The Swaroopa Blog

Hello all, Namaste! Last week we looked at the Hindu mythological story of ' Samudra Mathanam ' and analyzed how we can find gems related to everyday living. To reiterate once more, this is a story where the Devas, and the Asuras, churned the milky ocean for the elixir of immortality called Amrita. We saw how both sides can be taken as good, and evil, and there is the constant churning of the mind in the form of the milky ocean. We also saw that we can lead a balanced life by keeping the ego firm and impartial between the different emotions and desires. Samudra Mathanam - Churning of the milky ocean Today shall we tackle the rest of the story where, the churning of the milky ocean brought out many different things including vicious poison, divine beings, and divine animals. The Devas and the Asuras continued the churning for a very long time and the first thing to come out was the fuming poison called Halahala (or Kalkoot) , which created thick dark clouds and made the...

Hello all, Namaste! We discussed how historical figures like Sri Krishna and our own ancestral archetypes can affect our behavior and thought patterns. How about today we analyze one particular mythological story and connect it to our every day life and see how we can learn to overcome some negative processes and thought patterns we get associated with. Many of you have heard about the story that is called 'Samudra Mathanam' that occurs in Hindu Mythology in Mahabharatha , Vishnu Purana and Bhagavath Purana . Let us visit the story to brush up our memory and for those persons who have not heard the story, this would be a chance to read it. So here is how it happens. Indra , the king of demigods ( Devas ) and the other Devas  were cursed by the sage Durvasa , who was famous for his terrible temper. Being cursed by the sage brought about depletion of energy, strength and power for the Devas. Devas are considered the good folks among the demigods while Asuras are the b...

Hello all, Namaste! Last week we discussed how we can get some valuable lessons from the way Sri Krishna lived his life. We discussed how many times we keep him on high pedestal and are never able to reach his level. We also dissected how we may be able to lead our life modeling on how such historical personalities led their life. Today how about we analyze a very different aspect of these historical personalities and see what we can learn more from them ? As we know Sri Krishna in Hinduism, Jesus in Christianity and Buddha in Buddhism are known worldwide and people pray and pay respects to them and try to live their life according to the principles given by them. Are they just charismatic personalities who lived an authentic life accessing their 'Swaroopa' (authentic self) or is there more to them? Here I want to introduce the concept of 'Archetypes'. What are Archetypes? Before that, I have to introduce another personality who proposed the concept of ' Arch...

Hello all, Namaste! Today why not we discuss the great personality Sri Krishna and how we can get some pearls of wisdom from how he lived his life. In all religions, we keep the Gods whether it is Krishna, Jesus or Buddha in very high pedestals where we have absolutely no chance of reaching their levels. If we take them even though as historical personalities, but very much human with flaws and warts we can at least try to work towards reaching a level similar to theirs. Instead, we keep them at such a high level or pedestal that we have no chance of reaching any level near them. So today in this post we are going to take Krishna as a simple human being with numerous great virtues like honesty, moral and mental strength, wisdom and the power to pursue one's own free will; but even after being a king had to lead the life of a Yadava (cowherd) and had to go through numerous trials and tribulations in his life. Even with all the tests and difficulties he had to go through, he mai...