Bhoomananda Foundation

Poojya Swamiji reiterates Shankara’s definition of sraddha as the devotion one has towards scriptures and Guru’s words. If we are able to listen to the Guru with full attention, application and wholesomeness, then we are said to have sraddha towards the Guru. Whenever someone says something true, Poojya Swamiji says if we have full devotion towards what he says, then his instruction will get absorbed into the listener’s system. That total devotion is sraddha.

Slokas chanted in the track:

निगमाचार्यवाक्येषु भक्तिः श्रद्धेति विश्रुता ।

nigamāchārya-vākyeshu bhaktih śraddheti viśrutā

(Aparokshanubhootih 8)

PR 03 Aug 2012

Poojya Swamiji says that while we are in the process of worshipping God, there comes a stage when we feel the impersonal God we worship is not sufficient for our devotional growth and fruition. That is when we look for someone who has experienced God and can show us the path towards our own direct experience. That person is the Guru. What is Guru Bhakti? Swamiji elaborates that regarding the Guru as a person whom we look to for guidance, advice, inspiration, interaction, fondness, and confession, is true Guru-bhakti. In other words, we have attitude of full surrender towards him.

Poojya Swamiji starts this short talk, explaining the need for a Guru. Explaining the pivotal role of a Guru in the disciple’s spiritual progress, he declares that the progress depends on the degree of fondness the disciple has for the Guru. God is invisible, but what effect God-realization has on a person, can be seen by interacting with the Guru.

PR 04 Mar 2016

(From the discourse series titled: Bhagavad Gita – A comprehensive guide for living, given by Nutan Swamiji during the Jamshedpur Retreat in Oct-Nov 2013)

Nutan Swamiji begins the discourse revealing Arjuna’s desire-motivated mindset which is in stark contrast to a yoga-oriented mindset. He explains how to do through karma i.e. doing work to express joy and not to get joy. Such an attitude requires a free mind merged with seeking.

Swamiji reinforces the definition of Stitha Prajna – the Samadhi state of a knower. There is no Subject-Object division in such a state, and the individuality is dissolved in consciousness. Such a seeker has renounced all desires, even the desire for self-realisation. He has an impersonal association with both sukha and dukha. He does not cling to anything in this world at all. When he interacts, he does so with a yoga attitude in mind and intelligence, what the Gita calls the samatva-yoga.

(From the discourse series titled: Bhagavad Gita – A comprehensive guide for living, given by Nutan Swamiji during the Jamshedpur Retreat in Oct-Nov 2013)

The Bhagavad Gita declares that the joy in life is missed because joy does not come from external objects, but from expansion of the mind. That joy is missed because of the infinite desires that we nurture within us. Nutan Swamiji guides us that elimination of desires should be initially pursued by fulfiling dharmic desires only, and then gradually giving up desires completely. He shows us the way to achieve the goal through samatva yoga or buddhi yoga.

Through the example of Arjuna, Swamiji explains how human being is a part of creation,

so his performance in the world should only be as an offering, a yajna with no selfish aim. He elucidates how by not getting attached to the subjective results of action, one can remain unaffected by all attractions and repulsions. The term used is naishkarma, the real inactivity, which is a state of stillness while interacting in the world.

(From the discourse series titled: Bhagavad Gita – A comprehensive guide for living, given by Nutan Swamiji during the Jamshedpur Retreat in Oct-Nov 2013)

The human being is always running in pursuit of happiness. But this happiness is always sought from the multiplicity of the outside world, which being temporary, is unable to give lasting happiness. In order to remain permanently happy, the Bhagavad Gita reveals a two step process a) A Knowledge orientaton b) Karma Nistha

Karma Nistha is the revolutionary message of Bhagavad Gita whereby activity, instead of being negated, is used as an instrument to attain the goal of self-realisation.

Nutan Swamiji also points out that until a seeker’s intelligence is humbled, the constriction of mind will not be removed. He addreses the seeker who is ready to surrender, seek refuge and discipline himself. This surrender, he says, will lead him to the goal of Self-realisation.

