Krttika - the star of fire

The gods beamed with silent pride.

For, without their cooperation and efforts, it would not be possible for the archer, to blow up the alignment.

And Shiva aborted launch; stepped down from the vehicle.

Gazed at the conjunction.

Became radiant, broke into a smile.

It proved too much for the alignment.

It bloomed into flames.

- from Wikipedia.

third quarter at Aslesha

Words move, music moves
Only in time; but that which is only living
Can only die. Words, after speech, reach
Into the silence. Only by the form, the pattern,
Can words or music reach
The stillness, as a Chinese jar still
Moves perpetually in its stillness.
Not the stillness of the violin, while the note lasts,
Not that only, but the co-existence,
Or say that the end precedes the beginning
And the end and the beginning were always there 
Before the beginning and after the end.
And all is always now.

T S Eliot,  Four Quartets

Ashwini - the moon of thanksgiving

Cherukunnam is an Annapoorna Kshetra in Kerala.

Devotees and visitors are fed in the temple.

And from a branch of a tree close to the temple, a bag of cooked rice is hung - every night.

So, even thieves, and anti-social elements can satiate their hunger - after dark.

That no one be tormented by hunger, near this shrine - is the intent.

- Shri Chandrashekarendra Saraswati, Kanchi.

Waxing gibbous at Bhadrapada

Chittiraiyil Onam mudar seer Aani Uthiramaam
sathu dhanu Adiraiyum saarwagum 
Buddhi walar Maasi Ari Kanni maruvu chaturdashi min 
reesarabisheka dinamam
iwai Nakshtiram udayathilum tithi - maalaiyilumam.

- Shri Natarajar Abisheka Wenbaa

At Shrawana in the Spican month; at Uttara Bhadrapada in the month of Anusha
In the arching bow at Aardra
In the months of Aquarius, Lion and Virgin at the fourteenth gibbous of waxing intelligence
Are six days of Abisheka rituals
Sidereal days are dawn rituals; dusk rituals on waxing moon nights.

 - Shri Nataraja anointment quatraine

festive autumn nights

Dewi as Annapoorna bestows anna bhiksha and gnana bhiksha upon us.
Her body is gnana or mere knowing.

She is the origin of all alphabets, sounds and transcendental mantras, says Adi Sancara - Aadi Kshaantha samastha warnananakari -

And Thayumanawar addresses the Divine as 'intelligence' - Ariwaana Deiwamey - 

And from this universality people from north and south, travelled to southern sea town of Rameswaram and northern Waranasi.
Now, in the name of a secular world view, we have buried religion.

Amid intellectuals, Samskrit language was a common thread.
Today, Samskrit has been somewhat  'finished'.
And hindi speaking people now seek to finish off  the English language, that has provided the much needed common ground.

- Shri Chandrashekarendra Saraswati, Kanchi 

first quarter at jyeshta

In the shadow of happiness, lurks unhappiness.

Because, inauspicious-ness and auspicious-ness are siblings - they are conjoined Siamese twins.

For auspicious-ness to happen, one needs the inauspicious.

If there were no black, there would be no white.

In reality, there is nothing auspicious or inauspicious.

To one who abides in totality, what is auspicious, is auspicious.
And what is inauspicious, also becomes auspicious.

When living becomes choiceless, then life becomes genuine.

Diwali greetings,
Rishi Chaitanya Ashram.

moon, earth, shadow at Shrawana

pAkAri widhi hari prANamaya kOSA nilAkASa bhUmi salilAgni praKASa Siva

Pranic cache of Indra, Brahma and Vishnu
Auspiciousness that illumines wind, space, earth, water and fire

SUna Sara sUdanajnAna hara paSupatE
jnAna guruguha satchitAnanda maya mUrtE
hIna jAti kirAta kEna pUjita kIrtE

Queller of the flower arrowed archer, annihilator of shadowy untruths,
Lord beyond food, pleasure, fear and sleep
Knower at cave of one's heart,
icon of truth - consciousness - bliss
Cared for by the tribal huntsman

Sri KALa hastiSa - Muthuswamy Dikshitar, Raga - Huseni

naga panchami

Body and mind are not two things -  but two ends of one.

