Daily Hindu Wisdom

[Green Gaia]

There are men who allay today's trials and avert tomorrow's troubles.
Befriend and look after them.

To cherish and befriend men of greatness
Is the rarest of all rare things.

-Tirukkural 45: 442-443

 

[Green Gaia]

The study of the Vedas, linguistics,
Rituals, astronomy and all the arts
Can be called lower knowledge. The higher
Is that which leads to Self-realization.

The eye cannot see it; mind cannot grasp it.
The deathless Self has neither caste nor race,
Neither eyes not ears nor hands nor feet.
Sages say this Self is infinite in the great
And in the small, everlasting and changeless,
The source of life.

-Mundaka Upanishad

 

[Ardhanariswar]

the thiru kurral! woohooo. ya. ive attempted reading it. then i chucked it away when it started to demean women in general.

 

[Green Gaia]

My soul cries out, snared by the beauty of the formless one. As I cry by myself, night and day, beauty amassed before my eyes surpasses numberless moons and suns. If I look at the clouds in the sky, I see his beauty afloat; and I see him walk on the stars blazing my heart.

-Fikirchand
From "Teachings of the Hindu Mystics"

 

[Green Gaia]

The Self cannot be pierced by weapons or burned by fire; water cannot wet it, nor can the wind dry it. The Self cannot be pierced or burned, made wet or dry. It is everlasting and infinite, standing on the motionless foundations of eternity. The Self is unmanifested, beyond all thought, beyond all change. Knowing this, you should not grieve.

-Bhagavad Gita 2 23-25

 

[Green Gaia]

The Vedas compare creation to a spider's web, that the spider creates and then lies within. God is both the container of the universe and what is contained in it.

-Ramakrishna

 

[Green Gaia]

I am the mother-of-pearl.
The world is a vein of silver,
An illusion!

This is the truth.

Nothing to grasp,
Nothing to spurn,
Nothing to dissolve.

I am in all beings.
All beings are in me.

This is the whole truth.

Nothing to embrace,
Nothing to relinquish,
Nothing to dissolve.

-Ashtavakra Gita 6:3-4

 

[Green Gaia]

Amassing great wealth is gradual, like the gathering of a
theater crowd.
Its dispersal is sudden, like that same crowd departing.

Wealth's nature is to be unenduring.
Upon acquiring it, do that which is enduring right away.


-Tirukkural 34: 332-333

 

[Green Gaia]

As a great fish swims between the banks of a river as it likes, so does the shining Self move between the states of dreaming and waking.

-Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

 

[Green Gaia]

It is in love that religion exists and not in ceremony-in the pure and sincere love in the heart. Unless a man is pure in body and mind, his coming into a temple and worshipping Shiva is useless. The prayers of those who are pure in mind and body will be answered by Shiva, and those who are impure and yet try to teach religion to others will fail in the end. External worship is only a symbol of internal worship, but internal worship and purity are the real things. Without them, external worship would be of no avail.

-Vivekananda

 

[Green Gaia]

Children, when they have long lived in ignorance, consider themselves happy. Because those who depend on their good works are, owing to their passions, improvident, they fall and become miserable when their life (in the world which they had gained by their good works) is finished.

Considering sacrifice and good works as the best, these fools know no higher good, and having enjoyed (their reward) on the height of heaven, gained by good works, they enter again this world or a lower one.

But those who practice penance and faith in the forest, tranquil, wise, and living on alms, depart free from passion through the sun to where that immortal Person dwells whose nature is imperishable.

-Mundaka Upanishad

 

[Green Gaia]

God is Consciousness that pervades the entire universe of the living and the non-living.

-Ramakrishna

 

[Green Gaia]

All things arise,
Suffer change,
And pass away.

This is their nature.

When you know this,
Nothing perturbs you,
Nothing hurts you.

You become still.

It is easy.

-Ashtavakra Gita 11:1
From "The Heart of Awareness: A Translation of the Ashtavakra Gita," by Thomas Byrom, 1990.

 

[Green Gaia]

To do that which ought not to be done will bring ruin,
And not to do that which ought to be done will also bring ruin.

Embark upon an action after careful thought. It is folly to say,
"Let us begin the task now and think about it later."

Unless painstakingly performed, a task will not succeed
Even if men in multitudes support it.

-Tirukkural 47: 466-468

 

[Green Gaia]

From the heart there radiate a hundred
And one vital tracks. One of them rises
To the crown of the head. This way leads
To immortality, the others to death.

-Katha Upanishad

 

[Green Gaia]

I am not detachment nor salvation,
Nor anything reached by the senses;
I am behold all thought and form.
I am everywhere, and nowhere at all-
I am Consciousness and Bliss.

I am Shiva! I am Shiva!

-Shankaracharya

 

[Green Gaia]

Death means the attainment of heaven; victory means the enjoyment of the earth. Therefore, rise up…resolved to fight! Having made yourself alike in pain and pleasure, profit and loss, victory and defeat, engage in this great battle and you will be freed from sin.

-Bhagavad Gita 2:37-38

 

[Green Gaia]

Illness is not cured by saying the word "medicine," but by taking medicine. Enlightenment is not achieved by repeating the word "God" but by directly experiencing God.

-Sankara

 

[Green Gaia]

I am fulfilled.

The elements of nature,
The body and the senses,
What are they to me?

Or the mind?

What is emptiness or despair?

-Ashtavakra Gita 20:1

 

[Green Gaia]

To those who cannot smile in joy the wide world
Lies engulfed in darkness even in broad daylight.

Great wealth amassed by men devoid of that virtue called courtesy
Is like good milk that has soured in an unclean vessel.

-Tirukkural 100:999-1000