Glory of the name VAISHAMPAYANA

Vishnu Sahasranamam in the Anushasan Parva of the Mahabharata is very famous. It starts with the words VAISHAMPAYANA UVACHA. (वैशंपायन उवाच).

I used to wonder why Sri Vyasa had chosen to commence such a beautiful and exalted Hymn with a dull looking name?
But I was proved wrong.

An analysis of the name VAISHAMPAYANA will explain the same.

Vayam (वयं)+ Sham (शं)+ Paayana (पायन)

वयं meaning "We"
शं meaning "Bliss or Happiness"
पायन meaning "a person who gives drink"

VAISHAMPAYANA would then mean
A PERSON WITH WHOM WE DRINK BLISS
or One who makes us drink Bliss.

Such is the Glory of His name.

Sol Ara Summa Iru (சொல் அர சும்மா இரு)

Singing and humming I was bound homeward,
Elders said, "Hush..Be Silent, without a word".

At School I went with the spirits high,
Teacher said, " Be quiet, don't you Fly".

Tired I tried to earn bread my own,
The boss said, " Keep quiet and work with the head down".

I just couldn't figure out the reason ,
Why the world Shouts and screams just this one.

"Summa Iru- Don't speak, shut the mouth tight",
I wondered if I could at least open up for a bite.

Saddened by this world stance,
At the Guru I looked askance.

My fears were right for he too stood by the world,
'Sol Ara Summa Iru' he just told.

Fed up of the world and its beings,
I became silent, without thoughts or things.

And Lo I heard the Song of Existence!,
It sang out loud and clear, I wished I could dance.

I ran to the world but what could I say,
For each can travel and reach this way.

"The World is always right,
Summa Iru is the Path to Light."

Come dear folk let us be quiet,
And know the Sound of Silence as broad daylight.

They say it's the Path and the End.
Let's rejoice , it is all to Good End.

( Sol Ara Summa Iru could be understood as "Without a word Be still")

Muniyandi Vilas ( Residence of Muniyandi)

Note: The below write-up assumes that the reader has knowledge of the Inner sound and its Glory)

Sometime back during my drive to office I happened to see an old eating joint whose name was Muniyandi Vilas. I was given to believe that many of the non vegetarian messes in Tamil Nadu had this strange name.

If one were to examine it in the light of Ek Omkar, the word Muniyandi is a fantastic word.

Muni- this represents the silent person. One can be silent both physically and mentally only when he/she has had the opportunity of listening to the music within. A music which is on 24x7, 365 days for all the 60-70 years we live. Once this music is heard, the hearer or listener becomes silent with respect to the speaking/interacting world. He may speak here and there but not too much. And surely he will make sense only for those who have themselves heard the Sound.

Aandi- represents a person who has no  possessions of his own. Neither does need to accumulate for the future.  He lives without a care. He is ever engrossed in the Inner sound which possesses us all and is the maker of the Universe.( Omkar). When ever any need arises in him,  the same get satiated by His will.

Vilas- This represents a house.

If we could achieve the status of Muni+ Aandi,  our bodies would be the Muniyandi Vilas( the Residence of the Muniyandi).

Such is His Name and Glory.

KADAVULE

KADAVULE
Chandru's cry

Oh Kadavule! Oh My God!

I didn't know you when I was small,
Then my parents were All.

When I slowly grew
they said I could bank on You.

My needs were a plenty,
You did help on many.

But now when I think of you,
are you there for me or just a sham show.

Or have I got it all wrong ?
They say Kadavul is like the unstruck sound.

Pray guide me and show the path.
Cries Chandru, Save me from the mind's wrath.

God says,

I carry the answer in my name.
"Transcend the within", that's the game.

Then You and I shall cease to be.
Being alone shall then Be.

Happiness is your choice .
Aimlessness is the mind's device.

Make the mind your friend,
Transcend it and Reach the Final End

( KADAVUL= Transcend the Within)

Quieten the Monkey mind

This was in January 2015 when I had visited my brother in Faridabad.

