SAIEN

History hails Arjuna, the valiant and invincible warrior. His arrow followed the path of undivided concentration.  His unwavering gaze pierced only the bird's eye. Yet mastery alone could not contain the Infinite. Pride was his armor, bright and sure—until he saw his kinsmen in Ku rukshetra . Arjuna  stood—unarmed within, his body shuddering, the Gandiva slipping from his hand, his mind whirling in confusion. In that pause, vast and bare, the soul surrendered— becoming the vessel, ready for Krishna's nectar wine. Kurukshetra became the cradle for the celestial song of the Lord—the  Bhagavad Gita . His doubts dissolved in the Light Divine; the Gandiva rose with a will merging with Krishna’s Will. No longer the doer, but the instrument of the Lord, He fought, not for victory, but for Dharma. Divine wisdom is not received by power alone, nor by skill alone, nor by fame alone. Arjuna became the living vessel of the Supreme— aspiration rising from below; Grace descending from ...

Most people believe they are in control of their actions, their decisions and their circumstances, at least until they find things not turning out the way they expected or wished for! When an individual takes up the spiritual path consciously, he begins to examine this assumption. First, he finds that much of what he thinks and does is the result of habit, automatic responses including what we call ‘instinct’, education, training, social pressure and expectation or the result of forced choices under existing facts and circumstances. Then he finds that in his aspiration to carry out the spiritual quest he brings in his mental being to try to develop some rules for living and acting that align with the spiritual intention. Thus a mental framework is built which dictates what he should think, what he should do, how he should act, and how respond to circumstances. At a certain point he may try to impose this mental framework as an overlay for everything he does. He then may determine when ...

A light sings within, silent and sweet, Self-absorbed, immersed in its own delight, Oblivious to its own snarling shadows, Cast dull and black over its sunlit meadows. Surreptitiously it seeps through, The eerie serried milieu, Taking over the machinery of the mind, To spew out its own kith and kind. Dark angels assuming the capacity to bless, Hiss spells to shrink the consciousness, Till it buys into the smallness of seeing itself a poor threatened drop, Having nothing to stand on but reason’s unsteady prop. Yet the enamoured light in innocence sings, Unscathed by its shadow’s sterile stings, Pouring into the consciousness a smiling bliss,   Reminding the drop of the ocean that it is. - Anahita Sanjana (India)