Criticism has no peace
Either in the inner world
Or the outer world.
~~~
Forgiveness
Is mightier
Than the mightiest
~~~
The aspiring heart
Makes my life
Beauty’s heart-garden
By: Sri Chinmoy
Aphorisms from Seventy Seven Thousand Service Trees part 33 by Sri Chinmoy
Photo by Prabhakar: Sri Chinmoy Centre Galleries
If you can disentangle
yourself from your selfish self
all heavenly spirits
will stand ready to serve you
if you can finally hunt down
your own beastly self
you have the right
to claim Solomon’s kingdom
you are that blessed soul who
belongs to the garden of paradise
is it fair to let yourself
fall apart in a shattered house
you are the bird of happiness
in the magic of existence
what a pity when you let
yourself be chained and caged
but if you can break free
from this dark prison named body
soon you will see
you are the sage and the fountain of life
By: Rumi
Translation by: Nader Khalili
Photo by Prabhakar: Sri Chinmoy Centre Galleries
Anger says:
"I can destroy
The whole world."
Peace says:
"Not when I work
Inside you."
By: Sri Chinmoy
Photo by Unmesh Sri Chinmoy Centre Galleries
WHAT is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?—
No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep and cows:
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:
No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
By: W.H.Davies
Photo by Pranlobha: Sri Chinmoy Centre Galleries
Conquer the angry man by love.
Conquer the ill-natured man by goodness.
Conquer the miser with generosity.
Conquer the liar with truth.
From: The Dhammapada
Photo by Trishatur, Sri Chinmoy Centre Galleries.
Traditionally science and spirituality have been at loggerheads. Science is concerned with man’s material success, spirituality, on the other hand, is interested in man’s inner realities. Is this conflict inevitable, or can the different arts of science and spirituality be complementary?
"Science has the capacity to show mankind the full development of the mental life. Spirituality has the capacity to show mankind the possibility and inevitability of the life beyond the mind, the supramental life."
– Sri Chinmoy [1]
Science deals with the finite, material world; it examines the functioning of matter. Spirituality considers the inner reality, a consciousness that cannot be explained by mental reasoning. This creates a division, the scientific mind says, "only what can be proved on an outer level is meaningful." In response the ancient spirituality of yoga suggests; "the material world that we see is actually maya, an illusion."; the underlying reality of the universe, is what we feel in our silent meditation. On one level, science and spirituality deal in seemingly mutually exclusive methodologies
Science argues that progress comes from improvements in our material well-being. In this regard, science and technology have been of great help in developing better living standards for man. However, although science has helped increase material well-being in society, this has quite often, not led to increased happiness. Spirituality states that, what is important is not the accumulation of material comforts; real abiding happiness comes through living in harmony with our soul. Thus science and spirituality offer 2 very diverse approaches to the meaning of life and human happiness.
However, to expect the same thing from science and spirituality is perhaps a mistake. They offer different truths and explain different aspects of creation. There is no reason why science and spirituality cannot be harmonised.
Science creates material power. With the technology of science we can destroy the world, or we can harness its power for the betterment of humanity. If spirituality is the guiding force behind science, technology can be used to transcend the poverty and ignorance of man. If science is used only as an instrument of power, its results can lead to destruction and suffering.
Spirituality believes in the inner life, but spirituality does not involve just a retreat from the world. Real spirituality involves the manifestation of spiritual ideals. Both, the inner and outer world, are aspects of God’s creation. For its manifestation spirituality requires the help and knowledge of science. In this regard, science is an invaluable mechanism for the dissemination of spirituality’s message.
"Let us listen to the message of Matter through the voice of science. Let us listen to the message of the Spirit through the voice of spirituality. Finally, let us not forget that spirituality is the soul and science is the body."
Article by Richard Pettinger
Oxford, Sri Chinmony Centre,
References
[1] Excerpt from Eastern Light For The Western Mind by Sri Chinmoy.
| [2] | Excerpt from Songs Of The Soul by Sri Chinmoy. |
Religious and artistic similarities between the Jewish, Christian and Islamic faiths are to be shown in a ground breaking exhibition of some of the world’s earliest surviving sacred texts.
Sacred: Discover What We Share, opening tomorrow at the British Library in London, will feature rare and exquisite examples of early Bibles, Korans and Torahs.
Graham Shaw, the head curator of the exhibition, said the show was conceived in order to explore and examine the interactive nature of these sacred texts.
"What can been seen is that the Old Testament Christian Bible is essentially the same as the Hebrew Bible of Judaism, and in turn, Islam takes many of its stories from Christianity and Judaism. There is a textual link that can be studied in the exhibition," he said.
Sacred Discovery what we Share at British Library
news info from Independent
Lord Rama
Book Review – The Song of Rama by Vanamali
By: Kate Carvalho
As a dedicated fan of Vanamali’s spectacular The Play of God My heart skipped a beat when I saw her latest book The song of Rama on a book stall. I knew it would be hard to match the genius that is The Play of God, but I was more than ready to delve into the dense forests that play host to the epic that is The Song of Rama
Being fairly ignorant of Rama I was curious to acquaint myself with this first of Avatars or human descendent s of Vishnu himself, who descends to earth from time to time in order to redeem mankind from the treacherous grasp of ignorance, usually personified in a terrible and almighty Rakshasa or demon.
It seems as though Rama has come up against quite a bit of flack since his reign, as Vanamali dedicates quite a bit of narrative to his defense. I have to admit there were times during the story where I was ready to fling the book out the window in a fit of rage against the seemingly unthinkable stone heartedness of Rama towards the stainless Sita. Thus the need for Vanamali’s explanations and indeed justifications of Rama’s actions. Ultimately I discover that Rama did not come down to earth to please Sita, himself or me. His main purpose was to establish and extol dharma or righteousness. And that he did – at all costs, and for this he must be applauded.
I was expecting ‘The song of Rama’ to be just like The Play of God but with Rama replacing Krishna as the lead role. This expectation was proved to be all wrong by the great author Vanamali. The story of Rama is vastly different than that of Krishna, and Vanamali has treated it thus in an entirely different manner. Whereas The Play of God was a sensuous feast of prose, beauty and enchantment, the story of Rama begins with sorrow, continues with sorrow and ends with more sorrow. Unlike Krishna who in his earthly foray still maintained his superhuman godliness, Rama, although divine, was a man, with the same frailties, weaknesses and susceptibilities, He is more like us – more human, and in a way his actions more instructive to those of us who still operate on the human level. Sri Chinmoy – an authority on Rama, poses this question …"if an Avatar does not play the human role, who is going to follow him?"
Rama and Sita sacrificed their own happiness for the sake of the Kingdom, nay – for the sake of humanity and it is through their sacrifice that we have prospered. Even the hardest of hearts would have found it difficult to not shed a tear throughout the duration of the story at the enormity of Sita and Rama’s anguish.
The Song of Rama is an engaging and colourful read, a bitter-sweet love story replete with kingdoms, heroes, scandal, trickery, devotion, battles, honour, Monkey armies, demons… rendered in beautiful language – all the ingredients for a great and enthralling story which will inspire you, break your heart, but ultimately make you a better person.
By: Kate Carvalho
Kate Carvalho resides in beautiful Christchurch, New Zealand. She has a penchant for and regularly writes about cooking, reading, health, sports, music but most importantly spirituality and meditation. She has been studying the latter under the tutelage of New York based Indian spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy since the year 2000.
Related:
The Song of Rama by Vanamali at Blue Dove Press
The Song of Rama by Vanamali at Amazon.com
My Rama is My All – by Sri Chinmoy. A play about the life of Rama