In the neighbourhood was another group of flats where a Langur(a leaf monkey) was tied. The poor fellow was sitting in a tin shed in the bitter winter cold. I wondered why someone would tie a Langur, that too in this posh Faridabad locality.

I was given to understand that Faridabad was famous for its notorious monkeys which could in quick time enter the house and spoil everything they could lay their hands on. Not to talk of dirtying the place. It was to rid the place of the monkey menace that this ingenious method of tying the Langur had been resorted to.
The Langur was a natural enemy of the monkey and on seeing a Langur the monkeys stayed away.

But this had a great lesson for me.

My mind was like a monkey.  Jumping from one branch of thought to the other. And laying to waste all my energies and also the Goodwill of the people who loved me. How do I rid my mind of these troublesome monkeys?

The Langur called Ram Naam was the answer. If I tied the Ram Naam Japa to my mind, the jumping thoughts ( monkeys) will not dare venture in and disturb the calm.

Such is the glory of Japa. It can rid the mind of all the vacillations and keep it serene and calm .

My joy knew no bounds. This visit to Faridabad had taught such a beautiful lesson to me.

I am sure the readers will also appreciate the need for tying a Langur( Japa) in the mind to achieve peace from the monkey mind.

Yes Ram Ram is also a thought, but by tying to the mind one Ram thought, we can endeavour to keep at bay the multiple monkey thoughts.

We could later give up even the one Ram thought to move forward towards AJAPA.

( The blogger can be contacted at guruikonkar@gmail.com)

सुनिये- Listen and Prosper

In the Japji Sahib ( Pauris 8 to 11) Nanakji glorifies to no end the utility of listening.

We tend to listen to others whom we like or where we expect to gain by listening to someone. Even when we are listening the mind is evaluating whether the speaker makes sense or not and whether he is speaking something useful or not.

But the listening that Nanakji is mentioning here is to the Oangkar within.

Oangkar, which literally means the Resonance of OM, is heard in All of us if the mind has been silenced, its inquisitive nature has become quietened and the long list of wants thrown away.

It is a continuous speech or sound which goes on and on. The beauty of the Sound is that it gives us joy in ways which are quite incredible.

This is the AJAPA japa which is  going  on in all of us. Technically this is the next step after Japa and Pooja. Once we have listened to this Oangkar music and seen its miracle at work, our hold on routine religious acts slowly wither away.

Technically only a person who has arrived will be willing to listen. In the case of the others their minds will still try to influence the listening process. They will have to put in a lot of effort and wait.

As Nanakji himself says, The Antaryami, the Ordainer, must decide in order that we listen .

Mind you,  the speaker within is in no hurry whatsoever to hasten us to listen. It can wait indefinitely.

But don't we want progress?
Riddance from pain and sorrow?
And the constant fear of the morrow? How long to keep crying for this and that and never be satisfied?

Listening is the way to Peace, says Nanakji.

Nanakji glorifies listening saying that the listener becomes a King, Deva etc. Our worldly mind will ask how could this be  possible?

The only simple answer which could be offered here is, first listen for yourself and see. Plunge yourself into the sea of inner silence. Don't think of God or the world or even yourself.
Just Listen and you will see how you are on top of the WORLD. Then the World and all its wealths will not matter to You.

Please note that this process of listening is not to make one lazy. This is not to be taken as an escape from the detailed religious processes. It is a very intense process which is to be done on a 24×7 basis. From part time religion we are moving towards Full time Truth Seeking activity.

