LIFE IS UNCERTAIN, DEATH IS CERTAIN.

"Life is uncertain, Death is certain". This is a well-known saying in Buddhism. Knowing fully well that death is certain and is the natural phenomenon that everyone has to face, we should not be afraid of death. Yet all of us fear death because we do not think of its inevitability. We like to cling to our life and body and develop too much craving and attachment. A child comes into this world bringing joy and happiness unto all near and dear ones. Even the mother who had to bear extreme maternity pain is pleased and delighted. She feels that all the trouble and pain is pleased and delighted. She feels that all the trouble and pain borne by her were worth it. However, by crying the child seems to suggest it has its share of suffering for coming into the world. The child grows into an adolescent and an adult, performing all sorts of good and bad deeds. He grows old and finally bids farewell to this world leaving the kith and kin in deep sorrow. Such is the existence of a human being. People would try to escape from the clutches of death but no one is able to do so. At the moment of death, they have their hoard of acquired wealth, unduly worrying about the dear children surrounding them, and last but not the least, evincing concern over their own bodies, which, despite the care and attention, are worn out and exhausted. It wrenches the heart to separate from the body. It is unbearable though unavoidable. This is the way that most people take leave of the world - with means and groans. The pangs of death are considered dreadful, an attitude fed by ignorance.

Fear of Death: Men are disturbed not by external things, but by beliefs and imaginations they form of their lives and things. Death 

SWADHARMA.

First Prime Minister of India Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru recalled "India's Tryst with Destiny" at the stroke of the midnight hour more than 70 years, while unfurling the national flag on the rampants of Red Fort, on the eve of Independence Day celebrations. He visualised that we would be equal to the challenge of freedom, redeem our debt to the motherland and fulfill promises made to ourselves. Then the children, the post-independence generation have already crossed sixty and wherever they see, they find betrayal. Who betrayed whom? Who betrayed the nation? These are some of the disturbing facts which need to be answered. Analysts have attributed to the failure of democracy, decline of institutions and to democracy as incompatible with development. Senior statesman and political experts have even tried to suggest that the nation as a whole is incubating a lust of tyranny. They are even suggesting that we need to wage a second freedom struggle for emancipating ourselves from corruption, communalism and criminality.

In this backdrop, that all our young men and women of today have a responsibility to re-build and re-model our nation. They have to re-think the implications of statements like: "A first class constitution and third rate democracy prevailing at present; failure of governance. The betrayal of the people by the professionals and the professions and so on". Heaven on earth and globalisation, if only we are prepared to tackle the market. In all this, no one has time and patience, to wonder whether we have betrayed our 'Swadharma'.

Is it not anomalous to talk about swadharma when the entire earth has shrunk to a global village? Even in brave new world of Information Technology, a need to talk of swadharma which is intrinsic to every individual not something which is either received or imposed from outside. It has something to do with the intrinsic identity to an individual, to do with self-hood and self-definition. It is vitally related to the concept of individuation, as something to do with coming to terms with one's self. All are not capable of self-definition nor is everyone capable of discovering one's own identity. How can we discover Swadharma unless we are tested? In traditional societies, rituals of initiation expose the young to powerful demons in the absence of social mediations, while in a university setting, the danger of direct exposure is modified by a protective system. University life is an institutionalised rite of passage. It is a kind of 'Virtual Reality' a student encounters while pursuing higher education. He undergoes all mock tests and he succeeds in making the grade. But the real test remains in future and struggle in order to succeed.
In the real test of life, does he succeed? Is he betrayed? Does he ultimately discover his Swadharma? Does he suffer a plenary introduction to himself? Society has become a value-free institution. We are not in a position to distinguish between facts and values, ends and means, and information and wisdom. It is disturbing to see value-pluralism taken to the logical extreme. Gradual transformation by which sin becomes immorality, immorality becomes deviance and deviance becomes choice, and choice becomes legitimate. A profound re-mapping of our moral landscape. When and where does Swadharma manifest itself most clearly? In day to day living or in times of crisis? Does everyone discover his Swadharma as a matter of course?
It is a quest involving in tense struggle, a plunge into the abyss of self, is reecognised only when we read the legendary lives of great men - a Raja Ram Mohan Roy, a Sri Ramakrishna, a Swami Vivekananda, a Swami Dayananda, a Sri Aurobindo, or relevantly, a Vivekananda, or a Mahatma Gandhi, or a Tagore. The Dichotomy between knowledge and action, so much a part of ordinary lives of great saints of India. "Trikarana Suddhi" is a continual test. It involves, a seamless unity between knowledge and action, precept and practice, knowing and doing. When God first created man, He endowed him with goodness. As a result, men were born with wisdom and it did not take them long to realise that the world was an ephemeral thing. Immediately they took the name of God and set out to meditate on him and by His grace were liberated from the bonds of life. In the end along with the spirit of goodness, he mingled in profuse quantities; the spirit of materialism and that of vanity. Then the game of life went on with a swing.
-Challapalli Srinivas Chakravarthy-
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THE SCIENTIFIC CAUSES BEHIND THE BIRTH OF HIJRA OR THIRD GENDER.

