Importance of Self realisation

For those who are not familiar with the phrase, it is a line from Adi Shankaracharya's most famous composition Bhaja Govindam where he tries to tell people to have devotion. I am not the person who accepts the 'truth by authority'. I however do not disregard any statement made by an authority. I rather carefully examine the element of truth by logically reasoning them against its possibilities and impossibilities. Considering the way "the great Adhi Shankaracharya" was introduced to me, as a great saint, philosopher and above all a well-established Yogi, it could be easy for me to accept his authority and believe that " Nischala tatwam " (Unwavering nature) leads to " Jeevan Mukthi " (Liberation). Also, I personally didn't feel capable enough to test it. Although I pretend to accept that statement, I had no means to verify it. My thinking mind could not accept that statement without proper reasoning. It, as usual, demands the logical step...

నాకున్న అవగాహనను ఉపయోగించి ప్రేమ అంటే ఏంటి అనే ప్రశ్నకు సమాధానం కోసం ఆలోచించానను. ఆ ఆలోచనల సారాంశమే ఈ సంచిక.. “ప్రేమ”. ప్రేమని మనం ఇన్ని రోజులు తప్పుగా ఎందుకు అర్థం చేసుకున్నాము.. అసలు ప్రేమ అంటే ఏమిటి వంటి అంశాలను ఈ సంచికలో ప్రస్తావిస్తాను. ఇప్పటివరకు చాలా మంది సాధారణంగా అనుకుంటున్నట్లుగా ప్రేమ అనేది ఒక భావోద్వేగం కాదు. భావోద్వేగాలకి ఒక కారణం ఉంటుంది, ఒక మాతృక ఉంటుంది. ఉదాహరణకి, కోపం అనే భావోద్వేగానికి లోనవడానికి ఒక బలమైన కారణం ఉండాలి. ఎదుటి వ్యక్తి మన మాట వినకపోవడమో, మనకి నచ్చని పని చేయడమో మనకి కోపాన్ని కలిగించవచ్చు. అలాగే మనం కోరుకున్నవి   నేరవేరనప్పుడు బాధ, నచ్చనివి చూసినప్పుడు అసహ్యం.. ఇలాగే ప్రతి భావోద్వేగానికి ఒక కారణం ఉంటుంది. కానీ ప్రేమ అలా కాదు. ప్రతి భావానికి ఒక వ్యక్తీకరణ ఉంటుంది.   కానీ , ప్రేమ యొక్క వ్యక్తీకరణ భావోద్వేగాల ఫలితంగా రాదు. ప్రేమ అనేది ఆహ్లాదకరమైన లేదా శాంతమైన స్వభావం యొక్క వ్యక్తీకరణ. ముఖ్యంగా , ఇష్టానికి ప్రేమకి మధ్య ఉన్న భేదాన్ని గ్రహించాలి. గౌతమ బుద్ధుడు చెప్పినట్లుగా భావింపబడుతున్న ఒక   ప్రసిద్ధ మాట "మీరు పువ్వును ఇష్టపడితే , మీరు దానిని...

The title of the post kind of declares that we have been misunderstanding what love is from a long time. Why am I so sure of it? I will try to put my perspective about love and what made me write those lines.   Since, we started with the word misunderstanding, let us see the actual dictionary meaning of love. According to the Oxford dictionary, Love means " a very strong feeling of liking and caring for somebody/something, especially a member of your family or a friend." It clearly says it as a feeling towards a person most likely from the family member or a friend. Let us also make sure what Love is not. Some people may think it as an emotion, it is not. It is an expression. So, what is an expression? It is the way you express it or display it. An expression can spring from an emotion or it can come by nature. You can have emotions of anger and you express it by being angry. Similarly, you can be unpleasant and express it in sadness. But, the expression of love is not as a r...

Welcome to the Karma series. In a series of blogs, I would try to brief on what Karma is as I understand it. This is the first post in the series. Hope you get something useful out of it.   The word Karma is more than popular in English language even though it doesn't have any linguistic background relevant to the word. "Karma" is a Sanskrit word (and so, obviously present in most of the Indian languages) which means "Action". Indian spiritual texts refer in their shlokas to the modern translation " One's life is one's Karma ". It means that a person's life is the way they make it. Be it joyous, depressed, or angry life or a cocktail of whatever proportions of each of them, it is still the making of the self. But, how can one make their own life miserable? Why would it* want to?  *for the sake of gender neutrality, I refer to the person as 'it'  It may seem pretty easy to accept that statement in circumstances where you make cho...

Namaskaram everyone, Everyone one of us, at least once in our life, wanted to have something so badly that we would be ready to do anything to get that. Do you even remember those things now? Even if you do remember, is the intensity with which you want them the same? So, things that make you do anything at some time doesn't even matter to you after you really have them. Let's go further deep into the topic. Take an example of a small girl. As the girl is born, she comes with nothing. She then have parents. She thinks that they are all she have and would not even want to imagine a life without them. She is happy and doing fine. Some years later she got a sibling. She then started loving him/her and couldn't leave him/her for a moment. She starts to have friends. She would then grow up to be a woman and gets married. She then forgets parents, siblings and friends who were once the most important people at different stages of life. Now, husband is her everything. She k...