Modern Kshatriya

"He who knows Him (Brahman) thus becomes immortal here. There is no other path for the attainment of final release"

(Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 3.8)

Those who are envious and mischievous, who are the lowest among men, are cast by Me into the ocean of material existence, into various demoniac species of life.

Bhagavad Gita 16.19

The Unity of Vishishtadvaita & Achintya-Bhedabheda

Vishishtadvaita addresses the philosophical question of how God can be simultaneously distinct from creation while maintaining the unity of all reality. In this view, Brahman is both the substance of all existence and its sustainer, meaning nothing can exist independently of Brahman. Consequently, everything is non-different from Brahman, as Brahman is the foundation of all being. However, just as a substance and its attributes are not indistinguishable, living beings and reality retain their distinctiveness from Brahman. This dynamic establishes both the unity and distinction between them.

If Vishishtadvaita resolves this philosophical inquiry, Achintya-Bhedabheda offers a mystical perspective on how one relates to that sustainer. It accepts the philosophical framework of unity and distinction but extends the question to the realm of relationship. The answer lies in a mystical union of love. Love requires the lover to transcend their individuality and identify with the beloved, yet love also necessitates distinction to exist. Thus, the relationship with Brahman is one of mystical difference and non-difference, characterized by both unity and separation through love.

Higher and superior truths can and should be heard. Truth does not depend on anyone’s approval; even if thousands are dissatisfied or enraged by its hearing, it remains unaffected.

Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

New article exploring Dharma as practiced virtue and why it is the cornerstone of living a meaningful existence:

https://open.substack.com/pub/modernkshatriya/p/navigating-dharma-and-desire-the?r=1uf9ml&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Understanding that Dharma is nothing less than the will of Brahman made manifest - both in our lives and in the eternal natural order of the cosmos - is integral to how we experience life. Practicing virtue is the means by which consciousness ascends, lifting itself above the murky depths of material existence.

The notion of a realm "beyond good and evil," as proposed by misguided philosophers and moral relativists, is an illusion. True authenticity - the realization of your highest, most genuine self - demands the unwavering practice of virtue (Dharma). There are no shortcuts, no mystical solutions. The path is clear but challenging, requiring steadfast vigilance and a commitment to living virtuously.

namo brahmaṇya-devāya
go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya ca
jagad-dhitāya kṛṣṇāya
govindāya namo namaḥ


~Let Me offer My respectful obeisances unto Lord Kṛṣṇa, who is the worshipable Deity for all brahminical men, who is the well-wisher of the cows and brāhmaṇas, and who is always benefiting the whole world. I offer My repeated obeisances to the Personality of Godhead, known as Kṛṣṇa and Govinda.

(Chaitanya Bhagavata 2.6.112)

What are you prepared to surrender in your quest for the Supreme Truth? When we reflect deeply on this question and answer with honesty, we uncover the extent to which we are bound by ahamkara, the false ego or illusory sense of "I".

"If an individual by himself is engaged in the pursuit of what is most in accordance with the will of God, God being pleased with him, confers upon him spontaneously a holy disposition of will and intellect and actuates him in the right and holy direction." (Sri Ramanujacharya, Vedartha Sangraha 124)

Two sannyasis, a younger one and an older one, were traveling on a pilgrimage. As they walked, they came across a river that had swelled with recent rains. Standing by the riverbank was a young and beautiful woman, anxious and unable to cross the rushing waters.

Seeing the sannyasis, she approached them with folded hands and said, “O holy ones, I cannot cross this river alone. Would one of you be so kind as to carry me across?”

The younger sannyasi, following the strict rules of his renunciant vows, looked away, disturbed by the request. It was forbidden for a sannyasi to have any contact with a woman, let alone carry one.

Without a word, the older sannyasi smiled kindly, picked up the woman, carried her across the river on his back, and gently set her down on the other side. The woman thanked him profusely and went on her way.

The two sannyasis continued walking in silence. The younger sannyasi grew increasingly agitated, his mind whirling with thoughts. After several miles, unable to contain himself any longer, he turned to the older sannyasi and said, “How could you do that? We have renounced the world! We are not supposed to touch women, let alone carry one!”

The older sannyasi stopped, looked at the younger one, and smiled gently. He said, “Brother, I set her down on the riverbank hours ago. Why are you still carrying her?”

In the mind of one who is chastened and cleansed you will find no suppuration, no simmering ulcer, no sore festering under the skin. Fate does not catch him with his life unfulfilled, as one might speak of an actor leaving the stage before his part is finished and the play is over. Moreover you will find nothing servile or pretentious, no dependence or alienation, nothing to answer for, no lurking fault.

