Animals also live life, enjoy life and fight to survive in race of life. Following four things are common in animal and human life:-

Bhaya (Fear)

Nidra (Sleep)

Ahaar (Food)

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Maithun (Mating)

As human body is much more refined and designed in such a way that it can act as a channel for the flow of cosmic energy and direct realisation of Supreme Brahman (Divinity). Human life has much more higher goal than just coping up with four things mentioned above. The Goal to realise GOD, the goal to be free from all bondages of worldly life , the goal to be free from fear, anger, ego, attachment and all other negative emotions which bring down the quality of life – spiritual life.

Man should not just learn to live a human life but should aspire to live THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. A Life with valid and actual goals. We call these goals as PURUSHARTHA and are as follows:-

1. Dharma (Righteousness)
2. Arth (Wealth Management)
3. Kama (Desires)
4. Moksha (Salvation – Self Realisation)

Out of the above four – salvation is the Param Purushartha (Ultimate Goal) of human life as every soul in this cosmos is a part of GOD and is bound to unite with his almighty as ONE. We all are having infinite powers and capabilities as we all are the manifestations of GOD (Divine Mother)  but we do not realise the same because of our limitations of mind, clouded with negative emotions. Moksha is getting rid of these emotions and realising the concept of “Aham Brahmasmi” .{we are the Brahman (Divine Power)}.

Dharma is called Pradhan Purushartha (Primary Goal) as it plays a major role in living spiritual life with righteousness and helps us in sticking to the path of Divinity. It gives us strength to withstand all kinds of pressures of life and still striving for the Ultimate Goal of self realisation.

Artha and Kama are just the Instrumental Goals as they play a major role in coping up with day to day worldly affairs and help us in achieving the other two Primary and Ultimate Goals of Life. Artha is to generate wealth and prosperity through right and valid means. WhereasKamais to enjoy regulated sensual pleasure, where gradual liberation from sensual desires is preferred over oppression of same.

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business is only too eat and assimilate the food, and that somebody else does the strengthening of the body by the food for me. That cannot be; because it can be demonstrated that almost every action at which we are now unconscious can be brought up to the plane of consciousness. The heart is beating apparently without our control; none of us can control the heart; it goes on its own way. But by practice men can bring even the heart under control, until it will just beat at will, slowly or quickly, or almost stop. Nearly every part of he body can be brought under control. What does this show? It shows that we also perform the functions, which are beneath consciousness, only we are performing them unconsciously.

We have, then, two planes in which the human mind works. First is the conscious plane, in which all work is always accompanied with the feeling of “I”. Next comes the unconscious plane, where the work is unaccompanied by the feeling if “I”. That part of the mind’s work which is unaccompanied by egoism is unconscious work, and that part which is accompanied by egoism is conscious work. IN the lower animal this unconscious work is called instinct, and in the highest of all animals, man, what is called conscious work prevails.

But the matter does not end here, There is still a higher plane on which the mind can work. It can go beyond consciousness. Just as unconscious work is beneath consciousness, so there is another sort of work that is above consciousness and that also isnot accompanied by egoism. The feeling of “I” is only on the middle plane. When  the mind is above or below that plane, there is no feeling of “I”, and yet the mind works. When the mind goes beyond the plane of self-consciousness, it experiences Samadhi, or super consciousness. But howdo we know that a man in Samadhi has not gone below consciousness has not degenerated instead of going higher? In both the cases the experience is unaccompanied by the feeling of “I”. The answer is that by the effects, by the results of the work, we know which is below and which is above. When a man goes into deep sleep he enters a plane beneath consciousness. His body functions all the time; he breathes, perhaps he move the body in his sleep, without any accompanying  feeling of “I”; he is unconscious, and when  he returns from his sleep he is the same man who went into it. The sum total of the knowledge that he had before he went to sleep remains t he same; It does not increase at all. No enlightenment comes. But when a man goes into Samadhi, if he goes into it a fool, he comes out a sage…. As this illumination with which a man comes back from Samadhi is much higher than can be got from unconsciousness, or much higher than can be got by reasoning in a conscious state, it must therefore be super consciousness, and so Samadhi is called the super conscious state. This is short, is the idea of Samadhi.”

