Avtars.

Avtarhood would have little meaning if it were not connected with evoloution.
The Hindu proccession of Ten avtars is itself,as it were,a parable of evoloution.
First the Fish Avtaar,
then the amphibious animal between land and water,
then the land animal,
then the Man-Lion Avtaar,briding man and animal ,
then man as dwarf,small and underdeveloped and physical but containing in himself the godhead and taking possession of existence,
then the rajsic,satwik,nirguna Avtars,
leading the human devoulpment from vital rajsic to the satwik mentel man and agagin the overmental superman.
Krishna, Buddha and Kalki depict the last three stages,the stages of spiritual development--Krishna opens the posibility of overmind,
Buddha tries to shoot beyond to the supereme liberation but that liberation is still negtive,not returning upon earth to complete positivly the evoloution;
Kalki is to correct this by brigning the Kingdom of the Hevean(Divine) upon earth ,destroying the opposing asura forces.The progression is stiriking and unmistakable.
As for the lives in between the avtars lives,it must be remembered that Krishna speaks of many lives in the past,not only a few supereme ones,and secondy that while he speaks of himself as the Divine,in one passage he describes himself as a Vibhuti,vrsninam vasudevah.We may therefore fairly assume that in many lives he menifested as the Vibhuti veiling the fuller Divine Consciousness.If we admit that the objevct of avtarhood is to lead the evoloution,this is quite reasonable,the Divine appearing as Avtar in the great transtional stages and as Vibhutis aid the lesser transtions.

Sri Aurobindo...

Jyot and Kalash !

Jyot ! That serene little fire in a little lamp..... I have often wondered what might be its significance ! Of all the elements , fire is the one which is absolutely invisible as if it did not exist unless one really makes an effort to bring it on. Stones are just stones. But when they are struck against each other , it produces fire. That is so much close to what God is . He is everywhere but it needs some effort to actually see Him , feel Him. When we have a little flame before us , it really symbolises what God is and inspires us to make that effort to ignite the cosmic spark in us.

If we look closely , the flame has many parts , blue flame in the middle which is surrounded by two or three more layers. The last layer is invisible but immensely potent and hot.Every layer is at a different temperature and has different attributes. Is it not similar to what our body is supposed to be -physical body , ethereal body , causal body and many kinds of layers with fancy names ? And there is another factor common to both. A little whiff of air and it is gone. It is there one moment and gone the other. Our bodies die but the soul lives on. The flame dies out but the element of fire lives everywhere. Flame is nothing but a body , a physical attribute of heat and light. That is so close to what we are as humans and as souls.

And then we also keep a 'kalash' (pitcher)of water nearby. Flame and water both signify the Infinite. And we are all part of that Infinite. But we live in ignorance and these two elements are a means to inspire us , awaken us and be respectful to the powers of Nature. These two symbols talk to us and not only refer to our ignorance but also show us the right path. How is our ignorance signified ? The flame tells us that there is fire in all the things in this world but we can't see it. The Water tells us that it has many drops in it but the drops don't know it. A drop can not feel the sea but the sea feels all the drops. And this is also the path that these symbols show us. Don't be the drop . Be the Sea. The secret of life and eternity lies latent in all of us. Just ignite it !

Jyot also tells us . Be pure like me ! Burn your harmful thoughts and purify the ambience around you. The water in the pitcher tells us to be calm and serene and tto stay so while facing the vicissitudes of life. This reminds me of what Swami Kripananda had said once . Turn your heart into a pond of crystal clear water. Very peaceful and very tranquill. Then many creatures would be drawn towards it to quench their thirst. The deers would come and so would the lions. They all would see their own reflection in it and would be mesmerised... And one day LOVE itself would come . It will stoop to have some water , will see its own shadow in it and will stay there for ever...

Ten Avtaars.

