Dr. Raj Balkaran 0:06
Welcome one and all, to the Indian wisdom podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Raj Bock run, founder of the Indian wisdom school. One taught me you, you are looking for profound, accessible, authentic inspired Indian Wisdom Teachings. Maybe you're a lifelong learner, a seeker of sorts, a yoga practitioner, and endo file, perhaps a student of Indic wisdom traditions yourself. In either case, you are looking for you are looking to access Wisdom Teachings from a living lineage, lineage which lives and has been kept alive through impactful exchanges from student to teacher for years, for generations, for centuries from antiquity. Until today, you found it. You have access to such a living wisdom tradition. Through this podcast, you will learn ancient Indian Wisdom Teachings, but more importantly, you will learn their relevance, their significance, their import their utility, you will learn what they have to do with you, and understanding yourself understanding your life navigating your life. Think of the teachings availed through this podcast as lenses through which to view the world and bring into focus patterns in your life. People places, things, events, the ripening of karma, perhaps. Yes, this podcast will feature transmissions for myself. It will feature interviews and conversations with brilliant luminaries in various Indian wisdom traditions. It'll feature stories galore. Tales of kings and sages and heroes and gods and you name it. It'll feature live tutorials where students of mine will get to ask questions live and you get to listen in. So, a little bit more about me perhaps, as I mentioned, I belong to a living was in tradition. I apprenticed with a master for 12 years, essentially with a number of traditional Indian wisdom teachers. But one master in particular, he was sort of an urban cave dweller, if you will, holder of an ancient esoteric tantric tradition. Actually, we'll talk more about what Tantra means perhaps in another episode. Nevertheless, he was a great Alchemist, walking occult power and the knower of a great many things. His name was monthly monthly EEG we called him in addition to apprenticing with him, apparently, I have a few degrees in religious studies in new studies. I have a BA and MA a PhD in religion specifically, in Hinduism, specifically in Sanskrit, texts Sanskrit narrative texts. I study the ancient tales of old in Sanskrit, the epics in the Quran, as I make sense of them, as a scholar, I draw on them as a practitioner and a storyteller and a teacher as well. Why is this relevant? Because it is through the attentive engagement and guidance of other individuals, the watching of the life and making sense of people. It is through this living, lived experience, whereby I can put together the relevance of the teachings in these ancient texts and traditions, I see them I see these principles as they are activated in people's lives. And so, to my mind, the relevance of ancient Indian thought concepts, philosophies, theologies, your dualities narratives, the relevance is palpable. And all this will be synergized in order to render this wisdom, accessible, presented in an authentic illumined, perhaps even inspired manner, what on earth do I mean about Indian wisdom? Indian, A, the modern nation state, well, perhaps, but much, much deeper and broader than any sort of nationalism, I mean, civilizational, India, Parata, India, if you will, all things pertaining to that soil, perhaps as sacred soil that is bounded by the Bay of Bengal in the Arabian Sea in de the Indian Ocean to the south, and bounded and kept by the Himalayan Mountains to the north. and accessible through the Northwest via the Indus River. So a great ancient civilization called the Indus Valley Civilization. We'll talk about that in due course. But this is sort of feel this field bounded by mountain and water. Rather insular in a sense, where and ideas have been percolating. For millennia, ideas from various spaces and places, but Indic in terms of civilizational, cultural South Asia, if you will, a great analog is Egypt, not necessarily the modern nation state of Egypt, but civilizational, historical, cultural Egypt. Another analog is the difference between Iran the modern nation, state and Persia, civilization, the soil, the heart and soul of a culture. So, this is what we mean by Indian and wisdom traditions from India, including philosophies, theology, spiritualities, various concepts, some of which you may be well acquainted with, and some of which may be new, but all of them will pertain to you, and the ways in which you walk the earth, and the ways in which you comprehend and interpret what you see while walking this earth near and far, well, where shall we begin? Well, perhaps we will begin with a story about beginnings, that might be a wise place to begin an Indian wisdom podcast. Well, once upon a time, the ancient Brahmin sages, ancient seers, sages, priests, you can say, the brahmanas, they were