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Krishna Janmashtami –  a GRAND Festival

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For Years Sri Krishna’s birth is being celebrated with great excitement all across the world on the day also known as Sri Krishna Janmashtami, which is the eighth day of Krishna Paksha of Bhadrapad month as per Hindu Calender. People celebrate this day by decorating various idols of Lord Krishna, Temple Premises and by fasting as a symbol of taking new resolutions on this sacred day and as a token of love, affection and devotion to Krishna. Krishna is said to take birth at midnight of Dwapar Yuga at Mathura somewhere in UP State when the whole Mathura and nearby villages of Gokul, Vrindavan were drenched by heavy rains. In the light of this fact people celebrate the festival by fasting all day till midnight. At exact midnight hour temple bells ring, conchshells sounded and kettledrums are beaten to announce the birth of Lord Krishna and aarties performed for his idols. People break their fast by distributing the prasadams in faithful in the form of Panchamrat.

Lord Krishna Birth Story

 Lord Krishna’s birth is also said to be as full of dramatic events & happenings as his Complete Life in Indian Mythology. The story begins with Maharaja Ugrasen, who was a very kind hearted king of Mathura by the end of Dwapar Yuga. He was imprisoned by his own son Kansa for the greed of Kingdom. His throne was seized by Kansa and the people of Mathura were forced to live with his cruel and tyrannical rule. It was the time when people started praying desperately for the arrival of an avatar (incarnation of GOD in Human Form) to rescue them from the evils of Kansa.

Kansa although was an Evil person, had a great love for his cousin sister Devki. It was during his sister’s wedding with Vasudev of Yadav clan when Kansa heard the Akashvani (Predictions from the Sky/Heavens) that his sister will very soon give birth to his slayer that will be her eighth son. The infuriated Kansa out of fear forgot all his love for his sister and ran to kill her, thinking after getting rid of her there would not be any question of son who would be his slayer.

Divine Intervention can never be challenged

It is your difficult times that show you the mirror of your true self. Kansa could not maintain his love and emotions for his sister when he heard the heavenly prediction and his true color was exposed soon when he prepared himself to kill her. But as Divine Powers had taken a decision and Lord Krishna’s birth was inevitable, things moved in such a way that later, on Devki’s request Kansa agreed to not to kill her, but he imprisoned her and her  husband Vasudev on the commitment given by Vasudev that each child will be handed over to Kansa soon after its birth. In this way to challenge the divine prophecy Kansa decided to kill Devki’s all children soon after their birth eliminating all possibilities ofKrishna’s birth.

However during the birth of Krishna, a divine aura lit up the whole cell and Lord himself appeared in front of Devki and Vasudev, informed them that he is going take reincarnation as their eighth son and instructed them to leave him at village Gokul just after his birth and bring back the just born baby girl of Yashoda  from Gokul.

As every thing was planned at the highest Divine level, all of a sudden all guards fell in deep sleep at the prison cell and Vasudev was

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automatically free from all the shackles. He took the son and reached Gokul after crossing heavily flooded Yamuna  river. It was raining heavily that midnight as if nature was also trying to manifest itself aggressively as a welcome note to Lord Krishna. In the Yamuna river SheshNag himself materialized to shield the Divine Baby from the rain water through his thousand hoods.

At Gokul, Vasudev placed Sri Krishna and brought back the baby girl of Nand and Yashoda to his cell atMathura. Following which all the shackles once again tied automatically and guards woke up by the voice of baby girl and intimated Kansa about the birth of eighth child. When Kansa arrived and tried to kill the baby girl, the girl appeared as Goddess YogMaya (Goddess of illusion) and declared that the eighth child has already taken birth and is now in safe hand.

 Lord Krishna’s role in History of Mankind

What was planned by the Supreme Divine had actually materialized in spite of all efforts of Kansa, and Lord Krishna not only killed Kansa and many other demons later over a period of time but also mark his presence in the History at various points – be it his holy pranks and miracles at Gokul, Vrindavan, or be it his primary role at Political front as a mentor of Arjuna, Mediator of Pandavas for Attempts of establishing peace or  delivery of the Greatest Song of  Sacred Knowledge to Arjuna during Mahabharata eventually providing the mankind the Greatest of the Epics – Bhagvad Gita.

Thus the Sri Krishna Janmashtami ie the birth of Lord Krishna prepared the foundation of all the turnaround events of the History and is celebrated with a lot of excitement by the devotees all across the world.

