My new year gift

Hari Aum.

It is new year's eve today and I would like to wish all readers of this blog a happy and prosperous new year. May 2018 be a year of excellent spiritual progress for all of us, and may we all make strides towards the goal of spiritual peace, wisdom and bliss.

I would like to offer my first book "Balakrishna" for free as a new year gift to all readers. The Amazon website allows authors to provide their ebooks for free for a limited period from time to time and I am making use of this facility now.

I am offering the ebook for free download for a three day period starting from today (Dec 31) upto and including January 2.

I believe the stories of Lord Krishna contain a number of valuable teachings necessary to live a happy life here and hereafter and therefore feel this would be a good gift to give others. In addition, reading of the stories of God is one of the nine classical methods of developing devotion to God (which leads to liberation). I hope you will enjoy reading this book and that it will help you on your journey to develop the fortunate state of true devotion to God.

To read the ebook, readers will first need to download the Amazon kindle app- this is free. The link for this is here (you can select the Amazon website for your own country to access this):

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=kindle+app


Once you have installed the free Amazon kindle app on your electronic device, you can download the kindle ebook Balakrishna for free for the next three days.

See links below for the Amazon website (again you check the site for your own country):

https://www.amazon.in/Balakrishna-life-Krishna-Srimad-Bhagavatam-ebook/dp/B077Y4Z3RM/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1512856535&sr=1-6&keywords=balakrishna


Happy reading and happy new year!

Just to say, I am nearly halfway through writing the second book in this series (which talks about the adolescence and early adult life of Lord Krishna) and am aiming to publish this on Amazon in the next few weeks.

Hari Aum Tat Sat

How to pronounce the ashtakshara mantra of Vishnu

Hari Aum.

While devotion when chanting a mantra is extremely important for spiritual progress, correct pronunciation (as far as one is able) is also very useful. God knows when we are calling Him/Her via mantra chanting, and will respond even if the pronunciation is not perfect, if we do it with love and sincerity.

Having said that, a mantra is a special sound energy, it is the body of the deity in sound form. It is said to be the deity Him/Herself. It is a transforming vibration. Correct pronunciation of a sattvic pure mantra elevates and transforms the mind and body, even without any knowledge of its meaning- so say the Gurus/saints.

Therefore I will write a little here about the correct pronunciation of the ashtakshara mantra of Vishnu, namely Om Namo Narayanaya (based on my understanding of this). This mantra is a famous moksha mantra - it can grant everything, both material and spiritual. One can recite it to fulfill any desire, material or spiritual. The Gurus of course say that spiritual goals of everlasting peace, wisdom and bliss are the best.

In Sanskrit, there are long and short vowels. For example the short "a" and the long "aa". The "a" is pronounced as in "around". The "aa" is pronounced as in "far". The duration of pronunciation of a long vowel "aa" is supposed to be roughly twice as long as the short vowel "a" (in practice, we do not measure this precisely of course. But we say it in a way that sounds about right).

The Om Namo Narayanaya mantra contains three short "a"s and three long "aa"s. When written in Sanskrit, it is perfectly clear where the short and long "a" sounds are. It is less obvious in the usual way in which this mantra is written in English, namely Om Namo Narayanaya.

Let me therefore write this mantra in such a way as to reflect the short and long "a" vowels:

Om Namo Naaraayanaaya.

Namo is said with a short "a".
Naaraayanaaya is said with two long "aa"s followed by a short "a", then another long "aa" followed by a final short "a".

Whether chanting the mantra slowly or quickly, whether it is said mentally or vebally, the ratio of the short to long vowels needs to be about 1: 2. i.e. the long "aa" should last about twice as long as the short "a". 

Some common errors in chanting the Om Namo Naaraayanaaya mantra:

1. Chanting all the "a"s the same way.

2. Elongating the short "a" at the end of the mantra into a long "aa". i.e. saying Naaraayanaayaa (incorrect) instead of Naaraayanaaya (correct).

2. Deleting the short "a" at the end of the mantra entirely i.e. saying "Naaraayanaay" (incorrect) instead of Naaraayanaaya.

3. Some people even accidentally forget to say the final "ya" sound altogether and say Naaraayana instead of Naaraayanaaya. (This is incorrect- the "ya" at the end of Narayana, means 'to Narayana'. The mantra means salutations/namo to Narayana).

4. Chanting all the "na" sounds the same way. There are two types of "na" in Sanskrit. One is the usual "na" like in English, e.g. when you say "Number". The tongue is placed just behind the teeth when making this sound. Let's call this a 'soft na'.

The second type of Na is pronounced by the tip of the tongue hitting the roof of the mouth (the centre of the hard palate)- the tongue has to curl in the process of making this sound. Let's call this sound the harder "Na".

There are two soft "na"s and one hard "Na" in the mantra.

Let's write it to highlight these:

Om namo narayaNaya.

"namo" is said with a soft "na".
"narayaNaya" is said with a soft "na" followed by a hard "Na".


5. One final point,- the "o" at the end of "namo" is pronounced as a elongated "oo" (like the English "Oh" not as in "moo"). It's like saying "Oh" (h is silent of course) with a little elongation (similar length as the long "aa").

If we write the entire mantra again with the correct "a" and "na" sounds, it looks something like this:

Om namo naaraayaNaaya.

I would not recommend worrying too much about the various sounds in the mantra if one is not familiar with this and this causes stress. As far as possible, one can try and apply the above rules of pronunciation. But if it affects the joy of chanting, then don't worry about it. Narayana knows who you are calling when you chant this mantra, even if the pronunciation is incorrect.

