Krishna Janmashtami 2005
Speech by Swami Ghanshyam Das on 27th August 2005
at Omkarananda-Kamakshi-Devi Mandir

The "Krishna !!! Whose hands are decorated with flute and whose body is bluish like the color complexion of fresh clouds and whose effulgent yellow garment reflects like lightening and whose lips are red like a Bimba fruit. Whose face is beautifully shining like the full moon and who is the lotus eyed one, I do not know anything except Krishna which can be called as the absolute Truth."

Those people who are very fortunate , very pious and who live a life based on higher values, they celebrate this festival of Krishna Janmashtami with great love and enthusiasm. They worship the Lord elaborately on this day and they sing the glories of God and they take shelter of Supreme Godly personality Shri Krishna. It is a very important festival and it gives us an opportunity to eradicate the sufferings and pains of our life. Generally the life becomes very miserable in absence of God consciousness.

Once mother earth was overburdened by miscreants and demoniac forces and the saintly people were highly tortured , and then Bhu Devi who is actually wife of Lord Vishnu went to Him and asked for protection and this became the ground of the wonderful advent of Lord Vishnu in the form of Krishna. And thus the religious principals were established by Krishna and earth was released from all pains, troubles and tensions. So this birth celebration of Shri Krishna gives us a chance to come out of our pains, troubles and tensions. This is so sweet and relishable to the devotees that the unborn is taking birth, unmanifested is being visible. This is the beauty of our Hindu Vedic Sanatana culture that God incarnates himself in this material and mortal world. But Janmashtami is not only the appearance day of Krishna. People generally forget or ignore the fact that this is also the appearance day of Divine Mother Durga. Durga has many forms known as Chandi, Chamunda, Vaisnavi or Kamakshi. So this is also the birth day of our Divine Mother Kamakshi. So it is very important day for all of us. It is the celebration of appearance of Shiva and Shakti both at the same time, at the same moment and at the same province. While Krishna appeared in the prison of Kansa at Mathura in front of Devaki and Vasudeva, at the same time Bhagawati Yogamaya known as Durga or Divine Mother Kamakshi also appeared in the house of Nand Maharaja , in the lap of mother Yashoda at Gokula. So both Divine personalities, God and Goddess, appeared together! So this is a very very important day for us to lovingly celebrate.
We celebrate birthday of our own self, of our children or relatives. But each and every birthday takes you more near to death. Suppose this is your 30th birthday, so on 40th birthday you are more near to death. So the birthday celebration is like a step towards death. But when you perform birth celebration of God then it is a step away from death. It is a step towards immortality, as God is the only immortal being , everything else, including this world, is mortal and time bound. So this festivity is in fact a march towards nectar. Krishna is completely nectar. His eyes, His speech, His glance and His form is total nectar to give life to our deadly state of consciousness.

And one important point I would like to mention here that Janmashtami falls on the 8th day of dark fortnight of Bhadrapada month. So to make our life sublime 8 things should take birth in our living, in our existence, in our personality. See!! Mother Durga who appeared in Gokula is personification of Shraddha. Shraddha is very difficult to translate in English. There is no proper word for Shraddha in English dictionary. "Faith" is a word there in a lower category. Some how you can translate Shraddha in English as "unflinching faith", but still it does not give the exact meaning. I do not have time to define it now as I have only two minutes to speak. So today this Shraddha should appear in our life. And this Shraddha will further give birth to Gyan - "knowledge". In Gita it is said—Shraddhavan labhate gyanam. But Shraddha needs a platform to give birth to knowledge and that platform, that base is Vivek—"discrimination". And when Shraddha gives birth to Gyan on the ground of Vivek then one thing is automatically generated to follow Gyan and that is Vairagya—"detachment". So this is the group or family of Shraddha. These four things are Shraddha, Vivek, Gyan and Vairagya.

