#paramatma

[vishnu-art]

☀ SHRI VISHNU SUPERSOUL ॐ ☀

[mysticalblizzardcolor]

"Rāmānanda Rāya continued, “The Supersoul within everyone’s heart speaks not externally but from within. He instructs the devotees in all respects, and that is His way of instruction.”

[philosohappy]

Paradoxical. Nonsense. To live upside-down. Being neither day or night, but between. It’s not for everybody.

It’s about Ulat. And divine madness. And all that is beyond words. 

I feel it all so deeply, in my heart, like intense unconditional love. When I hear beings like Parvathy Baul speak about it -- I melt. I simply become one with what Is. Smiling in release and relief. Feeling whole, undivided, complete.

“The world runs towards down... and I run towards up, where my ‘paramatma’ (higher self) is.”  

Thank you, Parvathy Baul. Thank you for the reminder. I live for reminders like that.

[stardust-musing]

Happy Gurpurab! The 552nd birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev Ji, the founder of the Sikh faith.

“Sikhs around the world are celebrating the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhi”

Born in the humble village of Talwandi Punjab in 1469, young Nanak found himself dissatisfied with the inequities, hypocrisies, and general unhappiness he observed all around him. He ultimately decided to establish a new religious tradition, Sikhi, a tradition that continues to flourish more than five centuries later.

Today Guru Nanak’s followers comprise the fifth-largest world religion, numbering nearly 30 million around the globe. His teachings have inspired a diversity of expressions over the years, from art and literature to humanitarian efforts. In a way, the most easily noticeable aspect of his legacy is how Guru Nanak continues to inspire so many —including me— and how his teachings continue to resonate with people around the world today.

I did my Ph.D. research on the earliest accounts of Guru Nanak’s life and the teachings contained within them, and I want to share an idea central to Guru Nanak and the Sikh worldview.

Guru Nanak’s first teaching, and the first teaching to appear in Sikh scripture is the term ik oankar. This term refers to the oneness of the divinity, a singular connective force that permeates every aspect of this world. In a prayer that Sikhs have sung every evening for centuries, Guru Nanak wrote, “The same divine light pervades everyone and everything.”

Ik oankar is so central to Sikh teachings that many have said that all of Sikh wisdom is constructed upon its foundation. It is the first idea I learned as a Sikh and it’s the first idea my wife and I taught our two daughters as well. The concept of ik oankar informs how Sikhs are to act in this world as well. If we truly believe in a shared divine light, then there is no possibility for discriminating against others.

We see this in the life and teachings of Guru Nanak, who rejected all social disparities and hierarchies (e.g., gender, caste, religion) and advocated for equal treatments and rights for all.

Caption: @sikhprof

[skateboarding420]

[nityaananda]

[vishnu-art]

☀ SHRI VISHNU NARAYANA ॐ ☀

[vishnu-art]

☀ SHRI LAKSHMI NARAYANA ॐ ☀

"The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the father of the three worlds, and His bosom is the residence of mother Lakṣmī, the goddess of fortune, the proprietor of all opulences. The goddess of fortune, by her favorable and merciful glance, can increase the opulence of the three worlds, along with their inhabitants and their directors, the demigods."~Srimad Bhagavatam 8.8.25