It begins with the fish(Matasya) respresenting the first menifestation of life-force in water.The next.,tortise(kurma),indicates the extension of the scope of this new mode of life to the land.The third decent ,the boar(Varah),stands for fresh release of force>then comes the man-lion(Narsimha) symbolising the transition from animal to a man.Next is dwarf(Vamana),the primeal man,his size standing for the infancy o the species.Then comes Parshuram.He is not only the fully devolped man,but also who can mould externel events to his advantage,Thismastery is symbolised in his holding the parsue.we see the next decent .Rama,taking place,while earlier incarnations still exists.What is remarkable is Parsuram surrendering hispowers to Rama,the event esteblishing the superiorty of ethical power over mere physical and vitalistic powers.The eighth Avtar Krishna,stands for spiritual wisdom.So far the avtars have helped the proccess of devolpment along the evoloutinery line..Then comes Budha,to show the Path of liberation to such souls who,in their conscious choice ,decide to withdraaw fronm the proccess of evoloution.Finally the age of Kalki is to come--the only parable in world mythology with aclear futuristic proposition.he is to put an end to semo barbric elements persisting in the human consciousness and pave the way for the advent of gnostic humanity.
from the writings of Manoj Das.

HARImation

Hanuman

When Ram with his army reached the outskirts of Lanka , they camped near the ocean and spent the night admiring the night sky. Lord Ram wondered why does the Moon have dark spots in the centre. Almost everybody was ready with the answer. Some said that the dark spot is the cauldron of poison that the moon hides in its bossom. The others said that Rahu affected the moon and that is why the moon looks kind of dark. This theory and that ...But all this while Hanuman was silent . Then Lord Ram turned to him and asked , " Hanuman , what do you think about it?" And he said , " Prabhu , that is Moon's heart . Since the moon always has your 'saanwali murti' in it, therefore ,we see a dark spot there".

Such was the devotion of Hanuman. Overwhelming ! He was intelligent , a great warrior, an astrologer, a musician , an immensely talented person and reached the pinnacles of spirituality. But he never took pride in it. His common retort was that it was all the grace of Lord Ram. Can such a character be ever paralleled ? No . He performed all the important stuff in the story of Ram but never took credit for it. He was extremely grateful when he was able to do his duty well. And the Universe likes grateful people. These qualities and the Grace of God made a devotee attain the stature of God. No wonder till this day , this exceptional devotee himself has throngs of devotees. No other 'bhakt' has attained such heights.

Giridhar Gopal

Giridhar Gopal

Gowardhan Girdharai

One fine day bal gopal and dau, when roaming on vrindavan gullies (lanes) saw, villagers & Nandababa (krishnas father) arranging for some special puja. When they asked for whom was this puja organized, they were answered that this puja was to amuse INDRA , so that he will send clouds of rain & if they don’t give offerings to him his anger will perish every thing.

Shri Krishna was annoyed by the answer, it confirmed him that devendra was in the claws of ahankara (pride) & then what ? Shree krshna’s leela started, he convinced all the villagers to worship GOVARDHANPARVATA because it’s the mountain who, without any querries always fullfill their needs, gopala told them to worship govardhana as their “ISHTA”

By this annoying deed of the villagers,Indra was pulled off from his exalt position, he became mad with anger & ordered his clouds of doom to destroy Gokul.

To save Gokul from Indra’s kop (anger) the adbhut maya dhari expanded his miraculous maya & lifted up GOVARDHANPARVATA just by his little finger in order to make its shed, the clouds rained for seven days & nights but failed to drown gokul. Then indra himself came to challenge shree Krishna & was stunned by his powers, then guru brihaspati aware indra about anant & achyut narayana. Indra immediately refuged to shree Krishna for pardon chanting

“Aditya Hridaya Stotra”

“Aaksharam paramam brahma, jyoti rupam sanatanam,
gunatitam nirakaram rakshamayam
mananantakam ……”

Since shree Krishna saved all the cows from Indra’s kop hence by param pita’s(Brahma) order Mata Surabhi (mother of all cows) felicitated gopala by the name “GOVINDA”

“SHRIKRISHNA GOVINDA HARAMURARA JAY NATH NARAYAN VASUDEVA”

Cultural Dance Forms of India

Cultural Dance Forms of India

BHARATNATYAM

{ BHARATNATYAM=BHA + RA + T + NATYAM }.

"BHA" means Bhawa that is Emotions.

"RA" means Raga that is Dorame (Sargam).

"T" means Tal that is Rythm.

NAYTAM means Natak/Abinay that is Drama.