On other side Krishna has appeared in Mathura and He is personification of Vishwasa - "faith". Goswami Tulasi Das says - bhavani shankarau vande shraddha vishwas rupinau. So Krishna is form of faith. And this faith further gives birth to Bhakti - "devotion". As Goswami Ji says - Binu vishwas bhagati nahi, tehi bina dravahi na Ram. But this Vishwasa - "faith", needs a platform to give birth to Bhakti and that platform, that base is Samarpana—surrender. And when Vishwas gives birth to Bhakti on the ground of Samarpana, then one thing is finally generated, which is extremely significant for us in life to achieve and that is Prema—"pure transcendental love". So this is the group or family of Vishwasa. These four things are Vishwas, Samarpana, Bhakti and Prema. So these are the eight things to be cultivated carefully in life and they take birth on this wonderful day of Janmashtami. Shraddha in the form of Bhagawati Yogamaya DURGA and Vishwasa in the form of Lord KRISHNA. These altogether make our life complete and perfect.
I am very grateful to His Holiness Pujya Swami Vishveshwaranandaji Maharaja , who gave me this chance to speak here. I always look forward for his kind blessings. I also wish that this Janmashtami may favor you with all strength , all love and all protection . The sky is now full of clouds and Krishna has a body of color complexion like clouds. So I wish that this cloud of Krishna always showers the rains of nectar in your heart.

Thank you very much!

Vipassana
By Sadananda Murti

Vipassana means observing reality in a special way, by going beyond apparent truth. The goal of this technique is to purify the mind, to free it from misery by gradually eradicating the negativities within. The great vipassana teacher describes it as an operation of mind. "Liberation can be gained only by practice, never by mere discussion" are the words of a very practical person, S.N. Goenka. Intellectual understanding is valuable as a support to meditative practice, even though meditation itself is a process beyond the limits of the intellect.

Every living being suffers. Life starts with crying. Anyone who has been born is bound to encounter the sufferings of sickness and old age. Everywhere suffering exists; this is a universal truth. Pain exists. Misery exists. Crying will not free anyone of misery. How is one to live with it?
Buddha's solution in simple terms is:
 
Abstain from all unwholesome deeds, perform wholesome ones, and purify your own mind.
Any action that harms others, that disturbs their peace and harmony, is a sinful, unwholesome action.

Any action that helps others, that contributes to their peace and harmony, is a pious action.
One cannot perform an action that harms others without first generating defilement in the mind-anger, fear, hatred etc.; and whenever one generates a mental defilement, and then one becomes miserable, one experiences the sufferings of hell within. Similarly, one cannot perform an action that helps others without first generating love, compassion, good will; and as soon as one starts developing such pure mental qualities, one starts enjoying heavenly peace within. When you help others, simultaneously you help yourself; when you harm others, simultaneously you harm yourself. This is truth, law - the universal law of nature.

The path is divided into three sections: morality, concentration of mind & wisdom. Morality- abstaining from unwholesome deeds of body. Samadhi is the wholesome action of developing mastery over one's mind. Wisdom - the development of wisdom totally purifies the mind.
Mind precedes all phenomena, mind matters most, everything is mind-made.
If with an impure mind you speak or act, then suffering follows you as the cartwheel follows the foot of the draft animal.

If with a pure mind you speak or act,
then happiness follows you as a shadow that never departs.
— Buddha

Purifying mind - One reality of mind, is its habit of always wandering from one object to another, it wanders either in the past or in the future, it does not want to stay in the present moment. Actually one has to live in the present. Whatever is past is gone beyond recall; whatever is future remains beyond one's reach, until it becomes present. The mind constantly tries to escape from present reality into a past or future that is unattainable, and therefore the mind remains agitated, miserable. Therefore the first step is to learn how to live in the present.
Now of what type are these thoughts? At times thoughts arise without any sequence, lost in ignorance, illusions or delusions. Or when there is a sequence to the thoughts, they have as their object something that is either pleasant or unpleasant. If it is pleasant, one starts reacting with liking, which develops into craving. If it is unpleasant, one starts disliking, which develops aversion. The mind is constantly filled with ignorance, craving and aversion. These are basic impurities, all other basic impurities stem from these three basic ones, and every impurity makes one miserable.

