Atmeeyam : ( 22/10/2012. )

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, the Sage of Arunachala , was a famous Indian sage who was renowned for the fullness of his self-realization, and for the feelings of deep peace that visitors experienced in his presence. Many seekers of Truth were attracted by his magnetic presence and were influence by his divine and silent gaze that bestowed the peace and tranquility to the visitors. Sri Ramana Maharshi came the holy hill of Arunchala after his spontaneous self-realisation at the age of 16 and spent all his adult life at this holy place. He answered questions for hours every day, but never considered himself to be any one's guru. He maintained that his most effective teaching was conveyed through his silence. He was born on December 30, 1879 in a village called Tirucculi about 30 miles south of Madurai in Tamilnadu. His paren...

Swami Krishnananda was born on the 25th of April, 1922 into a highly religious and orthodox Brahmin family, and was given the name Subbaraya. At an early age, he had become very well versed in the Sanskrit language and its sacred texts. The longing for seclusion pulled him to Rishikesh, where he arrived in the summer of 1944 and met Swami Sivananda, who initiated the young Subbaraya into Sannyasa on the sacred day of Makara Sankranti, the 14th of January, 1946, and gave him the name Swami Krishnananda. Gurudev Swami Sivananda found that the young disciple, Swami Krishnananda, was well suited to general writing tasks, the compiling and editing of books, and other sorts of literary work. Eventually Gurudev asked him to do more serious scholarly work. Swami Krishnananda’s first book, The Realisation of the Absolute, was written in a matter of weeks when he was still only a young man in his early twenties. Swami Sivananda nominated Swami Krishnananda as General Secretary ...

Karma in its effect on character - Karma Yoga, Talks of Swami Vivekananda on Karma Yoga : --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The word Karma is derived from the Sanskrit Kri, to do; all action is Karma. Technically, this word also means the effects of actions. In connection with metaphysics, it sometimes means the effects, of which our past actions were the causes. But in Karma-Yoga we have simply to do with the word Karma as meaning work. The goal of mankind is knowledge. That is the one ideal placed before us by Eastern philosophy. Pleasure is not the goal of man, but knowledge. Pleasure and happiness come to an end. It is a mistake to suppose that pleasure is the goal. The cause of all the miseries we have in the world is that men foolishly think pleasure to be the ideal to strive for. After a time man finds that it is not happiness, but knowledge, towards which he is going, and that both pleasure...

Given below was Swami Vivekananda's address at the final session of Chicago world parliament of religions on 27th September, 1893 　 　 The World's Parliament of Religions has become an accomplished fact, and the merciful Father has helped those who laboured to bring it into existence, and crowned with success their most unselfish labour.My thanks to those noble souls whose large hearts and love of truth first dreamed this wonderful dream and then realised it. My thanks to the shower of liberal sentiments that has overflowed this platform. My thanks to his enlightened audience for their uniform kindness to me and for their appreciation of every thought that tends to smooth the friction of religions. A few jarring notes were heard from time to time in this harmony. My special thanks to them, for they have, by their striking contrast, made general harmony the sweeter. Much has been said of the common ground of religious unity. I am not going just now to venture my own theor...

Following was a speech given by Swami Vivekananda on 26th September, 1893 in America :- I am not a Buddhist, as you have heard, and yet I am. If China, or Japan, or Ceylon follow the teachings of the Great Master, India worships him as God incarnate on earth. You have just now heard that I am going to criticise Buddhism, but by that I wish you to understand only this. Far be it from me to criticise him whom I worship as God incarnate on earth. But our views about Buddha are that he was not understood properly by his disciples. The relation between Hinduism (by Hinduism, I mean the religion of the Vedas) and what is called Buddhism at the present day is nearly the same as between Judaism and Christianity. Jesus Christ was a Jew, and Shâkya Muni was a Hindu. The Jews rejected Jesus Christ, nay, crucified him, and the Hindus have accepted Shâkya Muni as God and worship him. But the real difference that we Hindus want to show between modern Buddhism and what we should understand as the...

apooryamaanam  achala-pratishtham Samudram-aapah  pravisanti yadvat ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What counts supreme in human life? Is it wisdom? How many different levels or kinds of wisdom are there? Is there anything indispensable in them, which no thinking man can afford to ignore or avoid? Would it then be necessary to acquire that sufficiently early in life? Suppose, one is not, for whatever reason, able to fulfill this need, will it or can it lead to his downfall? Will the consequence be colossal? What does viveka teach us in this matter?  Well, in Arjuna, who drove to the battlefield of Kurukshetra after thirteen years of austere preparation, we have a full answer to all these questions. As a proud fighter, the master of his chariot, he ordered the charioteer: "Take my chariot in front". The famous Gandiva was lifted by him, showing how powerful and determined he was. The chariotee...

KATHOPANISHAD (Continued) The Practice of Yoga: This Atman is not seen through the eyes, nor is it perceived through any of the other senses, as it never becomes an object of itself. It is known only when the centre of personality is dissolved through the absorption of the factors causing individuality, viz., the mind and the intellect, into the Atman. Equanimity of inner vision is the same as spiritual knowledge, and it cannot be had as long as the mind and the intellect function in their own fashion. The Atman cannot be sought for in external conditions, but it can be known and realised only through reverting from externals to the internal being. It is this introversion that enables one to enter into the very substance of being. This state of spiritual equilibrium is attained when the five senses of knowledge rest together with the mind, and when the intellect does not perform its functions of objective knowledge. Yoga consists in the withholding of all individual functions, be...