kAnchi Jagadguru attained mahAsamAdhi on 9:00 am 28-02-2018, Shukla Trayodashi

Pranams,

Kanchi Kamakoti Pitha Sankaracharya Sri Jayendra Saraswathi Mahaswami attained Siddhi (mahAsamAdhi) at 9:00 am 28-Feb-2018 on Shukla Trayodashi

Jagadguru's antim darshana is being live streamed on Sri Sankara TV.

Kanchi Sankaracharya was personally selected by his great guru Sri Chandrashekharendra Saraswathi Mahaswami, who was often called as the walking God. Unlike other Shankaracharyas, Kanchi Shankaracharya came out of matha and did a lot of social work. Acharya build hospitals, educational institutions and carried out other humanitarian services. Kanchi Shankaracharya ji was also involved in Ayodhya Ram Mandir Issue, which alas could not be errected in his life time.

Acharya ji was a strong force who stood against missionaries and was so targetted by them by framing him in fake murder case. Even at the age of 70 years Acharya was made to sit for 4-5 hours on a wooden table and was continuously grilled by police  As a head of matha he had to carry out certain daily nitya anusthana-s (certain daily procedures). Police didn't allowed him to carry them too. High court didnt grant him bail. But when they approached supreme court, he was immediately granted bail on the same day and was later acquitted due to lack of evidences. 

A great activist Shri Rajiv Dixit ji had met Kanchi Shankaracharya. He has also exposed the work of Christian Missionaries.

youtu.be/wWdhsmqS83s  - Why Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi ji was targetted (4.23 min video)

https://youtu.be/nVHmw1o9AoI  - exposing Christian Missionaries (29.21 min video).

Other than social and humanitarian activities, it was under his leadership and guidance that a great collection of 50 years of discourses of Kanchi Paramacharya Sri Chandrashekharendra Mahaswami, who was known as 'the walking God' were published on birth centenary celebration of Kanchi Paramacharya in Tamil as a 7 volume set titled 'Deivathin Kural' meaning 'The voice of God' by Bhartiya Vidya Bhavans. This was later translated in English as 'Voice of God'. Out of 7 volumes, 2 volumes were extracted as were published as 'Hindu Dharma' and 'The Guru Tradition'. Hindu Dharma is available online at their website. 

http://www.kamakoti.org/misc/hindudharma.html

A chapter is missing in the online version.

Part 20: Hindu Dharma: Varna Dharma For Universal Well-Being

Chapter 2: Caste according to the Vedas and the Gita

Please find it here.

https://indiaspirituality.blogspot.in/2013/10/missing-chapter-in-online-version-of.html

A great devotee Ra. Ganapathy traveled with Paramacharya for over 50 years and penned his discourses. My koti koti pranams to such a dedicated and pious Atman through whom we get a treasure of knowledge in the form of Hindu Dharma'. This book explains Sanatana Dharma from traditional viewpoint as propagated by Adi Sankaracharya bhagavapada.

We have collected his photos old and the recent onces with antim darshan and uploaded on Google drive :

https://goo.gl/nTR18M

Few images for antim darshan are posted here

Some more pictures of Kanchi Shankaracharya

 

If you have wish to share some photos with us please share on indiaspirituality@gmail.com

There are some other pictures of Sri Jayendra Saraswathi ji on the web. Please find links below

https://srijayendraperiyava.wordpress.com/2017/09/13/60th-year-of-peetarohanam-of-hh-jayendra-saraswathi-swamigal/
http://vandeguruparamparaam.blogspot.in/2017/01/rare-pictures-of-pudhu-periyava-and.html
https://vandeguruparamparaam.wordpress.com/2018/01/07/young-bala-periyava/
https://mahaperiyavaa.blog/2015/11/06/hh-jayendra-saraswathi-swamigals-rare-photos-and-paper-clippings/

With Dvaita Acharya Sri Vishvesha Theertha Swamiji
http://shivallibrahmins.com/great-acharyas/sri-sri-vishvesha-theertha-swamiji/attachment/41/

Tips for Spiritual Blogging

I am not an expert, but from my small experience, i will try to put forward some points worthy to be considered while blogging from spiritual standpoint. I have omitted general tips which are advised by professional bloggers and can they be easily googled. Refer to Links to Blogger Hacks - Credits.

1. Publishing an article for any religious festival / occasion, conference (summit).

If you are planning to publish any information of any festival like Holi, Diwali, New Year Message, etc, then DO NOT publish or schedule your post to be published on the day of festival. Publish the post atleast 4-5 days before the day of festival. Prefer to post before weekends.

Google and other search engines need to crawl and index your post, which takes time - a few hours or a day, so that they are displayed in the search query.

2. Frequency of posts.

Even though many professional bloggers advice us to blog daily or atleast thrice a week, in spiritual field, I feel, it is not necessary to blog too frequently. It is appreciable if you can manage to blog daily, without compromising on quality.

Bloggers advice from SEO (Search Engine Optimization) point of view. Although it is necessary, i think blogging once in a week or once in two weeks is also ok. Concentrate more on quality.

3. Labels or Categories.

Try to keep minimum number of Labels / Categories as they are not indexed by Google. over a period of time it will be a mess making it difficult to navigate. Again, do not add too many labels to a post. Focus  on one topic while writing an article.

4. Give credit to original source.

There is nothing new that can be given in spirituality. Original content is better but if you wish to just post the teachings of great saints, publish articles which are not available on the net. Remember to give credit to them or backlink to any online source. I personally prefer to spread the teachings of great saints then to write my own articles.