(From the discourse series titled: Bhagavad Gita – A comprehensive guide for living, given by Nutan Swamiji during the Jamshedpur Retreat in Oct-Nov 2013)

Nutan Swamiji reveals why Vyasa deva chose the background of a warfield for the Bhagavad Gita instead of a peaceful setting. This scientific scripture brings home the message that spirituality is not only to be practised away from the world of activity. Instead, it is to be applied in the midst of intense activity. This knowledge is necessary to equip everyone with the ability for any kind of activity in this world. He reveals the process of withdrawing one’s orientation from the outside world to one’s within, with the help of the knowledge of Oneness. Once established, such an individual does not get affected by anything that happens outside, instead works for the benefit of the world even in the most trying situations. That is the attitude of Sarvabhute-hite Rataah.

Poojya Swamiji emphasizes that in the object hemisphere there are only two factors–matter and energy. The conscious factor is the third and can be traced only in one’s own living body. Consciousness is different from matter and energy. Consciousness constitutes the subject and manifests as the mind, intelligence and ego.

A seeker only has to know this consciousness that animates and activates the body. This subject is different from the objects. The consciousness becomes the mind, ego, and intelligence and is unaffected by all. This truth needs to be contemplated upon and stabilised within us.

A seeker must repeatedly sing about, hear about, think of and reflect on the Consciousness. Consciousness is neither born nor does it die; Consciousness never ceases to be. It is ever-present, eternal, changeless. Upanishads says that when a seeker aspires to realize the Self one-pointedly, to the exclusion of everything else, giving it supreme position in life, then the Self reveals itself.

A seeker cannot miss the Self because it is only because of the Self that we see the objects. All the objects are reflected in the Self. In reality, there is nothing other than the Self. Swamiji urges all seekers to know the Self and be liberated.

Shlokas chanted in the Track:

न जायते म्रियते वा कदाचि-

न्नायं भूत्वा भविता वा न भूयः ।

अजो नित्यः शाश्वतोऽयं पुराणो-

न हन्यते हन्यमाने शरीरे ।।

Bhagavad Gita 2.20

PR 28 Jan 2018

Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha elaborates on the simple and comprehensive nature of spirituality. When we get up in the morning, we start interacting with objects. These interactions are because of the interacting subject. Because our focus is on the objects, we miss the subject. Any action rests, subsists and concludes in the mind, but we are not aware of it. A seeker must infuse the subject in all interactions.

Bhagavad Gita speaks about the greatness, glory, magnificence of the subject, which enriches the mind and intelligence. Any trouble, lack or deficiency can be set right by subject infusion. Swamiji urges us to draw upon subject infusion more and more and dissolve and cure our mental maladies. The seeker must make the intelligence interact with the mind to resolve the problems of the mind. And the intelligence itself should draw all that it wants from the soul which is absolutely unaffected and unconditioned. So this is an interaction between the soul and the mind using the tool of intelligence.

A seeker/spritual practitioner, by means of his pursuit, must reach a state where the Inner personality is filled by the subject’s or soul’s grace and grandeur.

PR 30 Mar 2018

Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha speaks about how in meditation one is aware of one’s own mind, thoughts. In this state one is aware of even nothingness. Swamiji exhorts us to know the inmost presence as the sentience, self luminous Source, non divided into concepts of subject and object.

Such a discovery of the omnipresent self, by an inner probe in meditation, makes mind and intelligence grow and become enriched. By this knowledge and introspection, one can exercise the freedom to cut off the bondage of Karma. By one’s free will (Paurusha) one can overcome Prarabhda (Destiny) too. He cites the example of the legendary Savitri to prove this point.

Swamiji emphasizes that one misses the ever-present Self only because of lack of purity, lack of intensity, lack of earnestness and lack of dispassion.

Shlokas chanted in this Track:

एकान्तभक्तिर्गोविन्दे यत्सर्वत्र तदीक्षणम् ।।

(Srimad Bhagavatam 7.7.55)

PR 27 Jul 2017