( The blogger can be contacted at guruikonkar@gmail.com)

Japji Sahib - Mool Mantra- Meaning

मूल मन्त्र

इक, ओङ्कार, सत, नाम, कर्ता, पुरख, निर्भव, निर्वैर, अकाल, अमूरत, अजूनी, सैभञ्, गुरु, प्रसाद।

इक= All Saints have emphasised the need for Love as the ultimate emotion. But what is Love? It is a feeling of Oneness. Like a Mother and her Child. They are two but they are One. In this word इक we have to feel such Oneness for the whole Universe. Just as we feel for our hand so should we feel for husband, wife, brother or sister or any body else. Such an emotion we must have for animals, plants and even inanimate objects. It is a great feeling of happiness.The other person may or may not understand this concept but we must maintain this emotion.
This emotion does not have a counter emotion like Like- Dislike. It also is not just an emotion of being nice to people without expecting anything in return. Love  is a nobler emotion rather the ultimate emotion.
Such is the beauty of the One. The One is not a person(noun) as we understand God. It is an emotion(verb). So इक is not a count but it is an emotion/feeling of Oneness. The more we practice it the more we can perfect it and get immersed in the Truth.
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ओङ्कार = Sri Osho in his discourses as well as Sri Sandeep Maheshwari have explained the presence of the inner sound. Even Sri Ramana has talked of the speech of Sri Dakshinamurthy as a continuous speech unlike our speech. This sound can be heard with or without an ear plug. This is the Sound of Existence .

Nanakji has talked of Oangkar (Omkar) and not just of Om. What could this mean? It means the RESONANCE of OM. Like the sound we hear when a bell is struck. There is a Resonance. The understanding is that - All EXISTENCE is One and but appears many due to the  Resonance of the sound. Omkar is the Universe with You and Me. All the good things and the not so good things are Omkar.

'Ik Oangkar' elucidates how the One has become Many.

In a discourse Sri Osho once mentioned about the three words Omniscient( One who knows All), Omnipresent( One who is present everywhere) and Omnipotent (One who is All powerful). How these words use OMN( ओमन्) to indicate the All powerful. This OMN is our OM, says Sri Osho.
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सत, नाम,

The next two words are Sat and Naam. Many places this is read as Satnaam to mean True Name. We will try to understand them as two separate words.

Sat: meaning Existence. Existence is there when the world exists and also when it ceases to exist. Like Omkar which is a continuous sound, Existence is continuous. Whether something exists or doesn't exist, Existence always is there.
So Existence is Truth. That which exists at all times. Be it the past, the present or the future. Be it in dream, sleep or in waking. Such is the Glory of the Almighty.

Naam- Omkar is The Name. Here we should also understand the concept of Naam Japa. Technically Japa is performed by loud recital or by silent chanting or by mental chanting. In all these activities the chant is due to the effort of the chanter. However when we focus on the inner sound after silencing the mind and switching off from the external sounds, the chanting or singing takes place automatically. Without any exertion from our end. We are just a silent spectator. And it goes on and on. External voices and worries of the mind can dim the inner sound, but the sound is there for ever. They call it Anahat Shabda , the unstruck Sound. The clap of one hand.
I call her Sruti, the one that is heard. Strangely she seems to know every mental move of ours and it is great to surrender to Her.
Once She is known then the question of Japa( chanting) and asking this and that  recedes to the background. She knows all our needs and we only have to listen to Her. She is the One, Omkar, Sat, Naam.
( Note: Readers could also call her as He or It)
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कर्ता, पुरख,

Here again the words Karta and Purakh are treated as one to mean Karta Purusha meaning Creative Being.

If the literal meaning of the words are considered Karta would mean the Doer of the ritual and Purakh( the ancestor)the recipient of ritualistic prayer/offering.
So literally it means that If one did a ritual, he was offering it to himself. Here again Nanakji is explaining the concept of IK- One.

In this context I will share a story where in one gentleman was constantly complaining to a saint that the others are doing wrong. They do this and that and still get away with it. But to the gentleman's annoyance, he got no support from the saint. He got upset and cried - " I keep on saying about them yet you don't listen." To this the saint replied," THERE ARE NO OTHERS". (अन्ये न सन्ति।)
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निर्भव, निर्वैर

This is another pair of beautiful words. These are translated as Fearless ( निर्भय) and Without hatred ( निर्वैर).

We could see this also in light of IK, The One. The first word of निर्भव would literally mean One without a change, no birth, childhood, youth, old age or death. There is no becoming - Nir Bhava. Hence no cause for fear regarding Himself.
The next word Nirvair (निर्वैर) is another beauty. We can have hatred and fear of enemies only when there are two. But there are no others. All is One- IK. So no Vair(वैर)
No fear- only bliss and joy.
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अकाल, अमूरत,

The words in the text read as Akaal Murat meaning Timeless Form, Undying Form.

