Veda gyan

Welcome to the 17^th Issue of Vedagyan!

A brief Life sketch of Shri Aurobindo.

Sri Aurobindo Gosh was born in Calcutta in Bengal to Dr.K.D.Gosh in 1872 August 15^th. Dr.Gosh was westernized in his life style hence he brought his children up that way too. He sent Sri Aurobindo Gosh to a school at Darjeeling when he was just five years old, and later in 1879 he sent his sons, including Sri Aurobindo Gosh to England to study. He lived with Rev and Mrs. Drewett.

He lived in Manchester and later shifted to London in 1884. He was admitted to St.Pauls at London, even at that young age Shri Aurobindo showed extra ordinary language skills and displayed his mastery of Latin language and that impressed his headmaster and he took personal care to teach Shri Aurobindo the Greek language that he learnt with ease.

At the very young age of eleven he took to poetry and contributed poems to the local magazine Fox. He mastered other languages like French, Italian, and Spanish too. He excelled in his studies and went on to join Cambridge and came out in flying colours in his exams. Later due to his fathers biddings he applied for ICS from Cambridge. In the meanwhile his father’s social service activities and his quest to help the poorest of the poor in his mother land brought a lot of constraints along in sending financial support to his sons at England. He was also pained at the atrocities meted out to the Indians by the British in his own mother land, and sent press clippings of these incidents to Shri Aurobindo Gosh.

 These incidents created an urge to take part in India’s struggle for independence in Shri Aurobindo Gosh and he did not want to continue the ICS study and knowingly failed in horse riding test and disqualified himself. This was to the liking of then British rulers of India since they were watching his activities along with revolutionists! During this period the Maharaja of Baroda happened to be at London and he met Shri Aurobindo a job at Baroda. In 1893 he returned to India and began his career at Baroda as a teacher of French! Later he became the Vice Principal of the college. He also took a plunge into Indian culture and learnt the Indian languages this time!

He became the master of Hindustani, Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali and Sanskrit! He also learnt the great epics of our culture the Mahabarata and Ramayana! He also read all the works of Kalidasa, Bhavaboothi, Bakhim Chandra Chaterjee, and also of Dante, Homer, Horace and other great philosophers. During 1894 to 1906 he took active part in our freedom struggle from Baroda. This brought him in contact with Sister Nivedita. In 1901 he got married to Mrinalini and in 1903 when he visited Kashmir, along with the King Gaekwad, at Sankaracarya hill; he had his profound spiritual experience!

 Later he was initiated into Yoga with Pranayama by a Guru, who hailed from Maharashtra. He started practicing this vigorously and later had to discontinue due his health problems. Shri Aurobindo’s active political life is between 1902 to 1910. During this period he advanced his political thoughts and of Shri Lokamanya Tilak and was a prolific writer in his own magazine Bandemataram that continued its publications till he was arrested for his revolutionary activities by the British. During this period, the first organized party organization, to fight the British was born and was called Nationalist Party! In 1908 he was arrested for conspiracy and confined to Alipore jail. In the year 1910 he was released from solitary confinement as the case was not proved!

These two years of confinement in Alipore was very important period in the life of Shri Aurobindo and his spiritual sadhana gave him the furits of realization and he had the Dharshan of Lord Krishna in the jail premises and experienced the highest yogic state of  seeing the Lord every where! In February 1910 again an attempt was made to convict him for an article published in a magazine Karmayogin that he had initiated but the efforts of the government failed. After this Shri Aurobindo completely stopped his political activities and dedicated himself to Yoga sadhana. After four years of silent sadhana he began to spread his spiritual knowledge through his writings in Arya, his magazine on spirituality. During all these years he had poured over the Vedic scriptures such as Rig Veda and also on Sutras, Bagavat Gita and the Upanishads. His great works included Systhesis of Yoga, Essays on Gita, Isa Upanishad and Secrets of Veda. Later he began his monumental work called Savitri a work of poems that is unsurpassed till date in its spiritual wealth and the graphic account of a soul’s progress towards the Divine! He also laid the foundation for a new approach to the traditional yoga of yester years called integral yoga where in the whole being including the body is transformed into a divine entity.

