Spirituality / Krishna

  Topics:- 
1) Spirituality
2) Krishna




Spirituality



The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious - the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science.--Albert Einstien.

The personal life deeply lived always expands into truths beyond itself.People living deeply have no fear of death.Sometimes people get the mistaken notion that spirituality is a separate department of life, the penthouse of existence. But rightly understood, it is a vital awareness that pervades all realms of our being.



 Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude.

Ethical Humanism is primarily an attitude about human beings, their worth, and the significance of their lives. It is concerned with the nature and quality of living; the character and creativity of our relationships. Because of this concern, humanism spontaneously flowers into a spiritual movement in its own right.

The unique personality which is the real life in me, I can not gain unless I search for the real life, the spiritual quality, in others.For it is only with the god enthroned in the innermost shrine of the other, that the god hidden in me, will consent to appear.

Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love.

Energy conveys to us the idea of motion and activity. Inside a living organism we see a source of power, which by some manner is released in terms of movement.... Life is energy... it is the creator or initiator of movement change, development. We are different from moment to moment because the life principle is at work with us.... The spirit of humanity, like the forces of nature, and like the physical life, is at bottobottom energy.... Spiritual life, therefore, is just as much a development out of what has gone before in the evolutionary process as physical life is; which means that the origin of spiritual life is from within.

Although the act of nurturing another's spiritual growth has the effect of nurturing one's own, a major characteristic of genuine love is that the distinction between oneself and the other is always maintained and preserved.

Spirituality exists wherever we struggle with the issue of how our lives fit into the greater cosmic scheme of things. This is true even when our questions never give way to specific answers or give rise to specific practices such as prayer or meditation. We encounter spiritual issues every time we wonder where the universe comes from, why we are here, or what happens when we die. We also become spiritual when we become moved by values such as beauty, love, or creativity that seem to reveal a meaning or power beyond our visible world. An idea or practice is "spiritual" when it reveals our personal desire to establish a felt-relationship with the deepest meanings or powers governing life.

Spirituality is relating to, consisting of, or having the nature of spirit; not tangible or material.

Spirituality is traditionally associated with religion, deities, the supernatural, and an afterlife.

Secular spirituality carries connotations of an individual having a spiritual outlook which is more personalized, less structured, more open to new ideas/influences, and more pluralistic than that of the doctrinal faiths of organized religions.

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In contrast, those of a more 'New-Age' disposition see spirituality as the active connection to some force/power/energy/spirit, facilitating a sense of a deep self.
For some, spirituality includes introspection, and the development of an individual's inner life through practices such as meditation, prayer and contemplation. 

"Religion is not identical with spirituality; rather religion is the form spirituality takes in civilization."
Spirituality, in a wide variety of cultural and religious concepts,is a path along which one advances to achieve a given objective, such as a higher state of awareness, knowing oneself, deeply and acutely.
If spirituality is understood as the search for or the development of inner peace or the foundations of happiness, then spiritual practice of some kind is essential for personal well being.

The essence of spirituality is the search to know our true selves, to discover the real nature of consciousness. 

Throughout the history of humanity it has been said that the self we know -- the individual -- is a very limited form of identity.
Behind this identity is a deeper identity, what is often called the "true self". This can be thought of as the essence of consciousness. Although our thoughts, feelings and personality may vary considerably, the essence of mind remains the same. 


When we discover this deeper sense of self we are freed from many of the fears that plague us unnecessarily. We discover a greater inner peace, an inner security that does not depend upon events or circumstances in the world around. As a result we become less self-centered, less needy of the other's approval or recognition, less needy of collecting possessions and social status, and become happier, healthier and more loving people. In many spiritual teachings this is called "self-liberation".

The science of Spirituality....


The Science of Spirituality integrates the individual systems of science, psychology, philosophy, spirituality and religion into a unified system that describes the multi-dimensional nature of man and the universe. It explains the science behind religious, spiritual and new-age beliefs, and sheds light on some common misconceptions.

With science and religion we have two seemingly opposed views of how life, the universe and everything began:
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Scientists generally believe that a perfectly balanced universe spontaneously appeared out of nothingness, and that life, consciousness and intelligence randomly evolved from inert matter.
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Religious beliefs says that an all-powerful and all-knowing God created the world and its myriad of life-forms.