performing a Vedic fire ritual. In ancient ancient Vedic times. The motive religiosity was gathered around a sacred fire in toning in powerful scrupulous Sanskrit with scrupulous care and toned. In Sanskrit were the mantras of old as offerings are made into the sacred fire. And Miss was performed as a means whereby to commune with the divine, Agni, the fire god, the messenger, the gateway between the mundane realm with which we're all familiar, and there are those who walk the earth who believe the mundane the material is all that there is, they are indeed materialists, but you are listening to this podcast, because you know, the world is more than meets the eye. There are realities and forces at play, that transcend what can be stringently measured. And so to new the ancient Vedic rishis, the cedars, the Vedic priests, if you will, and they were performing the sacrifice making offerings into the sacred fire uttering mantras in order to capture the attention of the great god Shiva. Shiva seated in a Padmasana in lotus posture in Somalia's Shiva, the great primordial yogi, covered in ash, Shiva, clad in a tiger skin, Shiva, upon whose head descended the Ganges that is a tale for another day, a fascinating tale indeed, Shiva around whose neck lay the cobra is adornment. The Great and Powerful Yogi the aesthetic mountain man Shiva, deep and cosmic meditation upon them all in peaks, that is whom they will be teaching through their rituals. Now, Shiva was one with the one. Yes, he was in his meditative state where he was at one with the cosmic consciousness pervading the cosmos. You know, we often have this quandary of consciousness, what is consciousness? The hard problem of consciousness indeed, there's so much to be said about consciousness, some of which are new, and some of which are very, very, very old. ancients believed that consciousness pervaded existence, does not localize in the brain was if the brain of the soul or the heart or the human, was an antenna whereby we connect with a conscious field, that is the undergirding of the universe itself, as if time space unfolds, in the substance in the substratum of consciousness itself.
So if consciousness is that whereby we know everything, everything we know we know because of the medium of consciousness, we are caught bunches of XYZ PQ, perhaps that is, in part why it is so difficult to make consciousness that object of our consciousness and learn what consciousness is consciousness is that whereby we know everything else. Perhaps this is partially why it's such a quandary in modern times, particularly through a stringently materialistic or perhaps even reductionistic model. But Shiva was one with the cosmic consciousness, meditating in deep trance, and he received a psychic ping incoming mail, he received a message from the Vedic sacrifice of the priests below. And their sankalpa their intention was to know something. And knowledge is a noble enterprise, and they wish to know something great, they wish to know who among the gods, the deities pervading the Vedic skies, these manifestations of divinity, each with its purpose, each with its aim, each with its utility, who among the divinities should we worship first? Now, Shiva was taken with this question because it evinced great wisdom, they were concerned with what comes first. Of course, our thing begins may well color, the thing itself in its duration. We have these wondrous expressions in English, such as a golfer up on the wrong side of the bed, we've got off on the wrong foot, there are those who may look to the heavens at the moment of birth and cast a chart as so many cultures have. And from that first moment for that first breath, and the terminology of the sky innate in the birth chart, perhaps they can divine insight, perhaps, perhaps, into the duration of that life. And, and so, the inception of a thing is extremely important, how on begins, will often dictate or color or impact the success of the enterprise. And so they wish to know who should be first among the gods. And Shiva, quite fond of his rather reclusive, you know, meditative ways of holding the world at arm's length at times. It was so taken by the the importance of this questioning that he decided to interrupt his cosmic trance, and he toggled from being one with the one being one with the self, the field of consciousness to which we all belong, and, according to strands of Indic thought, which we ultimately are a self, the conscious self that we all share. So he toggled away from being one with the one and resumed his individuated form, his personal consciousness, his individual consciousness, and with it, he stretched as the mountains rumbled Xia woke from his glorious trance and thought to himself now an individual deity. I rather miss my spouse by concert, my partner, the lovely and beautiful and patient Parvati patient to why, well, Shiva, really he is off, you think it is quite difficult. When your partner doesn't text you back in an hour or two or an