5. Exchange backlinks.

Backlinks are links that point to another blog, who has already given a link to your blog on his/her blog. Backlinks increase blog traffic and make more people aware of your blog's existence. Don't be greedy. Do not compromise on quality of links. Take some time, review the blog properly and then add or request for a backlink.

6. RSS Feeds for Individual Labels

Offer RSS feeds for each labels, as some users are only interested in posts covering a specific topic or an area. Individual RSS can be helpful since subscribers receive the feeds only when a post categorized under subscribed label is published.

e.g. if i have subscribed to the label "Ramakrishna Kathamrita" then i will receive the feeds only when an article categorized under the label "Ramakrishna Kathamrita" is published and not each and every post of the blog.

7. Social network.

Opening an account in Twitter and facebook also helps. there are services available which tweet automatically as you publish the post in real time. Google for it. Facebook has feature in which the posts automatically appear in 'notes'. Same with friend feed. It does not consume too much time, provided you do not allow yourself to get addicted.

8. Atleast display an email id for contact.

Many spiritual bloggers have a tendency to hide their identity. Even I hide it. But the very point that you are blogging makes you an extrovert. You cannot be 100% introvert if you are blogging. So atleast generate a proper email id for blog (and check for new mails daily).

9. Add / register your blog to blog directories.

Technorati is specialized blog search engine. You may consider other directories like blog catalog, blogged, Indi blogger, etc. Refer the links in the footer of Indiaspirituality blog. These are one time submissions.

Later on you may decide to check or not to check the directories. They also help in finding good blogs with which you can request backlinks or just add them to your 'blogroll' or 'favourite blog list'.

10. No visitors - don't be disheartened

New you setup a new blog, initially there may be very few visitors. It takes time to get recognized. Maybe 6 months or a year. Be patient.

11. When to stop blogging (not for everybody)

Blogging is better than getting engaged to other useless non-spiritual activities. In a way you are connected to spirituality.

Finally, blogging is not destination (and never make it your unavoidable, irresistible addiction). Nothing can be more important then our spiritual progress.

While the mind is extrovert blogging helps, but when the mind is introvert, it makes the mind extrovert which his not a healthy sign.  Why force your mind to be extrovert, when it has turned itself inside after years of spiritual practice .Think. You know what to do.

Need your help – Translation Bug

Namaste,

Few days ago, I was reading an article from the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna at http://shastrix.blogspot.com/2008/10/playing-in-3d-projection.html

It reads

“The cockroach becomes motionless by constantly meditating on the kumira worm; it loses the power to move. At last it is transformed into a kumira. Similarly, by constantly meditating on God the bhakta loses his ego; he realizes that God is he and he is God. When the cockroach becomes the kumira everything is achieved. Instantly one obtains liberation.”
—The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Chapter 36

The doubt is whether the original version (in Bengali) actually described the way it is written here and used the word "cockroach".

Again, on second thought, the entire thing looks upside down. Here cockroach meditates on worm. Whereas it should be opposite. The worm (i.e. pre-matured larva) always remembers the Bhamri (bramri) (fully-matured being) and becomes Bhamri (bramri) (fully matured being).

There is an explanation of Keet-Bramar-Nyaya is Shankaracharya's Vivekchoodamani

It says that a worm is constantly remembers of Bhamri (due to the fear of its bite and for food). By constantly remembering Bhamri, the worm, which was supposed to become a butterfly, becomes a bhamri.

I found an English version which says”

"But a man realizes this only when his devotion to God has matured. One gets jaundice when too much bile accumulates. Then one sees everything as yellow. From constantly meditating on Krishna, Radhika saw everything as Krishna; moreover, she even felt that she herself had become Krishna. If a piece of lead is kept in a lake of mercury a long time, it turns into mercury. The cockroach becomes motionless by constantly meditating on the kumira worm; it loses the power to move. At last it is transformed into a kumira. Similarly, by constantly meditating on God the bhakta loses his ego; he realizes that God is he and he is God. When the cockroach becomes the kumira everything is achieved. Instantly one obtains liberation."

So Shastriji has posted as given in the book. The only point is the doubt in translation.

I found the same paragraph in Gujarati version of Gospel.

It is in the page no 356 (3rd line from the top), Chapter 36.5 (i.e. Khand 36, Adhyaaya 5 - Katha at Girish's House), of Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita Vol 2. The gujarati Version is available in the set of 3 Vol.

I have the 3rd edition, March 1994, Translated by Swami Chaitanyaananda, published by Rajkot Ashram.

It says the same thing which I pointed out.

The worm (Kit) always remembers the bhamri (bramar) and becomes Bhamri.

The paragraph reads.

Sri Radhaji Meditated on Sri Krishna and she saw everything as Sri Krishna. The worm (Kit) always remembers the bhamri (bramar) and becomes Bhamri. A Bhakta by keep on meditating on God becomes God (Ishwara Swarupa).

This is the message which I think, Sri Ramakrishna wanted to teach us.

Since the original Version of Gospel was written in Bengali, I request readers to throw more light in this topic and clarify this issue.

Maybe it is the problem of english translation. I request readers who are aware of the original in Bengali to clarify the word used in it.

For your convenience, the quote comes in Chapter 36, The Master's Birthday, near the bottom of page 700.

English Version of Gospel can be read online at http://www.kathamrita.org/KathamritaMain.htm or http://www.rkmhq.org/gospel/ – I prefer this link. Chapter 36 Find (Ctrl F) cockroach and you will get the para. Bengali Version is also available at http://www.rkmhq.org/gospel/, the link for bengali version is on the Top Right corner.

 

AUM

INDIASPIRITUALITY