However by separating the two words we obtain Akaal meaning Ageless. The One ( IK) is an ageless Being. We cannot comprehend since when it has existed. So he is the Ancient Being.

Amurat- would mean that which does not have any fixed form. It appears as the Chair, as Cloud, as Car, as anything and everything else including Void or Space.
To say that it is of this form only would definitely be an error. Yes, whatever it is, it is the One.
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अजूनी
Ajooni is interpreted as the Unborn
Ajooni could also be explained as One who is not Old but ever fresh like the beautiful flower. In the word Akaal we had called him Timeless, but here we call Him as Ever Young.
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सैभञ् ,गुरु, प्रसाद

Saibhan is interpreted as Swayambhu, one who manifests on His own. That which is not born from another.

Saibhan could also be explained as With Shine or Self Shining or Self Revealed.
This is a great blessing for the Bhaktas.
Only if He shines and reveals to us the One( IK) path towards Glory, can we be saved from the Bhava Chakra.

When He shines and shows the path he becomes our Guru.

LIBERATION is his Prasad the Blessings.

Nanakji is completing the Mul Mantra with an indication of the Final Goal

Japji Sahib- in Hindi (पौरियाँ 1-15)

नानक देव की जपजी साहिब ( हिन्दी में)

मूल मन्त्र
इक, ओङ्कार , सत, नाम, कर्ता, पुरख, निर्भव, निर्वैर, अकाल, अमूरत, अजूनी, सैभञ्, गुरु, प्रसाद।
जप:-
आदि सच, युगादि सच, है भी सच,
नानक! जो होये भी सच।।

सोच सोच कर न जानें गर सोचें लाखों बार।
चुप रहकर भी न जानें  चाहे ध्यान लगे एकतार।
भूख है एसी जो न मिटे चाहे पुरियां खायें पहार।
हजारों लाखों कर्तब भी न ले जायें उस पार।
कैसे सचियारा होईये कैसे झूठ का हो पर्दाफ़ाश।
हुकम मान कर चलना नानक कहें हैं राज़।। १।।

हुकमी होये आकार हुकम न कहिया जाई |
हुकमी होये जीव हुकम से मिले बढा़ई ||
हुकमी उत्तम नीच हुकम का लेखा दुख सुख पाये ।
कहीं हुकमी बखशीश और कहीं हुकमी सदा घुमाये ।।
हुकम के अंदर सब हैं  बाहर हुकम न कोइ |
नानक हुकम को जो बुझैं वो "मैं हूं" कहै न कोइ || २ ||

गाये बलवान रब के बल का बखान।
गाये दानवीर रब है बडा दयाल।।
गाये गुणवान रब के गुणों का गान।
गाये पंडित बडे तर्कों से ही उसको जान।
गाये कोई वह तन को सजाये फिर मिटाये।
गाये कोई वह जीवन ले फिर दे।
गाये कोई वह है बडा दूर।
गाये कोई हमें पास से देख रहा है हुज़ूर।
उसकी गाथा गायें कई।
कथायें भी हैं कोटि कोटि।
रब देता न थके, लेने वाले पर थक जाये।
युगों युगों से यह चलता आये।
हुकमी की हुकम चलाये राह।
नानक! वह विकसे बेपरवाह।। ३।।

साचे साहिब के साचे नाम को लेना प्यार से पूर।
भक्ता मांगे और और, दाता दे बढ़िया दान भरपूर।
उसके दरबार में क्या हम पेश करें।
उसके प्यार के लिये क्या अल्फ़ाज़ कहें।
अमृत वेला में सच का करें बढ़िया विचार।
कर्म से मिले है शरीर, उसकी नज़र से माेक्ष द्वार।
हे नानक! इसे जानिये, सब कुछ है सचियार।। ४ ।।

