To benefit from mantra

The Vishnu Gayatri shows us that the Lord is everywhere, and the Narayana mantra is the most efficacious of all mantras. But in order to benefit through a recitation of the Narayana mantra, we must have bhakti towards the Lord, K.B. Devarajan said in a discourse.

Suppose there is a tank full of water. There are three orifices in the tank, which are kept plugged. Suppose even one of the plugs is removed, all the water will drain out.

Similarly, in order to get the benefit of the Narayana mantra, there are three holes that we must plug — lack of bhakti towards the Lord, lack bhakti towards one's Acharya and lack of belief in the efficacy of the mantra.

We often lack all the three requisites. We lack bhakti towards the Lord, whom the mantra extols. We lack bhakti towards the Acharya who teaches us the mantra. Or we lack faith in the mantra itself. A mere recitation, without faith, is not going to help us. All the three conditions are essential for us to reap the benefits of the mantras taught by our Acharyas.

Those in samsaric life are in a pitiable condition. They have forgotten who they are. They have forgotten who God is. So they do not serve God. And the saddest part is that they are not sorry to have forgotten God. They are like a man who has lost his property, does not know he has lost his property, and is therefore not sorry about his loss.

The Lord has great sympathy for our plight and is eager to save us, if only we have bhakti towards Him. Bhakti yoga is difficult for most of us. That is why the Lord shows us the path of surrender at His feet. But we do not even resort to this, often. We will resort to surrender only if we have the knowledge about our ‘atma' and about God. An ignorant man does not know that he is imprisoned in a cycle of births and deaths, and to escape from this repeating sorrow, he must surrender at the Lord's feet.

If we understand the Lord's qualities of kindness and willingness to forgive us for our transgressions, love for God will result, and will prompt us to resort to surrender.

Where Is God

Ardhanariswara Temple Tiruchengode
God lives in the hearts of those who think of all human beings as equal. This world has many who treat fellow human beings cruelly and contemptuously.

And yet such is the Lord's love for us that He resides in this world in temples. Those in this world are here due to their karma. But they can be freed from the effects of their karma, if they worship Lord Siva, who is seen in the form of linga in temples, said K. Sambandan.

Although this earth is a place where there is sorrow, even Brahma wanted to be born on this earth, because Siva is seen in many temples. The devas are sorry not to have been born on this earth. God does not discriminate against anyone. What we see as His partiality is not in fact so.

He only assigns experiences to us, on the basis of our karma. To Him the have and the have-not are alike. The Lord wants us to share our God-love with others. This is not easy.

If we plan to go to a religious lecture and meet a friend on the way, it is our duty to inform him of where we are going and invite him to come along with us. But the friend might say he is busy and might just slip away. So while a person must take others along with him, when he goes to worship, those invited must also realise the importance of listening to Vedic truths being explained and must attend discourses.

Those who seek the mercy of Lord Siva must seek the mercy of Goddess Parvati too. Goddess Parvati is even more merciful than He is. Whenever Siva goes to slay someone, He goes alone. When he offers refuge, He is with Parvati, for Parvati forgives more easily, and therefore might pardon an asura, who needs to be destroyed by Siva. So He leaves Her behind, when He has to destroy anyone.

Lord Siva has given one half of His body to Parvati and bears the name Ardhanariswara. Therefore, He will not be pleased if a person worships Him, without worshipping Parvati. In most temples, there is a separate shrine for Goddess Parvati too. When we visit temples, we must not just worship Lord Siva and come away. We must worship the Goddess too.

Sukhi Sivam On Pride

Sukhi Sivam
Words can comfort or hurt. It is our pride that makes us use words that hurt. The words that great men utter are words that will prove true. We should, therefore, seek their blessings, and not doubt whether their words of blessing will come true, said Suki Sivam in a lecture.

One day a spiritual man blessed a sick man and said he would recover soon. A bystander mocked at the great man and asked how he knew that the sick man would recover. Moreover, would his words of blessing have the power to heal, he wondered. The great man then said to the bystander, that he, the bystander, was like an animal. Immediately, the bystander fell upon the spiritual man and scratched him. The spiritual man observed that all that he had said was that he (the bystander) was like an animal. Immediately, the man had behaved like an animal. If he, through his behaviour, had proved that the great man's words would come true, why should anyone doubt that the great man's words of blessing too would come true? Words of great men come true, because of their spiritual strength.

The reason we disbelieve even great men is our pride. Pride is like drug-resistant bacteria. If we suppress one form of pride, it mutates and takes another form. So we have the strange phenomenon of people who are proud of their worship of God, and dismissive of other people's bhakti. In temples, we see how some people arrive with a lot of fanfare, and wonder if others are watching them as they display their devotion. So in their case, pride has taken a novel form - pride in religiosity.

There was once a teacher, to whom everyone went for lessons in siddhanta. In that village was a child, wise beyond its years, who was taking spiritual lessons, but not from this famous teacher. Angered, the teacher asked the child what it knew. Did it know the meaning of pride? Could it define pride, the teacher asked. The child silently pointed to the direction of the teacher. The teacher was the embodiment of pride, for he had assumed that there was no one else who had more knowledge than he, and a child had pointed this out to him. If we leave the luggage of pride behind, then we can reach the destination of heaven.

Sri Raghavendra

Sri Raghavendra
Sri Raghavendra was the greatest author and preacher in the line of Madhva in the last 500 years. He wrote countless books establishing Krishna as the Absolute Truth. He gave special stress to the chanting of the names of Krishna, and in particular he recommended the chanting of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra.