If one can chant as perfectly as possible (completely perfect pronunciation is virtually impossible anyway) though, while keeping the devotional feelings intact, then that would be wonderful and very effective.

Here is a video from YouTube (see link below) of monks and disciples chanting the Om Namo Naaraayanaaya mantra at the Sivananda Ashram in Rishikesh (they chant this daily for one hour for world peace and the welfare of all beings). They nicely demonstrate the correct pronunciation of this mantra in accordance with the above rules of chanting. (Don't worry if you can't easily tell apart the two "na" sounds, this is more subtle. The two "a" sounds are of course easy to tell apart though).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igw2ALIiEW4


Om Namo Narayanaya.

Hari Aum Tat Sat.

Start of purascharana four

Hari Aum.

I started my fourth purascharana yesterday. I am doing 11 malas a day for this purascharana as with the previous ones and expect that, by God's grace, this should be completed in about 22 months.

I am planning to write three further ebooks to complete the story of the life of Lord Krishna in the Bhagavatam in the coming months. Therefore I am not going to increase the amount of malas beyond 11 a day at present (I was considering this previously).  My Guru says that any form of remembrance of God whether chanting His names, reading or writing about Him is auspicious. I find that my spiritual life feels more balanced with a combination of practices including japa and also reading and writing about Him.

 Furthermore I hope that I am contributing something useful to society by writing these concise books on the life of Krishna. A number of the books already published are good but they are often rather lengthy and less suitable for busy people with a lack of time. I hope that the concise books I write will help people with a shortage of time to access the key spiritual teachings of Lord Krishna and hopefully inspire them to, one day, read the entire scripture in the original.

I plan to start writing the next ebook sometime in the next couple of weeks and hope to have this ready to publish within two months. This will be about the next phase of Lord Krishna's life as a married householder and ruler of Dwaraka. I am looking forward to reading and writing about this - writing on this subject is a very good educational experience for me.

Hari Aum Tat Sat

Balakrishna book 1

Hari Aum.

It has been about eight weeks since I completed purascharana 3 and I will be starting purascharana 4 tomorrow on the auspicous Guru pushya yoga day.

The past five weeks have been very busy for me. I have been reading the life of Lord Krishna in the wel-known ancient scripture, the Srimad Bhagavatam. I then wanted to re-tell the story in a concise way for those who would also like to know about Krishna but currently lack the time to read the whole story in the original scripture.

I have therefore written my first book on the life of Lord Krishna as described in the Bhagavatam. This describes the childhood of Krishna upto eight years of age. I will be writing three further books to complete the entire story of Krishna in the Srimad Bhagavatam. The life of Krishna is filled with teachings of deep spiritual significance.

 This book is dedicated to my Guru, Swami Sivananda, who was a great devotee of Lord Krishna, and who is my inspiration to keep walking on the spiritual path.

 Therefore, I have decided to post this book on the Amazon website and will donate all funds from the sales of this towards the work of the charitable hospital run by my Guru's ashram in Rishikesh, India. I have worked at the hospital myself and have seen the genuine service that the doctors there provide to the poorest sections of society. The hospital provides free medicines, investigations and surgery- they do not charge patients for anything. It is a privilege for me to be able to support them in any way that I can. I have been making an annual donation to the hospital and will add any proceeds from the book sales to this.

I am therefore sharing the book here in case it is of interest to any readers. This book contains some very valuable spiritual teachings, especially on bhakti yoga, the path of devotion. A free sample can be downloaded from Amazon.

The book can be read either electronically as an 'ebook '- for this, readers will need to download the free Amazon 'kindle app' on to their computer/tablet/phone/electronic device. Alternatively, it can also be read as a paperback.

The book is available on Amazon (both ebook and paperback) in a variety of countries and I am sharing some of these here for the convenience of readers.



Amazon India

https://www.amazon.in/Balakrishna-life-Krishna-Srimad-Bhagavatam-ebook/dp/B077Y4Z3RM/ref=redir_mobile_desktop/259-6084780-2983614?_encoding=UTF8&keywords=srimad%20bhagavatam&pi=AC_SX118_SY170_QL70&qid=1512575797&ref_=mp_s_a_1_43&sr=8-43


Amazon USA

https://www.amazon.com/Balakrishna-life-Krishna-Srimad-Bhagavatam-ebook/dp/B077Y4Z3RM/ref=redir_mobile_desktop?_encoding=UTF8&dpID=51BgpnI6nOL&dpPl=1&keywords=balakrishna&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&qid=1512573756&ref=plSrch&ref_=mp_s_a_1_1&sr=8-1

Paperback

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1973508885/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1513466670&sr=8-2&keywords=balakrishna+vishnupriya


Amazon UK

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Balakrishna-life-Krishna-Srimad-Bhagavatam-ebook/dp/B077Y4Z3RM/ref=redir_mobile_desktop/260-0810217-3047331?_encoding=UTF8&dpID=51BgpnI6nOL&dpPl=1&keywords=krishna%20book&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&qid=1512517598&ref=plSrch&ref_=mp_s_a_1_7&sr=1-7


Om Sri Krishnaya Namah
Om Namo Narayanaya

Hope you enjoy reading the book. I certainly enjoyed writing it (though it took quite a bit of work!).

Hari Aum Tat Sat

P.S.  I have tidied up this blog a bit today and removed some posts that were relevant when I posted them but are less so currently. I hope this will make for a better experience for those who read this blog.