Not only do they both seem pretty unbelievable, they appear to share no common ground.

By combining modern scientific facts with ancient spiritual knowledge we can uncover the
the truth and bring unity out of the existing duality.

We come into this world with nothing and we leave it with nothing, so it is pointless trying to acquire lots of material possessions.But on the other hand in spiritual enhancement, if we end our life with a higher level of consciousness than we began with, we can claim success by adding more and more to our consiousness after each and every life no matter who we are. Our body might change but our conscious is the same after going through various life processes. Its purity when enhanced after improving in each and every stage or may be passing through various births and re-births.
All living beings possess an inherent drive to evolve, to become the highest possible expression of life and to fully realise themselves. Personal development is the wilful co-operation with this natural evolutionary process, but an understanding of the processes involved is required if it is to be truly effective. We only learn lessons and develop new faculties through direct experience.


During the lower stages of human development, material ambitions and an egotistical nature are justified because they drive us onwards and upwards. But once we have progressed beyond the lower stages we no longer have any use for those motives and they are gradually eliminated from our being. Eventually we come to realise that nothing outside of us can bring lasting peace or satisfaction, and that the only way we can achieve these is to develop our consciousness.



Methods of Personal Development :


There are two main method of personal development which we choose according to our own temperament and beliefs. The essence behind everything is that there are many different paths but they all lead to the same destination; some are more winding than others but all eventually get there. 

Active: In this method our level of consciousness is directly related to what we choose to focus your attention on. In active method of development we are acutely aware of our conscious, living in present.


Passive: This involves by forgetting about our self entirely and dedicating our life to serving others. Serving others means helping and protecting those who are less developed, less experienced, less knowledgeable or less capable then we are.


BUT The BEST way is to choose the mid way, ie ....
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 to use a combination of the two methods or alternate between them in different incarnations.


Self Control.


To become whole we must integrate the subtle bodies of our persona by learning to control their energies and consciousness. Emotional conscious can only be controlled by mental consciousness, and mental consciousness can only be controlled by causal consciousness. The main challenge is to gain control over desires and emotion.This does not mean ignoring our emotions or killing them off altogether; it simply means us controlling them, rather than them controlling us

To create an integrated and balanced personality one needs to learn to disregard emotional reactions.We are not free unless we determine the content of our own minds, so we must learn how to control our attention so that it doesn’t wander aimlessly and reinforce every thought or feeling that passes through our subtle bodies.


Our sub-conscious keeps on emissing feelings, emotions and thoughts of varous kinds.
So negative thoughts and fictitious concepts are continually recycled between our conscious and sub-conscious minds, which reinforces our weaknesses. This vicious cycle can be only broken through persistent awareness of our thoughts and feelings to ensure that we only give attention to positive influences and quickly discard the negative ones.
Consciousness develops by moving our attention away from the negative thoughts and move only in positive direction. It can only be achieved by refusing to pay attention to the lowest impulses of our subtle bodies, i.e. negative feelings, emotions and thoughts.
In order to progress we need to forget about ourself.
become free from everything.


As we proceed we have to keep two imp. things in our mind.
1. To not to develop any kind of ego.
2. Identify ourself as a soul.


This dual approach gradually tips the balance of power in favour of our higher self and helps it gain control over the egotistical lower self.



TRUE DEVELOPMENT-How fast can we do ?


Development is the reward of unselfishness – we develop the fastest by helping others to realise the meaning of life and live in accordance with the laws of life. In order to help others understand we must first have an understanding of life and the stages of human development. We must understand the difficulties that are faced at each stage, their motivations and what they are capable of grasping. Trying to force people into accepting a particular belief system is a violation of their freedom, so those who are content with their current beliefs we must leave them with their own beliefs, even if they are wrong. Everyone learns from their own life experience and in their own life patterns.

Everyone who reflects on the meaning of life gradually develops their own belief system. Initially it will be flawed but over time, perhaps many incarnations, it will gradually build into a system of knowledge and description of reality


Two additional factors contribute to rapid development – awareness and will power.