Bharatanatyam is a classical dance form originating from Tamil Nadu, a state in Southern India. This popular South Indian dance form is a 20th century reconstruction of Cathir, the art of temple dancers. Cathir in turn, is derived from ancient dance forms. The word Bharata, some believe, signifies the author of the famous Sanskrit treatise on stagecraft, called NatyaShastra.Bharata refers to the author of the Natya Shastra, and natya is Sanskrit for the art of sacred dance-drama brought to the stage at the beginning of the 20th century.

Traditional roots

Bharatanatyam traces its origins to the Natya Shastra written by Bharata Muni, a Hindu sage. In ancient times it was performed as dasiattam by temple Devadasis. Many of the ancient sculptures in Hindu temples are based on Bharata Natyam dance postures karanas. In fact, it is the celestial dancers, apsaras, who are depicted in many scriptures dancing the heavenly version of what is known on earth as Bharatanatyam. In the most essential sense, a Hindu deity is a revered royal guest in his temple/abode, to be offered a standard set of religious services called Sodasa Upacharas ("sixteen hospitalities") among which are music and dance, pleasing to the senses. Thus, many Hindu temples traditionally maintained complements of trained musicians and dancers, as did Indian rulers.
Bharata Natyam as a dance form and carnatic music set to it are deeply grounded in Bhakti. Bharata Natyam, it is said, is the embodiment of music in visual form, a ceremony, and an act of devotion. Dance and music are inseparable forms; only with Sangeetam (words or syllables set to raga or melody) can dance be conceptualized.

STAGES OF BHARATNATYAM

Typically a contemporary performance includes:
Ganapati Vandana - A traditional opening prayer to the Hindu god Ganesh, who removes obstacles.
Alarippu - A presentation of the Tala punctuated by simple syllables spoken by the dancer. This really is sort of an invocation to the gods to bless the performance.
Jatiswaram - An abstract dance where the drums set the beat. Here the dancer displays her versatility in elaborate footwork and graceful movements of the body.
Shabdam - The dancing is accompanied by a poem or song with a devotional or amorous theme.
Varnam - The center piece of the performance. It is the longest section of the dance punctuated with the most complex and difficult movements. Positions of the hands and body tell a story, usually of love and the longing for the lover.
Padam - Probably the most lyrical section where the dancer "speaks" of some aspect of love: devotion to the Supreme Being; or of love of mother for child; or the love of lovers separated and reunited.

Thillana - The final section is a pure dance (nritta) when the virtuosity of the music is reflected in the complex footwork and captivating poses of the dancer.
Apart from these relatively modern items, there are more ancient items such as Kautuvam, Koothu, Shlokam, Swarajathi, Krithi etc. The performance concludes with the chanting of a few religious verses as a form of benediction. Certain styles include more advanced items, such as Tharanga Nritham and Suddha Nritham. When a dancer has mastered all the elements of dance, as a coming out performance, he or she generally performs an Arangetram (debut).
Angikam - This is a devotional song on Lord Shiva and an item dance in bharatnatyam. It can also be performed in byapti slow motion.

Other aspects of the dance form
Costume - From the ancient texts and sculptures, one can see that the original costume did not cover most of the dancers' bodies. The medieval times, with the puritanistic drive, caused the devadasis to wear a special, heavy saree that severely restricted the dance movements. There are several varieties of Bharatanatyam costumes, some of which do not restrict the dancer's movements, while the others do. The modern costumes are deeply symbolic, as their purpose is to project the dancer's sukshma sharira , in the material world.

Music - The accompanying music is in the Carnatic style of South India.

Ensemble - Mostly, South Indian instruments are used in the ensemble. These include, the mridangam (drum), nagaswaram (long pipe horn made from a black wood), the flute, violin and veena (stringed instrument traditionally associated with Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of the arts and learning).

Languages - Tamil, Sanskrit, Telugu and Kannada are traditionally used in Bharatanatyam.

