Stillness

Sukun, calligraphy of Joumana Medlej

We lose words, being amazed or surprised and we stiffen without movement seeing something delightful.When one looks at a Nataraja statue, one cannot miss the unity of two opposite conditions, improbable in his perfection. It is a dual statement of stillness and motion, when the static sculpture represent the intense activity of Lord Shiva. The higher Unity is already stillness. While Shakti, Prakriti, a variety, a vibrancy, is a movement. She is movement and He is stillness. Moving into stillness is the practice of yoga as unity. The term samadhi means “unmoving mind,” indicating the stillness that is the goal of yoga.
It can be result of buddhist meditation or sufi whirling, or ecstasy of orthodox prayer - the silence becomes a  result of this movement. And for silent mind, the samsara fades and stops her infinite vanity for an instant. And also the wonderful kundalini in her divine movement reaches the blissful sahasrara chakra.
It's an ultimate movement, and nothing else in that moment exist. Or everything exists most full.
Moments of this mystical stillness are some of the most profoundly illuminating of a person’s life. They cannot be described because the description's tools become silent also. And when mind begins his movement, you can remember only. So thanks to fine poets which can transfer an echo of it.

A STILLNESS absolute, incommunicable,
Meets the sheer self-discovery of the soul;
A wall of stillness shuts it from the world,
A gulf of stillness swallows up the sense
And makes unreal all that mind has known,
All that the laboring senses still would weave
Prolonging an imaged unreality.
Self’s vast spiritual silence occupies Space;
Only the Inconceivable is left,
Only the Nameless without space and time:
Abolished is the burdening need of life:
Thought falls from us, we cease from joy and grief;
The ego is dead; we are freed from being and care,
We have done with birth and death and work and fate.
O soul, it is too early to rejoice!
Thou hast reached the boundless silence of the Self,
Thou hast leaped into a glad divine abyss;
But where hast thou thrown Self’s mission and Self’s power?
On what dead bank on the Eternal’s road?
One was within thee who was self and world,
What hast thou done for his purpose in the stars?
Escape brings not the victory and the crown!
Something thou cam’st to do from the Unknown,
But nothing is finished and the world goes on
Because only half God’s cosmic work is done.
Only the everlasting No has neared
And stared into thy eyes and killed thy heart:
But where is the Lover’s everlasting Yes,
And immortality in the secret heart,
The voice that chants to the creator Fire,
The symboled OM, the great assenting Word,
The bridge between the rapture and the calm,
The passion and the beauty of the Bride,
The chamber where the glorious enemies kiss,
The smile that saves, the golden peak of things?
This too is Truth at the mystic fount of Life.

— Sri Aurobindo – Savitri

SATYAM SHIVAM SUNDARAM

Your wings

 René Magritte, The Great Family 

A voice out of this world 
calls on our souls
not to wait any more
get ready to move
to the original home

your real home
your real birth place
is up here with the heavens
let your soul take a flight
like a happy phoenix

you've been tied up
your feet in the mud
your body roped to a log
break loose your ties
get ready for the final flight

make your last journey
from this strange world
soar for the heights
where there is no more
separation of you and your home

God has created
your wings not to be dormant
as long as you are alive
you must try more and more
to use your wings to show you're alive

these wings of yours
are filled with quests and hopes
if they are not used
they will wither away
they will soon decay

you may not like
what i'm going to tell you
you are stuck
now you must seek
nothing but the source

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī

The Bridge

Waterloo Bridge by Claude Monet

There are two possible ways to get from one to the other bank of the River of our personal journey. One could attempt to cross through the water or one could go the way of the bridge. Either one held its difficulties. Besides we use an other metaphor here, because we do not go down the stream of river but we cross it.