1. Kinner (Hijra) Third Gender: Hijras are deemed as individuals of third gender who do not fall into the conventional definitions of male or female. While majority of hijras never exhibit a sexual orientation towards males or females, they label themselves as the third gender. Physiologically, hijras could be born with ambiguous (hemaphrodite) genitals, male genitals or female genitals. Scientifically speaking, abnormal levels of sex hormones during the fetal development is said to be the main factor giving birth to Hijra.
2. The case of ambiguous genitals: At times a child is born with genitals that cannot be defined as male or female also known as ambiguous genitals or an inter-sex state.Most individuals reporting this condition are pseudo-hermaphrodites meaning though they have ambiguous external genitals, they have either an ovary or testes and never both. Genetically speaking a pseudo-hermaphrodite is either a male or female Hijra.
3. What cause defects in genetals?: The main cause of genital defects or abnormalities in the penis, testes or clitoris seems to be the abnormal sex hormone levels in fetus before birth. The commonly known medical causes for these conditions include a metabolic disorder named congenital adrenal hyper-plasia and abnormalities in the chromosomes.
4. Determining the sex of a child with ambiguous genitals: When a child is born with ambiguous genitals, three medical examinations are administered to guide in assigning the gender. These tests involve physical examination, a blood test to analyse chromosomes, and checking the hormonal levels. The results of the tests guide in assigning the gender to the baby. The rectification process consists of surgery or administering hormones or both depending on the case.
5. Defects in male genitals: While male and female genitals develop from the same tissue in the embryo, high levels of testosterone turn the genitals into the penis, scrotum and the penile urethra making the child a male. Under low levels of testosterone or absence of testosterone, a clitoris, labia majora and separate canals for vagina and urethra develop making the baby a female.
6. Defects in male genitals: The problem of ambiguous genitals results under the intermediate levels of testosterone where the genetic males are born with small penis and testes that are not descended into the scrotum. Genetic females have enlarged clitoris with a labia that is fused. On the whole, the external genitals in either case appear the same. This case is usually treated with testosterone to promote sexual development and fertility.
7. Defects in female genitals: Caused by exposure to high amounts of male hormones, the defects in female genitals are reported in female internal organs, but an enlarged clitoris resembling a small penis. If it is decided to assign female gender to the child, the necessary surgery is performed to create external female appearing genitals. The process involves reduction of the clitoris size, repairing the vagina and rectifying the urethra.
8. What medical experts say?: While strong evidences of scientific reasons are discovered causing the genital defects, medical experts say assigning the sex of a child must happen rather quickly to see that the child is not discriminated and accepted well by the parents as well as by the society.

-Challapalli Srinivas Chakravarthy-
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DOES GOD JUDGE YOUR KARMA TOWARDS YOUR PARENTS?

A few of us take parents for granted and some complete disregard to the sanctity of parent-child relationship. I have come across a few individuals who hardly ever bother to check up on their old parents, and despite being told of how Karma completes the full circle have no visible traces of fear. Once when Adi Shankara's parents were to leave the house for some work, his father instructed him thus, "My dear son, you know that I daily worship the Goddess in our house and later distribute the naivedya (offerings) to all the people. Similarly, when your mother and I are away, will you please make the offering to Goddess?" The obedient son that Sankara was he immediately agreed to fulfill his father's commands. And so after his parents left, he poured some milk into a cup and kept it before the idol of the Goddess and prayed to Her, "Mother! Please accept this milk which I am offering". But despite his fervent prayers, the Mother neither took the milk, nor did She appear. The young boy was understandably disappointed, but did not give up. 

He prayed again, "Mother! Mother! You accept the offerings that my father makes to you daily! What sins have these hands of mine committed that you are not accepting the offering which I am giving to you?" He continued to pray to Her earnestly from the innermost depths of his heart, so much so that he was even prepared to sacrifice his life! Sankara told himself, "My father asked me to offer this milk to the Goddess but I am not able to do so because the Goddess is not receiving the offering which I made. It is better that I die". He went out and brought a big stone to kill himself. But the compassionate Mother , the Mother of the Universe could not keep herself away for too long. Moved by Sankara's unsullied devotion and sincerity, She at once appeared before him and drank the milk that he had offered and then placed the empty cup before him. The boy was very glad that the Mother of the Universe came and drank the milk. But now there was nothing left in the cup. 