A classical dance posture of Bharatnatyam

BACK TO FUTURE

TELESCOPES:
Before 1957, we were limited to exploring space from Earth with telescope.
A telescope is a like a time machine. When you look through it into space, you not only get a close-up pictures of objects that ma be hundreds of millions of miles away-you
Also see deep into the past. That’s because light takes a long time to travel these huge distances-even though it’s whipping along at about 186,000 miles (300,00) per second! The sun light takes about eight minutes to make the 93 million mile (150 million km)
Trip to Earth. So you actually always see the Sun the way it looked eight minutes ago!
It works the same way with other stars-except now you’re talking years, not minutes.
Light from Proxima Centauri, the second closest star to us in our galaxy, takes four years to reach us.
Some of our telescopes are incredibly powerful. They see energy that was given off over 12 billion years ago! That’s when the universe was very young. Telescopes are helping us solve the mysteries of our universe-how it formed, if there are other life forms in it, and what’s going to happen to it-and to us-in the future.
Stonehenge:



Ancient peoples didn’t have telescopes, so they relied on their eyesight to study the sky.
They observed a lot this way. They picked out constellations among the stars and figured out the motion of the Sun and Moon. They also built stone structures that lined up with the different positions of the Sun, moon, and some times the stars. This is Stonehenge, built in England nearly 5,000 years ago.
Galileo Telescope



The Four biggest moons of Jupiter are called “Galilean” moons in honor of the first person to see them: The Italian scientist Galileo. Galileo spied these moons in 1610 using
A telescope he built himself. I t contained two lenses that focused light and made the things he looked at appear 32 times larger. It was called a refracting telescope. Galileo was also the first person to see the Moon’s mountains and craters.

Galileo’s discoveries made him famous, but they also got him into serious trouble.
Leaders of the catholic Church banned his books because they contradicted the church’s
teachings. The church taught that Earth revolves round the Sun. He was put under “house arrest” and had to stay inside his home until he died.

Newton’s Telescope:



Even though Galileo was not allowed to leave his house because of his ideas, he conducted to write. It’s a good thing he did, too. His books were read years later by the English mathematician Sir Isaac Newton and others. Newton is most famous for figuring out the law of gravity and what makes things move. In 1668, he invented a new kind of telescope, and it paved the way for the big reflecting telescope we use today.

Keck’s telescope:



Galileo and Newton would probably gasp at the size of our current telescopes, but these ‘scopes can probe very deep into space. The keck telescope and its twin, Keck II, are
gigantic. Each has a big mirror made up of 36 small mirrors and measures about 33 feet (10 meters) wide. They sit near each other a top an unlikely place: the volcano Mauna Kea in Hawaii. But the volcano is not active. An electronic link between the telescopes lets them function together as one giant telescope that sees light 14 billion years away.

Hard to believe, but there’s an even bigger telescope. It’s the Very Large Telescope (VTL) Chile. This humongous ‘scope includes four big telescopes and three smaller ones.
The mirror in each in one is 27 feet (8.2m) wide. In 2002, the telescopes will begin working together as one.

Telescopes in Space:



Big telescopes on Earth are great but they can see only so far. Their view is affected by Earth’s atmosphere , artificial light, and air pollution. To get really clear views of what’s out there, scientist are sending telescopes into space.
The most famous space telescope is the Hubble, which was launched from the space shuttle Discovery in 1990. It orbits Earth at a height of 370 miles (596) km. The Hubble has sent back amazing pictures – of Mars and other planets, exploding stars, nebulae, and
Galaxies as they appeared 10 to 12 billion years ago.

In July 1999, the Hubble was joined in space by the Chandra X-ray Observatory. This telescope “sees” x-rays given off by space objects that are billions of light years away. Photographic equipment and computers turn the x-rays into pictures for us. In fact, if your sight were as keen as Chandra’s, you could read a news paper headline just one-half-inch high from one-half mile away!!!!!!

Consciousness

Consciousness

--- The Inner Sense ---

Consciousness is a state of the nervous systems of humans and other animals that defies definition, but which may involve thoughts, sensations, perceptions, moods, emotions, dreams, and an awareness of self, although not necessarily all of these.

"Consciousness" derives from Latin conscientia which primarily means moral conscience. In the literal sense, "conscientia" (or "con scientia") means knowledge-with, that is, shared knowledge.