Maintaining constant awareness of our desires, emotions and thoughts is of prime importance because we can’t address our weaknesses unless we are aware of them. Once we become aware of a particular issue we will obviously need will-power to overcome it. Will-power is also necessary to sustain our efforts over an entire lifetime
Every new effort gives rise to a corresponding resistance from the persona. It may seem that when we first start out on the path that things are conspiring to make it difficult for us. Bur we shouldn't be discouraged by this – it is just a test to see if we are up to the task ahead. 


It is better to proceed at a steady and sustainable pace because a lifetime of commitment is required if you truly want to succeed

The imp. points to help to proceed ...


1.Unless we change our internal life, our external life will never really change.

2. Trust life and have faith that it will provide us the experiences we require for our continued evolution.

3. Accept the fact that there are no accidents and everything happens for a reason.

4.Learn to trust ourself, our instincts, our intuition and our inspiration.

5. Don’t hold on to the past or worry about the future – just live one day at a time.

6. By helping ourself we help no one, but by helping others we also help ourself.
 

7. To notice every motive and desire that passes through our consciousness.
 

8. Be unconcerned about other people’s opinions.We are free to form our opinions and others are free to form theirs.

9. Forgive everyone and everything – we can’t change the past so there is no point being bitter.

10. Calmly accept whatever life deals us..

11. Remain optimistic – if times are tough be thankful they are not worse and be grateful that they teaches us a lesson.

12. Accept people for who they are,with their success and failures., their nature, beliefs and temperament.

13. See the good in everyone,

14. Be happy and think happy thoughts – if we don’t identify with negative emotions they can have no hold over us and will quickly pass.

15. Love unconditionally – treat everyone as we would like them to treat us.
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16.Be willing to make sacrifices and put the needs of others before our own.
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17. Do our best and we will always succeed, even if the world considers it a failure.
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18. Be unconcerned about failure – there is no such thing as failure, only opportunities to learn lessons.
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19. Don’t regret anything – the cyclic nature of life means there will always be another opportunity.
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20. Don’t take anything or anyone and ourselves too seriously because life is just an educational game.
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21.Maintain an inner awareness to ascertain our motives before we speak or act.
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22. The solution to all our problems lies within us.
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23. Recognise that all our troubles are caused by uncontrolled emotions. Emotionality feeds a conflict but rationality brings resolution.
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24. Be honest, upright, dependable and sincere, with no hidden agendas.
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25. Be impartial in every decision we make, irrespective of any advantage we may gain or disadvantage we may incur.
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26. Stand up for freedom and fight for our rights. Do right for the sake of right, not for recognition or reward.
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27. Stand firm in matters of great importance but yield in matters of no importance, and remember that most things in life are unimportant.
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28. Ignore public opinion – investigate things for our self and make up our own mind.
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29. We get what we give, not what we take.
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30. Not to harm anyone by negative words, feelings and thoughts.

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Don’t just refrain from doing evil; but try to do good how ever small we can to make the world a better place.................

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Krishna



          Who ?, How ?, What ?  is KRISHNA  !!!! An introspective view to  understand his multi-dimensional qualities and a perfectionist personna of a supreme being.

         A brief Introduction on his birth:- 

          According to Hindu Mythology Krishna is the eighth incarnation of  Lord Vishnu and was born in Dwapar Yug .      
Indian as well as Western scholars have now accepted the period between 3200 and 3100 BC as the period in which Lord Krishna lived on earth . The birth of Krishna is in itself a transcendental phenomenon that generates awe among the Hindus and overwhelms one and all with its super mundane happenings 
          Krishna was born as the eighth child of Devaki , sister of cruel king Kansa. The sage Narad has predicted that Kansa would be killed by eighth child of Devaki, so Kansa killed the first six children born to Devaki, seventh Balaram escaped by some miracle. And eighth  Krishna was exchanged for some  cowherd’s daughter.
Krishna was born in Mathura in the prison cell of Kansa and carried to Gokul.   
           
       Krishna was dark and extremely handsome. The word Krishna literally means 'black', and black also connotes mysteriousness.



       
                                  Krishna's Childhood Days:-           


          Krishna was brought up by the foster mother Yashoda and shared a deep love and fonding with Yashoda. Since childhood he had shown his power at various incidents to kill the  evil in the forms of various demons. He was true friend to lots of GOP’s and  Gopica’s. The closest among was “ Sudama “. He was a poor cowherd boy..but Krishna never differenciate between rich or poor and showered equal  love to all. He followed the virtue of equality.The stories of Krishna's childhood and youth tells how he became a cow herder, which shows his quality of  a born leader his mischievous pranks as Makhan Chor(butter thief), his foiling of attempts to take his life, and his role as a protector of the people of Vrindavana.

