0 Persons are tagged with #within

#within

ramnath@nerdpol.ch
ramnath

enter image description here
The #Six #Enemies of The #Mind ( #Arishadvarga / #Shadripu)
These are the fundamental tenets of #Kali-yuga ( The #Dark-Age)

#kama — lust, craze, desire
#krodha — anger, hatred
#lobha — greed, miserliness, narrow minded
#moha — delusory emotional attachment
#mada — pride, stubborn mindedness
#matsarya — envy, jealousy, show or vanity, and pride
According to #Hindu #scriptures, these #bind the #soul to the #cycle of #birth and #death and keep it confined in this material world (confines of #Maya or relative existence). Especially the first three are said to pave the way towards #hell. The first two bring about difficult experiences we face in our lives.

No matter how powerful, rich, successful or outwardly happy we are, we cannot be considered mature if we have not conquered these six #internal #enemies.

In fact, #SanātanaDharma says that we will never be truly #happy and #peaceful #within our #hearts unless we defeat these six enemies — the ‘ #Shadripus.’

https://medium.com/brah-ma/the-six-enemies-of-the-mind-arishadvarga-shadripu-d44fb460a12

ramnath@nerdpol.ch
ramnath

#Happy #Navratri Day 4 – #Mercury
enter image description here

As the nine nights represent the nine planets, we will be having a planetary observance of Navaratri with an account of one of the planets for each of the nine nights. The fourth day of Navaratri is marked to #worship #Goddess #Kushmanda. The Fourth planet is Mercury. It is said that one should wear royal blue on this day, as it is considered good for health and wealth. Our colour for this day is #Royal-Blue!

Today is the fourth day of the Navaratri celebrations which are held for nine nights. All festivals are meant to remind mankind that they should cultivate noble qualities by engaging themselves in activities beneficial to one’s own self and society. Sai Baba has told that Navaratri, the nine nights, represents the Nine Planets.
In Hindu mythology, Navaratri celebrates the victory of Goddess Durga over Mahishasura, the buffalo-headed demon. She fought for nine days and nine nights before emerging victorious on the tenth day. Goddess Shakti in the nine forms is worshipped during the period for knowledge, wealth, prosperity and auspiciousness. Knowingly or unknowingly during this period we also recognise the primordial source of energy (Shakti), which manifests in all living and nonliving.

Sai Baba went on to say that each planet has its own significance. However, these planets are not outside, they are #within. So we take the opportunity to examine the energies of the planets within, and examine how the #Divine #Mother is related to these energies.

Mercury
Mercury is also known in #VedicAstrology as #Budha, the awakened discriminating #intellect – the part of us that knows. Mercury owns two signs, Gemini and Virgo. Mercury is exalted in Virgo at 15 degrees, and debilitated in the opposite sign, Pisces. Where the Moon is the innocent mind, Mercury is the intellect that discriminates between benefic and malefic ideas, or good and evil. Mercury is adept at dealing with duality.

Mercury does not have a distinctive personality of its own; it takes on features of the planets which are associated with it. Mercury, planet of communication, articulates and expresses whatever influence it receives from other planets. For this reason, brilliance of expression, adjustment and flexibility are common traits of Mercury. Mercury traditionally has the function of Messenger of the Gods; Mercury functions to take messages from Gods to Man and from Man to the Gods.

Mercury develops intellect. Taking duality, it enables the subjectivity of an idea to be objectified, and helps to understand the inner reality of external phenomenon. A favourable disposition of Mercury renders perceptive, clever persons who are good debaters, who can argue either side of a question and thus, we can often find that Mercury is strong in the chart of lawyers. Mercury is intellectual and careful with details.

Day Four
Goddess Kushmanda
Kusmanda – She Who brings #happiness

Kushmanda is a Hindu goddess, credited with creating the world with her divine #smile. Legend has it that Lord Vishnu was able to begin the creation of universe, when Goddess Kushmanda smiled and receded. She represents that form of Durga which is the source of all. Her name signals her main role: Ku means “a little”, Ushma means “warmth” or “energy” and Anda means “cosmic egg”.

Kushmanda is worshipped on the fourth day of the festival of Navaratri and She is believed to improve health and bestow wealth and strength. Goddess Kushmanda has eight hands and because of that She is also known as Ashtabhuja Devi. It is believed that all the power to bestow Siddhis and Niddhis are located in her japamala (rosary beads).

She rides on a #female #lion.

Legend has it that Goddess Durga gives birth to the universe in the form of Goddess Kushmanda. She is also sometimes depicted as pregnant with the Brahmand or universe. It is believed that the eternal darkness ended when she smiled. And this led to the beginning of creation. This form symbolises that Shakti is the primordial source.

