Third quarter @ Aslesha - flowing world

One who looks upon the flow, is separate from the flow.

Life is a process, things are in movement, things are flowing, body is flowing, time is flowing.

But you, as the watcher, are not flowing.

You, are watching - everything.

Commentary on Sancara's Prakarana Grantha  -  'Clarity of self'

Amrit Warsha    30 October 2019

Thanksgiving moon '19

With a restless, distorted and soiled mind, one cannot access one's core consciousness. And the senses shouldn't be roaming behind varied experiences.

That is why in this culture, for various occasions, various fasting disciplines are prescribed.

Eleventh day of a fortnight -  no cereals, no lunch.

A full moon day - again no cereals, stay in a fruit diet.  A Monday - from sunrise to sunset, dedicate your hunger to Shiwa, and so on.

Sometimes, a fasting prescription comes with a preface and epilogue - foregoing previous night's supper and the next day's breakfast. This leashing of oneself cultivates tolerance. And a strange energy wells up within.

Body is but a shrine of consciousness - and  should not be abused with indiscriminate food, thoughts, sleep.

- Amrit Warsha   August 29, 2019

whirlers' moon

Damodara  Guna-mandira  Sundara Wadana-arawinda  Gowinda
Bhawa Jalathi Mathana Mandara
Paramam Dharam Apanaya Twam mein

Be you the axis in churn of life - and death
Weed out my fear and great anxiety

- Six feet Verses, Sancara

Sancara begins  verse with 'Awinayam apanaya' - 'weed out my arrogance  and demonic tendencies.'

In the sixth verse, he completes the contour with, 'weed out my great anxiety'. 
Seventh verse, is merely an epilogue.

- Shri Chandrashekarendra Saraswati, Kanchi 

first quarter @ Jyeshta '19

Shiva is invoked as Hara.

 Wishnu is invoked as Gowinda.

Go-winda literally translates as cow-protector.

In a larger sense, Gowinda means protector of all life.

Another meaning attributed to Gowinda is, one who has subjugated / sheltered his senses.

-  Shri Chandrashekarendra Saraswati, Kanchi

Third quarter @ Rohini '19

Of 12 sacred names of Wishnu, 3 are associated with Krishna awatar  - Kesawa, Gowinda and Damodara.

Dama - restraint; Udara - belly. He of restrained belly - Damodara.

As punitive measure for stealing  consciousness of stakeholders in dairy business - Yashoda tethered her son to a roller.

Many alwars have chosen this event to compose devotional verse.

-  Shri Chandrashekarendra Saraswati,  Kanchi

moon of Srawishta

Diwya-dunee makarandey
Parimala paribhoga sat-chit-anandey
Shri pati hi Pada arawindey
Bhawa bhaya kedachhide wandey

Pollen of milky way
Fragrant revel of Sat-chit-ananda
Lily sepal toes of divine wealth's Lord
Fragments vicious loop of  life and death 

Shat padi,  Sancara 


Here, Diwya-dunee refers to the event when a dwarf, scaled up his form to become Tri-wi-krama ( breaker of 3 laws ). The mutant measured milky way with his foot. 

For one to revel in fragrant sat-chit-ananda, vicious loop of samsara must be fragmented.

- Shri Chandrashekarendra Saraswati,  Kanchi

Naga Panchami '19

Your senses always travel into the objective world.
And wherever your senses go, your mind follows.

This dynamics causes loss of discrimination, cognition, consciousness.
And energy to travel towards oneself, is lost.

When mind is a follower of  senses, where is the space for it to be quiet, to be still?

 - When mind is slave of sensory faculties

Occultation @ Ashada

Udrita Naga    Naga-pith Anuja    Danuja-kula Amitra    Mitra Shashi Drishtey

Drishtey Bhawati Prabhawati 
Na bhawati Kim ?   Bhawa Tiriskara ha?
- Six feet Verses - Sancara

Lifter of  hill     Sibling of Indra   Slayer of orcs   Gazer of world through sun and moon

Does not world vanish? for one who glimpses the Supreme?

Here, the poet uses Yamaka - to repeat a word to convey different meanings.

- Shri Chandrashekarendra  Saraswati, kanchi

9 summer nights

Philosophy moves farther and farther into the desert. It cannot reach the ocean.

Religion differs here. Religiousness is to gaze at the root of all problems.

Once you see you are not the mind, great transcendence has happened.

Miracle of religion or miracle of meditation is, it solves all problems in a single stroke.

It is a leap, a quantum leap.