He differed with the traditional Yoga that led one away from the earthly presence and propounded that with the divine descent the supramental consciousness or the Divine can descend on the very earth that is full of in conscience. In 1910 he had come to Chandranagore and later to Pondicherry where he remained till he passed away in 5^th Dec.1950. He was acknowledged by great spiritual masters of his time and was a guiding light of our tradition.

Story of Tirumazhisai Alwar.

This Alwar was also known as Bakthisarar a title given to him by Lord Siva and his consort Parvati!

This Alwar was born at Tirumazhisai near Kanchipuram to Sri Bhargavamuni and Kanakangi ammal. They were ardent devotees of Lord Vishnu and the Alwar was born to them as an amsa (Aspect) of Sudharsana Chakra (Discus) of the Lord. He was born after an unusual stay of twelve months in his mother’s womb! Lo! Even after he was born he was without limbs! So his parents left him near a bamboo bush with a heavy heart and left. A tribal couple Tiruvaalan and Pankayachelvi saw the child that had by then regained its limbs due to the blessings of the celestial couple Lord Vishnu and Mahalakshmi!

They took him to their home and to their utter surprise the child did not eat anything except cow’s milk! One day the couple drank the reminder of milk left by the child and to their surprise both regained their youth!! They in the due course had a beautiful son and they named him Kannikannan who became a disciple of the Alwar. Both would sing in praise of the Lord and

Extol the beauty of his form. Alwar spent a lot of time at Srirangam alone. Sitting in the Prakaram (Circumbulation) he keeps sewing his worn out clothing using thread and bamboo reef for a needle! He was totally unmindful of his surroundings and was deeply engrossed in the thoughts of Almighty!

 Once when he was at his usual routine, Lord Siva and his consort Parvati were going across the town on their celestial vehicle the Bull. Usually when ever their shadow falls on earth, the people used to feel the divine presence and the couple grant their requests where ever they are genuine. Similarly on that day, the shadow fell on the Alwar but he never showed any concern and went about sewing! Surprised at this behavior Goddess Parvati asked Lord Siva who this person was. Lord replied that he was an ardent devotee of Vishnu. Goddess Parvati wanted to grant a boon to the Alwar. So both of them descended and stood before the Alwar. He did not take notice of them even then. Then Lord Siva interrupted his work and drew his attention. Alwar looked up and immediately got up and paid his respects to both. Then Lord Siva conveyed the wishes of his consort and asked Alwar to ask for a boon. He quietly declined this offer and said that he does not need anything from them. Goddess became all the more perplexed and insisted on giving a boon. To this he replied that the request could not be granted by both of them that is why he did not ask for the boon.

This reply disturbed Goddess Parvati all the more and prodded the Alwar to ask for the boon what ever it may be. Alwar asked for Mukthi or Moksha from this worldly existence. Lord Siva replied that he could not grant this boon as it could be granted only by Lord Vishnu. He also asked him to opt for another boon. Immediately the Alwar told that the thread he was using to sew the cloth was frequently breaking and if the Lord could make it unbreakable that would suffice. Though this reply did not hurt Lord Siva who knew the nature of the Alwar, it certainly irritated Goddess Parvati. She took it as an insult and was about to curse the Alwar. But Lord Siva prevailed upon her and told her about the greatness of the saint. She realized her mistake and granted the second boon he asked and were pleased to confer a title upon the Alwar called Bakthisarar. This incident spoke volumes about his devotion to Vishnu.

Know about Salagrama silas

Salagrama sila can be found in Muktinath of Nepal in the river Gantaki and in Dhamodar kund. In this part of the earth Methane gas will be aglow above water, rocks! Brahma the creator is said to have worshipped Lord Vishnu by lighting these flames. Mention of these Salagrama Silas is found in the great epics like Mahabharata and other scriptures. These stone formations are fossils adopted by a worm called Vajra keeda meaning strong as Vajra the weapon of Indra! These worms create circular patterns inside these silas and they look like chakra of Lord Vishnu. These are ammonites formed about 140 million years ago! These patterns can be seen both inside as well as outside these silas. These are the dwelling places of the worms and not their shells.

