A real life drama

....and divine help

I have always spoken about the power of Mantras. Well, today there was a drama in real life that unveiled to me the power chanting, in the most threatening crises. This morning began with meditation before the energised crystal at the Akshara Foundations in Chennai. I offered to drop two volunteers Santosh and Priya from Nungambakkam to Chennai Central to take their train at 7 a.m. to Mumbai.
The scheduled time for departure from the Centre was 5.30 a.m., but we managed to load the heavy luggage into my Maruti 800 which I have bought second hand and began driving barely three weeks ago.
Santosh started with "Jai Swamiji!" And we needed all the meditation possible for Chennai roads were flooded following the incessant rains last night. As I began driving out with my usual mantra, "Om Namo Bhagavate Sri Aksharaya Swahaha," the vehicle came to a grinding halt barely a few feet away. And again, pulled the choke, put it on first gear, as the engine revved back to life. Nungambakkam High Road was like a river in spate. Myself on the wheels, with two more people and 140 kgs of luggage, without a next word of speech we began chanting the Gayatri Mantra together and aloud in the car, behind the closed windows and the AC switched off as it would draw more energy if on.
It continued - stop and start, sometimes with the facility to go on the third and fourth gear also. At a spot on Poonamalee High Road, the traffic came to a halt as cars ahead were half submerged and floating. 10 minutes to go for the train and the traffic cop wasn't bothered and asked us to divert. Gayatri Mantra was going on as I turned into another water-logged road and splashed my way near Central Station exactly on time for the train. But information over mobile phone told us that the train was delayed. As we wheeled in to the bus bay, Santosh suggested that I enter Wall Tax Road near the Central Station and even as I was protesting that it's impossible, we moved left into that road. The vehicle stopped and water was streaming in through the windows. It was a flood inside when Santosh opened the door. He got behind and pushed and revved it up to the first gear and we neatly wheeled on to the cement floor in front of the station.
It was a victory of sorts as we hugged each other in joy at having made it. It is a different story that they returned four hours later as the trains were cancelled.
It was after that the drama began. I was alone - probably the only woman on the road, driving a car through the floods. Stopped and started and moving along, chanting and in meditation. At Millers Road, an ambulance and a bus that moved close by sent waves of water into the car that almost covered the seat. Can the engine take it. It stopped. Totally. I could have gone further only if I had oars. Within the four closed windows, I cried out aloud and prayed to my Guru Swami Akshara to come for help. His pictures are stuck in on the glass before the two front seats. It was a total cry, surrender and sharanagathi. I was helpless.
And from nowhere, the car moved in the water on the first gear. I was trying to shake the steering wheel left and right to break the flow of water and got close to a petrol bunk as the fuel touched end. But the bunk was flooded, closed and cordoned off. I tried moving further into a parking lot of a shopping complex.
A lorry and bus that whizzed past, destabilised my car with waves of water. Twice I tried going up on the first gear and twice my car drew back - two right wheels down and the left two wheels up on the slope. A total prayer the third time and my car was up on the parking lot. A man who was watching this drama said, "Madam, this is not an ordinary car." Another said, "This must have a foreign engine, not Indian!" But I know it was chanting that did it.
The rest of the day was completed with a bus ride back home, a bike ride across 100-feet road at Koyambedu which looked like a piece of the Bay of Bengal to hand over the key to my mechanic who later drove the car to his shed.
Then I went for quiet hours of meditation at the Akshara Foundations as the storm raged all around.
Mananath Thrayate Iti Mantraha: I realised the truth of these words. When my mind could have been bogged down by fear and depression, chanting of the mantras helped my mind stay tuned to the divine and allowed the grace to flow and take me through.

Dharma....

...and Adharma

Morality, as the dictionary describes is a discrimination between the good and the bad. In our ancient parlance it is the difference between dharma and adharma. But even from the point of view of the words both in English and Sanskrit - Adharma contains Dharma and Immoral contains Moral.
But it is a very very thin line to draw. Killing may be immoral for some, but it is a profession for another. Extra-marital relationships can be considered immoral in some countries, but there are many societies and civilisations where it is considered good cultural practice and service.
In my deep contemplation of the Ramayana or the Mahabharatha, I discovered that the confluence of the good and the bad is a necessary process for evolution.
There is no Ramayana without Ravana abducting Sita. Rama's fight with Ravana to establish Dharma is one such example of such a confluence - when two mighty energies meet, a positive and a negative force, there is a big spark created which ushers in a change in the environment.
Similarly, in the Mahabharatha, there is no scope for the expression of the Pandavas, representing the good forces, without Duryodana and his group representing the evil forces.
But just as the Sun supports all, good or bad, the wind blows for all good or bad, the rain visits evenly the high and the low terrains, space is present everywhere and does not denies itself for the bad - so there is a zone within that is the same in the good and the bad, the moral and the immoral - transcending all polarities. Done with the support of that presence within, in tune with it, in a state of Yoga, an act may be considered good or bad, moral or immoral by the society - but for the doer of such an act and thinker of such a thought or speaker of a certain word, it is the best that can happen at that particular moment of infinity.

