You and your grand design

I have traveled to places where the mountains kiss the clouds,

I have felt the joy of the birds when they jumped into unknown & let go their doubts,

I have dived into the deepest depths of the oceans,

And to the highest peaks of the great mountains,

I have praised the whale’s acrobatic stunts,

And have rejoiced at the birth of new stars.

With the monkeys I have jumped from branch to branch,

With the lions I have done my lunch.

As a flower I have daily offered to you my little offerings,

As a bird and bee I have sung your praise in every uttering’s.

I have run with the charismatic sun on his golden chariot across the sky.

And in lonely nights have soaked in the motherly love of the timid moon.

Haunted by her scars and spreading love by sacrifice...

 I have witnessed the baby earth waking up to its first morning,

From the arrival of Dinosaurs to the great mammoth,

I have seen them all arrive on its face and disappear again

I have seen the changing moods and faces of sky,

From time immemorial I have seen so many things,

I have laughed, danced and watched the nature at every step of its being,

I have changed places, dresses and names,

And the anonymous I with the same curiosity have seen you again and again.

Still I cannot comprehend, define, nor a end can I find,

Of you and your grand design.

                                                                                        -Debabrata Banerjee  

Gita in brief according to my understanding-2

The second fundamental question that arises after this is if the body is the Khetra then who really is Arjuna and who is Krishna? 

Is Arjuna a particular mortal being or does he represent something else.  Before answering the question let us look at the following slokas.

Antabanta ime deha nityasokta saririna,

Anasino prameyasya tasmat yudhasaya bharata….Chapter 2 verse 18.

Which literally means “Fight, O Bharat (Arjun), because while the bodies which clothe the Soul are said to come to an end, the embodied Spirit itself is forever, indestructible, and boundless.’’

Krishna says to Arjuna “Fight o Arjuna as all bodies are mortal”. He goes on to add that "for a Khatriya (Click on highlighted khatriya to know more) there is no such thing as more rewarding as a fight for dharma (lawful)”(Chapter 2, sloka 31).

He also says that “If you lose the war you will win a place in heavens and if you win you will rule over earth” (Chapter 2, sloka 37) although Arjuna had already proclaimed that “Even if I am given the empire of entire earth and the coveted seat of the ruler of heaven, I am not ready to fight this war” (Chapter 2, sloka 8).

Now returning to the question who is Arjuna?

I feel that Arjuna does not represent a man in particular. The word Arjuna represents divine love (anurag) for the god which is born out of piousness (Pandu). Because if he had been a mere mortal then there would have been no point in Krisna standing as guard for him in the battle field when he (Krishna) himself says that the body is mortal and the soul is immortal.  

Now the question that arises is who is Krishna?

If we believe that Krishna is god then we have to look at the portion of Gita which says “There is no such thing as other God. But whenever a man influenced by desire worships any other God then I myself posing as other God satisfy his desire”(Chapter 7, sloka 21). He also says that “all the species upto Brahma is bound by the cycle of life and death” (Chapter 8, sloka 16).

If we believe that he is incarnation stemmed by these sloka of Gita “Whenever there is an increase in ungodliness and unlawfulness over holiness, I manifest myself and come to destroy evil” (Chapter 4, sloka 07) then one should look at the sloka that follows this sloka more carefully. “My Birth and death are divine which can’t be seen through the mortal eyes and only can be seen by a yogi who knows the reality and thus experiencing the divine phenomenon the yogi is saved from the cycle of life and death”(Chapter 4, sloka 8).

So from the above discussion it becomes clear that Krishna is neither god nor an incarnation. Then who is he?

Krishna himself defines who he really is when he says “only by worship carried on through innumerable births does a sage gain identity with him.” (Chapter 6, sloka 45)There is then not even the least distance between them. He says again that “among all who worship him the wise man of realization is I believe identical with me” (Chapter 7, sloka 18). So it is clear that Krishna is a yogi. One who has become one with godhead or the one and only god, Paramatma. Through his mouth it is now that God himself speaks. It is the same state where Prophet Muhammad had reached through yogic practices and so through him was the Quran revealed.

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Gita in brief according to my understanding

Gita begins with the lines, basically as a question from Dhitarashtra, who is asking Sanjaya:

dharma-kshetre kuru-kshetre, samaveta yuyutsavah
mamakah pandavas caiva, kim akurvata sanjaya…..chapter 1 verse 1

Picture-An artist’s imagination of the conversation between Dhitarashtra and Sanjaya.

Litterally translating the lines into English it comes out to be “O sanjaya! What are my and pandu’s children who have assembled in kurukhetra (with the intention of war) doing at present”

But is the question really that simple...Is Gita only a book describing the events occurring in a battle field (more precisely a collection of dialogues between Arjuna and krishna). If Gita really contains the details of the discussion between Arjuna and Krishna on the battle field doesn’t it sound bizarre?

Let me elucidate my point:

If Arjuna had so many doubts cropping up in his mind about the battle wouldn’t it have been better for him to discuss these aspects with Krishna in a safe place…rather than a battle field? And can any of us imagine today that in a war, which is of such high magnitude (both in terms of the no. of kingdom and kings involved and the impact that it would be having on the country as a whole) all the warriors would be standing at attention to let Arjuna clear up his doubts with Arjuna and let the war commence. Or what a type of warrior is Arjuna who asks spiritual questions and comprehends such deep meaning spiritual and psychological massages on a battle field.