He thought that his father would certainly ask for the naivedya (consecrated offering) of the God when he returned. He feared that his father may think that he drank away all the milk and hence may become angry with him. And therefore he prayed to the Goddess again. This time asking her, "O Mother, Please give me at least a drop of milk so that I may be able to give it to my father". But the Goddess did not come. He again sincerely continued to pray; the Goddess was yet again moved by his love and faith and She appeared before him. But since She was not able to give the milk that She drank, She gave Her own milk and filled the cup!

It is believed that because Sankara was blessed to taste the divine milk, he could attain the highest pinnacle of knowledge and wisdom. But the main essence of the story lies in the son's blind and complete devotion to fulfill his father's wishes. Because Sankara tried hard to please his father, he was able to get the Goddess of the Universe to manifest herself before before him. Revering and obeying the orders of our parents hence is but only a way to earn the grace and blessings of our divine parent. 

-Challapalli Srinivas Chakravarthy-

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WHY ARE LORD BALAJI'S EYES COVERED?

Lord Balaji is one of the most celebrated forms of Maha Vishnu during the age of Kali (the present times). Balaji or Venkateshwara is the central deity in the temple of Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh. Tirumala or Tirupati is the highest visited temples and pilgrimage spots on this earth as on today. Every day, lakhs of devotees pour in at this place to have a glimpse of the idol of Balaji installed in this shrine. Lord Balaji is also known as archavatara or the installed form of the God Himself. The history of Tirupati narrates how Lord Balaji descended on this earth to answer the prayers of Padmavati, who was then known as Vedavati. As she was meditating to win the hands of Lord Vishnu in marriage, Ravana, the demon king of Ramayana approached her fascinated by her captivating beauty. When he attempted to disturb her by catching the lock of her hair, she at once opened her eyes from meditation and snapped her plait cutting it out from the portion held by the demon.

She was greatly angered by the illegitimate action of the demon and cursed him stating that he would face his death if he touched any other woman without her willingness. Then she entered the fire and gave up her body which she felt was left unholy by the touch of the demon. She prayed that in her next birth she would be born to achieve her cherished goal of getting married to Lord Vishnu. In her next birth, she was born as Padmavati and got married to the Lord in a very pompous ceremony attended by the gods themselves. Following the marriage, the Lord expressed his willingness in response to the prayers of multitudes that He would install Himself in the form of Archavatara (divine manifestation in stone image) to bless His devotees and protect them during the age of kali. Thus, the statue of Lord Balaji enshrined in the Tirumala temple is very powerful and considered the direct replica or representative of the Lord Himself. There are several legends that state why the temple is thronged by multitudes over its long history.

Lord Balaji's idol wears a white mark that is so huge to cover the eyes. Thus, the devotees can see only a small part of the Lord's eyes while the rest is covered. There is significant reason why this is the procedure in the temple. We need to make a mention of two awesome miracles that happen in this temple to this day. There is a stream of water flowing from the feet of the idol called as Viraja river whose origin is not known so far. Also, several times it is noted that the Lord's body reports a huge rise in temperature up to boiling state. The several miraculous facts associated with the idol of Lord Balaji tell us how powerful the Lord is.Since the devotees cannot just withstand the powerful radiation emanating from the eyes of the Lord, the eyes are covered on most days excepting on Thursdays when the size of the white mark is relatively smaller enabling the devotees glimpse at the Lord's eyes to an extent. To merely put it into a thought and ponder why is that Lord's huge and life-like idol sees a major rise in the body temperature? To what a naive human can make out of this ordeal is the back story of it all - as the Demon King Ravana had touched Padmavati in her previous birth, Lord Vishnu's manifested form who was Padmavati's husband had taken the oath to come down on Earth himself - so then is it because of the rising atrocities of the human race on the weak or gender biased treatment is leading to anger and thus resulting in rise of the body temperature?

As for the unknown source of water coming out of Lord Balaji's idol could possibly reflect on the overflowing life and also the signifying Lord Vishnu's eternal love for water. Well, of course this is nothing but speculation, but as time would have it when there is no speculation and people have their faith going strong based on some logic (only faith will have) and want to decipher what it is actually that stand tall in the Tirupati Balaji Mandir - Is it faith or Divine Intervention that keeps so many people going strong in their belief system, only time can tell.

-Challapalli Srinivas Chakravarthy-

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REMAINED RELAXED DURING AN INTERVIEW / MEETING.

A state of relaxed alertness will yield best results in an interview or an important meeting. To relax, you need to remove all sense of confrontation, instead see the meeting as a friendly fact finding exchange and an opportunity to talk quietly of your achievements.

(1). Think of your interviewer as someone with whom, very soon, you might find that you have a great deal in common - perhaps not a friend, but someone you enjoy talking to.

(2). If the questions become difficult, visualise the supreme being in the form of a person in the room - perhaps standing behind the interviewer. Imagine him as a friend urging you on, praising your handling of the situation, persuading you to succeed.