There are five main parts of our total psyche: Higher consciousness - that which is aware of being aware; Normal consciousness - awareness in the everyday world - being, perceiving, relating; and of the inner world - of thoughts, concepts, attitudes, decisions, images, memories emotions, sensations and feelings. And the domains which lie below normal consciousness: the Pre-conscious - an interface of the conscious mind which, when it is evoked by interest and emotional commitment, goes searching for relevant data in the sub-conscious; the Sub-conscious - contains the powerful drives of love and fear, and the programmes by which motives are decided and actions are carried out; and the Unconscious - the core Self which contains a record of everything one has felt and sensed since conception and of the evolutionary genetic-line before that. It also consists of genetic programming, which empowers the deepest drives for survival, attachment and expression common to mankind, which transmits the energy of emotions, which controls the stream of libido energies and the efforts involved in moving and perceiving with the physical body.
Higher consciousness is the essential self, the Higher Self. It is our personal centre of awareness, which is developed through self-knowledge. The Higher Self is the "awareness of awareness" of which the mental (ego) "I" is a pale reflection. There has been an acknowledgement throughout human history that a higher awareness, beyond the normal conscious experience, is possible for the individual, recognised through dreams, religious and psychic experience, insights and creativity of every kind. It is usually frustratingly brief and infrequent but it is clear that with appropriate efforts and study, people can change and grow in awareness, whereby the field of consciousness becomes more and more observed by the Higher Self who is no longer asleep; then behaviour is no longer determined only by conditioning. The Being is aware of the difference between his own motivation and that which is learned, acquired or installed in him, genetically or by conditioning; he knows what he is doing as he does it. The energy and attention tied up in the knots of unconsciousness becomes conscious and freely available, as truth is validated and the false discarded.
The second aspect of the psyche, Normal consciousness, is our everyday reality, internally and externally - the incessant flow of sensations, images, thoughts, feelings, desires and impulses which we can observe, analyse and judge. The less aware a person is, the smaller this field of awareness will be and the more automatic his functioning. The majority of people drift on the surface of this "mind stream" and identify themselves with its successive waves, with the changing contents of their consciousness. So consciousness is often unreflective, not consciously noticed, determined by the many personal and social forces which have formed us, the cultural programming that moulds us into a "consensus trance" of automatic, robotised behaviour. In this hypnotised, half-asleep state, possessed by the conditioning of our background, we seem almost entirely the product of our genetic heritage, our personal environment and the society we live in - in the grip of forces stronger than ourselves and which we don't understand, be they biological, psychological or social.
The conscious mind contains all that one knows that is readily accessible. This information is well organised and interconnected on a logical basis. The characteristics of this "analytical" mind are invaluable for learning, putting things in order and testing ideas. On the other hand the conscious mind tends to be inhibited by the very quality that makes it so powerfully useful: it seeks to be right.
This part of the personality, the subject of cognitive and behavioural psychology, could easily, without reflection, be regarded as the whole, but the development of depth-psychology and the rediscovery of transpersonal psychology in this century has made it clear that this level of consciousness is only a part of the whole.
The third part, the Pre-conscious, is the ante-room of consciousness, where our various experiences are assimilated, our mental and imaginative activities are elaborated and developed in a sort of psychological gestation and interaction, before their birth into the light of consciousness. If consciousness is likened to a spotlight, the pre-conscious is everything within its range, but not illuminated at this moment. It is real to the person and accessible. It includes material from the sub-conscious that has been restimulated (made active due to a similarity or relevance of present circumstances or thoughts). The pre-conscious mind is like a problem-oriented and independent file-clerk. It looks over the shoulder of the conscious mind: when a problem is being considered, it conducts a search into the sub-conscious mind for clues that it considers relevant.
Its criteria for relevance do not always seem logical to the conscious mind, and therefore the ego learns to censor certain kinds of information from the sub-conscious, preventing them from rising higher into full consciousness. This is the mechanism of repression and the "censor" then functions below consciousness; consequently you cannot open-up your mind to the sub-conscious simply by resolving not to block its signals; the defences have first to be recognised, the reasons for them discovered and the pre-conscious censor re-programmed, before this is possible. This requires a procedure of concentrated introspection.
