Spiritual GYAN

Namaste! Many of you may have heard that there are four main paths to God and divinity or approach to God, as enumerated by the ancient rishis. These are: Bhakti  (The path of devotion, prescribed for those who love God and have an emotional nature) Gyan  (The path of knowledge, prescribed for those who possess a good intellect) Karma  (The path of action, for those who are energetic and workaholics) Raja  (The royal path of meditation, for those who have an introspective soul) While all these paths either singularly or in a collective mix are efficacious in leading the seeker to the Ultimate Goal of meeting God, they too, like any other path, have distinct stages in their journey. These four stages have been very interestingly charted out by the  Upanishadic Rishis as under: Saloka:  which means, a proximity to God In the same Plane as Him, or living on the same planet ( which can be earth, because God takes avatar here) Samipa : which ...

Sri Ramakrishna used to describe his attitude towards scriptures, etc in the following manner.  He used to say that the holy texts only point out the way to reach God .  After knowing about the way, there is no need for books and scriptures; then comes the time for action. A man received a letter from his house asking him to purchase certain gifts meant for his relatives.  The descriptions of the articles to be purchased were mentioned in the letter.  As he was about to go for shopping for the items, he suddenly found that the letter was missing.  He began to search anxiously for it with several others joining in the attempt.  When at last the letter was discovered, his joy knew no bounds.  With great eagerness, he read the letter once again line by line.  It had been mentioned in the letter that he was to buy 5 kgs of sweets, 2 pieces of clothes and a few other items.  Now that he knew the contents of the letter, he no longer need...