Let us see what Mythology has to tell us about these silas. Once upon a time there was an Asura called Jallandara he was so wicked and crafty. He waged a war with Lord Siva. The fierce battle went on for a long time without either of them winning. The Asura wanted to deceive Goddess Parvati and take her as his wife! And once Goddess Parvati loses her chastity he could win over Lord Siva. With this idea in mind he took the form of Lord Siva and approached her. Goddess Parvati being the force behind the Maya or Illusion that makes every one forget his source or origin that is God himself, knew before hand the wicked plans of the Asura. She called her brother Lord Vishnu and told him that this is the right time to exterminate him. Lord Vishnu told her that this Asura draws his strength only by the chastity of his wife Vrinda so unless and other wise she looses her chastity he can not be won over! That is the reason for Lord Siva not being able to win over him! Saying so, he took the form of this Asura and went to Vrinda. She mistook Lord Vishnu to be her husband and approached him and she lost her chastity. Immediately Lord took his original form and presented himself before her. This infuriated her and she cursed Him to be a stone, a tree, and a bunch of grass! That is how Lord Vishnu came to be personified as a Salagrama sila, Pipal tree, and kusa grass!

This story might raise a number of doubts in the minds of readers. Can the Lord Vishnu do this, just to win over a war?

Is it not against the Dharma He preaches? The answer is that this particular act should be taken in the context of a war with a wicked demon who knew his strength. More over under this kind of circumstances one has to adopt what is called Visesha Dharma and not ordinary Dharma. Misusing boons received by the demons and asuras like Basmasura, Hiranya kasipu are examples of it. Similarly the Asuras’ fall to Mohini Avatara of Lord Vishnu to save the Deva clan is another example. In order to vanquish the wicked and treacherous asuras these kind of intransigence is adopted. Lord having willingly done a mistake undergoes the punishment too by enduring the curse! He does not absolve himself of the responsibility.

What Puranas tell us about the Salagrama silas ?

Padmapurana : Lord Siva says the merits obtained by worshipping hundreds and thousands of  Lingams (the form of Siva in a sila) are equivalent to worshipping one Salagrama sila.

Another verse in the same Purana says that Lord Siva declared that those who make a distinction between Him and Lord Vishnu will be absolved of their sin of doing so, by worshipping a Salagrama sila. Oh! My son, Karthikeya, the Lord Vishnu has given me his abode the Salagrama being pleased with my devotion to him! I reside along with Him therein.

Garudapurana says of all the places where Sri Hari resides the Salagrama sila is the most sacred.

Scandapurana :says that One who has performed pooja to a Salagrama sila obtains the merits of giving hundreds and thousand of cows in gift to the needy, also gets the merit of giving the whole world with all its flora and fauna as gift!

Some of the interesting usages in English that have relevance to our great scriptures!

He was the moving force behind the whole nation!

It was a brilliant performance!

He is a luminary.

It just dawned on us!

He is an ocean of knowledge!

Excellent flow of thoughts!

You heard it right from the horse’s mouth!

Ignite the passion in you!

He has the horse sense about it.

The galloping thoughts on canvas of nature!

Rein in your senses to put up a coordinated performance!

These expressions are all not in literal sense. But they mean some thing else. Let us take up these expressions one by one and see their significance.

For instance, the first expression that says, that a person was a force behind the whole nation. You might have come across this expression when reference was made to Mahatma Gandhi and the like. This expression really means that, the person’s ideas and concepts were accepted, and the people of the whole nation followed them. So it is clear that power of the spirit could be the driving force!

Brilliant performance, Luminary, dawning upon etc refer to the physical light and the Sun to knowledge. Our scriptures say that Lord is an embodiment of pure knowledge, and He shines like Sun and dispels darkness that is ignorance! Sun God is also referred to as Pratyaksha Brahman or Brahman that could be cognized. Similarly our scriptures describe the God as an ocean of knowledge, and compassion too. That is why the expressions like “flow of thoughts” have come about.

In the expression “From the horse’s mouth” a horse is taken as a simile, Why is it so? Horse is always considered to be a more intelligent animal and was likened to the learned personality. Remember the Indian mythology describes the Lord of all knowledge to be a horse headed avatara of Vishnu called Hyagriva!

The expressions Horse sense and galloping thoughts are all associated with the horses!

Similarly horses were also untamed energetic animals that are reined in and trained to bring forth their unbridled power to productive use of humans! These were compared to our organs of perception that are to be controlled and directed! Katha Upanishad elaborates how the body as a chariot saddled to the horses that are our sense perceptions and organs will have to be reined by a divine mind!