- Marcus Aurelius

"Self-surrender is the very basis of our highest fortune. We cannot but surrender ourselves to whatever beautiful and valuable thing we have come across. Our appreciation for any higher thing is shown by the degree of our surrender to that. So, we can measure the quality of the truth we are connected with only by the intensity of our surrender."

- Shridhara Deva Goswami Maharaja

BG 7.11:

Balam balavatām cāham kāma-rāga-vivarjitam dharmāviruddho bhūteshu kāmo'smi bharatarṣabha


"I am the strength of the strong, devoid of desire and attachment. I am desire in beings that is not contrary to dharma, O Arjuna."

it is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succor of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.

- Gandalf, Lord of the Rings

I've always liked The Sickness Unto Death, not because it's correct all the time in a technical sense, but what it lacks for in correct philosophy it makes up for in sentiment.

Despair, sadness, and melancholy are merely a product of material ego. Your true self, your eternal self is joy (ananta).

The most common form of despair is not being who you are

- Kierkegaard

The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.

- Kierkegaard

"The material is temporary and impermanent; the spiritual is eternal and permanent. The material is fragmental and composed of parts; the spiritual reality is of the nature of unity. The material is often chaotic and conflictual; the spiritual is inherently of the nature of harmony and balance. Living beings in the material world are often motivated by the base instinct for survival; spiritually liberated beings are motivated by love and compassion. Everything in the material world is limited; the realm of consciousness is boundless. Materiality and consciousness are ultimately incompatible. Thus, the material world is not our true home."

- Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya (Introduction to Sanatana Dharma)

yato yato niscalati
manas cancalam asthiram
tatas tato niyamyaitad
atmany eva vasam nayet

From whatever and wherever the mind wanders due to its flickering and unsteady nature, one must certainly withdraw it and bring it back under the control of the Self.

Bhagavad-Gita 6.26

"What is a true guru? A true guru would rather live in poverty and obscurity before veering one iota from Truth. A fake guru, on the other hand, will eagerly veer light-years away from Truth if it means that he will achieve wealth and fame. Only a true guru can lead you onto the sure path to enlightenment." - Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya

I begin my journey to hell by
being envious of a Vaishnava, seeing in
him the semblance of faults, which are unpleasant to my senses. And I suffer equally by being affectionate to a Vaishnava upon seeing in him the semblance of good qualities, which are pleasing to my senses. In both cases, my vision is limited to the mundane realm, and I am not fortunate enough to be able to recognise the transcendental Vaishnava. Hence, in trying to find a Vaishnava, we should not simply end up selecting someone who possesses mundane qualities or who is devoid of them."

—ŚrīŚrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja

"Therefore, get up! Prepare to fight and earn glory! Conquer our enemies and take delight in a flourishing Dharma Imperium. The enemies of Dharma are already put to death by My arrangement. You, O Arjuna, can be but an instrument in the fight." (Bhagavad Gita, 11.33)

https://youtu.be/HXdwMDBDoqY?si=3TLe1c9Nj9kk56ec

"O you who wish to gain realization of the Supreme Truth, utter the name of 'Vishnu' at least once in the steadfast faith that it will lead you to such realization." (Rig Veda, 1.156.3b)

“Brahman (God), who contains all Dharmas, is greater than all gifts. Therefore, by giving Brahman, one fully attains the realm of Brahman without falling down.” (Yajnavalkya Smriti, 212)

Surrender to Lord Śrī Rāma
“Śrī Rāma said: “It is My vow that if one only once seriously surrenders unto Me, saying 'My dear Lord, from this day I am Yours,' and prays to Me for courage, I shall immediately award courage to that person, and he will always remain safe from that time on.”
(Rāmāyaṇa, Yuddha-kāṇḍa, 18.33)

https://youtu.be/BETiD3UZqkw?si=f2-B7HA2BnO88ffM

https://open.substack.com/pub/modernkshatriya/p/consciousness-as-emergent-old-theories?r=1uf9ml&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

To celebrate Dipavali, I have translated an excerpt from the Ramayana. Happy Dipavali, everyone. Jaya Sri Rama!

https://youtu.be/FtmO7v8D5t4

Happy Dīpāvali to all followers of Sanatana Dharma throughout the world!

Dīpāvali: The Light of God
On this most auspicious day of Dīpāvali, Dharmis across the Earth joyfully meditate on and celebrate the glorious return of Śrī Rāma, the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the rightful King of Ayodhyā.

