Sridhar Gopalakrishnan is working as a S/w Development Manager, HP India, Bangalore. Sridhar holds a B Tech degree from NIT Calicut, and is pursuing e-MBA from IIM Calicut.
Sridhar is an avid listener of great spiritual speakers, and is deeply involved in Sampradhaya Bhajana. He also takes special interest in understanding our Dharma Shastras.
Here are some of the pearls of wisdom shared by Sridhar on the day of Sampradaya Bhajana Vidyalayam's inaugural day.
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SBV's mission would be to impart the sampradaya legacy. What is the need to explain Sampradaya, and why should we follow it? And how?
Though the Rishees and great Bhaagavthas (who have experienced divinity) have clearly laid out a sampradaya and tradition, our minds are not yet equipped to understand and experience the same. Hence we need to quench our mind with some reasoning (along with the faith or belief in it) behind most of the practices that we do.
Let's look at few examples and try to think and understand the reasoning behind why we do them..
· Ganesha dhyaanam - When we start any new learning, the lord's posture reminds us to LISTEN (big ears) a lot and thereby attain an ELEVATED( elevated and big masthakams) level of knowledge about the subject, EQUIP OUR MIND to understand simple as well as detailed intricate things (like the trunk), SEE ONLY what;'s needed and do MANANAM or reflection of what we have learnt (small eyes) and TALK LESS , LISTEN MORE small mouth
· Shuklam Bharadaram - We strike 5 times on our forehead to invokve or alert the nerves to be ready for learning. Its inner sense is to equip our mind to be pure, not distracted, ready to execute, reflect, and pleasant expression of thoughts and thereby not having any obstructions and attain peace in our venture. In short EQUIP OUR MIND TO INVOKE PEACE in ANY ACTION that we set for for its successful completion.
· Gayathri Japam or purpose of Japam - is to take away our mind from the various thoughts that we go through every day and deeply think and realize that god is WITHIN US . Thereby we attain better knowledge. Because Knowledge is power. So let's devote some time every day for this reassurance and realization.
· Why we chant NAMAM - There are many reasons. A couple of them are - As depicted in Bhagavatham, the creation of pancha bhootha started with space->Air->Agni->Water->Earth. The sound is the property of Space which is the closest to the supreme being. As we can see , we need the chanting to invoke god in all other forms of Pancha bhoothas. So Chanting has highest significance. This is also reflected in the Shravanam Keerthanam Vishnum.. sloka.
· Another reason to chant NAMAM is - All namam of God means well being and good qualities that we should have . Eg: RAAMA - most beautiful where we should ideally be submerged with (thats why this namam leads to Moksham) , KRISHNA - who takes away the sins, SHIVAM - Auspicious, or mangalam. When we chant them, we automatically develop these qualities. Our thoughts->actions->habit-> character .. Also there are asthu devahas in space who keep blessing what we wish and say, may it happen. So when we chant good things, that automatically happens to us.
· Why we need NAAMA SANKEERTHANAM - Plain chanting of namam is very difficult due to worldly distractions. So we use music as an undercurrent to bring in the focus. And it should just be used for that. So singing with focus on the saahithyam and Bhaavam is the most differentiating act of Naama Sankeerthanam as opposed to other forms of music which are for joyous listening. An analogy could be drawn from the presence of shruthi for a music rendition. It is needed just to align the pitch. Similarly musical element is used to only to have focus in the naamam that is being chanted..
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