Tidbits for the Mind & the Monkey

A few days ago, I received this painting from a friend. The painting is by the well known cartoonist Keshav, who works for the newspaper, The Hindu. It really opened my eyes as to what true compassion is. The painting, as you can see is from the story of Gajendra Moksham, wherein a crocodile grabs the leg of an elephant when it comes to drink water at the river. The elephant, Gajendra, in divine fervor, calls out to the Almighty and Lord Vishnu rushes to his rescue. This is the version we have heard and typically we will sympathize with the elephant and either ignore or deride the crocodile. But the painting, as you can see, shows that the Lord, ever compassionate (Avyaja Karunasindhu) is equally sympathetic with both the elephant and the crocodile. The crocodile, has repented its mistake and surrenders at the feet of the Lord and He embraces him too. A very profound perspective to how compassion should be practiced. While one may dismiss this as a story of imagination from the ...

Dr. Robert Svoboda is an authority on Ayurveda (incidentally the first westerner to obtain a degree on Ayurveda from the Pune University) and author of the famous Aghora trilogy. I  have read a few of Dr. Robert Svoboda's books - the Aghora trilogy, the Greatness of Saturn etc. All of them are wonderful and gives a glimpse of the man that Dr. Svoboda is and of course his Master Swami Vimalananda. I had the fortune of meeting him at Kashi (Varanasi) when he guided us to Trailinga Swami's home, Lahiri Mahasaya's home and Swami Kina Ram's temple. It was surprising to see his excellent command of the local language when he asked for some specifics at Kashi and of course knows the city of Varanasi like the back of his palm. Dr. Svoboda likes Kuki Hojicha, his favorite tea (the aroma was heavenly), I am yet to get a taste of that - hopefully very soon. The reason for this post is different though. I am sure most of us have a very different picture when it comes to descri...