Daily Hindu Wisdom

[Green Gaia]

Having taught the Vedas, the teacher says:
"Speak the truth. Do your duty. Neglect not
The scriptures. Give your best to your teacher.
Do not cut off the line of progeny. Swerve not
From the truth. Swerve not from the good.
Protect your spiritual progress always.
Give your best in learning and teaching.
Never fail in respect to the sages.
See the divine in your mother, father,
Teacher, and guest. Never do what is wrong.
Honor those who are worthy of honor.
Give with faith. Give with love. Give with joy.
If you are in doubt about the right conduct,
Follow the example of the sages,
Who know what is best for spiritual growth.
This is the instruction of the Vedas;
This is the secret; this is the message."

-Taittiriya Upanishad

 

[Green Gaia]

As the man and the woman in me
Unite in love,
The brilliant beauty
Balanced on the two-petalled lotus
Within me
Dazzles my eyes.
The rays
Outshine the moon
And the jewels
Glowing on the hoods of snakes.

My skin and bone
Are tuned to gold.
I am the reservoir of love
Alive as the waves.
A single drop of water
Has grown into a sea,
Unnavigable.

-Lalan

 

[Green Gaia]

They live in wisdom who see themselves in all and all in them, who have renounced every selfish desire and sense craving tormenting the heart.

Neither agitated by grief nor hankering after pleasure, they live free from lust and fear and anger. Established in meditation, they are truly wise. Fettered no more by selfish attachments, they are neither elated by good fortune nor depressed by bad. Such are the seers.

-Bhagavad Gita 2:55-57

 

[Green Gaia]

Freedom is that triumphant state of consciousness that is beyond the influence of desire. The mind ceases to thirst for anything it has seen or heard of; even what is promised in the scriptures.

And supreme freedom is that complete liberation from the world of change that comes of knowing the unbound Self.

-The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, 1:15-16

 

[Green Gaia]

Before you speak, ask yourself, is it kind, is it necessary, is it true, does it improve on the silence?

-Sai Baba

 

[Green Gaia]

All sorrow comes from fear.
From nothing else.

When you know this,
You become free of it,
And desire melts away.

You become happy
And still.

-Ashtavakra Gita 11:5

 

[Green Gaia]

Do not seek the fortune that greed gathers,
For its fruit is bitter in the day of enjoyment.

To protect his own prosperity from decline
One must not crave the property held by others.

-Tirukkural 18: 177-178

 

[Green Gaia]

Smaller than a grain of rice, smaller than a grain of barley, smaller than a mustard seed, smaller than a grain of millet, smaller even than the kernel of a grain of millet is the Self. This is the Self dwelling in my heart, greater than the earth, greater than the sky, greater than all the worlds.

-Chandogya Upanishad

 

[Green Gaia]

The no-mind state is not the vacancy of idiocy but the most supremely alert intelligence, undistracted by extraneous thought.

-Ramesh Balsekar

 

[Green Gaia]

Every selfless act...is born from Brahman, the eternal, infinite Godhead. He is present in every act of service.

-Bhagavad Gita 3:15

 

[Green Gaia]

My mind fell like a hailstone
into the vast expanse of Brahman's ocean.
Touching one drop of it.
I melted away and became one with Brahman.
This is wonderful indeed!
Here is the ocean of Brahman,
full of endless joy.

-Sankara

 

[Green Gaia]

The body is false,
And so are its fears,
Heaven and hell, freedom and bondage.

It is all invention.

What can they matter to me?

I am awareness itself.

-Ashtavakra Gita 2:20

 

[Green Gaia]

These two paths, the light and the dark, are said to be eternal, lending some to liberation and others to rebirth. Once you have known these two paths, Arjuna, you can never be deluded again. Attain this knowledge through perseverance in yoga. There is merit in studying the scriptures, in selfless service, austerity, and giving, but the practice of meditation carries you beyond all these to the supreme abode of the highest Lord.

-Bhagavad Gita 8:26-28

 

[Green Gaia]

The ultimate Consciousness
is always present everywhere.
It is beyond space and time,
with not before or after.
It is undeniable and obvious.
So what can be said about it?

-Abhinavagupta

 

[Green Gaia]

Like bubbles in the sea,
All the worlds arise in you.

Know you are the Self.
Know you are one.

Let yourself dissolve.

You see the world.
But like the snake in the rope,
It is not really there.

You are pure.

Let yourself dissolve.

-Ashtavakra Gita 5:2-3

 

[Green Gaia]

Worthless are those who injure others vengefully,
While those who stoically endure are like stored gold.

The gratification of the vengeful lasts only for a day,
But the glory of the forbearing lasts until the end of time.

Though unjustly aggrieved, it is best to suffer the suffering
And refrain from unrighteous retaliation.

-Tirukkural 16: 155-157

 

[Green Gaia]

In that unitive state there is neither father
Nor mother, neither worlds nor gods nor even
Scriptures. In that state there is neither thief
Nor slayer, neither low caste nor high, neither
Monk nor ascetic. The Self is beyond good
And evil, beyond all the suffering of the human
Heart.

-Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

 

[Green Gaia]

The mind is an object of perception
like the eternal world.
The Atman, the real seer,
remains unknown.

-Pantanjali

 

[Green Gaia]

Like the wind, like clouds, like thunder and
lightning, which rise from space without
physical shape and reach the transcendent
light in their own form, those who rise above
body-consciousness ascend to the transcendent
light in their real form, the Self.

-Chandogya Upanishad

 

[Green Gaia]

As the intense fire of the furnace
refines gold to brilliancy, so does
The burning suffering of austerity
purify the soul to resplendence.

-Tirukkural 27:267