(3). If the interviewer seems unfriendly, say to yourselves: it is because he or she has difficulty with the situation. Respond calmly and pleasantly.

Message: To have the awareness of being a master is to use inner powers accurately. The one who is a master of the self is able to keep everything under control. He is able to understand the situation and act accordingly. He never reacts to situations, so he doesn't allow situations to influence him. On the other hand, he becomes a source of influence on everything around. When I have the consciousness of being a master, I am free from inner conflict and struggle. I am not under anyone or anything's control but an able to give an order in a second. I find that my mind, my sense organs everything is ready to obey these orders. My life thus moves in the right direction.

-Challapalli Srinivas Chakravarthy- 

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EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE.

Emotional Intelligence - intelligence of the heart - has its roots in the concept of 'social intelligence'. Social Intelligence is the ability to understand and manage men and women, boys and girls - to act wisely in human relations and intra-personal intelligence is part of multiple intelligence. Inter-personal intelligence is the ability to understand other people: what motivates them, how they work, how to work cooperatively with them. Successful sales people, politicians, teachers, clinicians, and religious leaders are all likely to be individuals with high degrees of intelligence. Intra-personal intelligence is the ability to understand oneself. It is a capacity to form an accurate and truthful model of oneself and to be able to see that model to operate effectively in life.

Emotional intelligence (often given the acronym EQ, the Emotional Intelligence equivalent to Intelligence Quotient) emphasises the affect of emotions on our ability to view situations objectively and thus to understand ourselves and other people. It is the ability to sense, understand, and effectively apply the power of emotions, appropriately channelled as a source of energy, creativity and influence. It includes a person's ability to understand their own emotions and those of others, and to act appropriately using these emotions. Balancing and integrating the head and heart, channelled through the left and right brain, is the mission of personal growth work in the domain of emotional intelligence. EQ includes such things as:

(1). Identifying your feelings and needs, through body-awareness.

(2). The ability to read others feelings, and to listen to others with empathy.

(3). Knowing how to express your feelings with words and/or body language.

(4). Choosing when to contain (not repress) emotion, and when to communicate emotion appropriately.

(5). The ability to process and let go of emotion when necessary.

(6). The willingness to give ourselves time to feel, and to enjoy the depths of our 'selves' through feeling.

(7). The ability to lead wisely or follow with grace.

(8). The ability to honour our own limits, as well as to celebrate our talents.

(9). The ability to give and receive love.

A rich and colourful tapestry of emotion gives meaning to our lives, and depth to our experiences. Even when we are not consciously aware of emotion, it motivates our behaviour and drives our every gesture and choice. Many of us have learned early in our lives to hide or ignore our feelings, and that is why relationships can become stunted and dull. Relationships cannot be truly intimate, nor can they grow, without a sharing of our emotional inner worlds. Emotions are the primary source of human energy, aspiration and drive, activating our innermost feelings and purpose in life, and transforming them from things we think about, to values we live. The key factor is the way that we interpret our circumstances based on our prior experiences and belief system, to either respond reactively like a stimulus-response machine with an emotion that is outside our control and may be inappropriate and self-defeating, or to respond proactively with self-determined responsibility and freedom of choice. 

Only part of our success in life is attributable to intellect. Other qualities: trust, integrity, authenticity, creativity, honesty, presence and resilience are at least as important. These other intelligences are collectively described as Emotional Intelligence. Emotional Quotient (EQ) being the strongest indicator of human success. Emotional Intelligence in terms of self-awareness, alturism, personal motivation, empathy, and the ability to love and be loved by friends, partners, and family members. People who possess high emotional intelligence are the people who truly succeed in work as well as play, building flourishing careers and lasting, meaningful relationships. The good news is that EQ can be learned or developed, it's not something you are stuck with. We can develop in ways that can improve our relationships, our parenting, our class rooms, and our work places. Our temperaments may be determined by neuro-chemistry and long-established patterns of behaviour, our genetic and cultural programming, but we can recover control. We could turn society on its ear if we learned to recognise our emotions and control our reactions; if we combined our thinking with our feeling; if we learned to channel our flow of feelings into creative expression, an expression of love. 

Emotional Intelligence plays an integral role in defining character and determining both our individual and group destinies. It involves the ability to monitor one's own and others' emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use the information to guide one's thinking and actions. In short, embrace the power of emotions intelligently. 

-Challapalli Srinivas Chakravarthy-

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ATTAINING SUCCESS USING THE TOOL OF VISUALISATION.