  Capricci di varie figure di Iacopo Callot

The most difficult, if the other side is not shined for you.You should be assured of durability of your bridge and in that that it will result you in a proper place. Happy is that who does not have such problems. The bridge may be enveloped by a fog of doubts of such degree that the person even does not dare to step into it. But enveloped also in the truest knowledge about self which a man had ever had , it becomes the bridge that stretches from earth to heaven. This Bridge cannot be destroyed or stolen from anyone who wants to follow it, because it is solid and immovable and comes from the unchangeable One. When a person has experienced the clearness of this, it does not mean that the direction cannot be lost for some time and then that way ceases, the person goes back along the road by which had come, hoping to find the same thing again. God do not always give in the same way, but in our foolishness we looks only in that one way, trying to impose the rules for the Higher. Instead, we should cross courageously along the bridge and  receive its blessing  there when, where, and as its Goodness pleases to give.
 Do not take seriously what I try to tell you, I don’t know what Divine will do with me, I just go across a bridge and admire all who cross this bridge so courageously. God, protect all spiritual travellers!
Love

OM NAMAH SHIVAYA

Howrah bridge, Kolkata

Vedasara Shiva Stotra

Hampi, Karnataka

Composer: Ādi  Shaṅkarācārya

paSoonAm patim pApanASam pareSam
gajendrasya kruttim vasAnam vareNyam |
jaTAjooTamadhye sphuradgAngavArim
mahAdevamekam smarAmi smarArim|| 1 ||

maheSam sureSam surArAtinASam
vibhum viSvanAtham vibhootyangabhoosham |
viroopAkshamindvarka-vahni-trinetram
sadAnandameeDe prabhum pancavaktram || 2 ||

gireeSam ganeSam gale neelavarNam
gavendrAdhirooDham guNAteetaroopam |
bhavam bhAsvaram bhasmanA bhooshitAngam
bhavAneekalatram bhaje panchavaktram || 3||

shivAkAnta SambO SaSAnkArdhamaule
maheSAna Soolin jaTAjooTadhArin |
tvamekO jagatvyApako viSvaroopa:
praseeda praseeda prabho poorNaroopam || 4 ||

parAtmAnamekam jagadbeejamAdyam
nireeham nirAkAramOmkAravedyam ||
yatO jAyate pAlyate yena viSvam
tameeSam bhaje leeyate yatra viSvam || 5||

na bhoomir na cApO na vahnir na vAyur -
na cAkASamAste na tandrA na nidrA |
na cOshNam na Seetam na deSO na veshO
na yasyAsti moortis-trimoortim tameeDe ||6 ||

ajam SASvatam kAraNam kAraNAnAm
Sivam kevalam bhAsakam bhAsakAnAm |
tureeyam tama: pAramAdyantaheenam
prapadye param pAvanam dvaitaheenam || 7 ||

namaste namaste vibhO viSvamoorte
namaste namaste cidAnandamoorte |
namaste namaste tapOyOgagamya
namaste namaste SrutijnAnagamya || 8 ||

prabhO SoolapANe vibhO viSvanAtha
mahAdeva SamabhO maheSa trinetra |
SivAkAnta SAnta smarAre purAre
tvadanyO vareNyO na mAnyO na gaNya: || 9 ||

SambhO maheSa karuNAmaya SoolapANe
gaureepate paSupate pShupASanASin |
kASeepate karuNayA jagadetadekas-
tvam hamsi pAsi vidadhAsi mahesSvarO’si ||10||

tvattO jagadbhavati deva bhava smarAre
tvayyeva tishthati jaganmruDa viSvanAtha |
tvayyeva gacchati layam jagadetadeeSa
lingAtmake hara carAcaraviSvaroopin || 11 ||

I remember the only Mahādeva, Who is the enemy of Smara (Kāmadeva), Who is the Lord of the animals for sacrifice, Who destroys the sins, Who is the Lord beyond everyone, Who has a cloth made from elephant-skin, Who is the best, and Who has a shaking stream of Gańgā in the midst of the matted-hair locks.||1||

I praise Lord Shiva, Who is Mahesha, Who is the Lord of demi-gods, Who destroys the grief of demi-gods, Who is resplendent, Who is the Lord of the world, Who has abundant ornaments, Who has variegated (colorful) eyes, Who has the Sun, the Moon and the Fire as three eyes, Who is always blissful, and Who has five-heads.||2||

I adore Lord Shiva, Who is the Lord of the Himālaya, Who is the Leader of Gaṇa, Who has a blue-colored throat, Who sits on the best among bulls, Whose true nature is beyond the qualities, Who is the universe, Who is resplendent, Who is adorned with ashes, Who is the consort of Bhavānī, and Who has five-heads.||3||

