Right now and until the end of April, Rahu is in Adra Nakshatra. All the other nakshatras are part of groups of five. Ardra is so powerful that it is the only nakshatra that stands alone. Ardra is the nakshatra of poison. Rahu agitates. So it makes sense that the Corona virus is active now.
Ardra is also a nakshatra of headstrong attitudes and anger. So it might be a good time to lay low and forgive others of their inflamatory behavior.
Though the podcast website is not finished yet, you can access the first few podcasts by clicking on the link below. The structure and nature of the shows will no doubt evolve over time. Enjoy!
https://tunein.com/podcasts/Religion–Spirituality-Podcasts/The-Michael-Mamas-Show-p1299695/
Scholars tend to be “know it alls”.
As is said, “The only true knowing is knowing that you know no-thing.”
Of course, scholars “know” all about that.
So even then, they remain “know it alls”.
Most in this world are addicted to a drug, of one sort or another.
Drugs turn people into “know it alls”.
That drug mentality has become main stream.
Often with minimal information, perhaps over lunch or on a street corner, perspectives are quickly formed and solidly held.
Often perspectives are based upon what is heard in a biased “classroom” or biased “newsroom”.
Facts are but dots on a page.
A perspective dictates just one way those dots can be connected.
A set of connecting lines is all too often called “knowledge”.
Lives are too often based upon a set of dot connecting lines.
Oh, if life were only that simple.
Of course, some perspectives are just plain wrong.
Yet there are an infinite number of simultaneously valid yet contradictory perspectives.
The wise know no-thing.
The wise honor the set of lines most sincerely addressing the moment.
The wise can be passionate.
Yet the wise are humble.
The wise seem a paradox to the world.
Some call them weaklings.
Some call them fools.
Some call them flip flopping, mind-changing chameleons.
Some call them arrogant.
Some call them much worse.
Wisdom is not made of fixed perspectives.
The sum total of all the dot connecting lines nets out to no-thing, the only true knowing.
Wisdom is a physiological state of awareness.
Wisdom is a state of freedom of the mind, of the minds physiology.
Because the wise are in that sense formless, any form can be projected upon them…. and is.
Thinking that I will start a podcast, I have not been blogging lately in hopes the podcasts would start soon. I will keep you posted.
I was up until a bit past 4:00 a.m. last night watching Trump and Modi speak at the stadium packed with 120,000 people in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. The streets on the way to the stadium were lined with thousands of people. The whole event was very inspiring. I could not help feeling it marked a positive phase transition in global events.
Mahashivarathri at our temple was beautiful. It too somehow had the feeling of a positive global phase transition.
We are planning a number of upgrades here at Mt. Soma including the dining menu and regular hours for telephone answering. We are looking forward to warmer weather when families come to Mt. Soma, visit the temple, play outside, go for walks to Ganga Park, Hanuman, etc. It is very heartwarming. It makes me feel like a Vedic Walt Disney, offering Mt Soma for everyone to enjoy with their families!
Also, hoping this spring or summer to offer Advanced Techniques phase 2 via the Internet…
Jyotish was most challenging for several years now, but it appears to have turned the corner!
Hoping to be chatting with you via the podcast airwaves soon!
A dear friend sent the following to me just yesterday and felt I should post something about it ASAP. I have edited it only to remove names in order to protect their confidentiality:
“My father told me about brainwashing techniques from his days in the military. If you were to read down a checklist, there would be a lot of things checked off that apply to cult activities we have been confronted by in recent days. For example, separate people from their normally trusted people, create breaches in all of their supportive or close relationships, talk to them unceasingly with the ideas you want them to believe, Praise them regularly, make them feel special…Make the authority, the enemy, so any super that was there will be undermined. Yeah. It’s a whole process. Pretty creepy stuff.”
I have discussed this sort of thing in my classes a number of times through the years. I must admit that in India I met such a group and their leader. They can at first be remarkably enticing, fascinating, and alluring. At first, I wanted to hear more. But at some point early on, like a flash out of the darkness, it is as if I woke up and saw so plainly what was going on. The mind control that happens creeps in seemingly harmlessly. The techniques are powerful, yet subtle and seemingly so beneficial. In fact, they are seemingly lifes panacea… the cure all for humanity.
I have told the story of ‘mystical manipulators’ who would do miraculous ‘healings’ that changed peoples lives and seemed to immediately lift them to higher states of consciousness. The manipulations can have incredibly compelling and hallucinatory effects. People see colors, have feelings of euphoria, see God everywhere, and believe they have just been given Gods greatest gift. We may wonder how anyone of any psychological stability could be manipulated and taken in so easily. It can happen seemingly unnoticed and feel like what you have been looking for.
There is of course, such a thing as spiritual growth and even enlightenment. I remember back in the 70s when I was giving a talk about it, a guy jumped up and said he knew exactly what I was talking about and it happened to him when on one of his LSD trips. There are a myriad of ways cults induce such beliefs and feelings into their followers. Just like the guy on LSD, they think they just became enlightened!
It is important to realize that these leaders are usually not intentionally malevolent. In fact they too have been intoxicated with the very things they offer. They truly believe the things they promote are good. A powerful collusion exists with them and within their group.
Often the potential followers are coerced into believing that their current mentors are wrong, foolish, misguided, or even ill intended, etc. They are thusly segregated from their previous support group. They become convinced that their previous bonds are, in fact, their enemies.
Interestingly enough, people outside those groups when they pass by them on the street often easily and obviously see and feel the cultish ‘vibe’ and are instantly off put by those groups. They see the group followers tagging along behind the leader, hanging onto the words of his alleged sermons from God.
I have in the past mentioned how they offer ‘instant enlightenment’ or ‘enlightenment in 30 days’.
Commonly, the leader is highly charismatic, a ‘smooth operator’, loving, kind and seemingly nonaggressive, attentive, innocent, and harmless. They shower their followers and potential followers with praise, telling them what they want to hear. Perhaps, for example, telling them they are already one of the ‘enlightened few’ or if not, then they are soon to be if they just follow his lead.
The leaders often present themselves as ‘Gods messenger’. They claim to speak with God and offer their followers Gods personal messages to them. They offer to teach the followers how they too can talk with God. Those not taken in by such leaders often immediately see the masks and overlays those leaders are living. Certainly, their sugar coated behavior is not what spiritual attainment means.
Chanting is a tool they misuse to induce hallucinatory states of happiness and health. Often, they promote chanting as their primary tool of spiritual growth. The followers are indoctrinated into reaching to live ‘outside of their bodies’ in a mirage of heaven above. It creates unity and loyalty within the group and to the leader. They come to believe that nobody else knows or understands God. Enraptured euphoria is the common enticement.
This is very spooky stuff. We all do well to be very careful in our lives. As Adi Shankara said, the spiritual path is the path of discernment. Things need to make sense. As is said, things that seem too good to be true, are just that. Flashy experiences and promises of quick enlightenment can be very tempting but are to be avoided. The spiritual path is wisely likened to traversing a razors edge or passing through the eye of a needle. Think, think, think. Proceed wisely with your life.
There are many online links discussing this. Here is one example:
https://listverse.com/2016/04/29/top-10-brainwashing-and-mind-control-techniques/