वह स्थापित न होये,  उसे बनाया भी न जाये ।
वह अपने आप निरंजन होये।
उसके सेवक पाये मान।
नानक गुण गाईये उस गुणी निधान।
गाईये सुनिये मन में रखिये प्यार।
दुःख जाये दूर घर ले जायें खुशियार।
गुरु के शब्द हैं नाद और वेद, संसार उससे पूरी समाई।
गुरु ईश्वर गुरु गोरख ब्रह्मा गुरु पार्वत माई।
गुरु ने 'इक' दी व समझाई।
"सब जीवों का 'इक' है दाता" यह मैं भुला न जाई।।५।।

मैं तुझे भाया तीर्थ नहाया बिन भाये क्या स्नान कर्म।
नज़र दौडाऊं जीवों पर, क्या पायें वो बिन किये कर्म?
मन में रतन जवाहर माणिक, गुरु की जब 'इक' सीख सुनी।
गुरु ने 'इक' दी और समझाई।
"सब जीवों का 'इक' है दाता" यह मैं भुला न जाई।। ६ ।।

गर आयु तेरी चार युग, या उसके दस गुना होये।
गर नव खंडों में सब जानें तुझे, साथ चलें सब कोई।
गर बडा नाम पाया तूने, यश कीर्ति से जग पुकारे तुम्हें।
जिसपे उसकी नज़र न आवै, उसकी बात न पूछे कोई।
वह कीटों में छोटा कीट रहे ,दोषी भी उस पर दोष धरें।
नानक! गुणहीन को वह गुणवान करे, गुणवानों को गुणों से भरे।
उस जैसा न कोई सूझे जो किसी को गुणी करे ।। ७।।

सुनिये सिद्ध पीर सुरनाथ ॥
सुनिये धरती धवल आकाश ॥
सुनिये द्वीप लोक पाताल ॥
सुनिये पकड़ सकै न काल ॥
नानक भक्ता सदा विकास॥
सुनिये दुःख पाप का नास॥८॥

सुनिये ईश्वर ब्रह्मा इंद्र ॥
सुनिये तारीफ़ करेंगे मन्द ॥
सुनिये योग युक्ति तन भेद ॥
सुनिये शाश्त्र स्मृति और वेद ॥
नानक भक्ता सदा विकास ॥
सुनिये दुःख पाप का नास ॥९॥

सुनिये सत संतोष और ज्ञान॥
सुनिये अढ़सठ धाम का स्नान ॥
सुनिये पढे़ पाठे पावे मान ॥
सुनिये लागे सहज ध्यान ॥
नानक भक्ता सदा विकास ॥
सुनिये दुःख पाप का नास ॥१०॥

सुनिये सागर गुणों की गहराई॥
सुनिये शेख पीर बादशाही॥
सुनिये अंधे पावे राह ॥
सुनिये हाथ लगै अथाह॥
नानक भक्ता सदा विकास॥
सुनिये दुःख पाप का नास॥११॥

मनन की गति कही न जाये।
वह जो कहै पीछे पछताये।
न कागज़ कलम न लिखनहार।
जो मनन का बाहर कर सकें विचार।
ऐसा नाम निरंजन है।
मननकार का मन ही जानै।। १२।।

मनन से मन बुद्धी में स्मृति।
मनन से भुवनों की सुधि।
मनन से मुख पे चोट न खावै।
मनन से यम साथ न जावै।
ऐसा नाम निरंजन है।
मननकार का मन ही जानै ।।१३।।

मनन से मार्ग में न बाधा पावें।
मनन से मर के भी प्रतिष्ठा से जावें।
मनन से कभी न भटकें पंथ।
मनन से ही बने धर्म संबंध।
ऐसा नाम निरंजन है।
मननकार का मन ही जानै।। १४ ।।

मनन से पायें मोक्ष द्वार।
मनन से बच जाये परिवार।
मनन तरे तारे गुरु शिष्य।
मननकार न मांगे भिक्ष्य।
ऐसा नाम निरंजन है।
मननकार का मन ही जानै।। १५ ।।