITIONAL and is the cause of EVERLASTING SATISFACTION AND BLISSFUL STATE. In this open and accommodating mind (VISALA MANASU) the karmic results and vasanas are absolved. Thus our thoughts become pure and clear and the hrudayam becomes free from all negativities. Such a person who has acquired NIRMALA HRUDAYAM houses the DIVINE ENERGY and radiates this power all around. He or She is the true manifestation of Bhagavathi who is worshipped as HRUDAYASTHA RAVI PRAGYNA TRIKONANTARA DEEPIKA!

                 Our Parama Pujya Guru encapsulates this process of evolution for all the disciples and sadhaks in the following Sookthis.

          NEE MANASUNU VISALAM CHESUKO!

                                                                                     (Sookthi 11)

          NIRMALA HRUDAYAM BHAGAVATHI NILAYAM!

                                                                                      (Sookthi 3)

Let us return to the question from where we started today; why are we all here and what is the purpose of our life?

As a sadhak we understand from our Sri Mata Kamalambika’s sookthis that the mission of our life is to adopt practices that shall give us Visala Manasu and hence develop Nirmala Hrudayam! Thus we shall become Bhagavathi Nilayam, a true JEEVAN MUKTHA irrespective of our walk of life!

                                                             JAI SREE MATA….

       

THE PATH OF LIFE AND THE ULTIMATE GOAL

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Sri Kamalaopanishad aims at exploring Sri Mata Kamalambika’s teachings (Sookthis) for the progress of a spiritual aspirant who is a householder bound by the compulsions of society. Mata Kamalambika was an incarnation of Absolute Truth! Her Divyacharitra shows that the foundation of her life was SATYAM; her principles were based on DHARMA and her walk of life was paved by DEVOTION. She tread this path irrespective of the challenges and difficulties and thus reached her Ultimate Goal i.e. SELF-REALISATION. Every one of us has heard of the Mahavakya

          SATYAM VADA; DHARMAM CHARA!

This has been the guiding principle for the entire mankind ever since life on earth started. The terms Satyam and Dharmam are used very commonly but they are the most difficult to define; yet they can be understood with practice and wisdom (aacharana and anubavam). But the biggest problem is to differentiate and discriminate Satyam from Asatyam and Dharma from Adharma. What appears to be true and correct under a certain context becomes untrue and incorrect under another circumstance and vice-versa.

For example, our scriptures instruct us to follow ahimsa at all times but the same scriptures endorse that wars have to be fought to protect the innocent and helpless people and thereby restore Dharma!

No amount of academic knowledge helps us in obtaining this sense of discrimination (VIVEKA). We see that the master minds behind the scams and scandals are highly qualified professionals and bureaucrats. We also see how some of them are highly vulnerable and become scapegoats in such corrupt practices in spite of their academic proficiency and professional excellence. In these cases the knowledge acquired and the learning experiences have not helped the individuals in their Dharmacharana.

Sri Mata Kamalambika puts this in a nut shell for us in Her Sookthi

ALPA VIDYALU VISARJINCHU

MUKTHI MARGAMUNU ANUSARINCHU

                                                                                                          (Sookti 4)

The word Vidya has a very high connotation in our culture. We revere the Goddess of Learning and Knowledge as Vidya and The Almighty Lalitha Tripura Sundari as Vidya Avidya Swaroopini. Then what is Alpa Vidya? Any knowledge, any information or any pursuit that pollutes our thoughts and blemishes our mind is alpa vidya. Sometimes the words we hear the scenes we see, the content we read or the feelings we experience willingly or under compulsion generate mean tendencies in our mind. Such information is alpa vidya and they are very tough obstacles for our progress; both, materialistic and spiritual. It is so relevant in the current day context because we have access to so much of disgusting and useless information from the media and at the click of a mouse. Even a highly matured mind finds it difficult to handle the nature of content presented by these sources. Sri Mata asks us to throw away such content (visarjinchu) ; not just out of sight or hearing but away from our anthakharanas i.e. manas, chitta and buddhi. But we can’t silence our mind since it is against basic human nature. The Immortal Mother immediately adds in Her Sookthi that mind should be nurtured by thoughts that leads one to Mukthi i.e. SELF REALISATION.