afternoon, imagine 10,000 years. The great impatient, beloved Parvati ever thought to himself, you know, he really wanted to see poverty and the children and perhaps he could use some help to sort out this query on behalf of the Brahmins of Earth. And so, Shiva descended upon his mountainous abode and the beautiful charming gracious goddess was delighted to see her partner or spouse or beloved delighted in de they embrace the cosmic embrace, and caught up in the twinkling of an eye. And then Shiva declared to the Goddess issue at hand the purpose for his arrival for interrupting his cosmic trance. She didn't notice he was a couple 1000 years earlier than than expected, but nevertheless, she was delighted to see him. And so after tea, the mysterious twinkling in her I said to Shiva Oh, grid Shiva You are the Lord of Yogi's you are this primordial deity of deities should not be you who are first and foremost among the gods and Shiva rather scoffed at the idea. He said to the beloved poverty, do you have any idea how many rituals they do in Palo Alto in India, and one day there'll be doing them all over the world. I had to you know, I just need my space. You know what I'm like, I don't really want to get so involved. I mean, I'll do my fair share of blessing, no doubt, but really, it should be someone else in poverty said okay. What about one of our sons, of course, they had two sons. They had the elephant headed Kinesia as a one son. And then they are the proud peacock riding Kartikeya as another son. Ganesha was slow in studious and thoughtful and sweet art care was swift and brave and proud. As he is, as he wrote upon his pickup, he was indeed the general of the army of the gods. A cosmic jock indeed. Now, I've already said to Shiva, perhaps should be one of our sons. And Shiva said yes, yes. Amazing. I liked that idea, darling. Whatever sounds odd, but who perhaps may do they should earn it? Yes, let them earn it. But how? Perhaps a contest? Okay, a contest, but what kind of contest poverty, perhaps a race? Okay, let them race but race around? What about around the world? Declare the goddess, yes, indeed, let them race. Let them race around the world. And he who first in circles the world shall be first among the gods, you are as wise as you are beautiful. My dear beloved poverty, let us summon the boys and declare the task at hand. And so they called forth Kinesia they call for Kartikeya. Very different in temperament and beyond their temperaments. They each had a vehicle of Maharana. Now the varnas really they're mythologized as actual vehicles upon which the deities you fly through the sky, for example, in the case of Carta, careness, peacock, or perhaps the great Durga rides up on her line in battle. But in many ways, the date the varnas are symbols. They're totem animals, if you were there's profound symbology encoded in the Vahagn. Yes. This is stuff you don't read in the textbooks. So Carter care is a stride his his peacock is proud, is swift, his fast, it makes sense in Asia is astride mu Shika. A mouse. Now, if you think it's an outlandish idea that an elephant headed deity should be astride a mouse. Well, indeed it is. If you take it literally, but it is figurative. You see, the mouse represents the rat race in the mind, the part of self the ancients called the minus the saw the social, emotional, impulsive, habitual mind. We fancy ourselves rational creatures, but for the vast majority of us for the vast majority of time. Reason is tied up in the trunk, wraps in the backseat, and the minus is at the wheel in the rat race of life. Yes. This is what the mouse represents, here in there. The incessant flow of thoughts and emotions in the mind, in Asia represents what the ancients called the booty, the faculty of reason, those among us who are rational for whatever period of time. What that means is that the booty the faculty of discernment is at the wheel and can disambiguate and discern a Nisha a top. This mouse is a glorious symbol an emblem and mythologize ation of the power of the booty turn around and surmount the whims of the incessantly changing Morris. And so
both of the sons of Shiva and Parvati Kartikeya And Ganesha listened intently, as well. They were invited to participate in this race, they were instructed to race around the world in order to decide who among them should be first among the gods. And so Shiva said, perhaps in Sanskrit, on your mark, get set Ducha for sensory nerds among you, that's second person, singular imperative of GM now to go on your mark, get set. Go. And Karthik, as swift and proud upon his peacock was off into the horizon, a blaze of blue smoke left in his awake and Shiva was amazed. And Parvati was amazed and Ganesha is CO born. And CO racer was equally amazed. Ganesha thought to himself Wow, knew my brother was quick, but my goodness, he's over the horizon and the blinking of an eye kaneesha thought to himself, indeed, the Holy Mother the goddess divine, has favored one of her sons upon this