Interest, emotional commitment and the desire to solve a problem, cause the pre-conscious to work with the contents of the sub-conscious (and also through the sub-conscious to the unconscious) and the results eventually filter back into consciousness, if they are not censored. Intuition is an early recognition, below the conscious level, that one is on the right track - this causes a felt signal or increase of arousal which causes the conscious mind to pay attention to its periphery of consciousness, to dig a little and pull out the information. Because of the energy of this signal, it may also be registered on biofeedback devices such as a held pendulum or skin resistance galvanometer, which can be used to help the person recognise his intuition.
The Sub-conscious is that part of his mind a person is unaware of, or which is out of his control -The subconscious functions include vital background psychological activities such as the integration of new data and re-programming where necessary - a function which dreaming reflects - and this co-ordinates the carrying out of set patterns of behaviour which can be safely left "on automatic" by the conscious mind, freeing it to concentrate on the task in hand.
The sub-conscious contains all of the emotional and cognitive experience of a lifetime, whether pleasurable, ordinary or traumatic. Its contents are drawn upon by the pre-conscious when they seem relevant. It is a reservoir of information so vast and rich that it seems quite incredible to the conscious mind. Its contents are nevertheless consciously reachable by methods of psychological analysis (especially with the aid of biofeedback devices) which serves to resolve the defensive censorship of the preconscious.
The "Shadow" aspect of the sub-conscious mind includes the roots of phobias, obsessions, compulsions and delusions and many complexes charged with intense emotion. These are developed in response to circumstances in the past and used in present time when re-stimulated by a similarity of circumstances; this occurs without conscious control, irrationally and without inspection - a "reactive" mental process. Memory of the original, often dramatic circumstance and the accompanying fears and decisions is normally repressed, as it is unconfrontable and too painful to re-examine.
The Unconscious contains the fundamental survival drives and primitive urges (including genetic and race memories) that empower the functioning of the mind as a whole. It contains the entire kinaesthetic recordings of the body (all of its feelings, sensations and pains) and is integrally linked with the body (which it co-ordinates and controls) - it is the "body-mind". It also contains the deepest level of Self: the fundamental (primal) experiences, imprints and decisions of this lifetime, from the womb onwards. These only normally surface consciously in symbolic form, in the context of dreams and behaviour patterns recognised in retrospect. The deepest forms of psycho-analytic work aim to uncover their content to the light of consciousness. Jung's work on dreams and mythological symbology was instrumental in opening up the incredible world of the unconscious, and the existence of "archetypes" - ways of being that are inherently programmed in the unconscious, making up the substance of the core Self - all the aspects of living that the individual works throughout his life to "actualise," or bring into existence at their fullest potential. His work also exposed the transpersonal dimension which lays beyond the racial stereotypes, but also the necessity of working through the primal and archetypal material, to differentiate and individuate the Higher Self - the spiritual, non-genetic, meta-self.
Both the primary-trauma of the unconscious and the secondary-trauma of the sub-conscious are connected with the "body-mind", whereby defensive "armour" in the form of chronic muscular tension, holds the bodily stress-reaction of "fight or flight", continually in place. This occurs when an experience becomes too painful to view or is too uncomfortably repeated and then awareness of it is repressed - thoughts, emotions and bodily tensions. Unviewed, it then festers and persists. Though the tension may once have been appropriate, it is now a hindrance, and its perpetual nature holds the original trauma in re-stimulation (though the feeling or awareness of it may be repressed).
And though the repressed cognitive and emotional reactions may have been rational in the past circumstance (in the effort to survive or overcome), if they are reactively dramatised in the present situation, and if they are not accompanied by a fresh appraisal of the current reality, they are the underlying cause of irrational or aberrated behaviour, negative emotion and illness, and therefore have been a primary target of psychotherapy.
Because the body-mind functions inter-actively, work in Transformational Psychology may sometimes require a range of techniques to handle the problems. Physical symptoms (high blood pressure, ulcers, lack of energy, etc.) arise from stress, muscular tension, restimulated trauma, over-work, anxiety about social competence, threat or insecurity at work, rigid attitudes of perfectionism and fears of failure - based on low self-esteem, due to not having been "good enough" for parents and other dominant figures. Such neurotic dependencies on others conflict with the drive for independency and self-fulfilment. Psycotherapeutic massage may be prescribed, to develop awareness of faulty attitudes and repressed feelings, and to help relax and de-traumatise the body.

Help directed at one level will affect the other levels of functioning - the powerful fears and drives of the sub-conscious affect physical health, feelings, beliefs and behaviours - an holistic approach is therefore most effective. The Transformational Psychology procedures take account of this structure; the techniques progressively cut deeper and deeper both through to the core Self and into the Transpersonal realm, that are the essence of Mankind.