The way I see it

Over the years now I have been watching both Hollywood and Bollywood movies and have enjoyed watching both the styles of movie making. There are of course several differences in hollywood and Indian movies and I am not the right person to elaborate those. But one thing did strike me a few weeks ago. There was a common thread in Hollywood movies which was rarely seen in Indian movies. It seems to me that movies made in USA do not trace the lives of their characters till the end of the particular story that they are exploring in the lives of the characters. For example, in the movie "Primal Fear", Richard Gere finds out in the end that he was being cheated and lied to by his client and the movie just ends there. It was a great ending, no doubt! The same movie was remade in Bollywood and they had to trace the story to the end where the lawyer takes his revenge with his client and all is well in the end. To put it in other words, every action will result in a reaction and Indian ...

I was thinking of the Vedanta concept of God being everywhere. He being the essence of everything that exists and that does not exist. The soul (or sanskrit "Purusha") is present in every being and non-being. While I was thinking about this, something suddenly came to my mind. Consider a painter or an artist who has created a beautiful painting. Won't you say that this painting is a part of that artist? The painting is a reflection of the artist's nature, his mood, his state of mind, an expression of himself. And all this gets poured into that art form when he creates it. So the essence of every art form lies somewhere in the artist himself. Isn't that similar to God and his creation? He creates everything out of himself and no doubt everything will have His essence, His presence in it. As if He has put life into everything. The artist creating magnificent forms pouring out his soul, his essence in everything that he touches. The result is this magnificent uni...

Last weekend (Jan 30th), Swami Atmarupananda was here in Phoenix. He is a monk in the Ramakrishna order. I took some notes at his lecture on Sadhana or spiritual discipline. So I am presenting his thoughts as I understood them, for my own benefit and for whoever else that might benefit from it. Here it is. A serious spiritual life starts with the urge to find answers to the basic questions of life. Lets first understand what Sadhana (spiritual discipline), Sadhaka(aspirant) and Sadhya(goal) mean to each one of us. We have to first ask ourselves what is my goal in spiritual life? What is it that I am seeking? Our nature will determine what our goal will be in spiritual life. The sadhaka should then try to answer the question of "who am I"? This can be answered by understanding ones own temperament, whether I am devotional or action oriented or want to work with my mind, etc. Once we understand what our inclinations are we can be more clear about our goals and finally what pa...