My Spiritual Diary: Foreword

OM GANESHAYA NAMAH
OM GURUBYO NAMAH



Hinduism says divinity is both within oneself as oneself and outside oneself as creation, in both its gentle and fierce aspects.

We have to love and appreciate both, just as you, as an individual are capable of anger, as well as love.

In the Rudra hymn to Shiva, he is described as both the Lord of Disease as well the Doctor who Cures, thus called Vaidyanatha. He is said to be the Lord of all Thieves and Bandits and also the Destroyer of Evil and Sorrow.

We all have divine aspects deep inside us but it is covered up by many accumulated surface habits as well. That is what leads to some contradictions in every personality.
The goal of self-introspection is to remove the accumulated layers of bad habits and thoughts and polish ourselves, in order to find that pure divinity inside us.
There is only one Divinity, called in Hinduism as the Brahman: the Creator, the Preserver and the Destroyer; causing the never-ending cycle of birth, life and death.
In Hinduism, we pray to a multitude of Gods because they are just embodiments of certain aspects of human nature.

For example, by concentrating on Kali one gets over anger and jealousy. By concentrating on Lord Muruga and understanding the symbolism of elements used in his depictions, one gets over mental problems and becomes wise. Saraswathi helps us to think before we open our mouth and utter any word. Lakshmi teaches us to respect wealth.Treating Divinity as outside of oneself, and not understanding the symbolism of age-old depictions of this Divinity can get one stuck in a rut of doing rituals blindly to gain material ends and seek the favor of the Gods.I like to think about what I am doing intensely and analyze my actions. I try to weed out the bad and stick with the good habits.
I find that prayers, spoken out, or Japa - meditation, help to both sharpen the mind and aid concentration. By mentally thinking about the form of a deity and reciting his/her names, I am able to prevent the mind from being disturbed by vagrant thoughts.
Gradually, I find that one is able to look within oneself, to the source of all thoughts.
I have written that my visit to the Salem temple and my meeting there with my Guru had had an electrifying effect on me. This is true.

Recently, I read that what he had done for me was to arouse that divine spirit lying dormant inside me. This is called the Kundalini energy. By tapping this enormous stock of divine energy within oneself, one can achieve whatsoever one desires.
It sometimes leads to an outpouring of poetry, art, and in my case, the paintings I have included here.

It is hard for me, even now, to think that I, who had never been able to really draw that entirely well, can now sit and churn out these paintings with such ease.
When I sit for meditation and concentrate all my energies on that spot in between my eyebrows, I find I can immediately shut off all external thoughts and enter a realm of total bliss.