A study shows that the majority of sportsmen and women, who win at prominent international events, are trained to use the tool of visualisation to achieve success. Many months before the actual event, they visualise, that is, they create pictures of success inside their minds that they have already achieved their goal. The same principle of visualisation is also used to cure patients from major illnesses including cancer. Patients are taught to visualise their diseased organs free from illnesses or visualise the organs receiving healing energy in some form or the other. Visualisation helps people to have 100 percent belief in themselves that they will achieve the desired goal. The efforts made with this powerful energy of belief have a greater probability of success than when you make the efforts without believing in what you are doing and without visualising yourself as achieving your objectives.

If you think about your failures from the past, you stop believing in yourself, lose your enthusiasm and get frustrated. Visualising images of a positive future helps you work from the present towards the future, without allowing the past failures to have any negative influence on you. You visualise yourself as a person, who has already overcome his fears and negative habits, and the fears are removed and the negative habits are transformed. You see yourself already transformed, e.g., you say, "I am a soul full of powers" and not "I am going to or am trying to fill myself with all powers". The power of that vision and the positive affirmations, combined together, is such that it helps you to bring about a major change in yourself, not just a small change, because you make it easy for your sub-conscious mind that is sleeping to wake up and realise its potential. You stop always expecting the worst and hope for, visualise and believe in the best. 

Each act becomes service when there is an expression of one's own virtues. Each one has its own unique role to play with his own unique set of specialities. Every situation is actually a chance to express one's own specialities or virtues. The one who is busy doing this, is able to be a constantly serviceable one. He needs no special conditions for service,but is able to do service each second. When I am aware of the service that I can do and the contribution that I can make, I am able to enjoy both the positive and negative situations that come my way. I don't wait for situations to change but am able to make the best out of the present situation for others and myself too.

-Challapalli Srinivas Chakravarthy-  

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SURRENDERING TO PURI JAGANNATH.

Lord Jagannath resides in Puri on the shores of the turbulent Bay of Bengal. Once a year he comes out of the temple and devotees vie with one another, trying to pull the cord of his commanding chariot. The rest of the year, a restricted crowd gets a glimpse of him inside the distinctive temple, the only one in the world devoted to siblings: the reigning deity at all other places of worship are consorts or mother and child. Many monsoons ago, a senior journalist from Hyderabad was in Bhubaneswar. When she expressed a desire to visit the Lord in Puri, she was informed that she could not gain entry for only Hindus were allowed. "Let me see the outside then", she said, and made her way to the temple. Walking around, admiring the architecture, her eyes fell on a man beckoning her. "Want to go in?" She nodded and followed him silently as he led her through a maze of doors and courtyards. Not a word was exchanged, not even when the lights went out without warning. When the bulbs came alive just as suddenly, she found herself in the garbha-griha, face-to-face with the main idol whose magnificence overwhelmed her. "Ya Allah!" she excalimed in sheer admiration as the experience could not be described in words. What is so special about this image of Krishna at Puri? Why was Sri Chaitanya of Nadia - considered an avatar of Vishnu, no less - willing to give up everything for a darshan of Jagannath? Why do crowds throng the temple despite the heat and dust, the confined space, and the exploits of pandas? Doubtless, it is the allure of the icons of Jagannath, Subhadra and Balaram. The figures are crafted in wood that comes from an uncontaminated tree with distinctive marks. What is less known is that periodically the idol 'dies', like any human. But what prompted the craftsman to create an 'imperfect' God? A damaged idol is normally immersed in water. The Puri idols have very large, round eyes without eyelashes and stubs for hands without fingers.

One story says that an Orissa King asked an artisan to make an idol of Krishna that no one in the universe had ever seen. He agreed, on one condition: he would not be disturbed by anyone as long as he worked on the image."Granted", said the King. But when days lapsed into weeks and months, the queen could not contain her curiosity. One day she forced open the door and entered the room. Immediately the craftsman left, leaving the icons incomplete, never to return. "Think", said my guide, "Who are the people who have no eyelashes, or have mere stubs for fingers?" In a flash I was reminded of Shamba, Krishna's son who had travelled to Konark because he had contracted leprosy. "Those days, there was no cure for leprosy. Only those who could take a dip in the holy waters of the Chandrabhaga during a solar eclipse benefitted from certain properties in the refracted rays of the sun at that position. That is why leprosy patients travelled here from far and wide". It became clear to me that the enlightened artisan had given form to the saying: "Bhakter bojha bhagawan dhoye" - "The Lord takes upon himself the suffering of his devotees and absolves them when they surrender to him".

[Based on an article written by Ratnottama Sengupta, published in The Times of India dated 05th July, 2011].

-Challapalli Srinivas Chakravarthy-

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FOR A BALANCED STATE OF MIND.

[Based on an article written by Pulkit Sharma, a clinical psychologist, published in The Times of India dated 12th July, 2017 (Wednesday)].

