Thursday, April 22, 2010

Swami Parthasarathy- Vedantha Cultural Association

You have to see it to believe it.... this is one thing that strongly came into my mind to recall in this post, those beautiful evenings of one full week I spent watching the octogenarian speaking on Bhagavat Gita. Swami Parthasarathy every year delivers a week long recitation of Bhagavath Gita in Chennai and lectures on Vedanta. Curiosity was the beginning to go to his lecture and believe me, I was glued. His way of reciting and explaining our traditional values was amazing. Unlike Christians who read Bible from very young age and Quran which is inculcated into Muslim children, we are not forced to read Bhagavat Gita being born in Hindu family. But the moment I started listening to him, I realized that I wasted three decades of my life not valuing something that is of total enlightenment and a repository of high human values and a knowledge system. That is what transformed in me when I heard him on Chapter 16 of Bhagavat Gita... our own goldmine of knowledge

It is almost 2 months and I hardly found time to write on this beautiful topic....Swamiji talks about Infinite human bliss, and the quest for acquisition that is driven by the intrinsic and extrinsic illusion which is called Maya. He reminds that mind should be fixed on truth... divine rise to the highest goals in life...and the demonic sink to the lowest level. Its not what you do but how you do matters,..emanation and values you set define you... Experiencing the world matters and inspiring qualities are to be practised. There are 26 qualities of a divine person and these qualities properly guides us to stop wickedness. Vidhya or the knowledge goes with Vinaya (Respect). The knowledge goes with humility... Humility leads to humanity within us. The 6 general qualities of demon including ostentation, arrogance, self-conceit, anger, harshness and ignorance. The pithiest of all is when one doesn't even know that they cant control their anger.

After a storm, there is calm. Harshness means being impatient, disrespectful and impertinent and ignoring the knowledge and higher values of life.

Verse 5 - Divine nature is deemed for liberation, the demoniac for bondage, grieve not, you are born of the divine nature 'O, Pandava'.... intellectual bondage is rigidity, fanatic beliefs, full of perceptions, emotions and thoughts.

Verse 6- Two created things and beings in this world...they are demonic and divine.. learn the SRT- Satvic, Rajas and Tamas which means state of mind in poise and serenity, never quiet and state like sleeping.....learn to live beyond

Verse 7- Demoniac people do not know action from inaction, neither purity nor good conduct nor truth is found in them.

Intellectual brilliance judges what has to be done for every action before it is done. No proper action can be taken without proper conviction.

The verse 8 says the world thinks without reality, without foundation, without lord, born out of mutual union caused by lust, what else? Reality is which persists and exists in past, present and future. Ability to realise it is a blessing. Trouble with most folks is not ignorance but their knowing as many things as they don't know.

Verse 9 says holding this view, the ruined souls of small intellect of fierce deeds come forth as enemies for the destruction of this world.

You need Buddi (intelligence) to understand buddi( intellect). Intelligence is external knowledge, intellect is inbuilt, developed by yourself, by questioning everything and taking things for granted is a sure no...

Routine existence following herd and no intellect scraps all religions if not used with intellect for humanity to survive.

Amazing... its just few of them that I could recollect, but believe me... you should hear him in person to appreciate the volume of knowledge swamiji can share with us... his daughter disciple Sunandaji is also truly outstanding... cant believe that its written more than thousand years ago and its still applicable to mankind of all times... only wish we find more of Swamy Parthsarathy's in this world to spread this divine knowledge that is beyond human intelligence to understand the whole of universe. God bless !

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good post on Swamiji and Vedanta.

I came to your website from A Question on Project Vs product Management in Ganapathy's blog. I had also expressed my comments in that Article too . I am Krishna, a QA person.

I have had the fortune of listening to Swamiji and Sunandaji for more than a decade. All you said were absolutely true. In fact Swamiji has been blessing and guiding World Audience for 3 decades and more on Practical Vedanta.

He makes us understand abstract complex concepts by simple examples and more importantly apply those in day to day life.

After listening to him people will be able to remember the verses from B.G and can apply them into their respective life styles.

Krishna

Umasree said...

Indian History gave us the epics called "Mahabharatha" and "Ramayana"...The first one is a true Management repository, where as the second one is "Moral Values Repository"...had we followed them truly and promoted it to the world, am sure world would have been a better place to live today:-) but how many swamiji's we have who really bring this knowledge to the fore front like Swami Parthsarathy. we are tired of fake gurus and so called swamiji and not sure whom to believe....

anu_uma said...

I am surprised to see a multi facet personality…
A woman writing about Management and also about Bhagavad Gita… The reason I said a woman – is being a woman already we have many roles and where do you find time to analyze all these area’s.. of course Subject of interest matters the most.
When I listen to such things, I do think about writing but when I start, I will feel that my mind is empty about the concept.
It’s really nice that you have given the details in detail after 2 months.
I am proud of (o)ur Name.