O Shambhu, Who is the resplendence of Shivā, Who has the half-moon on the forehead, Who is the great Īshāna, Who holds a trident, and Who has matted-hair tress-locks! You are the only One pervading in this universe, manifesting as the world. O Lord, Who is complete! Please be happy. Be happy.||4||

That Lord — Who is beyond the Ātman, Who is the only One, Who is the fundamental element of the world, Who is the beginning, Who is without passion, Who is without form, and Who is propounded by the ॐ-kāra — Who gives birth, nourishes, and deludes this whole universe, I adore that One.||5||

That Lord, Who is not the ground, Who is not the water, Who is not the fire, Who is not the wind, Who is not the skies, Who is not the sleep or deep-sleep, Who is not the heat, Who is not the cold, Who is not a country, Who is not a physical form, and Who does not possess a form — I praise that Lord in the trinity-form.||6||

I take the refuge in Shiva, Who is without birth, Who is eternal, Who is the reason behind all the reasons, Who is the Only One, Who shines everything that shine others, Who is turīya (pure impersonal state of soul), Who is beyond darkness (tamas), Who is without a beginning and an end, Who is beyond everyone, Who is pure, and Who is without duality.||7||

I bow to You, I bow to You, O Shiva, Who is resplendent in all the wordly-manifestions! I bow to You, I bow to You, O  Shiva, Who is the idol of complete bliss! I bow to You, I bow to You, O Shiva, Who is reachable by penance and Yoga! I bow to You, I bow to you, O  Shiva, Who is reachable by Veda and knowledge.||8||

O Lord, Who holds a trident in hands, Who is the resplendent Lord of the world, Who is Mahādeva, Who is Shambhu, Who is the great Lord, Who has three eyes, Who is the resplendence of Shivā, Who is serene, Who slayed Smara (Kāma), and Who slayed Pura! There is nothing better or different from You which is countable or respectable.||9||

O Shambhu, Who is Mahesha, Who is full of compassion, Who holds a trident, Who is the Lord of Gaurī, Who is the Lord of sacrificed animals, Who destroys the shackles of animals, Who is the Lord of Kāshī! Only You are with compassion in this world. You are the great Lord, Who destroys, protects, and holds the world.||10||

O Deva, Who is the universe, Who slays Smara! This world emanates from You. O Mṛḍa, Who is the Lord of the world! The world sits inside You. O Īsha, O Hara, Who pervades the entire universe as moving and unmoving forms! This world finally contracts into Your egg-shaped form (lińga) during deluge.||11||

OM NAMAH SHIVAYA

Maa Maha Kali Aarti

Prema Sahitha nita karun aarthi,
Maha kali maiya ki,
Arid ala daranii, mangala bharani,
Dukh hrini, sukhadaiyaa ki. 1
Daily I will Worship with love,
The great mother Kali,
Who tears her enemies to pieces,
Who bestows blessings on her devotees,
Who is the destroyer of sorrow,
And creator of pleasure.
Tumahi aagama bhava bharne vali,
Tumahi jagatha laya karne vali,
Thumahe kashta lagee bhatana para.
Aakara turata sahaiyya ki. 2
You are the one who populates the universe,
You are the one who dissolves the universe,
You are the one who helps fast,
Your devotees in distress.
Tumhin prabala ho hari ki Shakthi,
Rudra bhava shankara ki bhakthi,
Thumhin janani patavaraa bani,
Ika sevaka Sundara naiyaa kii. 3
You are indomitable power of Hari,
You are the devotion to the angry shankara,
And you are mother the pedal that steers,
The boat of life of this devotee Sundara.

Om Krim Kalyai Namaha

Durga Dhakara Dwathrimsa Nama Mala

32 names of Durga starting with letter “Dha”.

