Thoughts and Quotations by Jayaram,  V Part Nine

Hinduism is essentially a religion of sounds and prayers. The Vedas are prayer books filled with the power of specific sounds. You unlock those sounds (through speech) to invoke gods, fulfill your desires and manifest things. You call the highest of that manifesting power as Isvara, the lord of the sounds who is also their source.

Prejudice in any form is prejudice. You may rationalize it for your satisfaction but it is still far from truth.

If your life is all about you, you are bound to be unhappy. Think, whether your life is all about you or there is anything else.

Even in the midst of struggle for survival, the impulse to help others and sustain life upon earth is in built in Nature. Take a flower. It does not have to make a conscious effort to spread its fragrance. Look at a worker bee. Without someone having to push it or wake it up, the worker bee does collect honey for others and pollinate the plants too.

In Nature, all life forms serve others in significant ways. We seem to be an exception. We have to make a conscious effort to rise above our selfishness and be useful to others in Nature.

Let us bring compassion into every aspect of our lives. Let us reflect it in every action and reaction of ours. Let it be our sole mantra for life. If you have compassion, you do not have to cultivate any other virtue. The Buddha realized that 2500 years ago. Yes, compassion, that is the only way out of this mess in which we are presently caught up where for some even the lives of little children do not matter.

There are three secrets hidden in the Bhagavadgita. They are: 1. your duties arise from those of God. 2. You are an eternal Self, which the same in essence as God Himself. 3. All this is a manifestation of God and you owe nothing here. - From the Essays on the Bhagavadgita by

Lord Krishna represents Krishna consciousness, which is nothing but the universal consciousness from which emerge all the worlds and the entire creation as reflections in the three gunas (sattva, rajas and tamas). You may give it a name and form, but it is pure consciousness , above all, without impurities and modifications, which is referenced frequently and spoken so eloquently in the Yoga Vashista as the support and the substratum. -

The highest, the most sublime and the most excellent in everything conceivable is what we call God or the Supreme Self. Our purpose is not to worry about his caste, gender, color or creed, but reach the highest and the most excellent within ourselves and manifest him or his radiance or his qualities in every possible way and in every aspect of our lives.

Expressing the divine qualities of God in your thinking, and behavior, opening yourself to the highest and the most excellent. in you , let this be your  true religion, spirituality, divine worship, way of life, devotion, sacrifice, surrender and service. It completes your life and elevates your consciousness.

The difference between gods and the demons is that the former believe in their spiritual identity and the latter in their egos and physical personalities.

Physical, mental, intelligent, spiritual, these are the four states of our existence that correspond to the wakeful (jagrata), dream (svapna), deep sleep (taijasa) and transcendental (turiya) states. You awaken and advance spiritually to the extent you bring the essential qualities of the other three into your wakeful state.

If you are thoughtful, consciously mindful, sensitively responsive to the world and people around you, you are a step above and ahead of your ordinary and habitual self. That is the beginning of an awakened life, a life that will open you to new experiences and stretch your vision far and wide.

The mind and body evolve continuously through learning, trial and error. So does Nature. So does the world. So does the universe. Just as the Self in you, the Self of these remains in the background. There is no evidence that it participates actively in these modifications on day to day basis, except as a witness, if at all.

Even in the midst of struggle for survival, the impulse to help others and sustain life upon earth is in built in Nature. Take a flower. It does not have to make a conscious effort to spread its fragrance. Look at a worker bee. Without someone having to push it or wake it up, the worker bee does collect honey for others and pollinate the plants too. In Nature, all life forms serve others in significant ways. We seem to be an exception. We have to make a conscious effort to rise above our selfishness and be useful to others.

Read everyday something worth remembering, worth knowing or practicing. Read a verse from the Bhagavadgita, or any other scripture you like. If you do not like the scriptures , read something that touches you , appeals to you or inspires you, the writings of a poet, philosopher, self-help guru, teacher or even your football coach.

Nourish your mind with knowledge. Nurture it with contemplation and self-inquiry. It makes you unique and different from a vast number of people who have stopped breathing mentally years ago.