What makes it special

What makes it special you ask
Just a few simple things
Some forgotten, some routine

Lunch taken at home
Evening spent in leisure
Singing forgotten songs

Then stepping out shopping
In fresh smelling air
Stopping at coffee shop

Some rain drops on the face
And breeze of fresh air
Few hours of casual chatter
Discussing inane matters

Food, songs, talk and walk
Playing together some useless game
Every shared moment
Remains special just the same

© Ratish

Poem - The Old Monk

The troubled men since ages

Have traveled the trodden path

That leads to a tranquil place

Where they meet the old monk

At first you don’t believe him

Then you start to feel

And for a few moments you are that monk

To whom the things are revealed

Things are put in perspective

The cobwebs are blown from mind

You hope and pray hard

That the monk will stay in your life

You choose to forsake it all

And are willing to pay the price

To be in his company 

With all your favorite vice

But the monk is wise one

He can see it in your eyes

When you start pretending

And begin to live a lie

You loose everything but the crutch

That once led you to the monk

And now is like a faded tune 

Of a well-known song

You will be the monk

Each moment of your life

If only you realize

He resides on other side of your eyes

© Ratish

Poem - Rock and Foam

Grey and ash

And a fresh rash

Stoke the fire while you can

Yet feel the pain

Red to pink

You slowly drain

The colors of wine

By the way you think

Rock and foam

You easily roam

The grey and fire

Lanes of desire 

Trip and fall

To hold the moon accountable

For the night

The darkness and all

Drown in pleasures

And seek convenience

As it is easier to pretend

Then to take a chance

© Ratish

Poem - Wisdom

I saw WISDOM on the beach
It was well within my reach
Shining blue, rust and white
In the dull morning light

Landing was much publicized 
Rich and poor came all alike
There was a small gathering
With gadgets to capture the scene

I stopped, looked, and walked on
In a few days the ship too will be gone
I know Wisdom will knock my door
It will someday reach my shore

© Ratish

Pratyabhijna 101

Pratyabhijna proposes a process of self-knowledge based on reason and common experience. Reality has two inseparable aspects: consciousness and being

The main tenets of Pratyabhijna philosophy

• Ultimate reality is non dual - Shiva contains all reality in a pure unity - One who knows that he knows (Prakasa, 'light, illumination' or 'awareness' )
• Consciousness is his nature - Shakti  is the  essential nature of awareness (recognitive judgment  vimarsa)
• All actions are by conscious free will (svatantrya) The Freedom  to obtain whatever s desired
• You are Shiva - Realization of identity with supreme (Tanmayata) is Pratyabhijna. Pratyabhijna means recognition of our true universal consciousness (Chaitanya)

The dichotomy of means (upaya) and goal (upeya) is an illusion of grossness of cognition. It is Shiva’s free will (svatantrya shakti) that  is the cause of both bondage and  liberation

Pure wisdom (suddhavidya) is the awareness that self is the source that emanates all objective reality:
“If the object did not have the nature of awareness (prakasa), it would be without illumination (aprakasa), as it was before its appearance. Awareness (prakasa)   cannot be different than the object. Awareness (prakasata) is the essential nature of the object.”

One could never experience another subject outside one's own awareness.

Translation of verses on Pratyabhijna and Kashimir Shaivism thought

I become what I desire to be – complete consciousness or limited consciousness, realized being or one who is constrained. I am neither in past nor in future – I am self illuminated, omnipresent formless being.

 
http://shivyogi.blogspot.com/2010/03/yathechaami-tatha-bhami-mahamahopadyay.html

Where you are not present? When you are not present? What is there that becomes illuminated without you? I bow to this realized state of mine as highest form of prayer

http://shivyogi.blogspot.com/2010/03/kutra-naasi-kada-naasi-mahamahopadyay.html

© Ratish

Plot: Do you have faith or reason?

I know nothing at all - Socrates

Principles of mathematics hold true even when there exists no conscious being (deduction). Lot of laws and principles induced (empirical evidence) by humanity over period of time will remain true even without any sentient entity to experience it.

Take a look around you - notice screen,walls, your hands. You know all of this is real  through "Justified true belief". Now tweak your frame of reference with your belief in scientific knowledge. You also know (JTB) that the fundamental building block of around you is atom (matter) . Further more all matter is energy.

Now as you sit thinking this your empirical and deduced construct of self are in conflict. In the physical world you are bound by its rules and laws and differentiations - Animate - inanimate, this-that, form, name and many others. And at other level you know all things surrounding you is energy. You are that energy - one unifying cosmic force.

You are matter and energy at the same time. Some one more learned please comment if this is a case of Polylogism, Contradiction or goes against laws of identity.

It is your belief or "Faith" that will differentiate which frame of reference you chose for your life.

Moonlight Night

There it was shining
There you were smiling
I have seen the moon
Many a times
Many a places before
Yet this time it was so different
Because I shared it with you.
This was not a different moon
Than one I sank many a mornings
This was the one perhaps
Than came to my window calling
This was not a different moon
Than one that lit up that forest night
Yet I have seen a different moon tonight
With you standing by my side


© Ratish

Story board - Realization and life after realization

 

There have been seekers and then there have been "The Ones" who have found the pot on the other side of the rainbow.

Going back to available literature this story has multiple external variations. But at the core there seems to be a unifying thread.

The real life experiences of realized individuals have been diluted over a period of time. In many case it has been replaced by myths, legends and plain veneration. Each legend has spawned a set of followers equally misguided and totally clueless on how to interpret the message. They hide this ignorance by clinging even more strongly to some one else’s ideas, beliefs, thoughts and vision.

The quest is yet on. If you were a seeker and chanced upon that fabled pot at the other end what will you do?

• How would you live your life when you become an equal will all  former masters?
• What would you choose to do?

© Ratish

Are you playing you?

The white goes down and the yellow comes up
The black is transformed to bright
And you watch from a moving frame
Changing scenes in front of  your eyes

The solitude mixes with the crowd
And the smile with indifference
The pace of time wavers
To fit your circumstance


When you look back at old snapshots
Are you happy with what you have got
 How has your story turned out
Are you playing you or some obscure part?



 © Ratish