Spirituality and the human
Tukaram (1608–50) was a prominent Varkari saint and spiritual poet of the Bhakti movement in India. Tukaram was a farmer and grocer who lost interest in the material world after losing his first wife and child in a famine. He neglected his worldly duties to his second wife Jijai (Awali) and their two children. He was initiated by his Guru Babaji Caitanya in a dream.
Surdas (Sant Kavi Surdas) was a 15th century blind saint, poet and musician, known for his devotional songs dedicated to Lord Krishna. Surdas is said to have written and composed a hundred thousand songs in his magnum opus the ‘Sur Sagar’ (Ocean of Melody), out of which only about 8,000 are extant. He is considered a saint and so also known as Sant Surdas, a name which literally means the “slave of melody“.
Sri Ramana Maharshi was a self-realised sage of South India. As a boy of sixteen in 1896, he challenged death by a penetrating enquiry into the source of his being. Later hailed as Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi he revealed the direct path of practice of Self-enquiry and awakened mankind to the immense spiritual power of the holy Arunachala Hill, the spiritual heart of the world.
A full moon occurs late evening on 26 August 2018, on what is called Shravana Purnima. This full moon occurs in Shatabhisha nakshatra, the asterism of the ruler of the oceans, Varuna. This occasion also has a number of festivals: Rakhi, Raksha Bandhan, and Gayatri Jayanti (birthday of Gayatri Maa).
There is a famous shrine town, Trivellore, near Madras. Near there is a smaller village, Kammavaripalayam. Living here was one man by name of Sri Venkatappa Naidu. He married one Subbalakshmi of Parlapalle Village in Gudur Taluk of Nellore District. A male child was born (10.10.1894) named Venkatasubbiah, taking both his parents names. When the child was three years old his father transferred to Pennalurpet. His mother taught him a valuable lesson arising from an argument that carried over from a heated exchange in school. The other boy grew angry to the extent of beating Venkatasubbiah.
Mohandas Gandhi — also affectionately known as Mahatma Gandhi — led India’s independence movement in the 1930s and ’40s by speaking softly without carrying much of a big stick, facing down the British colonialists with stirring speeches and non-violent protest.
The day being Tulsidas Jayanthi (commemoration of the birth of Tulsidas) we present an important saint of India. (b. 1543?, probably Rajapur, India, d.1623, Varanasi), Tulsidas was an Indian sacred poet whose principal work, the Rama charita-manasa. (“Sacred Lake of the Acts of Rama”), became an extremely popular form of devotional literature which has exercised an abiding influence on the devotional culture of North India.
A full moon occurs on the morning of 28 July 2018. This full moon will be called a Blood Moon and it will be eclipse moon. It comes at at time of a number of events occurring, including the approach of Mars – nearest to the Earth since 2003.
Kabir was a weaver and mystic poet who lived in Benares for 120 years. He was an important influence on the Hindus and Muslims [then called Mohammedans] of his time and also a profound influence on Nanaka Shah (Guru Nanak), the founder of the Sikh religion. Many poems of Kabir can be found in the Guru Granth Sahib, the sacred scriptures that form the Guru of Sikhism.
Nudges from Grandfather is a personal account of the author’s discovery of assistance from the spirit realm when information is needed in the dimension of healing, growth and living an embodied spirituality.
A full moon occurs mid-afternoon of 28 June 2018. This full moon occurs in Mula nakshatra, which is very close to the centre of the galaxy. It is known that the Grand Central Sun of our galaxy is a dark star (Sagittarius A). What is not so well known is that dark stars are expressions of the paramjyothi, the highest light. There is a meditation to this effect.
A solstice is an event occurring when the Sun appears to reach its most northerly or southerly excursion relative to the celestial equator on the celestial sphere. Two solstices occur annually, around June 21 and December 21. The seasons of the year are determined by reference to both the solstices and the equinoxes. In the Southern Hemisphere, the winter solstice for 2018 will occcur at 8:07pm on the evening of June 21st.
A full moon occurs on the early morn of 30 May 2018. This full moon occurs in an extra (intercalary) month by name Adhik Jyestha, and is devoted to Lord Krishna. The name Jyestha comes from the nakshatra the moon occupies at the time of full moon. It is a time of celebration (for Buddhists) and a time of emotional challenge, for some.