What kind of lifestyle would facilitate achieving liberation? Should one progressively withdraw from the external world and its inconsequential activities and live in isolation? Or contemplate the Divine while being engaged in worldly affairs? Some sages advocate the path of rigorous asceticism, while others believe that one can gain enlightenment even as a householder. A spiritual aspirant is constantly debating - which out of the two is the better option? The Mahabharata says, a sage named Jajali stood motionless for many months while practicing extreme asceticism and some birds built their nest and laid eggs in his hair. Overcome by the thought that if he moved, the birds might suffer and die, Jajali remained in that position without food and water till the time the birds grew up and flew away. Jajali rejoiced that by doing so he had reached the pinnacle of asceticism, compassion and spiritual growth. Just then a heavenly voice told him that a merchant named Tuladhara was more advanced in spirituality than him and he must visit Tuladhara. When Jajali met Tuladhara went about his business of selling goods, different kinds of people came to the shop. Some customers were good, others were bad; some expressed gratitude while others ridiculed the merchant. But Tuladhara remained in perpetual equanimity, he was neither exulted by the love nor distressed by the hatred and went about doing his work honestly. While balancing the scales in his business, Tuladhara had achieved an inner balance that transcends duality. Enlightenment is a transcendent state where one realises that the Self is different from body, mind and its sensory objects. Also, pairs of opposites such as pain and pleasure, love and hate, birth and death, attachment , loss and gain, activity and passivity are nothing but a playful manifestation of consciousness.

Consequently, the person remains in a balanced state, at all times and under all circumstances. The individual is full of bliss, having experienced the vision of absolute consciousness. And all the emotional, physical and psychological problems that troubled him dissolve completely. Enlightenment is achievable if one makes rigorous effort to know the truth. What is important is that the individual contemplates absolute consciousness constantly and uproots whatever it is that creates false illusion in his mind and drives him away from the truth. Whether he is meditating in a remote cave or envisioning the Divine while doing his job in a metropolitan city is just an ancillary event. One powerful yogic technique that can help a person achieve this difficult task is Pratyahara, elaborated in the Shandilya Upanishad, Pratyahara is the withdrawal of the senses from their objects. It is crucial to understand that the 'withdrawal' is of the senses, and not the external objects per se. Therefore, one can withdraw one's attachment and attention to external objects anywhere, whether it is a secluded forest or a busy shopping mall.

This is accomplished when one repeatedly tries to see the one absolute consciousness hidden in all forms and aspects of creation. With repeated practice, awareness comes up, that all the senses and their umpteen objects, mind and body, are a manifestation of absolute consciousness. The mind then gives up craving, it reflects this one consciousness and stays in perfect balance.

-Challapalli Srinivas Chakravarthy-

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PEACE OF MIND.

Once a sage was travelling from one village to another along with a few of his disciples. While they were travelling, they happened to pass by a river. They stopped near it and the sage told one of his disciples, "My throat is parched and I am thirsty. Please fetch me some water from the river". The disciple walked up to the river. When he reached it, he noticed that the water was not very clean. Some women were washing clothes in the water. A cow was also bathing in the same water and so it had become muddy and murky. The disciple thought, "This water is very dirty. How can I give this muddy water to my guru to drink?" So, he came back and told the sage, "The water in the river is very muddy. I don't think it is fit to drink". The sage simply smiled. After about half an hour, the sage requested the same disciple to go back to the river and get him water to drink. The disciple obediently went back to the river with a pitcher in his hand.This time he found that the river had absolutely clear water in it. The mud had settled down and the water above it looked clear and fit to be consumed. He collected the water in a pitcher and brought it to the sage. 

The sage looked at the water and said, "How did you clean the water?" The disciple smiled and said, "I just let it be". Our mind is similar to the muddy water in the river. When your mind is disturbed or plagued by negative thoughts, just stay calm and let it be. Do not over-think or put in any effort to calm it down. It will happen. It is an effortless process. You neither find peace by re-arranging the circumstances of your life, nor by over-thinking a particular problem, but by staying calm, realising who you are and what you desire in life.

I wish that you are able to achieve peace of mind, regardless of the situation around you.

[Courtesy: Deccan Chronicle dated 30th July, 2017 (Sunday)]. 

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TAKE AN HONEST LOOK AT YOURSELF.

We can impartially judge something only when we stand apart from it. Detachment cannot exist when we have a sense of intense ownership or possessiveness. That is why an author or an artist consults reviewers for their opinions. Our attachments lend false beauty to things; blinded with the pride of possession, we often fail to see the ugliness of cherished possessions. Just as we, blinded by attachments and prejudices, fail to see the real nature of things and beings, so also we, deluded by our lack of detachment, remain blissfully ignorant of our own weaknesses and faults. The divine life starts with the practice of detaching ourselves from our body, mind and intellect, and impartially estimating the motives, intentions and purposes that lie behind our thoughts, words and deeds.