Mercury and the Feminine
Vedanga – Jyotish ( #astrology texts) – tell us that Mercury is hermaphrodite, meaning s/he is bearing signification of both genders. It is more appropriate to say that Mercury is androgynous, neither male nor female. Androgyny is also known in this day and age as intersex.

Just as the Creation narrative has Kushmanda and Vishnu at the cause of Creation, so also we see the emergent glance of the androgynous Mercury, encapsulating this act of creation with the dual genders.

We have clues to the important role and function Mercury has with regard to the mind, the intellect and duality. #Shakti is the prime force behind all dualities and Shakti can be found linking subject and object, in the glance of Mercury. The mind is an energy field of Shakti with neuronal impulses and connections, creating an elaborate web of knowledge and self interest (referring to the autonomic nervous system and instinctive responses of the body.) The mind is a bundle of thoughts bound together by the shakti of memory. Thinking is guided by the intellect – which is called buddhi in Sanskrit. The buddhi is nearest the Soul and derives over 90% of its illumination from the Soul.

Significance of Navaratri
“During these sacred nine days (Navaratri), people go through the sacred texts such as Devi Bhagavatam, Ramayana and Mahabharata. People also worship the deities Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati. Goddess Gayatri is the presiding deity of our senses. Savitri is the presiding deity of speech. All these three are within the same Principle of Truth. Gayatri Mantra begins with ‘Om Bhur Bhuvah Svah’. ‘Bhuh’ means materialization (Body); ‘Bhuvah’ means Vibration (Life Principle); Svaha means Radiation (Atma).

During these nine days, Goddess Shakti (Energy Principle) is worshipped. Truth, righteousness, peace, forgiveness are all expressions of the Principle of Shakti. Truth is the primal cause. There is nothing other than this. All faculties of energy are present in this Truth. So, consider Truth as your mother and follow it. The Vedas proclaim, ‘Satyam Vada; Dharmam Chara‘, which means speak the truth and follow the righteousness. Unfortunately, today people do not follow this. On the contrary they follow Asatya (untruth) and Adharma (unrighteousness)” Sai Baba. SS, 11/98, p. 284

4 Likes
ramnath@nerdpol.ch
ramnath

enter image description here

enter image description here

As the nine nights represent the nine planets, we will be having a planetary celebration of Navaratri with an account of one of the planets for each of the nine nights. The second planet is The #Moon. The colour for the second day of #Navaratri is #WHITE, so we shall scribe in white with an added background so that white may be easily read for this second day’s observance of Navaratri

Today is the second day of the Navaratri celebrations which are held for nine days (Nava Rathrulu). All festivals are meant to remind mankind that they should cultivate noble qualities by engaging themselves in activities beneficial to one’s own self and society. Sai Baba made reference to Navaratri and the Nine Planets:
As part of Navaratri celebrations, people worship different forms of divinity. You should develop sacred feelings and experience divinity. What is the inner meaning of Navaratri celebrations? These nine nights represent nine planets. Each planet has its own significance. However, these planets are not outside, they are within. If your feelings are impure and unsacred, the result also will be the same. You are responsible for the good and bad you think and experience.

The Moon
#Chandra, (lit. “shining one”) The Moon is one of the Gods and a most important planet in Vedic Astrology. He is described as young, beautiful, fair; two-armed and having in his hands a club and a lotus. He rides his chariot (the moon) across the sky every night, pulled by ten white horses or an antelope. Although the antelope is the animal most commonly depicted with Him in iconography, the rabbit is also particularly sacred to him and all rabbits are under his protection. He is connected with dew, and as such, is one of the gods of fertility. As #Soma, presides over Somvar or Monday.

The Moon rules Mother and maternal matters, contentment in the home, emotions and bodily fluids, as the Moon is kapha dosha. Kapha dosha signifies water, fluids, fluids in the body and it is of an earthy nature. It has dimensions of loyalty, faithfulness, love and attachment. The Moon waxes and wanes monthly and as it is the fastest moving planet, it is easily afflicted in transits. The Moon is strongest when it is 180° from the Sun; the closer the Moon comes to the Sun, the lesser its energy and strength.

Moon signifies responsiveness, loyalty, dependence. It is traditional, conservative, conventional in attitudes. It delivers the energy of belonging, seldom rebels, and, when cool, has high frustration tolerance. Moon gives friendly attitudes, life-long associations and doesn’t like to hurt other people. It can accept feedback from others but does not like confrontations, particularly when they are personally hurtful. The Moon gives good parents who are good providers.

Day 2
#Goddess #Brahmacharini
Brahmacharini means a devoted female student who lives in an Ashrama with her Guru along with other students. It is also the name of the second aspect of the goddess Durga (Parvati). The goddess is worshipped on the second day of Navratri (the nine divine nights of Navadurga). The goddess Brahmacharini wears white clothes, holds a japa mala (rosary) in her right hand and Kamandal, a water utensil in her left hand.

