Upanishads : "The cream of Vedas"

 ==================================================================== ====================================================================== Wednesday, December 29, 2021. 7:00.PM. Maharishi Yajnavalkya in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad - 5.   ========================================================================= "Do not talk much about it," Yajnavalkya tells some of the questioners in the assembly of Sage Janaka. "Do not talk much about it." And one Shakalya went on arguing, "Where is its location, where is it located? Where is the heart located? Yajnavalkya said "Hey, don't ask too much lest your head may fall off." "Tell me the great Purusha that is declared in the Upanishads. If you don't understand this, your head will fall just now." And he did not know the Purusha in the Upanishads that well, and robbers took the head away. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 ====================================================================== ======================================================================= Saturday, December 25 2021. 6:00. PM. The Kathopanishad: A Wondrous Epic of the Spirit : 9. (Spoken on June 19, 1972). ======================================================================= Paryapta-kamasya krtatmanas tu :  If there is no desire, what will happen?  If we want nothing, then what is rebirth?  Rebirth is only the materialisation of desire. If there is no necessity for the materialisation of desire on account of the absence of desire itself, there is no rebirth.  Paryapta-kamasya krtatmanas tu. Krtamais one who has fulfilled himself completely on account of the cessation of desire for objects of the senses.  Ihaiva sarve praviliyanti kamah : Desires melt here itself like camphor that is burnt without any residue. There is a merger of the soul here itself into the Spirit. There is no travelling or movement from place to place. The

 ====================================================================== ===================================================================== Sunday, December 19, 2021. 7:00.PM. Yajnavalkya in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad - 4.   Discourse-4. ====================================================================== You must read the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, especially the Second and the Fourth Chapters where Yajnavalkya pours the highest wisdom on Maitreyi and King Janaka, till they become stunned completely. "Go on, Yajnavalkya, say further, I will give you a thousand cows as big as elephants. Go on, tell me further, further. I am not satisfied. You are raining nectar on me. Go on, Yajnavalkya." It would be good if we had been present there in that audience. Oh, how blessed it would be! Nectar flowed from the words of Sage Yajnavalkya, and the highly satisfied King said, "Go on, go on further, great Sage, further! I am not satisfied. I'm giving you thousands of cows as

 ===================================================================== =================================================================== Wednesday, December 15 2021. 8:00. PM. The Kathopanishad: A Wondrous Epic of the Spirit : 8. (Spoken on June 19, 1972). ==================================================================== What is this Beyond?  Yama does not give a direct answer; he evades the answer, though it looks that he was giving the answer.  Instead of giving the answer directly, he says something else. What does he say?  The very first thing that Yama speaks is śreyaś ca preyaś ca manuṣyam etas tau samparītya vivinakti dhīraḥ (Katha 1.2.2):  Nachiketas, two things will come to every person – every person, without exception. The good as well as the pleasant, both will come. I have offered the pleasant before you, and you have rejected it. I am happy. I have a true disciple before me. All the best conceivable pleasantries in the universe I have offered to you. You said, “I do

=================================================================================== ================================================================================ Thursday, December 09, 2021. 8:00.AM. Yajnavalkya in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad - 3.   Discourse-3. ================================================================================= These are some of the various forms in which the Self finds itself cosily, and seems to be attracting everything everywhere. It is the Self that is attracting the Self in different connotations, in various areas of application. Here we are placing ourselves in a rather dangerous zone. We are habituated again and again to think that the Self cannot be anywhere else than inside us. By 'us' we mean this body! What else can the 'I' be except this body? "I am going tomorrow to Gujarat." – Who is speaking this? Which self is speaking? It is the bodily self that is speaking. This habit cannot be escaped from. Now, the Upanis

 ============================================================================= ================================================================================ Sunday,December 05 2021. 8:00. PM. The Kathopanishad: A Wondrous Epic of the Spirit : 7. (Spoken on June 19, 1972) ============================================================================== Such is the feeling of Nachiketas. Nachiketas shall not be satisfied with any other thing than this question: What happens to one when he is absorbed into the Beyond? Does one exist or does one not exist? Well, the best Guru has found the best disciple. It is impossible to evade the question anymore. Pointedly Nachiketas presses forward this question. “I shall not be satisfied with any other thing than the answer to this question that I put before you: What happens to the soul when it is absorbed?” Now, this is, concisely speaking, the initial difficulties which we have to face when we tread the path of the Spirit. We are not to be given