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The irony is that we as humans inspite of knowing this fact from deep inside of our hearts, seek and pursue one side of coin only. We forget that both the pleasure and pain are mere a play of Divine Mother to make us learn the lessons of life. Life teaches us lessons and gives us tips to establish equanimity of mind in all situations. If Failures are not accepted and are not taken as a precious gift of life to give us an opportunity to learn, Successes in any case cannot be digested and no learnings can be derived out of it. We all know that on one hand success gives as pleasure along with confidence and on the other hand failures give us pain along with opportunity to introspect, thus proved to be a better teacher of life.

If Life is taken as an Ocean sending us tides of Sukh and Dukh at different intervals, then the nature of these tides may not be in our hand, but what is in our hand is our reaction towards these tides.  We may not be able to stop the tides of Dukh while allowing the tides of Sukha only, But we can surely control our mind and refrain it from being overpowered by varying emotional stimuli given by the Ocean of Life in the form of these tides.

We always have a choice to be happy always rather than getting affected and allow mood swings by the ups and downs of the Life. There is a difference in experiencing the momentarily pleasures and eternal bliss. If we are experiencing this world through our five senses, we will surely have to experience the pleasures and pains, Success and Failures also. But we can still be happy by choosing to be happy at all times, in all conditions. Manifesting excellence and to be happy are the two basic swadharma (nature) of our souls, It totally depends on us either to go against our soul or to align our actions to maintain the basic nature of our soul and performing well even at tough times, trying to excel in all the tests of LIFE.

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Why everything in Cosmos should be governed by Dharma- To understand this we must be able to first of all understand the definition of Dharma. Vedic culture looks at it in a very broad perspective and do not limit its meaning to the domain of a specific religion.

Principal power of coherence which enables the proper functioning of any system is called Dharma. We all are part of one or the other system governed by some intelligent laws. Whether it is the rotation of planet in our solar system or process of metabolism done by the microscopic cells in our bodies, all are following a system operated by some set of laws. These laws are governing the entire cosmos and are uniformly applicable on every system- like Digestive System, Ecological System, and Solar System…. These set of laws are also applicable on  the karma (actions) done by human being in the form of Dharma, and to maintain  the harmony in our lives, all should follow these set of infallible laws, then only a person will be able to live in peace and happiness. In fact the index of effectiveness is the extent of peace and happiness of a person.

The critical component in achieving the effectiveness is the ability to decide the right actions among all the available choices (alternatives). To choose the best among all these alternatives, a person must be able to evaluate them as per standard values so that he does not violate any of the laws and is adhering to his Dharma.

Dharma is the index of manifestation of excellence. Extent to which a family perform Dharma is the extent to which it succeeds in the manifestation of excellence. Dharma is important not only for the spiritual unfoldment of a person but also it is indispensable for acquiring societal prosperity or welfare. Hence all positive and negative phalas totally dependant on the extent of adherence of Dharma.

It is truly said in Bhagvad Gita:- Yato Dharma Tato Jaya – Means – where there is Dharma there is victory.

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The Bhagvad Gita is the most beloved scriptures of India with a wide range of followings across the country. It is the divine Song of  the Lord and can be considered as one such book that all masters depend upon as a supreme source of scriptural authority. It occurs in the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata, comprises eighteen chapters from 25^th to the 42^nd .

This ancient knowledge was first transferred from Surya (The SUN) to King Ishvaku. Then this most secret and sacred knowledge disappeared in sands of time. Later same was revealed by Lord Krishna in the dramatic event of Mahabharata  to Arjuna in the form of great Song of the Lord unfolding all its wisdom stanza by stanza and chapter by chapter.

Surprisingly this knowledge is as practical and relevant today also as it was in that era of Mahabharata. The world today is drowned in an ocean of sorrow and is struggling to come out of it seeking the various worldly objects which can bring in happiness. This want of worldly objects is not just limited to food and shelter, but mind craves for more sensational pleasures as well. Today the problem of humanity is not juts the survival but it’s the craving and pursuit of pleasures associated with senses at physical, emotional and intellectual level. The source of all pains and sorrows of mankind is the ‘ATTACHMENT‘ and ‘FEAR‘. Man is attached to his near and dear ones and is unable to expand the circle of his actions so as to include all human beings in it; his actions are limited to the welfare of his family only and at the most to his friends/relatives. Because of which his actions in personal life and as well as in professional life are biased and he is also afraid of uncertainties which may happen to him and his near and dear ones.