Charini is the feminine version of one who is a charya, which means “occupation with, engaging, proceeding, behaviour, conduct, to follow, moving in, going after”; so to seek, to explore, to experience, to know. One does not dare to speak of the divine without internal, inner experience. For the Divine is that which is known only; it cannot be thought about, read about, nor experienced in discussion with others. One pursues the experience of the Divine – like Bhakta Meera, also known as Mirabai:

I am your slave.
Bind me in tethers, Mira’s your slave.
She wakes up at dawn,
sits in the garden,
haunts the pathways of Brindavan forest
making up ballads.
Fever, memory, craving,
birth after birth they come with me.
I slip on a saffron robe
hoping to see you.
Yogins come to Brindavan to know oneness,
hermits perform terrible spells,
holy men come to sing gospels –
but Mira is deeper, Lord,
and more secret.
She waits with a ruined heart every night
by the river
just for a glimpse.

The Moon is often thought of as feminine, just as the rules Mother and maternal matters, contentment in the home and emotions. The moon is a feminine symbol, universally representing the rhythm of time as it embodies the cycle. The phases of the moon symbolize immortality and eternity, enlightenment or the dark side of Nature herself. It might reflect inner knowledge, or the phases of man’s condition on Earth, since it controls the tides, the rains, the waters, and the seasons. It is the middle ground between the light of the sun and the darkness of night, and thus often represents the realm between the conscious and the unconscious.

On this second day of Navaratri, we have learned that the day is ruled by the Moon, the colour is white and the Goddess is Brahmacharini Devi, the Goddess of #Swadhisthana #Chakra. The word swadhisthana can be translated as “the dwelling place of the self”. Swadhisthana Chakra develops around the ages of 6 months to 2 years. This chakra governs our relationship to the feminine, our reproductive area and our femininity. We are also determining the safety of expressing our feelings, experiencing emotions and also connecting to our intuition.

The element of Swadhisthana Chakra is #water, which equals cohesiveness. A balanced second chakra leads to feelings of wellness, abundance, pleasure, and joy. When this chakra is out of balance, a person may experience emotional instability, fear of change, sexual dysfunction, depression, or addictions.

We have learned about the name the Goddess of this day – Brahmacharini – and that charini is the feminine of “occupation with, engaging, proceeding, behaviour, conduct, to follow, moving in, going after”. We cannot live without the feminine aspect of the #Divine #within, and Navaratri represents a call toward exploring and experiencing this feminine divine within. We are ask to follow, to move in, to go after, just like Mirabai, the Rajput princess who lived for and sought her Lord Krishna alone. It behooves us to seek the feminine within, to honour it, for in honouring the feminine, the Mother Goddess, the Shakti or female energy principle within, we honour Mother Earth herself, who is also a Goddess, Bhu-Devi. We honour our own Mother, our sisters, aunts, grandmothers and all the generations of women who have come before us and gifted us. So also, we take care of the resources of Mother Earth, as per Sri Sathya Sai Baba:

Significance of Navaratri
“The Navaratri celebration is an occasion for revering #nature and considering how natural resources can be used properly in the best interest of mankind. Resources like water, air, power and minerals should be used properly and not misused or wasted. Economy in the use of every natural resource is vital. Pollution of the air has many evil consequences. The inner significance of observances like singing in the villages and devotional singing is to fill the atmosphere with sacred vibrations and holy thoughts. The inauguration of the Navaratri celebrations means that you should use this occasion for offering worship to nature and resolving to make sacred use of all natural resources.” Sai Baba. SS, 11/92, p. 269

https://saieditor.com/fourth/?p=2533

2 Likes
1 Comments
humblelifted@diasp.org
humblelifted

BECAUSE, AFTER, IF, AND WHEN

I have been known to fall into Despair,
Believing the words of the legalists,
Who say The Beloved Loves “because”…

Loves only “after” we…
Loves only “if” we…
Loves only “when” we.

In those moments of deepest despair,
I think to put and end to this life,
And any that might follow thereafter.

For I would not live for even one moment,
If a life where The Beloved Loves because,
Only after… only if… only when.

But in such moments, She stays my hand,
And reveals through Love,again, and again,
The terrible deceit of the legalists.

For my imperfections do not diminish,
Nor my few virtues increase, by one whit,
The Love that Fills me, through Grace.

If She will not dwell in an unclean temple,
How is it, then, that She Inhabits my Heart,
As Love, Causeless and Unconditional…

Not because, not after, not if, not when.

Original art by Yong Sung Kim

#qoute #nonduality #be_love #within #thinking_beyond_the_mind #unconditional_love