Scarborough, Ontario
This morning, much after a brisk-down-Yonge St.
walk, I was broadcast on a Tamil radio station, TTR. With translation in the
Tamil language, I was introduced by three south Indian hosts. We opened up the
45 minute dialogue with verse 12.2 from the Bhagavad Gita. Here Krishna speaks
about the more favourable approach to Spirituality- the approach of bhakti (devotion)
and personalism, as opposed to the more nirveseshya, non-personal appeal. Energy
contemplation over the divine form is the preference for some.
Even though
the verse was quoted with its companion purport, the main moderator got right
into questions not necessarily pertaining to the verse, yet they were relevant
to his audience. “What would you say about the charge of idol worship?” “Why,
when we have everything in this twentieth century, do we need faith?” “Isn’t it
a waste of time?” “Tell me about mantras?”
They were
fair questions. In brief points which I was more elaborate with ‘on-air’ here
are the answers.
On idol
worship- “When an image reflects the actual divine person, then it is not
false. In Mecca there is the Kabba. The Jews have their flames. Buddhists have
his form. Materialists have poster boys (Arnold Shwartz whatever) or poster
girls (Lady GaGa). And then there’s the worship of the car and the millions of
techno-gadgets. To steer away from the object glancing, image honoring or deity
worship is superficial. Just try it. Meditate on Krishna’s euphoric smile and
you will smile…Our main thrust is chanting and that is the real emphasis over
form worship.”
On having
everything- “Yes we have everything but happiness. Why is depression at an all
time high when we have everything? First find out who you really are and then happiness
and peace of mind have a chance.”
About
mantras- “God manifests in sound. A mantra is the connection between you and
God. It is spiritual sound that liberates. When you hear street talk or any
verbal diarrhea then it pollutes and degrades. When you hear sounds of
transcendence it is freeing.”
7 Km
No comments:
Post a Comment