Arjuna was also in the same state of mind when the teachings of Geeta were given to him by the Lord. His mind was clouded with attachment and fear. He was grieving because his near and dear ones were going to die and he felt that he may incur papa (sin) if he go ahead with the war. There was a lack of role clarity and he was not able to take right decision because of his fears. Lord Krishna then in the middle of the battle field gave him the knowledge of Geeta and motivated him to follow the path of Dharma by understanding his role and acting accordingly without getting affected with his emotions. Arjuna was then came out of his equipoise state of mind and stood up to perform his karma (action). Today we as professionals also face such situations many times in our workplace when we could not take a decision because of fear of uncertainties or our decisions are biased because of our attachments/inclinations. In fact in varying degrees every man is a victim of disease which Arjuna’s body and mind was experiencing at that time, and every man needs the cure of Geeta to perform right actions at right time.

It simply does not mean that Geeta advocates the wars and violence. It is a call to each one of us to get up and fight the battle of our own life accordingly. You can look soft from outside but you cannot afford to be weak from inside as more strong you are from within, more efficiently you will be able to fight against your own negative emotions – fear and attachment and as a result you will be able to take tough decisions of life effectively.

My shat-shat pranams to the Geeta Mata and to Lord Kirshna for providing us such a universal source of knowledge which guides us today also in all types of life situations.

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From the very beginning of the cosmos man is trying to find out the answers of various complex and eternal questions about its creation and about its creator both. Scientists are claiming with the help of new and advanced technology they shall be able to recreate the Big bang like situation in their labs which will give us the answers of most of those questions. They shall study the laboratory observation and on the basis of analogy will try to make out what would have happened at the time actual Big Bang or at the start of the creation. But this whole observation will be based on the fact or assumption that the cosmos actually starts with a Big Bang. In our Sanatan Dharma shastras we call such means of acquiring knowledge as Anumana(Inference) and Upama (Comparison).

Even if we are able to make out the facts about the cause of start of the universe, mysteries about its creator will remain unresolved. The ultimate Cause of this cause, the Supreme Brahman- GOD will remain undiscovered. Shastras scriptures advise four valid means of knowledge (Pramanas) to know more about Supreme Brahman -

1. Pratyaksha Pramana (Direct Perception)
2. Anumana Pramana (Inference)
3. Upama Pramana (Comparison)
4. Agama Pramana (Tradition)

Pratyaksha Pramana:- God has given us five kinds of instruments to perceive his creation – The Cosmos. There are five sensory organs to perceive this cosmos in the form of shabd (Voice), Sparsh (Touch), roop (vision), Rasa (Taste), and Gandha (smell). We perceive the diversity and beauty of this world through these five organs, which also keep us indulged in enjoying the   earthly objects craving for more and more sense pleasure. In spite of the fact that human body   is the most fine tuned with best of the sensory organs among all other species that share this planet with us, we still get restricted knowledge of world keeping in view the limitations of our perceptory organs and infinite expansion of Cosmos. We with our limited senses can never perceive all pervading infinite Brahman.

Anuman Pramana and Upama Pramana:- This is the other valid means of acquiring knowledge,  where if we cannot realise the truth directly we try to gather the data and find out the truth through Inference. We imagine the vastness of the Universe and infer the nature of infinite Brahaman who actually created it. If there is smoke there has to be fire some where nearby. Similarly if every thing is in order in the Universe and is governed by some laws of nature, if human race is not created just by accident, if all the parts of human body is having some utility and help human being in surviving and works on some intelligent laws of physiological body, if all the planets of the cosmos, Sun, Moon and stars are governed by some intelligent laws, Then there must be involvement of some intelligent Supreme behind the creation of all these. There must be some Supreme intelligent force behind all these forces and above all these forces, knowing which or realising which will lead to realisation of all other forces.

Agama Pramana:- Another means of attaining knowledge is through Agama Pramana or through Shruti- ie. Knowledge that is passed from Gurus to their shishya through verbal teachings. Vedas is one such example where the knowledge attained by ancient seers is passed on to next generation through Shruti.

All the above means can be sufficient for a seeker of truth who may be pursuing the same for the sake of curiosity or for satisfying is intellectual thirst, but ultimate knowledge or truth can be realised only after direct experience of GOD- Supreme Brahman. Where one is able to see that we all are actually connected to all pervading Brahman and hence is also interconnected with each other. Hence every positive contribution of us to this society will matter in the overall harmony of the cosmos. At the same any negative action of us is also able to disturb the same harmony. Since each one of us are having our own unique existence and are able to contribute to the cosmic equation in positive as well as negative way. All our actions should be associated with the welfare of cosmos ie for Yagna Bhava.

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