1. Durga Druragarthi samani Durgapadvinivarini,
Durgamachedini, Durgasadhini, Durganasini.

2. Durgathodharini, Durga nihanthri, Durgamaapaha,
Durgamajnanadha, Durga daithya loka dhavanala.

3. Durgama, Durgamaaloka, Durgathma swaroopini,
Durga marga pradha, Durgamavidhyaa, Durgamasritha

4. Durgamajnana samsthana, Durga madhyanabhasini,
Durgamohaa, Durgamagaa, Durgamartha swaroopini.

5. Durgamasura samhanthri, Durgamayudha Dharini,
Durgamangi, Durgamathaa, Durgamya, Durgameswari.

6. Durgabheema, Durgabhama, Durgadhaa, Durgadharini

7. Namavaleem imam yasthu Durgaayaa may Manava,
Padethu sarva bhayan muktho bhavishyathi na samasaya.

Ithi Durga Dhakara dwathrimsa nama mala sampthaa

Shiva Shadakshara Stotram

Omkaram, Bindu Samyuktham,
Nithyam, dyayanthi yogina,
Kamadam, mokshadam chaiva,
Omkaraya Namo nama. 1

Namanthi Rishayo deva,
Namanthyapsarasa gana,
Nara namanthi, devesam,
Nakaraya namo nama. 2

Mahadevam, Mahathmanam,
Mahadyanaparayanam,
Maha papa haram devam,
Makaraya namo nama. 3

Shivam Shantham jagnannatham,
Lokanugraha karakam,
Shivamekapadam nithyam,
Shikaraya namo nama. 4

Vahanam Vrushabho yasya,
Vasuki Kanda Bhooshanam,
Vame Shakthi daram devam,
Vakaraya namo namo. 5

Yathra yathra sthitho deva,
Sarva vyapi maheswara,
Yo guru sarva devanam,
Yakaraya namo nama. 6

Phalsruthi:
Shadaksharamidham sthothram,
Ya padeth Shiva Sannidhou,
Shivalokamavapnothi, Shivena Saha modathe.

OM NAMAH SHIVAYA

The Boatman

Life is a boat ride across the river of worldly existence. As we are born in this samsara, we should to swim but who who operates a boat, who is the boatmen? A boatman is a person who has a hand in operating a boat. The boatman or the ferryman is a guide for both the River and the path to Truth. In spiritual sense, he is positioned between ordinary world and enlightenment, and those who seek enlightenment and are open to guidance will find what they need.
In Mahāyāna Buddhism the boatman-like bodhisattva - one who aspires to achieve buddha-hood along with other sentient beings. A boatmen in Buddhism guides a person and are able to help others find the Way or enlightenment.
This Mystical function of the boatman transporting the person from the one hand on another, is present at many myths.
These claims and the identity of the boatmen are related to the story of the boatman Khevat from Ramayana, in which Khevat ferries lord Rama, Sita and Lakshmana across the river, at the end of trip Sita wants to pay the boatman a fee, with the only thing she has, her ring, but the Khevat rejects it saying to Rama: “we are of the same profession, you carry people across the river of life (samsara) to the far shore of liberation (moksha) and I carry people from this bank of the river to the other side. Rama you are also a boatman (tum bhi Khevat), how can I charge you?”
But can we always rely just on the boatman?
This well-known sufi story about the illiterate boatman and the professor, is teaching this lesson retold in Masnavi:

‘A grammatist once got into a boat.

That self-regarding man looked at the boatman

And said, ‘Do you know grammar?’ ‘No,’ he said.

‘And half your life has gone!’ he chided him.

The boatman’s heart was broken by the pain,

but for the moment made his answer silence.

The wind then blew the boat into a whirpool.

The boatman hollered to the grammatist,

‘Do you know how to swim at all, please tell me?’

He said, ‘I don’t, you shrewd and handsome man!’

‘Then all your life has gone, dear grammatist,’

he said. ‘Our boat is sinking in these whirlpools’.

Absorption’s needed here, not grammar, see!

If you’re absorbed, jump in. There’s no danger.

The ocean wave will raise the dead aloft.

How can the living man escape the sea?

And if you’ve died to human qualities,

the sea of secrets sets you at its summit.

And you who’ve called the people asinine,

now you’re the one who’s like an ass on ice.

World’s greatest scholar of your time you may be,

but note this world is passing – watch the time!

Now we stitched up the grammatist in order

to tell you of the grammar of absorption.

