AUM (OM)
Literacy-based scriptures - Orality-based practice
Darshana or Darśana
"auspicious sight" "seeing"- also name for the Hindu way of life/religion
(don't call selves "Hindu" - reference to place "India" - no word for "religion)
Om Asato Ma Sad Gamaya - a pivotal and common AUM mantra
Om Namah Shivay - sung by Veena Sahasrabuddhe (8 min.), and an example of Dhrupad Music
By the numbers. How many?
What is not Darshana?
What is Darshana?
Rig Veda
Upanishads
Bhagavad Gita - Mahabharata
If
the Rig Veda (is one of four Vedas;
over 1,000 divine poetic hymns that contain the oral traditions of the
Gods and Goddesses; the foundations; at 1,500
BCE the
oldest written text in the Indo-European language, i.e., Sanskrit),
can be thought of as the pure grain
and
the Upanishads (collection of teachings on the nature of God, man, soul,
existence and salvation, and clearly articulates nature of Brahman
and Atman, and first text to provide definitive explanation of divine
symbol - AUM; the "how to book," the methodology; written
around 900
BCE; great influence on Greek
philosophy, as seen in Plato's Dialogues and The Republic, on
German philosophers such as Schopenhauer and Schilling, on American philosophers
as Emerson and Thoreau, and American quantum physicist Schrodinger),
can be
thought of as the sacred cow
then the
Bhagavad Gita ("Song of the Blessed One") - luminous
poetic scriptures of 700 Sanskrit verses, a part of the longer
epic, Mahabharata, which is 3 times longer then the Christian Bible;
and for many, contains the essence of both the Vedas and Upanishads;
written around 400 BCE, though some say much
earlier; perhaps no better attempt at portraying in words the nature and meaning
of God, the ultimate Divinity;
can be thought of as the holy
milk - the pure nectar of Darshana.
The Gita is in the form of a battlefield dialogue between Sri Krishna (avatar of Vishnu) and the mighty Pandava warrior, Arjuna. The Kauravas wrongfully taken throne from rightful Pandavas, who are polite and diplomatic, but forced into war. Unfortunately, many Kauravas are relatives, and one a former primary teacher of Arjuna, whom he loves.
See
Gita as great metaphor of the perennial war between forces of light
and of dark in every human heart.
Arjuna is "you," asking the Lord
quintessential questions about life and death, the meaning of life, and the
nature of the deepest "Self," the divine within us.
As Krishna says,
"I am the Self in the heart of every creature, Arjuna, and the beginning, middle
and the end of their existence." (10:20)
Gita
is not a book of commandants, but a book of choices. Does
not mention "sin" but addresses consequences for ignorance. Ignorance
of what?
In
the last chapter of Gita 18:63, "Thus I have taught you the secret of secrets, the utmost knowledge;
meditate deeply upon it, them act as you think best."
Henry David Thoreau (1845) - "The reader is no where raised into and sustained in higher, purer, or rarer region of thought than in the Bhagavad Gita"
Mahatma Gandhi - the major influence on him in developing his non-violent approach to change.
Bhagavad Gita (1), Bhagavad Gita (2) and Background (YouTube)