Dear All

We are now living at the beginning of the 21st century.The age of globalization as well as the age of Technological Revolution. Can we look at this time from another perspective. The age of degeneration.The age of humiliation.The age of declaring self superiority.The age of lust.The age of annihilated morality.

The present happenings all around the world are themselves self exemplary.People are starving for food.Selling their children for food.Selling their daughters and wives for money .One killing people in the name of community without any reason or with some deeply ingrained reason.Is this what they were taught long time back.

When I started looking back to find out the reason of such moral degeneration ,I discovered some very interesting facts .But this might not be the real place to share those facts which laid the road to perdition.

Any way One basic reason that I would like to share with you people is the lack of RIGHTEOUSNESS. A strong character can only help a person to bring back his righteousness.But Alas present system of education is producing a great amount of hindrance for making a righteous character.Most importantly I found a perplexing reason behind this situation.It is our apathy towards our heritage and indigenous culture. Today children are encouraged to learn mastering computer.Instead a little introduction of character building philosophy from our ancient heritage could have become much more interesting and could have become much more helpful for our young Guns.As we are allowing a distance to make in between our children and our culture ,we are slowly but surely approaching towards the destruction.This is high time that we must start working on putting the things back on the track so that we can realize the word of the Great Visionary NOBLE Laureate Rabindranath Tagore as he said in his poem"INDIA WILL ONCE AGAIN TRIUMPH WITH HER SUPERIORITY IN THE STAGE OF THE WHOLE WORLD".

This is one small steps towards the true realization of the Poet and the Swamiji Himself.

Many thousand years ago the saints from this sacred land discovered many truth about human value and life. They compiled it together for us. But due to the sense of self supremacy of contemporary Brahmins it was left confined inside a very small circle of learned people. But it was intended to the common ordinary people around the world. As we all know that the truth is for everyone as it is eternal.

We need to bring out the essence of Vedanta and spread the fragrance among the every corner of the human world.This is a small step to decode the encrypted knowledge or message whatever you say out of the box and make it available for those who are very much lost in the midst of their daily responsibility. Thanks to the Vedanta Asiatic Society to take a wholesome effort in realizing our dream .

On behalf of the member of the International Vedanta Awareness Foundation I really appreciate your effort to spent your precious time for reading the blog and leaving your valuable comment on the prosperity of our intention. I would be extremely grateful to all of you who are very much interested in spreading the message of Vedanta
across your locality.Please feel free to contact us so that we can make a successful effort in making a whole new world of people with strong character.

After all a strong character can build a person full of RIGHTEOUSNESS .We need thousands of persons like them who will help us to make a better India in the 21 st Century .Also to hep us realize the dream of Swami Vivekananda .


Vandemataram

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Stroy of A Vedanta Lover and a Teacher

One may wonder what is the use of studying Vedas in the present days. How relevant is it to modern life? And what value does it add to one’s life? It may seem that studying Vedanta is a thing of the past and redundant in present day context.

I would have probably agreed with this view a few years ago when I was growing up in a modern Gujarati family in Mumbai. All my education was in modern schools and colleges in Mumbai. Coming from a family, which had a lot of value for education, after finishing my B.Com, as a family convention, I went to the United States of America for my MBA. My life seemed to have been made!!!

However, after going to the US and observing the society there, many questions started arising in my mind. I started thinking that, it is true that people in USA have a lot more money and physical comforts. However, they don’t seem to have happiness and contentment that I expected them to have. Neither I could say that in India, where people have to struggle for their daily existence have peace and contentment. Then, the questions started arising in my mind, what is the meaning of life? What brings contentment and fulfillment that one is really looking for?

I was just searching for an answer to this question, which was occupying my mind. Then, one day in October 1986, I met Swami Dayananda Saraswati, a great scholar of Vedanta and Sanskrit that changed my life forever.

When I first met him, I was impressed by his command over Sanskrit, his logic, his clear expression. However, coming from a modern background, I also had doubts about the validity of what was being said. That is why, when I first met him personally, I asked him, “Swamiji how do I know that what Vedanta is saying is the truth?” I was impressed by his response!! He didn’t try to be authoritative or try to convince me that what he is saying is right. Instead, he just smiled and said very softly, “You will know it”!!! “You are a smart girl”!!

Listening to Vedanta, slowly my whole being underwent a transformation. I started understanding that the sense of limitation that I was feeling in wake of which I was looking for answers, is in fact a fundamental human problem. Through Swamiji’s teaching, gradually I came to appreciate that Upanishads are a means of knowledge to know the reality of I to be limitless, which otherwise cannot be arrived at. What gave me confidence in Upanishads is when Swamiji stated that in order for Upanishads to be a valid means of knowledge, they can not be contradicted by any other means of knowledge which includes logic. This became a big challenge and I started thinking that until I find some reason or logic that contradicts Upanishads, I have no choice but to listen to what it says, as freedom from limitation is desirable by me and everyone else.

What was striking throughout my learning was the importance that Swamiji gave to Vedanta, the tradition of teaching which starts from Lord Shiva in the form of Dakshinamurti to Vyasa, to Sankara. Swamiji never claimed himself to be the person who realized the truth one fine morning, but clearly stated himself as only a link in the lineage of this teaching.

Moreover, Swamiji brought Isvara in my life. Through out the handling of the teaching, Swamiji emphasized that it is not merely knowing “I am limitless Brahman” but Vedanta reveals the equation, “You are that (Isvara)”. The implications of this are big. In any equation, there are apparent differences that finally resolve in non-difference. Like in the equation 3+2= 6-1, both sides look very different but come to the same result “5”. Similarly, there is a difference between I (who has limited knowledge and capacity) and Isvara (all knowledge and capacity). I as an individual am totally governed by the laws of Isvara. Even the opportunity for me to know, the teacher I get, my capacity to assimilate the teaching that finally enables me to understand the non-difference is given by laws of Isvara. This highlights the importance of relating to Isvara. As I understood the significance of this, I started relating to Isvara in form of order that governs my whole life. My specific prayers to Isvara slowly evolved into having prayerful attitude in and through every event of my life. Once I relaxed in the order of Isvara, Swamiji’s words that revealed identity of oneself with Isvara started becoming a reality.

The importance of this knowledge and tradition grew so much in my life that I decided to leave my job with United Nations as Economist and decided to study with Swamiji for 3 and half years. During this course, we covered several Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Brahma Sutra and Panini system of grammar. Everyday, I could not but thank Isvara for giving me an opportunity to study. Tears used to come when I used to think what merit must I have gathered to have the opportunity to know this truth. During the three years, it was a great learning also to see how Swamiji was living what he was teaching. His compassion, care and interest in every student really validated every one of us, let us grow according to our own capacity, and helped us discover the truth.

Eight years have passed since I completed my course. Life has become such a blessing. This transformation in me is due to this great tradition of teaching. This knowledge, this tradition because of its intrinsic value in solving the fundamental human problem, will continue to bless people of the past, present and posterity. The only thing is that, one has to choose to expose oneself to it.

I have only one prayer now. I pray, “let me also become a link and help others the way I was helped by this great tradition”.


Author - Neema Majumdar

Vedanta -The Yoga of Objectivity
www.discovervedanta.com

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