The heart of all the learned sciences,

my learned friend, you’ll learn in self-effacement.

That pitcher is our learned sciences,

that caliph is the Tigris of God’s knowledge.

Full jars we’re carrying to the river Tigris,

and we’re an ass, though we don’t know it yet.

At least the Bedouin man could be excused -

from distant parts, he didn’t know the Tigris.

If he, like us, had known about the Tigris

would he have lugged his jar from place to place?

No, surely, if he’d known about the Tigris,

he would have smashed his jar upon a rock’.

Masnavi 1.2847-2864, trans. A. Williams

 Sooner or later, you should to become the boatman itself or to learn to swim on this River.We can make mistakes, for there is no other way of learning how to swim. The swim is not a race, but a journey, and this is a great swim, and a fantastic journey.

The River

Roger Wagner There is a River

The River it is very important symbol in many cultures and for me personally. It has a depth that seems luminous and yet is mysteriously incomprehensible. You do not see below the surface no matter how long you gaze into it.
Its symbolism is ambivalent: to water is linked to both life and death.Water is the Styx that Greek souls crossed with Charon the boatman, but also the delightful Kawthar of the Muslim paradise, as a symbol,
embraces within itself the entire mystery of reality and the goal of creation.

Joachim Patinir Crossing the River Styx

The famous saying of Heraclitus "No man steps in the same river twice, for it is not the same river, and he is not the same man" reflects a sight at existence flows on like a river.
"All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full."(King Solomon).
"Tao in the world is like a river flowing home to the sea."(Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu,chapter 32)
In Chinese cosmogony, water is a pledge of the spiritual dimensions of beings and emerges as the mystery of the universe by transfiguration as is illustrated by the action of Qu Yuan, "the first poet" of the Middle Kingdom, who threw himself into the river Milo to renew the alliance of Heaven and Earth.

Courtesy of Zhang Cuiying

But if ocean symbolism is based primarily around water in a relatively unmoving form, river symbolism is based around water in movement.  Chinese river poems and river pictures suggest the journey of life. The River represent the irreversibility of history and time, and the fact that sooner or later every must come to end.
In almost every culture, water was endowed with spirituality.

Sunrise at Ganga River,Varanasi 2012

Gange cha Yamune chaiva Godavari Saraswati,
Narmade Sindhu Kaveri jalesmin sannidhim kuru

The River Ganges or Ganga is perhaps the holiest river in any religion. River Ganges has been revered by millions as a symbol of spiritual purity. The holy river Ganges is believed to be a pathway to attain Moksha.
Mother Ganga is described by ancient Hindu scriptures as a gift from the gods—the earthly incarnation of the deity Ganga. "Man becomes pure by the touch of the water, or by consuming it, or by expressing its name," Lord Vishnu proclaims in the Ramayana
 Allahabad, also known as Triveni Sangam, is sacred to Hindus because three sacred rivers - the Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati (which is supposed to join them from beneath the ground) meet there. It is also called Prayag, or "the confluence". How it's possible to reach this Sangam for us?
But if an individual human existence is similar to a river - this river will teach us everything we need to learn. The water follows and trusts the current. The current knows where its going. And this is how we are led when we trust our source and allow that source to lead us. And all small individual rivers are already on their way.

In addition, a pair of my favourite rare songs about River. Both reflect different views on this symbol but each of them is true. You can have different thoughts on it but the River is just the River.


Lyrics:
O river

The river thinks it has captured the moon in her breast
The river thinks it has captured the moon in her breast
That's not the moon, it's reflection

The real moon looks down from the sky and smiles
The river thinks it has captured the moon in her breast
As long as the moon doesn't shine
Fireflies look nice
The strolling actor king lives like a king
That's not the moon, it's reflection
The real moon looks down from the sky and smiles

The river thinks it has captured the moon in her breast
O foolish river
You're a big fool
ln this world the fake and false are occupying the true
Don't try to pass off the fake as true, trusting destiny

That's not the moon, it's reflection
The real moon looks down from the sky and
smiles
The river thinks it has captured the moon in her
breast
O foolish river
You're a big fool



The refrain of this song is translated - "O wondrous play!"

OM NAMAH SHIVAYA