Through the Lens of Shankara

Aum Namah Sivaya

Today we present a series of artistic imagery taken by our very own Brahmachari Shankara. With camera in hand, he marched out upon our majestic garden lands and took a cornucopia of photos detailing our many plants and waterways. Here are a select few of his images, displaying the many small wonders that stood out to his eye.

\"It is the nature of desire never to be fulfilled, but he who utterly gives it up is eternally fulfilled at that very moment.\" Kural 370

\"If you are a mystic, you will have deeper and ever more fulfilling insights in your daily meditations. All of the mysteries of life will unfold before your inner vision once the instinctive mind is mastered in your life.\" - Gurudeva

\"Every belief creates certain attitudes. Attitudes govern our actions. Our actions can thus be traced to our inmost beliefs about ourself and the world around us.\" - Gurudeva

\"Siva\

s devotees bask contentedly in Siva consciousness, seeing the pure life energy in every person, animal, bird, reptile, fish, insect, plant, tree and even microscopic intelligence as Supreme God Siva Himself.\" - Gurudeva '

\"A kindness done in the hour of need may itself be small, but in worth it exceeds the whole world.\" Kural 102

\"If we were to take you apart and look at your mind, we would find that every thought permeating through your brain, leaves a groove. In Sanskrit that is called a samskara. Through this groove, like a river, flows energy.\" - Gurudeva

\"Be unremitting in the doing of good deeds; do them with all your might and by every possible means.\" - Kural 33

\"Sitting in a state of real meditation, one must be more alive and alert than a tight-rope walker suspended without a net on a taut cable three hundred feet above the Earth.\" - Gurudeva

\"He who understands the duty of giving truly lives. All others shall be counted among the dead.\" Kural 214

\"Goodness and mercy, compassion and caring are the intrinsic, inherent or indwelling nature of the soul. Wisdom and pure knowledge, happiness and joy are the intrinsic nature of the soul.\" - Gurudeva

\"The mystic lives, and is taught to live, two-thirds within himself and only one-third in the external. In learning how to do this, the mystic is taught to become consciously conscious, or aware that he is aware.\" - Gurudeva

\"More bitter than even a beggars bread is the meal of the miser who hoards wealth and eats alone.\" - Kural 229

\"This is why we are born on this planet, to evolve through challenges. We are here for no other reason.\" - Gurudeva

\"It is the nature of asceticism to patiently endure hardship and to not harm living creatures.\" Kural 261

\"So potent is the power acquired through disciplined self-denial that those who attain it may even delay the moment of death\" - Kural 269

\"When heart and mind are freed of baseness, when desires have been tempered and excesses avoided, dharma is known and followed, and good conduct naturally arises.\" - Gurudeva

\"Behold those who have weighed the dual nature of things and followed the renunciates way. Their greatness illumines the world.\" Kural 23

\"Attach yourself to Him who is free from all attachments. Bind yourself to that bond so all other bonds may be broken.\" - Kural 350

\"In everything of every kind whatsoever, wisdom perceives Truth in that thing.\" Kural 355

\"Undisciplined people are generally people whom nobody can tell what to do. They won\

t listen. They can\'t tell themselves what to do, and nobody else is going to tell them either!\" - Gurudeva'

\"You need a tremendous, indomitable will to make a reality of your quest of realizing the Being within.\" - Gurudeva

\"Practicing charity without compassion is as inconceivable as realizing God without clarity of mind.\" Kural 249

\"Two natural ways are ordained in this world. Securing wealth is one. Seeking wisdoms light is another.\" Kural 374

\"To know yourself is why you are on Earth. You were born to realize the Self. You are not here to make money, to clothe yourself or to entertain yourself. These are incidentals.\" - Gurudeva

\"Greatness abides in the absence of arrogance. Smallness proudly parades its fulsome haughtiness.\" - Kural 979

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