Such impartial witnessing is called introspection. It is not easy to accomplish. Self-analysis and self-criticism are hard tasks. At every stage, our self-conceit and egoistic self-congratulation covers our faults and shortcomings and invests them with a false charm. The best time to introspect is at the close of the day's activities. After dinner, a restful repose floods the mind. This is the sacred hour for negation and assertion. The psychological person in you is, at this moment, receptive and vividly transparent. Let the day's activities, actions, motives, thoughts and feelings stream by. In the beginning, attempts at self-analysis may prove to be unsatisfactory. Your first analysis may seem like the narration of the ideal life lived by a God! Nevertheless, continue the practice. Seek to discover weaknesses, faults and animalisms in each day's transactions. This process is called 'detection'.

Within a week, it will be revealed that yours is not, in any sense, a God's life. Dark reports should not discourage you. The darker the reports, the greater should be the effort to re-adjust your values and re-direct your thought currents. Inner reformation always comes with revelation. When you have detected the weaknesses and are ashamed of them, at that moment, those traits are dead. This stage is known as 'negation'. At this point, you have won only half the battle. As soon as you apprehend and defeat a weakness, substitute its opposite virtue in your personality. Thereafter, look for its play during each day's dealings, and you will find how the new virtue grows to be a natural trait in you. This stage is called 'substitution'.
Introspection, detection, negation and substitution, these constitute the preliminary processes in the purification and tempering of the seeker. Without this mellowing treatment, one is not fit for the strains of spiritual growth. Neglect of this unavoidable preparation for divine life has landed many enthusiasts on the wastelands of despair. Unless he establishes contact with God, no divinity can flow into the seeker. Contact is a condition in the fulfilment of which spiritual growth comes into play. This contact is established by living the divine life.
Even then, the potential divinity cannot flood the mind of the person trying to live the divine life if he is already too full of the 'undivine'. 'Empty thyself, and I shall fill thee', is an eternal promise. This emptying of undivine contents starts with introspection, and is effected through careful, consistent detection and negation of grosser instincts. Substitution is the secret of invoking divine grace.
-Challapalli Srinivas Chakravarthy-
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UNCONSCIOUSLY UNAWARE OR UNCONSCIOUSLY AWARE?

[Based on an article written by Deepak M Ranade (a neuro surgeon), published in The Times of India dated 27th July, 2017 (Thursday)].

I am getting ready to leave for an early morning surgery. Rushing to leave - but where are my spectacles? I was the one who removed them before going into the shower but now I could not remember where I left them. I am annoyed at myself for this cognitive lapse. I was conscious when I removed them and placed them somewhere - but was not aware of where! The thought is very unsettling - of being conscious, but not aware. That makes me ponder: What's the difference between consciousness and awareness? Nisaragadatta Maharaj said, "Awareness is primordial; it is the original state, beginningless, endless, uncaused, unsupported, without parts, without change. Consciousness is on contact, a reflection against a surface, a state of duality. There can be no consciousness without awareness, but there can be awareness without consciousness, as in deep sleep. Awareness in absolute, consciousness is relative to its content; consciousness is always of something".

I am aware of being conscious but not conscious of being aware? Is consciousness just a distinct bubble in the sea of awareness? Consciousness is specific, and relies on a subject-object duality. It becomes a bridge, a vehicle of communication between the subject and the objective universe that the subject perceives. Awareness is unqualified, impersonal and more generic. Consciousness is condensed awareness that's crystallised to a locus in a spatio-temporal matrix. A limited well defined organism existing for a limited period of time - the Self. The neural network is a means of processing the formless, infinite awareness into a discrete, finite form with a sense of separateness. The sensory organs serve primarily to distinguish the Self and generate an unambiguous delineation of one's own boundaries.

Consciousness mandates the need of an object to be conscious of. Consciousness requires realisation of an objective identity as "I am so-and-so, a person". It is still far away from the final realisation of the Absolute, that I am the non-dual awareness which is allowing the consciousness to be conscious. Awareness shines through the consciousness, but it is beyond consciousness itself. There remains that impersonal awareness, the witness who perceives the good sound sleep, when the "I am" consciousness was inactive during deep sleep. Out-of-body experiences might just be a state where the personal consciousness connects directly with the impersonal unqualified awareness and witnesses itself from without.

To quote Nisargadatta Maharaj again, "The awareness is there before the 'I am' (or consciousness) appears, and is there after the consciousness disappears (Unconsciousness or Death)". So, the awareness is beyond even universal consciousness. Another way that he put this astonishing distinction is by saying that the Absolute is 'awareness, unaware of itself'. That statement of his is almost like a Zen koan. This awareness, unaware of itself, is referred to as 'Neneev' in the scriptures. It is not the opposite of consciousness. It is a state of quantum super position: a state that encompasses every conceivable state and is limited only when a conscious observer reduces it to one of all the possible states. Awareness generates as well as transcends consciousness. In this transcendental state of non-duality, I will never need my spectacles, leave alone the need to remember where I left them. 

