Vaikunta Ekathasi – the 11th day/level
The above festival is celebrated amongst the vaishnavites very pompously in the Dhanur month – december – Jan
During this day, we are asked not to sleep the whole night ( ekathasi ) , play dice with pictures of ladders and snakes , next day ,early morning ( thuvathasi ) go to temple to offer worship to God
But, do you know why all these rituals ?? what is the importance attached to these ??
There is a great meaning attached which is been hidden
Ekathasi means – 11th day from new moon/full moon or pournami/amavasya ( thasi -10 , eka – one , so 11 )
Thuvathasi – 12th day ( thuva – two )
Real meaning :
There is a golden door at 11th level of consciousness separating our lower worlds pertaining to mind , life and matter and upper golden worlds of knowledge
Money, power , property, prestige, love , lust are the order of lower worlds
where as peace and emptiness in the upper worlds of consciousness
By constant practice of penance , when we raise our consciousness level to 11th level, and with the persistent consciousness , we cross over to the 12th level and enter into the golden worlds of consciousness ( deified as Vaikunatam – abode of God etc )
that is why, our ancestors had asked not to sleep meaning that we should be in highest consciousness
and meaning for playing dice with ladders and snakes is caught in the web of karma representing good and bad respectively and the order of lower worlds of mind, life and matter and crossing over them to the end point of the game is crossing over the 11th level to upper most echelons of consciousness
As a mark of remembrance of this great internal activity, this festival is celebrated externally
Do you know why we chant god’s name when we sneeze??
the 12th level door gets opened for a while when we sneeze, hence our ancestors had asked us to chant god’s name , hailing the Almighty
The Holy Bible also says, utter god’s name when you sneeze
See, what an unity in thought, research and action ??
It can be infered that beyond mind , all religions are ONE
and they are Universal
BG Venkatesh
Cbe
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