As a child he was reputed to be very mischievous, stealing curd and butter and playing pranks with his girl friends or gopis. He stayed in Gokul, the legendary 'cow-village' in Northern India  for 3 years and 4 months. . Having completed his Lila or exploits at Gokul he went to Vrindavan and stayed until he was 6 years and 8 months old.


          The most uncommon trickster and prankster. The stories of Krishna appear across a broad spectrum of Hindu philosophical and theological traditions. 

          Later Krishna loved to play the flute and  to seduce the village girls. The most romantic and seductive lover he has been to all the gopikas to which Radha was his favourite though she  was married and older to Krishna. He use to tease, enjoy and  spread the love with utmost passion among all. According to Hindu mythology he had 16,108 queens but throughout his life he loved and shared with Radha the most, who was a true friend and lover to him . Their love  was the most unconditional ,pure and divine. The passionate trait of Krishna is symobolised  in his  deep love for RADHA.



               The Radha-Krishna amour is a love legend of all times. 
            Krishna’s love affairs, of which the Radha-Krishna affair is the most memorable. Krishna's relationship with Radha, his favorite among the 'gopis' (cow-herding maidens)  is more about unconditional faith and trust.. and not lust.   Krishna's youthful dalliances with the 'gopis' are interpreted as symbolic of the loving interplay between God and the human soul. Radha's utterly rapturous love for Krishna and their relationship is often interpreted as the quest for union with the divine. Krishna was their belief that love is eternal.
             Radha, daughter of Vrishabhanu loved  Krishna the most.. He departed to safeguard the virtues of truth, and she waited for him. He vanquished his enemies, became the king, and came to be worshipped as a lord of the universe. She waited for him. He married Rukmini and Satyabhama, raised a family, fought the great war of Ayodhya, and she still waited.  
            Krishna was married to Rukmini but loved Radha more than any of his queen or gopis throughout his life. He use to seek her advise and stay in  touch through messenger Udhav.Radha is Krishna's friend and advisor. For some of the adherents of these traditions, her importance approaches or even exceeds that of Krishna. She is considered to be his original shakti.


            So great was Radha's love for Krishna that even today her name is uttered whenever Krishna is referred to, and Krishna worship is though to be incomplete without the deification of Radha. 

The relationship between Radha and Krishna is the example of the highest and purest love, an indissoluble union of the highest intermingling and completion. 


            Her connection to Krishna is of two types:   svakiya-rasa (married relationship) and  parakiya-rasa (a relationship signified with eternal mental "love"). Parakiya-rasa is  the highest form of love, wherein Radha and Krishna share thoughts even through separation.

          
         
                    Krishna's Youth and Education :-


            At the age of eleven he left Vrindavan for Mathura where he lived for eighteen years and four months .

        Krishna when returned to Mathura, his birthplace,  killed his wicked maternal uncle King Kansa along with all his cruel associates and liberated his parents from jail. He also reinstated Ugrasen as the King of Mathura. He completed his education and mastered the 64 sciences and arts in 64 days at Avantipura under his preceptor Sandipani. As guru dakshina or tuition fees, he restored Sandipani's dead son to him. He stayed in Mathura till he was 28 . 
      
            Krishna, the King of Dwarka :-


            At 28 he left Mathura and came to Dwarka  for the the rescue of a clan of Yadava chiefs, who were ousted by the king Jarasandha of Magadha. He easily triumphed over the multi-million army of Jarasandha by building an impregnable capital Dwarka "the many-gated" city in an island in the sea. The city located on the western point of Gujarat, is now submerged in the sea according to the epic Mahabharata. Krishna shifted, as the story goes, all his sleeping relatives and natives to Dwarka by the power of his yoga. In Dwarka, he married Rukmini, then Jambavati, and Satyabhama. He also saved his kingdom from Nakasura, the demon king of Pragjyotisapura, had abducted 16,000 princesses. Krishna freed them and married them since they had nowhere else to go.