The Vipassana technique helps you to liberate yourself from the bondages of craving, aversion and delusion and to enjoy real peace, real harmony and real happiness. One can not attain these things just by thinking about it or wishing for it. One must take steps to reach the goal.
May all beings be happy!

The Culture of India
By Shri Siddhartha Krishna

The Culture of India is one of the most ancient cultures in the world that is still alive today. The foundation stone of this culture was laid down in the dawn of the human civilization by our forefathers that were called "Rishis", i.e. seers, prophets, and mystics. Their world-encompassing spiritual ideals, high morals, lofty character and divine teachings, as expressed in the Vedas, have guided our generations from time immemorial. Even today, these divine teachings teach us to welcome every living being with open arms. Swami Ramatirtha, a great saint and messenger of Indian Culture to the west who impressed great people like the U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, said, "I'm India. My arms are open to embrace the entire world. I'm love and love alone." Look carefully at the geographical map of the Indian subcontinent, the real India, you would see a person standing with open arms ready to embrace the entire world, that is our Mother India. Religious tolerance is an inherent property of the Indian Culture. The Great Religious Emperor King Ashoka, who reigned in India in the second century BC, ordered his subjects in his 12th rock edict, "Whoever praises his own religion, due to excessive devotion, and condemns others with the thought 'Let me glorify my own religion,' only harms his own religion. Therefore contact between religions is good. One should listen to and respect the doctrines professed by others. Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Ashoka, desires that all should be well-learned in the good doctrines of other religions. Those who are content with their own religion should be told this: Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Ashoka, does not value gifts and honors as much as he values that there should be growth in the essentials of all religions." His rock and pillar edicts are found all over India, including Pakistan and Afghanistan. Most imperial symbols of King Ashoka have become the national symbols of today's modern India, including the Dharma-Chakra or the wheel of Divine-Law seen in the center of the Indian tricolor flag. Here I would also like to mention that the three colors in the flag symbolize self-annihilation for a just and true cause, peace and prosperity. Self-annihilation means annihilation of our ego, by submerging it into the will of the Supreme God - "O My Father! Thy will be done."

The basic concept of our culture is "ahimsaa" non-violence or Love. Our religious texts proclaim again and again, "non-violence or Love is the greatest Divine Law." Love all without any conditions and without any limitations. True love knows no limitations. Indeed, only through such Love, India, amongst all her geological, ethical and cultural diversities, has been able to recognize the Yoga in all the differences, i.e. the Unity in diversity, the Beauty in her diversity. Our culture emphasizes to recognize the unity in all our diversity, the oneness that is penetrated deeply within the seemingly endless diverse objects. This perception of unity in today's world can lead us towards "world-unity". Our culture teaches us to look upon the entire humanity as one single entity, as one single family. Our religious scriptures teach us, "This is ours and that is other's, these are the considerations of those who have a small heart. For them, whose heart is wide and open, indeed the whole earth is one single family." Let me make it clear that we do respect geological, cultural or ethical differences, we admire their beauty, but we don't tend to let them create divisions in our minds. That is dangerous! Because that would undermine our basic concepts. One of our saint-poets, Shri Surdasji, said, "All the lands belong to one God; in whose mind there is an obstacle to accept this, only he is prevented." Therefore India is ready to accept all the beautiful ideologies of the world with open arms. There is only one single condition, however, that the ideologies need to conform with the basic concept of our culture, which is non-violence or Love. The prayer that our ancient prophets and mystics used to recite, and we still recite it everyday in the morning, starts with the proclamation "May good and pleasant thoughts come to me from the entire world!" Our culture teaches us to be open to every new idea and to be ready to accept it if it bestows happiness on all and sundry. But anything that is violent or not impelled by universal love is not worth its existence; on the contrary it can be disastrous. We don't believe in fighting external enemies; we believe in fighting internal enemies, viz. ignorance, hatred, anger, violence etc. According to our forebears, Yoga, indeed very famous in today's world, was meant to assist us in fighting these internal enemies by bestowing great will power and spiritual power upon us. With the aid of such a power we were no more slaves of our animal instincts, but we were able to transform ourselves into a fully rational human being. Indeed, ignorance and hatred etc. are the most disastrous, dangerous and tragic enemies, because they directly intrude into our personality and change us from an ideal human being into a bloody beast.