The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki narrates how, after having ended His fourteen-year exile and having rescued His Consort, Śītā from the demonic Rāvaṇa, Sītā-Rāma returned at long last to Their Kingdom on a golden Vimāna, accompanied by Hanumān and the Vanaras. Overjoyed at the return of their King, the citizens of lit thousands of lights and lamps in celebration of the light prevailing over darkness and the Good over evil.

On this Dīpāvali, may we celebrate the light of God in our hearts and rejoice at the long awaited Return of the King, as we prepare for the triumph of the Divine Light in the coming Golden Age that is soon to appear and usher in a new Rāma-rāja for the world.

जय सीता राम
Jaya Śrī Śrī Sītā-Rāma 🪔

https://open.substack.com/pub/modernkshatriya/p/dipavali-celebrating-the-return-of?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1uf9ml

Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. A soldier surrounded by enemies, if he is to cut his way out, needs to combine a strong desire for living with a strange carelessness about dying.

G.K. Chesterton

"I have not passed through fire and death to bandy crooked words with a witless worm."

nārāyaṇa-parāḥ sarve na kutaścana bibhyati
svargāpavarga-narakeṣv api tulyārtha-darśinaḥ

“Devotees solely engaged in the devotional service of the Supreme Godhead, Nārāyaṇa, never fear any condition of life. For them the heavenly planets, liberation and the hellish planets are all the same, for such devotees are interested only in the service of the Lord.” (Spoken by Lord Shiva, Srimad Bhagavatam, 6.17.28)

Surrender comes effortlessly when life flows like calm waters. But true surrender, the kind that forges the deepest Bhakti, emerges when we face life's storms and hardships, when we surrender ourselves to Krishna’s divine will.

As Dipavali approaches, we prepare to honor the return of the king. We will offer the flames of our very souls to the sovereign of the universe, igniting our spirits in devotion.

"It is especially at that time when we are in the greatest despair or grief that it is most important to very consciously and deliberately surrender ourselves at the feet of Sriman Narayana. It is at that point that we are to make Sriman Narayana our only refuge." - Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJRZUV22_ZY&ab_channel=QuestionEverything%3AHinduism%26CurrentEvents

Please share everywhere!

https://youtu.be/aPND0pGpJJM?si=6pYoOT1_SwUx8rbe

“As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from childhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change.” (Bhagavad Gita, 2.13)

Vināśāya Duṣkṛtām

"Those who desire to give up all that is not essentially real move systematically, by negative discrimination of the extraneous, to the supreme position of Lord Viṣṇu. Giving up petty materialism, they offer their love exclusively to the Absolute Truth within their hearts and embrace that highest truth in fixed meditation."

(Srimad-Bhagavatam 12.6.32)

Arjuna’s Prayer to Durgā
In the Mahābhārata, after the commencement of the Bhagavad-Gītā, on the eve of Battle, Arjuna calls upon the empowerment of Mā Durgā Devī; the Goddess of War and Protectress of the Kṣatriya-varna. Mā Durgā appears in all her great fierceness and might upon the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra, as Arjuna prays asking the great Goddess for victory on the Battlefield.

ॐ दुं दुर्गायै नमः
Auṁ Śrī Durgāya Namaḥ

"In this age of Kali, there is no alternative, there is no alternative, there is no alternative for spiritual progress other than the chanting of the holy name, the chanting of the holy name, the chanting of the holy name of Lord Hari (Narayana).” (Brihad Naradiya Purana, 38:126)

"It is ordained by God that all evil-doers (dushkritam) will face annihilation (vinashaya) in the end." - Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya

We cannot hope to have any connection with the finest plane of fundamental existence with the help of eye, nose or ear, or even by intelligence or reason. If we want to have any connection with this finest plane that is underlying this creation, It is possible only through faith- śraddhāmayo 'yaṁ puruṣaḥ

-Srila Sridhara Maharaja (Follow the Angels, Measuring the Infinite)

"For the protection of the brāhmaṇas (priestly class), the thousand-legged Supreme Being created us, the kṣhatriyas (warrior class), from His thousand arms. Hence the brāhmaṇas are said to be His heart and the kṣhatriyas His arms. That is why the brāhmaṇas and kṣhatriyas protect each other, as well as themselves; and the Lord Himself, who is both the cause and effect and is yet immutable, protects them through each other." (Srimad Bhagavatam, 3.22.3-4)