Om Shantih...

....Shantih Shantihi

Robbie is back with his pleasant requests and I'm really happy about it. This time the topic is on Peace. Now at midnight, I'm going to churn the great ocean of Consciousness with the ladle of my mind and dive deep down to pick up some pearls that are contained in the three words Om Shanti Shanti Shantihi.

At the end of any excitement, at the end of any disturbance - all have to return to this state called peace. Peace after anger, peace after hatred, peace after war, peace after disturbance -peace is that space that happens between two events, a time to rest and gather oneself with sufficient quietitude, just like the neuter gear in the car to which we have to switch back to, between the four or five gears with fluctuating speeds.

Peace is the fundamental requirement for an individual or society to progress. Peace is the fundamental need for a mind to make its journey towards enlightenment. Peace is a necessity for meditation. It is not the ultimate goal and end result of meditation as people commonly thing. It is a by product, a side effect.

A person with peace of mind will be totally available to the work to be done at the moment. Otherwise he will be in pieces of mind with his thoughts shattered and scattered in the worries of the past and expectations and dreams of the future.

Total peace of mind happens to the one who lives in the present moment. Caught in a traffic jam. Be there totally instead of cribbing about the wastage of gas in an idling car. Sick and tired. Be there in that situation rather than worrying about the ones whom we think were the possible causes. Unable to sleep. Be there and watch the inability to sleep. In that silent watching of all situations, there is peace and when peace happens, progress happens as a result.

Moving to the next step is possible only if I am stably available in the previous step, quietly leave one foot to the next, holding the other in the previous step, grounding myself in the next and taking the other foot up. Peace is important for even an act as simple as walking. Just imagine walking with a mind lost in some disturbing event. Even a non-existent pit can make one fall! Peace is balance. Peace is living in Yoga, union with the cosmos.

Sounds have power to bring the mind to a state of peace when there is agitation. Mantras are the essence of powerful sounds. In the event of an agitation, disturbance or calamity when peace is the first casualty - chanting of the most powerful mantra Om Shantih Shanthih Shantihi will help immediate realignment and fine-tuning of the disturbing vibrations. If in doubt, try it out.

*****

Photo

By Santosh

Without being really computer savvy, I've managed to blog for seven months now, thanks to the help that has come on and off, in some way or the other, right from the word go.
It has always been my wish to upload my photo and this time, computer wizard, student, volunteer at Akshara Foundations and blogger, Santosh helped me to host this pic.

It couldn't be a better choice, than this picture taken recently at a coffee shop, with an instrument I do not know to play.

Dhyanam...

Meditation...Zen

Silence and solitude is what surrounds me, most often these days and I am not complaining about it. I am not searching for some company to be with, some people to talk and engage in conversation. I let the Silence be. Revelling in this silence, I find that the personal space around me is ever increasing - at home, in office, on the road or wherever I may go. It is a Grace that is present and makes its presence felt, the more I make myself open to it.
I am able to experience the whole Universe as an enormous presence, with myself as the fulcrum.When I say, "Myself," I mean the whole Earth, the planets and stars and the millions of galaxies in infinite space.
And in this Silence, there are neither enemies nor friends. Every individual, creature and thing are just like my own hands and feet, head and body - that help me in whatever I wish to do. In this silent mind, if I am interrupted by someone in the midst of a conversation, it is no longer an interruption, but a signal to me, coming from that person that this is not the right time to speak.
And this Silence is power, boundless. It is like a whirlpool which drags me in deeper and deeper into its eddy. Like the bog or quicksand that is just eager to keep me enveloped in its expansive fold.
And in this Silence, Dhyanam happens. My being is Meditation. I am Zen.

Yoga...

Yogakshemam Vahamyaham

Yoga - the magic word that is working wonders around the world. Sri Aurobindo said, "All Life is Yoga." Having practised Pranayama and Hatha Yoga Asanas on and off for five years now, I am really sinking into what Yoga actually does. Though learning it is usually done for health benefits, actually Pranayama and Hatha Yoga has helped me to unite with the cosmic life force that is within and without.
It is not even helping me to unite, but make me experience the Union that already exists the oneness. A little deep breathing continuously, my breath becomes less deep and I realise that there is no going in and coming out of the breath, the air outside and the air within are one and the same.
In Dhyanam - meditation, the experience is the same. When the mind quietly settles down, I experience that the thoughts outside and the thoughts within are the same. In fact, there is nothing outside or within. The bodies float like boats in a common ocean of the mind.
Hatha Yoga - While practising Surya Namaskar, I realised that it is not to some Sun outside of me - but a Namaskar to the presence of the light within. Even after completing the Asanas, I just have to think of an Asana at anytime throughout the day and I find that my mind attains that total cosmic unity. This is the balance that allow me to go through my day, as if I was absent and everything happens....