While he was present in the world, he performed many miracles, including bringing the dead back to life. After completing his preaching work, he chose to enter "jiva-samadhi", where a saint is buried in his samadhi while still living. Before entering the samadhi he told his disciples he would live physically for 100 years, in his books for 300 years, and in his samadhi for 700 years. He ordered his disciples to place 1,008 shalagrama shilas on top of his head, and then cover him with dirt. Till this day Sri Raghavendra is still living within the samadhi in mantralaya. He has manifested himself to many people, including a British government officer who came to confiscate the ashram's lands. This instance was recorded by the British officer in the government gazette at the time.

The scriptures establish Sri Raghavendra as a partial incarnation of Bhakta Prahlada, the great devotee of Sri Narasimha Avatara. You will find in Raghavendra temples, the utsava murti (festival deity) is not of Raghavendra, but of Bhakta Prahlada. The main "deity" will be a replica of his samadhi (called a Brindavana) with dirt taken from the original samadhi in Mantralaya. In front of this will be a deity of Bhakta Prahlada. They treat the samadhi as the body of Sri Raghavendra and bathe, dress, and apply twelve tilaks to it just as we do to our body.

Devotees of Sri Raghavendra pray to him with the following mantra:

pujyaya raghavendraya
satyadharmarataya ca
bhajatam kalpavrikshaya
namatam kamadhenave

Sri Raghavendra is like a kalpa-vriksha (a desire fulfilling tree) for he always takes care of his devotees' spiritual needs.

Embodying Good Qualities

Embodying good qualities
What is the nature of Lord Narayana's form, when He takes avataras? While those of us on earth have bodies that are made up of Satva, Rajas and Tamas, His form is always pure Satva, said Adur Asuri Madhavachari. Swami Desika points out that in all His avataras, whether as Rama or Krishna or Trivikrama, He retains all these auspicious qualities, thereby demonstrating His Supremacy. Lord Narayana is the opposite of all bad qualities, and the embodiment of all good ones.
But those who still harbour doubts, then turn their attention to the Narsasimha avatara, and wonder how the half- man, half- lion form is also auspicious. There need be no doubts on this count. It is one of the three complete avataras, the other two being the Rama and Krishana avataras. In the Vishnu Sahasranama, it is the Narasimha avatara that is mentioned first among all the avataras. Narasimha came heeding the calls of a child, and that too the child of an asura.
It is said that Lord Narayana came as Narasimha for the sake of Prahlada. But a better way of putting it would be to say that He came in order that Prahlada's words might be proved true. The Lord is always true to His words. He never slips from them. Nor does He let his devotees' words prove false. Prahlada had declared to his father Hiranyakasipu that the Lord was there everywhere. That is why the Lord took His position in all pillars, for He wanted to be at hand, whichever pillar Hiranayakasipu chose to strike. He wanted to show that He would never allow His devotees' words to be proved false. Whatever form pleases His bhaktas, is a form that He readily assumes, and in doing so, the Lord loses none of His auspicious qualities. His form remains always pure and untainted.
Nammazhvar shows this to us, by saying that He is the One who is on earth, heaven and also in the space between heaven and earth. He is one and the same everywhere, with no dilution in His qualities. His form is pure everywhere and at all times. He is unmatched and Supreme, and yet simplicity is His defining quality. Else would He hasten to the side of Prahlada, in His half-man, half-lion form

Bhrigu Samhita

The Bhrigu Samhita is an astrological (Jyotish) classic attributed to Maharishi Bhrigu during the Vedic period, Treta yuga, although the available evidence suggests that it was compiled over a period of time by the various sishyas (students in the lineage) of Maharishi Bhrigu.

It was said that Maharishi Bhrigu insulted Lord Vishnu in false ego of considering himself the greatest Brahmin, but apologised immediately of his mistake and Lord Vishnu forgave him. But Lakshmi(the wealth goddess), wife of Lord Vishnu could not tolerate the insult of her husband. She gave a curse to Maharishi Bhrigu, that he and his community(Brahmins) to which he represents will be parted away from wealth. After apologising from Goddess too, she suggested him to write Bhrigu Samhita which contains predictions. In this way, Brahmins can earn their living by telling past,present and future of people. The Ashram of Maharishi was in present day Hoshiarpur, India. Major part of Bhrigu Samhita was destroyed during Muslim Invasions.

Maharishi Bhrigu was the first compiler of predictive astrology. He compiled about 500,000 horoscopes and recorded the life details and events of various persons. This formed a database for further research and study. This study culminated in the birth of the science (shastra) of determining the quality of time (Hora) and is the Brihat Parasara Hora Shastra. These Horoscopes were based upon the planetary positions of the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Rahu (North Node of the Moon) and Ketu (South Node of the Moon). After that, Maharishi Bhrigu gave his predictions on different types of horoscopes compiled by him with the help of Lord Ganesha in a brief and concise manner. The total permutations/possible horoscope charts that can be drawn with this is about 45 million. Maharishi taught this art of predictions to his son (Shukra) and other pupils.
At present Bhrugusanhita(Original) is not available. During foreign invasions of India by Muslim warriors from the northwest in the 12th and 13th centuries, the brahmin community became dispersed all over India. The invaders captured these prime assets of the brahmins. Some parts of the 'Bhrigu Samhita' were taken away by them. The most unfortunate and destructive event was the destruction of the Nalanda university library by then Muslim rulers, where several thousands of the horoscopes compiled by Maharashi Bhrigu had been stored. Only a small percentage of the original horoscopes of Bhrigu Samhita remained with the Brahmin community which are now scattered throughout various parts of India. The manuscript was very important and if the same is available, anyone can easily know his past, present or future with 100% accuracy. Of course, this too is a matter of belief and the accuracy has never been consistently documented.

Horoscopes (including those of Bhrigu Sanhita) are estimations and depend entirely on the person who is interpreting them.