Forthcoming : World Tour of Poojya Guruji, Mahashivratri Celebrations at Vedanta Ashram, Gita Gyana Yagna at Indore & New Delhi,

Lord Shiva is one of the most famous forms in which the Hindus worship Brahman, the one non-dual God. Other famous forms are those of Lord Vishnu and his avatars as Sri Ram & Lord Krishna, Ganapati, Devi & Hanuman etc. There are festivals associated with all, and the most important one associated with Lord Shiva is Mahashivratri. As per the Hindu calender the 14th day of the dark fortnight (Krishna Paksha) of every month is called Shivratri. But the Shivratri of the month of Phalgun is special and is celebrated as the Mahashivratri. There are various stories regarding the significance of this day.

1. After the dissolution of the earlier creation, when there was nothing but the primordial matter then it is said that Lord Shiva did Tandava Dance. At this time he played his Damaru whose sound reverberated the whole world and also pervaded all with the seeds of knowledge. The Seers later manifested that unmanifest knowledge in their minds after their hard work & meditation. It was this day alone when Lord is said to saturate the whole world with inspirations of divine knowledge. Thus all the devotees turn away their minds from all worldly activities and remain introvert to receive these divine inspirations.

2. The Ishan Samhita says that the Lord Shiva first manifested as the Jyotirlinga on this day.

3. It was on this day that Lord Shiva married Goddess Parvati.

There is one thing which is common to all stories is that this day is very special to life & personality of Lord Shiva and that on this day all the devotees, irrespective of the fact whether they are enlightened or not, all should devote this day to fasting, worship of Lord Shiva, and being a proper recipient of the grace that flows down on this day to take a leap forward in our spiritual evolution. That which really turns our lives for the better, is that firm belief not only of the existence of God, but also of his divinity & love, and all this with a mind full of humility. It is also necessary that a devotee should be a master of his / her tendencies & senses, thus fasting & such austerities have an important role to play. The significance of this day is so great, that irrespective of ones guna & karmas, if anyone worships Lord Shiva on this day alone, then he gets all what he wants. There is great significance on fasting on this day and remaining awake during the night and devoting all ones time in the worship of Lord Shiva. The leaves of Bilwa tree are offered to Lord Shiva.

The beauty of all worship & rituals is that we can not only objectify the unobjectifiable very clearly but also due to the fact that we have created a personality of his own, we now know in what way we can express our feelings to him. As expression of emotions & feelings is the way to increase them so any thing would do. If Lord Shiva is said to like Bilwa leaves or Rudraksha or abhishek or what ever it is, the devotees see to it that they offer these leaves etc, and in the process also see to it that they plant such trees in their vicinity. The importance of this day is so great that it is suggested that irrespective of the fact whether you are a devotee of Lord Shiva or not, you should devote this day to fasting and worship of the Ishwara.

I advise the following to all our devotees :

1. Fast on this day. Remain of fruits & milk alone.

2. Do the Japa of the extremely beautiful & powerful mantra 'Om Namah Shivaya' as many times as possible. It does not matter if you have been given some other mantra for your sadhana.

3. Perform worship of Lord Shiva, and do 'abhishek' with Panchamrut, Ganga Jal, water from other tirthas, & simple plain water. Later drink all that with which you gave Lord the bath, and also give it to others too.

4. While doing the abhisek chant 'Rudram' or 'Shiv Mahimna Stotram'. If you cannot chant these yourself then get their audio cassettes which are freely available. If you are not chanting the above yourself then continue chanting 'Om Namah Shivaya' while doing the abhishek.

5. Do archana of the beautifully decorated Shiv Linga, with the 'Thousand Names' or even 108 names of Lord, with Bilwa leaves and other flowers.

6. Sing Bhajans and fill your mind with love & gratitude for all what Lord has blessed you with.

7. Remain awake in the night too, for as long as possible, and either do Japa or meditation.

8. Plant a Bilwa tree in your vicinity.

The Adhikari of DDV (Drg-Dryshya Viveka) is one who has got a suffeciently sattvic mind, one bestowed with Sadhana Chatushtaya Sampatti in a relatively good way. The Visaya of DDV is discrimination between the object & subject. The Prayojana of DDV is the directly see the self as self and the not-self as that. The Sambandha between the above visaya & prayojana is direct & not requiring any action whatsoever at any later date, the pratipadya-pratipadaka sambandha.

The whole viveka begins on a very simple & logical basis that the 'seer is always different from the seen'. You are looking at the monitor screen or maybe a printout at this moment, you see it and are therefore different from it. So also anything, you see it and therefore you are different from it. It is as simple as that. The ability to know an object does not presuppose the existence of the correct knowledge of ourselves. In fact to know an object properly we just have to forget everything else including ourself and just pay attention to the object of our knowledge. This is what everyone is doing. The world is so fascinating & beautiful, and there is so much to see & experience, and correct knowledge of the Self is not a pre-requisite to know the world outside properly, so we just ignore ourself. With some superficial understanding about ourselves we just remain busy with the world outside. With DDV we can first learn to 'stand apart' and then know both of these aspects very clearly. Initially we should learn to apply DDV at our gross physical levels, and later apply this at subtle levels in our mind.

Initially one should learn to 'stand apart' from all experiences. Learn to develop the 'sakshi-bhava'. The ability to objectively look at the world, situations and problems. This is a great quality by itself. Normally we are so conditioned with our likes & dislikes, that we just flow on, rarely pausing to think what & why we are doing what we are doing. 'Sakshi-bhava' or the 'Witness attitude' creates a condition where we look at something not from the point of view of the individual but from the point of view of let's say, a third uninvolved person. We have to play our roles and that also in total freedom. It is this ability which finally helps to bring about the freedom to see things as they are and then live as per our convictions.