Body, the outermost shell; consciousness, the innermost core.

So, when knowing becomes non-wavering, body is still.

Non-wavering knowing resides in a non-wavering body – but the converse is not true.

If mind becomes still, body becomes still.

Then a mysterious phenomenon happens.

If your mind is totally still, then even if you are dancing, you will feel - from inside -  that the body is still.

A Buddha is still, even while walking.
A non-Buddha is not still, even when he is dead.

Still mind, dancing body, the speaking tree, Bengaluru, May 7, 2017

9 summer nights

Amara Simha agreed to debate with Sancara - but from behind a curtain.

And countered queries with flourish and elan.

Sancara divined the situation - and appealed to Dewi as Saraswati who was enshrined in a pitcher, veiled by the curtain.

She vacated the pitcher of AwAhan, and the curtain fell down to reveal Amara's upasana secrets to the assembly.

Soon Amara accepted defeat.

Saraswati means, one who resides in Saras or still waters. Still water is metaphor for knowing.

In the time of Sancara, waters of knowing were stagnant.
His work was to address the stagnation, and usher in clarity and stillness.

A sloka speaks of Sancara as, one who purged Saraswati to restore Saraswati.

- Shri Chandrashekarendra Saraswati, Kanchi.

Waxing gibbous of Wishaka

Semmaan magalai thirudum thirudan
Pemmaan Murugan piravaan iravaan
Summa iru soll ara endralumey
amma porul ondrum arindilaney


Heart-throb of  huntsman's daughter
Murugan, Lord eternal
When he bade me, be still . . . ,
the world vanished - became void

-  The  experience  of  Skanda   -   Arunagirinathar

Dewi's subjugation

Tasyai tapo damaha karmeti pratishta vedaha sarvaangaani satyam aayatanam.

Intensity, subjugation and activity are foundations/
Knowings are limbs/
Truth, it's fulcrum// 

- Kena Upanishad 4.8, - paragraph 33 -

The simple story is loaded with symbolism.

The Brahman, the three gods - Agni, Wayu, Indra - selected from numerous vedic gods, 

the choice of one goddess from many - goddess Uma -   revealing spiritual knowledge,

as well as the phrasing of the type, 'the wonderful being',
are allegories, that refer to the Upanishad's spiritual themes. 

Devas themselves are allegorical reference to sensory and intellectual capabilities of man.
The war, symbolizing challenges a man traces, in his journey through life. 

- Kena Upanishad, Wikipedia.

moon of Regulus

Rash as a giddy moth that woos the flame
Kama seized the moment prepared to aim

Harasthu kincit pariluptadhairya ha 
Chandrodayam iva amburashi hi.

Like the moon's tug to the sea at rest
came passion stealin o'er the Hermit's breast.

- Canto III -
Kama Dahanam,     
Kumarasambhavam,
Kalidasa, Translation - Ralph T H Griffith

Lenten diligence

Water from highlands flow downward.

But with intensity, when transformed to vapor, rise upward -  to reach  heights, ride on clouds and travel sunward.

A non-violent mind,  is refined, vaporized, reaches peaks - eager to waft into freedom, divinity.

- Violent minds harbor uneasiness.
Speaking tree, November 06, 2016.

moon of rising consciousness

There are no 2 different forces in the world.
Only the directions are different.

Quite like climbing up or down a flight of stairs.
Both heaven and hell are on the same stairs.

Occasionally, a few people turn back and find their heaven - when their life energy retracts inward and rises upward.

It all depends on orientation of one's mind.
Violence is downward flow.
Non-violence is upward.

- Violent minds harbour uneasiness - OSHO.
  The Speaking Tree, Bengaluru, November 6, 2016.