day, because she has chosen this mechanism this medium this enterprise to ascertain the Victor and this mechanism. This medium is enterprise's means. It's not conducive to one who is slow and thoughtful. such as myself, but nevertheless, I have read the Bhagavad Gita, I've received wisdom, traditions, wisdom from teaching from the Bhagavad Gita, Ganesha, I've watched some really great YouTube videos on the Bhagavad Gita. And I know that there is deep and profound wisdom in embracing your duty and not worrying about the outcome, you must do your duty you have, you must perform your duty your dharma and leave the rest in the hands of the unseen in the hands of the divine in the hands of circumstance. So Ganesha knew he couldn't do nothing, he must do something, but do what? So he sought inspiration. Did he seek inspiration from the outer world? No, he sought inspiration from the inner world. He closed his eyes, and meditated and connected with the field with a cosmic Wi Fi. He had a very powerful router indeed. And he downloaded a flash of inspiration. Whether there was inspiration, there was no anxiety. Where there's anxiety, there was no inspiration and inspired heroes. He looked at his parents, Shiva and poverty, Shiva on the right, poverty on the left, peaceful, resplendent, as if two halves of the same hole and he approached them with reverence, is not just mother and father of he had Kartikeya but as mother and father the world and he will reverently circumambulated them encircled them with great reverence production. As a Sanskrit term. He performed production circumambulation, you went around them once, and smiled, and went around them twice, and smiled even more deeply in the winter random three times and the bear and could barely contain his Glee his joy. And he sat peaceful, enjoy Cindy extend such and huffing and puffing the piece was pierced by the return of the peacock bear and Kartikeya. They have returned victorious, the valiant and proud Kartikeya, huffing and puffing adrenaline galore, I won, I won, I won. I'm first and foremost among the gods. I can't wait to take a selfie and post this on my LinkedIn profile. And Shiva smiled, and poverties smiled, and kaneesha smiled. And Shiva said okay, bye boy. Let's crown us I can get back to my sovereign automatic practice to learn meditation. And the beautiful and mysterious goddess October two shipments that indeed we will crown Kartikeya not a problem. Should we not check in with Ganesha after all, do we not have two children, my dear. And Shiva, slightly embarrassed, acquiesced and said yes, of course. I mean, you. You're so amazing at this whole relationship. Think you have so much emotional intelligence my dear. I mean incredible. Yes, of course, let's check in with Ganesha. And then we'll crown Kartikeya and then I'll be alright so the goddess, then go check in with Ganesha. And then you can crown the victor. And then you can be off. So, Shiva said Tanisha Kinesia, my dear boy, who always saw obedient, you always do your duty. Why have you not raced around the world as asked him He just smiled, he opened his eyes and he said to Shiva, well, it was clear to me The Goddess has favored one of her sons upon this day, and I was okay with it. I'm not upset. I'm not attached. I know these things are very important to Kartikeya This is where he shines and athleticism and demonstrations of swiftness and scale and strength. And as you well know, Father, I'm of a different temperament, indeed, perhaps even antithetical, he is out there looking for us, to me, perhaps more inner looking. But I sought inspiration, because I knew I needed to complete the task in my own way of even and inspiration struck. And rather than go around the world, I went around you both you were my work. And upon my first circumambulation, I noticed that you father you Shiva, you great yogi, you great seeker, you great seer, that you are one with the one you represent the aspect of self that is connected to the cosmic Wi Fi indeed, the Wi Fi itself that pervades all creation, you are Chitta your cosmic consciousness. And then I went around you both a second time. And I saw that you mother, in all your glory are the name and form which governs creation. You are the dance of galaxies and stars and planets you are the Sun and Moon, the Earth and the Heavens. You are the mystery of separation whereby we experience multiplicity, you are the many. And then I went around you a third time. And I was utterly enumerated with the revelation that Shiva is poverty, poverty is Shiva. That consciousness is matter and matter is consciousness. The one is many and many are one. They are both true. Locked in this divine, paradoxical mystery. You have two sides of the same coin. And I learned that you are me and I am you and we're all many and we're all one. And oh, i i I happily forfeit this crown. Please, Father, please move on. You're killing my buzz. And Shiva smiled. Proud of both this sense. And Parvati smiled, proud of both