            Krishna lived in Dwarka for ninety-six years and eight months i totaling about 126 years of manifest pastimes. At the time of Mahabharata, when Krishna spoke the Bhagavad-gita, He was about ninety years of age.
 
          Krishna, the Hero of the Mahabharata :-  
            For many years, Krishna lived with the Pandava and Kaurava kings who ruled over Hastinapur. When a war was about to break oput between the Pandavas and Kauravas, Krishna was sent to mediate, but failed. War became inevitable, and Krishna offered his forces to the Kauravs and himself agreed to join the Panadavas as the charioteer of the master warrior Arjuna. This epic battle of Kurukshetra described in the Mahabharata was fought in about 3000 BC. In the middle of the war, Krishna delivered his famous advice, which forms the crux of the Bhagavad Gita, in which he put forward the theory of 'Nishkam Karma' or action without attachment.
            Krishna as a GURU / PREACHER :-       

                  Lord Krishna was indeed the great guru of how to live life on earth. Like all great men, his life was dedicated to helping man fathom the sacred realm of supreme knowledge.
            Krishna is the embodiment of his own teachings, and the his greatest message and mission to deliver us the knowledge that we all strive to seek. During that time there was the conflict of sects, and Lord Krishna comes in the middle to harmonize them all; He,is the great teacher of harmony.
           
      The great exponent of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna is one of the most powerful and the most popular.
            "The glory of  Krishna is that He has been the best preacher of our eternal religion and the best commentator on the Vedanta that ever lived in India." 
            In BHAGWAT GITA he himself has said :-


            "I am the conscience in the heart of all creatures
I am their beginning, their being, their end
I am the mind of the senses,
I am the radiant sun among lights
I am the song in sacred lore,
I am the king of deities
I am the priest of great seers…"

        The Path of Knowledge: Given by Krishna to mankind.

            1. What is knowledge?

            "Humility, unostentatiousness, harmlessness, forbearance, uprightness, service to guru, purity, steadiness and self-control — all this is called knowledge."

            2. What is so great about knowledge?

            "Verily, there exists no purifier on earth, equal to knowledge. A man who becomes perfect  in yoga finds it within himself in course of time."

            3. Why should we strive to seek knowledge?

            "Seek not for life on earth or in heaven. Thirst for life is delusion. Knowing life to be transitory, wake up from this dream of ignorance and strive to attain knowledge and freedom before death claims you."

             4. What are the virtues of a person of knowledge?

            "Dispassion for sense-objects, absence of egotism, seeing misery and evil in birth, death, old age and disease — all these are the virtues of a man of knowledge."

             5. Who can attain the knowledge of God?

            "Blessed are the pure in heart, for to them is given the knowledge of God… Blessed is human birth; even the dwellers in heaven desire this birth; for true knowledge and pure love may be attained only by a human being."

            6. How can we acquire his knowledge?

           "Acquire that knowledge through inquiry and humble service..."

            7. How do we reach the realm of knowledge?

           "Fixing their minds on Him, at one with Him, abiding in Him, realizing Him alone as the supreme goal, they reach a state from which there is no return, their sins having been destroyed by knowledge"

            8. Who can give us this knowledge?

           "The wise who are knowers of the Truth will instruct you in wisdom."

            9. What happens to the ignorant and faithless?

           "But the man goes to ruin, who is ignorant and without faith and always doubting. Not this world, nor happiness is for the doubting soul."

           10. How can you help us destroy ignorance?

           "Just to bless them, I, residing in their intellect, destroy the darkness born of ignorance by the resplendent light of knowledge."
    

           Krishna's Final Days on Earth :-

            After the great war, Krishna returned to Dwarka. In his final days on earth, he taught spiritual wisdom to Uddhava, his friend and disciple, and ascended to his abode after casting off his body, which was shot at by a hunter named Jara. He is believed to have lived for 125 years. He   has been ruling the hearts of millions for over three millennia. He was a person to impart the  profound impact on the human race affecting its psyche and ethos and all aspects of its life for centuries.        

   Krishna is the embodiment of  love and divine joy , that destroys all pain and sin. Krishna is a trickster , true friend, a born leader , life savour, the most passionate lover, an instigator of all  forms of knowledge and born to establish the religion of love. Krishna is the deity of  humour and  happiness. Krishna has passed his knowledge to the whole mankind for their betterment as a greatest teacher and preacher.