There are broadly two stages in the DDV. First, is the ability to see an object of the world as they are, and second is to 'see' the subject as one really is. Both of these are equally important, but the culmination indeed is in the ability to see one Self as we are. Even though the culmination of DDV is in the ability to see oneself as one is, but it should be remembered that this ability is got and polished only with our application of the same in the world outside. So dont ignore the objective world, but use it to invoke & polish your faculties within. So in & through all your activities learn to involve yourself thoroughly and also learn to stand apart and analyze objectively. Later see your inner world, and learn to stand apart from your own thoughts & emotions too. This is a great experience by itself. You see all, with greater sensitivity, and are not effected by anything too. This invokes great courage, and you can do that which you could never even think of. You increase your limits & boundaries. However, the final proof of seeing a thing as it is, is in the realisation that this is a realm of change, inert objects which become so important because we choose them to be so. This realisation brings about the real detachment. A detached person has no attachments or aversions, he can be with anything or person, without any reactions. He does not desire to change any situation, and also does not get involved in anything too.

Once a person develops the ability to observe something with full detachment then he should turn inwards and realize who & what is the 'subject' really like. Who am I ? One thing which becomes pretty apparent is that I exist inspite of the objects outside, I am Nitya while the objects are aNitya. It is I who turns attention to any thing which we like & then having given importance flow on. I am the illuminator of all objects of experience. The situations come & go but in essence I still remain as I was earlier. I can recollect the memories of my childhood because I still am. The body may change, the mind may change yet I remain. We directly see this fact that the meaning of the word 'I' is different from body, sense organs, pranas, mind or intellect. For the simple reason that I am conscious of all these things. I being there all the time am 'Sat' the existence, being conscious of all things am Chit - the consciousness, and also Anand - because of having unconditioned love towards our Self. The statements like 'Ayam Atma Brahman' start making sense, and we get a great new identity. To the extent this new identity is owned up to that extent we develop greater detachment with the world outside, and our motivations too can change drastically. We suddenly discover yet another reason to act in a Nishkama way. We can afford magnanimity. Whenever we change our world too changes simultaneously. The realisation that I am Sakshi, who is of the nature of 'Sat-Chit-Anada' is a great leap forward, but is not the ultimate, there is one more thing which is yet to be realized.

Panchadasi is a very beautiful, complete & also a very well known Post-Sankara Vedanta classic, it is a comprehensive manual of a student of Vedanta, and as Dr. TMP Mahadevan calls 'a veritable mine of Vedantic treasure'. It was written somewhere around 1380 AD by Sri Vidyaranya Swamiji and gets its name because of having 15 chapters. Panchadasa-prakarana.

Vidyaranya Swami in his purva-ashram was said to be one of the ruler of Vijayanagaram Empire, and proved to be a very good ruler. He obviously encouraged education & learning to great heights. Later he took to the life of a Sanyasi and also became the head of Sringeri Math for 10 years. He was the Sankaracharya of that Math from 1377 to 1386, only that at that time those who were sitting on that seat were not called Sankaracharyas.

The fifteen chapters of Panchadasi are grouped into three quintads. Three groups of five chapter each. They are the viveka-panchaka, the dipa-panchaka, and the anand-panchaka. As their names themself indicate the first part deals with the discrimination of the real from the unreal, the second deals with revealing the self as Pure consciousness, and the third dwells on the blissful nature of Self. Sri Vidyaranya Swami uses all the logic at his command, yet the thrust of the text is only to provide knowledge to the student. He does not use the dialectics to merely prove the others wrong. It therefore becomes a very complete book for a student of Vedanta. It is like a must-read, and like any other specialized book should be studied through a teacher.

Poojya Guruji leaves for a two month World Tour on 13th April 99. He will be basically visiting UK & US. The first stop will be London where he will have a week long stay & programs. From there he will fly to New Jersey in US for a week long session. He will then have week long sessions at New Jersey, Cleveland, Detroit, Dallas, Houston & Chicago. The finalization of the program is in the final stages, and we will be able to give you the dates, subjects of discourses, along with the venue of programs and the places where he will be staying in our next issue of Vedanta Sandesh.

There are three kinds of Programs which are being organised. First will be 'Special Weekend Program' comprising of a talk by Guruji on some topic, open-house Question-Answers session & Bhajans. The second will be 'Weekdays Discourses' for about 3-5 days each. The third kind are 'Talks' in Universities & other such Institutions. The Universities in which the talks are being organised are Cleveland State University, Case Western Reserve University and Baldwin Wallace College (Ohio), and also at Rice University, University of Houston, University of Texas (Medical Branch in Galveston), and Baylor Madical Center.

A mailing list is also being formed for sending invitations to the various devotees in those areas apart from using other usual means of publicity. We call upon all our readers to send us the addresses (e-mail & postal) & telephone numbers of any of your near & dear ones who stay in any of the above areas. They can not only come & take benefit of these discourses but also serve this noble cause of spreading the message of our scriptures in what ever they can.

Geeta Gyana Yagna by Poojya Swaminiji.

Date : 2/2 to 7/2. Venue : ‘Silver Ark Colony', off Annapurna Road, Indore.

Texts : Gita Chapter 12 - Bhakti Yoga (only evenings)

Date : 24/2 to 1/3. Venue : ‘Kailash Vidya Teertha',

6, Bhai Veer Singh Marg, Near Gol Market New Delhi.

Tel : 91-731-486055, Fax : 91-731-789497