her sons and Kartikeya frowned, slumped over rejected. And she visit Jakarta tecarta Kid okay, my boy arise and receive your crown. And Kartikeya is peacock plucked as it were. slumped over said Father I cannot. And Shiva said Well, what do you mean you cannot? You won, you won fair and square. Let us award your prize you cannot make a liar of the goddess if your mother in Kartikeya says, The Goddess speaks in mysterious ways the wise no this one never knows what is meant and what is said. And so she has declared that he who first encircles the world shall be first surmount the gods. I encircle this material, decaying world, this objective material world. before our eyes, even the mountains will decay. The oceans themselves or one day evaporate. At the end of the age you will dance your dancer destruction and dissolve all things again to the primordial ocean. And there'll be another creation and another and another and another
as it has been forever, but the universe is beginningless and endless and All that appears to exist with the incessant shape shifting. This, this giving us the appearance of reality. But all that can be perceived in the outer world isn't really, truly real. It is bereft of permanence. Any life everlasting is permanent and real of that which we access to the inner life, subjectively. And Ganesha was able to encircle the everlasting world. And it is clear who has won this race. And Kartikeya smiled, and shiver smiled, and poverty smiled, and Indonesia smile. And Shiva said, Alright, that asked to so be it, arise Ganesha. Shiva declare that, from this day, until the end of days when I dance destruction upon the earth, and all things are dissolved into the primordial ocean, from this day until the end of days. May you be first and foremost among the gods, in every temple, and every festival, and every shrine, and every ritual, that no blessing descend from any other divinity, lest you bless them first. Or you, my son, or the Lord have wisdom. And you are with whom they need to begin for what enterprise can succeed unless it begins on wise footing. Successful be there just as long as they worship you first. And this is a story of beginnings. And this is a story of wisdom. And this is a story of the wisdom of beginnings. Indeed, the story was rendered, actually, as the first 50 stories, in a publication called the stories behind the poses might be quite useful for those interested in connecting the ancient Indic stories with yoga postures. We'll talk more about more about that another day I mentioned the book just so that I may perhaps, read the gloss Each story has a tiny paragraph of a gloss at the end, whereby we may call to mind some of the innate covert themes of wisdom within the tail. Here it is. The wisdom of Ganesha resides in taking the time to calmly look inside before rushing headlong into action. Though it may seem difficult to find time for meditation and yoga practice indeed for wisdom, amidst the busyness of our lives. This story shows us why must nonetheless be pursued. The physical practice of yoga is ultimately an exercise in the embodiment of the Divine interplay of Shiva and Parvati. Masculine and Feminine for all of us, away for us to inhabit the body that affords us the insight into the relationship between these cosmic principles. When you sit in Tadasana, contemplate the wisdom of Ganesha, and when you remember the divine play that lies at the heart of your own being. That's the end of the quote from stories during the poses, but that divine play pertains to the inner and the outer, spiritual and the material. If you're listening to this podcast, then you are in the world but you want out of the world. you're navigating reality in a pragmatic and sensible way steering clear of dogma delusion and bypassing. But nevertheless, you are seeking spiritual nourishment. You wish to raise your gaze on the mundane, from the terrestrial from the terrestrial sphere, and alight your eyes upon the celestial, the expanse of the sky in the stars and the sun and the moon, and the majesty and mystery and inspiration found thereby. Indeed, speaking of the moon, you perhaps be noticed that this podcast itself is being launched under the auspices of the brimming full moon. In the sidereal system used by ancient Indic teachers and wisdom keepers. The moon is brimming in the sign of Cancer conjoined the nakshatra the star the asterism of pushup thought by the ancients to be perhaps the most suspicious of nakshatras its symbol as the cows are a symbol of nourishment on physical, emotional, mental on spiritual levels, it's deity as a place for tea, priests of the gods. Perhaps today is a fitting day for launching such an enterprise. Perhaps you will learn more about the ways in which you can commingle the wisdom of the ancients with navigating the modern Western world. Until next time, keep well keep listening, keep contemplating and keep leveraging the power of ancient continues to be teachings to illuminate your life.