Get going beyond the mind - Osho
Speaking Tree   June 30  Chennai  Sunday

moon of Mula

Raging thirst of a human mind, at it's roots, is generally ignored.

This thirst is quenched, when mind returns to it's source and abides.

If it does not rest at it's roots, mind continues in unease.

 Grief, anxiety, depression are merely symptoms of a wailing mind.

And we want to numb it with drugs, pills, alcohol. That is the story of every mind.

- Depression: a spiritual perspective.

Chitta shuddi - Orion crescent

Only truth we know is our puny mind, and the world around us - and both are in flux.

But when our involvement in day to day activities becomes choiceless, that very flow of activity, cleanses our consciousness. Sway of mind is dampened.

Because, in choicelessness we ignore our mind to some extent - as there is little room, for our own  likes and dislikes.

- Shri Chandrashekarendra Saraswati, Kanchi. 

moon of Wishaka '19

Ishwara is in the form of Agni, at Tiruvannamalai.
Shiva-Agni is Subrahmanya.

Flaming spear, Skanda's weapon, is Shakti - Shakti Wel. It is common to worship Dewi, as enshrined in flame of an oil lamp - Bhagawati Sewa.

Wedas begin with the word 'Agni'.  Wedic religion is chiefly about fire worship. Tending of sacred fire - Agni Upasana - is to be done by all classes of people.

And Subrahmanya is presiding deity for fire based rituals. In today's day to day life, idol worship  is more prevalent, than tending of sacred fires.

- Shri Chandrashekarendra Saraswati, Kanchi.

Exalted Luminaires' day

May 6, 7 2019

Sun in Aries

Moon in Taurus, opposite Jupiter 

Maundy Thursday '19

In a churn of events at some point of time, for some chela, 30 pieces of silver seemed more valuable than the Guru.

- Amrit Warsha   16 Feb  2019

Dewi Damanam '19

Sa Brahma  Sa Shiva   Sa Hari   Sa Indra   Sa Akshara   Parama Swarat

- Narayana Suktam,   Black Yajus 

This Self is creator, dissolver, sustainer, ruler, eternal, ultimate sovereign. 

Lenten austerities

The world is a known entity.
So is food, survival, wealth, finding a mate.
One may not need guidance, to walk thru' these zones.

But, to fathom oneself, one needs a Guru.

Because, what you call as oneself, is essentially beyond the purview of your five sensory perceptions.

If the individual self is only finite - can be touched, has visual form, is a sound, can be tasted, has odour, then a Guru has little or no role.

But if it is a continuum, without wraps, edges, attributes, then how does one seek it?

Amrit Warsha,    March 2, 2019.

3rd quarter @ Jyeshta - Pashupati bot

The Pallava relief of Arjunan Tapas shows a pot bellied dwarf standing next to austere Arjuna.

This Gana wearing body armor, is an Ayudha Purusha of Shiva's terrible weapon - Paashupata.

The dwarf wears a frowning smiley on his armored paunch and bears Shiva's missile in his hand.

An identical, but much larger version of the exact same weapon is shown in the hands of Shiva - who towers over his missile-man in the monolithic relief.

In stark contrast there is no smiley on the tummy of the other flanking Gana, who holds up a fly-whisk - which is a mere breeze compared to the tempest that is Pashupata.

Riddle of Tala,     Withal C Nadkarni, 
Speaking Tree       Bengaluru      July 15, 2018

Shodashi, the sixteen

Raaga swarupa Pashadhya  
Korodhakara ankushojwala
Mano rupekshu kodanda; Pancha tanmatra sayaka 

holding fast to a whip, which is metaphor for likes and attachments
a goad that is metaphor for dislikes and severance
a sugarcane as unstrung bow of her mind
a clutch of arrow buds as metaphor for five sensory bots 

-  A thousand names of Lalita

Though there are many temples for Dewi, it is in Kanchi that she is idolised with noose, goad, sugarcane and floral arrows -  as described in opening verses of Lalita's thousand names.

She sits without consort, as reigning queen, receiving six ritualistic worships in the course of  a day, to shower grace upon her worshipers.

- Shri Chandrashekarendra Saraswati, Kanchi 

9 winter nights - 2019

Payas anna priya
Twakstha
Pashu loka bhayankari
Amritadi Maha Shakti Samvrtta
Dakinishwari

pleased with paayasa offerings

deity of touch

striking terror, in humans content with animal-like existence

attended upon by expansive, super-mortal powers - She, the reigning Dakini

- A thousand names of Lalita,    Brahmanda Purana