The ultimate goal of every effort, according to the Indian Culture, should be to cultivate and to promote "Friendliness, Compassion, Happiness and Forgiveness" in the words of Lord Patanjali, the father of Yoga. In his words, "only this can lead towards social and individual peace." Our ancient mystics taught us that Friendliness is the essence of Life. When they kneeled in front of that Ultimate Power, they implored, "Bestow power upon me when I'm powerless, so that I may look at all with a friendly eye and all may look upon me with a friendly eye, so that we all may look upon each other with a friendly vision." Even our religious scriptures declare to us very clearly that "God is not merely pleased with complicated ritualistic worship and a lot of extravagant offerings, He is mostly pleased with compassion towards all beings, indeed a virtue which cannot be acquired by the wicked." Let me tell you that our culture highly emphasizes on the internal and eternal aspect of religion, which is the same in all religions; rather than the external aspect of ritualism etc. which differs from religion to religion, and highly differs within our religion itself. Love, compassion, non-violence, friendliness, mutual understanding, faith, truthfulness, benevolence; in these consist the internal and eternal aspects of each and every religion. They are the essentials of all religions. We don't care whom you worship, how you worship and in which language you worship; you worship and pray, that is enough for us. Our culture encourages us to pray and worship not for our own self, but for the benefit and peace of the entire world - for "Vishwa-Kalyaana and Vishwa-Shaanti". Above all, to love all beings is the greatest worship for us that a person can perform. The prayer for world peace, happiness and prosperity is the greatest prayer in our Religion. The world-famous prayer in the words of our ancient Vedic prophets is, "May all be blissful! May all be free from diseases! May all experience only auspiciousness! May nobody experience pain and sorrow! May there be peace in the entire world! O Lord! The only thing that I beseech Thee is total annihilation of pain, distress, sorrow and grief of all beings!"

In practical life, "friendliness and compassion" which are the essence of our culture, translate themselves into serving all those according to our ability who deserve it and are in utmost need of it. To impart knowledge amongst the ignorant is considered one of the greatest services a human can perform. That too becomes greater and more challenging when we have children in front of us as our students. For them to grab the sublimity, it has to be interesting and fun. Each and every step towards enlightenment has to give them happiness and make them cheerful to pursue it. To take a forward step they need to enjoy it. In fact it is the same for all of us. We too are not an exception to this. I have tried to find an answer in the combination of Yoga and Dance. Both these aspects of the Indian Culture address a healthy body, where there is a firm belief that "a healthy mind resides in a healthy body".

Let me tell you that the positive attitude of the Indians towards life has led to the fact that they have a great affection for fine arts, viz. dance, music, painting, sculpture, literature etc. In our culture art is seen as a beautiful path that leads to the ultimate experience of Supreme Bliss, i.e. God. The meditative postures and Mudras of Yoga, that lead to Self-enlightenment, performed in a celestial rhythm and accompanied by divine music, are used as fine expressions of the divine feelings of Love and thus, manifest themselves as Indian Classical Dance.

Now, to make each and every step enjoyable for our kids, we should try to introduce these ancient systems of Yoga and classical dance into our training methods. C.G. Jung wrote regarding Yoga, "I regard this spiritual achievement of the East as one of the greatest things the human mind has ever created." But the question is, how can these spiritual and artistic achievements be helpful to our children? How to translate these spiritual and artistic achievements of our culture into their practical life so that they can enhance their mental and physical performance in their daily life? This is the challenge that we are facing right now. Yoga and dance can help them by reshaping their personality. They would enjoy it. It would make them cheerful and happy. It would enable them to maintain their physical and mental health. It would enable them to maintain their balance in every aspect of life; balance in their body, balance in their mind, balance in their personality and balance in their performances.

OM SHANTIH SHANTIH VISHWA-SHANTIH OM
OM Peace, Peace, May there be

Peace in the whole world! OM

SIDDHARTHA KRISHNA