What I feel is that the question the metaphorical and has a far deeper significance. In fact the true nature of khetra (field) is revealed at a later chapter in Gita itself, where Krishna says:-

Idam sariram kaunteya khetra mitya vidhiyate

Etad yo vetti tang prahu khetragya iti tatvida………..verse 1, 13th chap 

The verse means that “This body ours is the khetra and the person who knows it perfectly is known as Khetragya”. So it is clear the khetra that was referred to in the opening verse of Gita, is actually body. But our body is one and the opening verse refers to two khetras, Dharma khetra and kurukhetra. Although our body is one but within the one body there exist two distinct, primeval instincts. There is first the pious treasure of divinity that provides access to the Supreme Spirit who stands for the most sublime dharma. On the other hand, there are the demoniacal impulses made up of impiety which lead a man to accept the mortal world as real. When there is abundance of divinity in the realm of the heart, the body is transmuted into a Dharmkshetra (field of dharma), but it degenerates into a Kurukshetra when it is dominated by devilish forces.

The rest of the Gita is actually based on this fundamental idea that this body is the khetra and the battle that happens is between the two forces inside the body one motivated by piousness and other by demonic desires. It teaches the devotees how to reach the god head? What are the ways to reach him? What one achieves by reaching him...

To be continued.....om tatsat (click on hyperlink to continue)

I love to believe

             I love to believe

When the first rays of the morning sun lightens up my face,

I believe that in that light I can somewhere see your face

When I put my naked feet upon the wet morning grass,

I feel as if you are walking with me holding my hands

And when the gentle breeze ruffles my hair,

I can feel your gentle care.

When the sun’s rays provides me warmth,

I feel I am in the care of your arms

And whenever I look up at the stars,

I feel you are beckoning me with open arms

And when after all day of hard work

I retire home dejected and tired

I feel that you come to me,

In the darkness of the night,

Draped in white moon light,

You come with mother’s care

And with your hands running through my hair,

You send me to sleep, while singing a beautiful lullaby…

Don’t know if all this is just a dream, but still I love to believe…..

                                                                                                    

                                                                     -Debabrata Banerjee  

Eternal Companion

Whose company do you see O jilted lonesome?

Whom do you vainly seek in temples and forests so fearsome?

Why do you seek refuge in vain mortal sensory pleasures?

When in your heart lays the ultimate treasure.

O brother look inside and seek recluse at his lotus feet,

Seek the one whose glory and company supersedes everything for which you ever have plead…

                                                                                               -Debabrata Banerjee  

Ssshhh! Listen

Ssshhh! Listen

Listen calmly O my mind!

To the most beautiful music you can ever find.

In the silence of this moment,

Listen as the universe sings to praise the omniscient.

Let go O my mind,

All your fears dragging you behind,

Let go all your worries,

And like a bird flying in the high skies,

Let your dreams fly like kites.

Believe, believe O my mind;

Believe that you are divine

Believe that neither death nor destruction is for you,

And search for that true bliss lying within you.

Believe in the love of your heavenly father,

Believe that you are neither earth, water, fire nor ether

Nor any of those combined together

You are what your soul says,

You are pure consciousness.

                                                                                               -Debabrata Banerjee  

Consciousness-2

The first breakthrough in understanding consciousness came in 1929, when German neurologist Hans Berger used electrodes placed on the skulls of subjects to measure electrical activity within the brain. Called the Electroencephalogram (EEG), it allowed Berger to discover two types of electrical activity, called alpha and beta waves, that seemed to be linked with key aspects of consciousness.  Whatever consciousness is, it is likely to be linked to so-called brain waves- the rhythmic flows of electrical activity between neurons. Hard-working brains show the fastest type- beta waves with frequencies up to 40 cycles a second (Hz), while resting brains typically show slower, larger amplitude alpha waves. Drowsiness or meditation produces even slower theta waves of 4-7 Hz, while delta waves of just 1-4 Hz appear only during sleep.

Although its systematic study has only just begun, consciousness- in the opinion of some eminent scientists’ today- is an absolutely fundamental part of this universe and cannot simply be computed away as airy metaphysics.

Having to embrace the concurrent existence of complementary properties to explain the quantum world- such as the simultaneous existence of both wave and particle nature for electrons- paves the way for science to find an essential link between consciousness and primary field. From this viewpoint the fundamental realities of the primary field and consciousness are inseparable aspects of the same underlying process.

David Bohm has named this underlying process the implicate order. Basil Hiley suggests: “Mind and matter are but different projections from the deeper implicate order where such a division does not exist.” He also emphasizes that “the implicate order is not some woolly metaphysical construction, it is precisely a description of the underlying process,” which is supported by credible mathematical analysis.

Since coherent superposition is an inherent characteristic of the quantum world, space and time are not expected to be mere numbers at some level. At the deepest level of space even the Plank’s dimensions can be deemed merely as expectation. Bohm and Hiley call this pre-space, which gives rise to John wheeler’s proposed pre-geometry. At the pre-space level according to Bohm and Hiley, the universe is an undivided whole-everything is connected to everything else, and made coherent by the self-organizing property of the quantum potential.

The essence of the implicate order is the one source that unfolds both the primary field (the common source of at least everything physical) and consciousness. Based upon this thesis, it would be logical to infer that the one source of the world’s great spiritual traditions is grounded in scientific reality.

Schrödinger believed in the Vedic concept that all conscious beings are aspects of that same universal entity.(“filled with Brahman are the things we see, filled with Brahman are the things we see not. From out of Brahman floweth all these, from Brahman all, yet he is still the same.”- Isha Upanishad).

 Expressed in terms of our scientific worldview today, consciousness would be manifest when the individual brains quantum state is in resonance with the cosmic potentiality of consciousness. After Schrödinger, we may humbly assert that we are all equipped to be tuners of the universal source of consciousness....

OM TAT SAT....