             Thus She has beautifully laid the foundation for Atma Vidya in the most simple and effective words through Her Sookthi. I prostrate at the Lotus Feet of Sri Mata who manifested to instruct and demonstrate the implicit meaning of Atma Vidya, Maha Vidya and Sri Vidya through Her Sookthi and show us the path of life that leads us to the ULTIMATE GOAL OF KAIVALYA!

JAI SREE MATA…..           

A TO Z OF SRI KAMALOPANISHAD

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The most prominent principle (Sookti) of MATA SRI KAMALAMBIKA is

                   VAKARAMU LENI MANASE SRI CHAKARAMU

                       ATTI ARCHAANE SRICHAKRACHARANA

This literally translates as follows:

          A distortionless and an unaberrated mind is a perfect dwelling place of the Almighty and a perfect offering to the Almighty. The way to reduce or eliminate the existing deformities of the mind and methods to avoid getting further distorted is taken up under the topic

              A TO Z OF MATA KAMALAMBIKA’S TEACHINGS.

A	Accepting the Divine Plan and the Divine Intervention is Devotion
B	Being Aware of Goodness in ourselves and in other’s is the first step of Sadhana i.e. practice towards PERFECTION
C	Criticising and Correcting one’s own self is more fruitful for Sadhak than Commenting and judging others
D	Disturbance and Destruction always come from within. Similarly Development and Devotion comes from within us. We have to make conscious Decision of what we want and Deserve
E	Each one of us is an Embodiment of Divinity. Hence, we should not only respect others we should also respect our own selves. A person respects his own self by nurturing good thoughts, being in good company and by Elevating himself.
F	Food plays a great role in shaping a Sadhak. Here, we mean food for body and mind. Hence we should take care of what we feed to the stomach through the mouth and much more importantly what we feed to the mind through our eyes, ears, nose, mouth and touch.
G	Goodness is revealed only when we are free from Guilt, Greed and Guile
H	Heaven is not a place or an already existing to which we go! It has to be created, experienced and sustained by each one of us by our own self. Building our Heaven is our own responsibility
I	Involvement in any activity without getting attached to other’s opinions, reactions and responses helps our mind to stay focussed on the action than the end result. Such an involvement purifies the mind.
J	Judging people, situation and events blocks the free thinking of mind. Such a mind is cluttered and either forms prejudice or preference and prevents one from acting efficiently.
K	Knowledge should be transformed to wisdom by three fold process i.e. Observation, Assimilation and Action. Such a person definitely strides towards perfection.
L	Love + Expectation = Bondage Hence, to remain in bondage or to be liberated is one’s own free will.
M	Mercy, Magnanimity and Mentality shapes the personality of a person. These qualities decide his intra and inter personal relationships.
N	Noble thoughts should be inculcated since childhood. Noble thoughts lead to noble actions which transforms to service to mankind.
O	Obeisance and Obedience flattens our ego and develops Openness of our mind.
P	Purity of thoughts leads to Intellectual clarity , which in turn keeps us firmly rooted in Jnana and Dharma,
Q	Quelling fear, desire and anger is the most difficult and the important requisite for a sadhak
R	Realising one’s mistake and rectifying our behaviour and attitude helps in internal purification and Refinement
S	Satisfaction towards materialistic attainments can make a person happy and direct the mind towards intellectual Refinement
T	Trust and Faith should always be reposed on the Universal, Omnipresent and Divine Superconscious, since we are also part of It!
U	Use your wealth and treasure your relationships instead of using people and treasuring wealth.
V	Victory and failure are both learning experiences and not the end product of life.
W	Wealth and Women do not Weaken our Sadhana. They are strong resources if used properly.
X	A great X (cross) section of people believes that mind has to be controlled by Sadhana. Mind cannot be controlled; the thoughts generated by it can only be channelized.
Y	Yearning for a guru sincerely with all your heart makes the Lord Himself descend in the form of Sadhguru and is Hari!
Z	Zeal and Zest are not sufficient to train the mind consistent and committed effort can tune the mind to orderliness.

JAI SREE MATA...