-Challapalli Srinivas Chakravarthy-

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ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS AND ECOLOGICAL INTEGRITY. (The Times of India dated 26-07-2017, Wednesday).

Every ecosystem that is intact, when it reverberates with abundance of life - all native species of plants, animals and micro-organisms that can exist in mutualism and coherence without or with minimum intervention of external factors - and dynamically stays in ecological equilibrium, vibrantly exists in the state of ecological integrity. Ecological integrity is the destination of universal evolution that is all-pervading. It is a universal law; a universal power able to change everything, keeping rhythmic pace with time. Nothing in this universe can elude or evade evolution. Evolution of an individual, of life, of the entire universe, goes on a single axis. There can be no more than one evolution. Evolution strikes ecological balance through ecological integrity via ecological climax; and the climax strikes eco-balance and eco-integrity. Ecological integrity is the bottom line of everything else in the biosphere. We cannot imagine life flowering sustainably on earth with on-going ecological disintegration of the biosphere, which is now participating into climate change that is proving to be a challenge. Indic culture has its roots in aranya sanskriti, forest culture. So ecological integrity in the past was not a problem. Now we are in a development race that depends on exploitation of natural resources. leading to ecological disintegration, further aggravated by changing the chemical constitution of our atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere. If we analyse our lifestyles, we could conclude that our ethical system - which used to help us to be in the state of ecological integrity - is on the verge of collapse.

This is a global problem that goes hand-in-hand with growth-oriented and resource-depleting socio-economic development. With the depletion of natural resources, especially of forests, carbon cycle has changed its behaviour. We were hardly the victims of our climate system in the past, for it was a phenomenon of the biosphere and regulated by the energy budget of the biosphere. We are now compelled to turn victims of the climate system, for that is now largely at our own command. Thanks to gradual breaking down of ecological integrity, climate change in essence, is a crisis of environmental ethics. Thus, ecological integrity and environmental ethics leads to corresponding breaking down of ecological integrity. Ethics is the soul of human living. Ethics has now reached new horizons and attained new highs. It has been extended to, as it should have been, all that is out there in our environment, that is the part of the environment and whatever determines the qualities of the environment, including the non-human world, and what is crucial and indispensable for the overall existence and well-being of the human world. It is environmental ethics. Environmental ethics is a part of environmental philosophy. It exerts essential influence on environmental sociology. geography, eco-theology, ecological economics and environmental laws. 

In our world in which anthropocentrism rules over entire nature, environmental ethics is all-powerful to sensitise human thinking and to cause humans to make a change that matters. Ecological integrity, in essence, is the pivot of environmental ethics. Devoid of environmental ethics, ecological integrity is bound to break down and turn to ecological disaster. We cannot watch ecological disaster happening, and we cannot allow it to continue happening.

[Based on article written by Vir Singh, Professor of Environmental Science, G B Pant University].

-Challapalli Srinivas Chakravarthy-

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AKRURA STUTHI. (The Hindu dated 03/07/2018, Tuesday).

Deciding to do kill Krishna, Kamsa asks Akrura to fetch Krishna. Akrura agrees readily.Why does he do so, when he knows Kamsa's intention? Akrura knows that Kamsa will never be able to kill Krishna. This is Akrura's opportunity to meet Krishna, and also to unite Him with His parents - Vasudeva and Devaki. So, he goes to Gokula. He meets Balarama and Krishna and informs them of the purpose of his visit. The brothers board the chariot that Akrura has brought. When they reach the banks of the Yamuna, Akrura stops to do his daily rituals. Akrura steps into the water, and sees Balarama and Krishna in the water! Surprised, Akrura steps out and looks at the cahriot, and he finds that Balarama and Krishna are inside. How then had he seen the brothers in the water? He steps into the water a second time, and he sees the thousand headed Adisesha and the Lord reclining on the snake. He sees His long hands, His conch like shoulders, and finds Gandharvas worshipping Him. Akrura then praises the Lord.

In the Akrura stuthi, Akrura says that the clouds are the Lord's tresses; trees are the hairs on His body. Hills are His bones and teeth. The batting of His eyelids constitutes day and night. Agni is His face. The Earth constitutes His feet. The Sun and Moon are His eyes. The Sky is His navel, the directions are His ears. The Celestial Worlds make up His Head. Celestials are His hands. Vaayu is the Prana Shakti say His devotees. Just as there are many creatures in water, and many worms in figs, so do all living things of the world find a place in His body. Akrura says that He shows His greatness through His avataras, including the Kalki avatara, which the Lord is yet to take.

-Challapalli Srinivas Chakravarthy-

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