The talks you can use Ankur Sharma

An ode to the farmers and the sons of our soil.

The cost of agriculture is for hard work, sweat and the soil.

It is not merely a trade.

From a person who gets bread in plate,

to one who sells vegetables

to the mother in the kitchen who boils the lentil,

A prince or a pauper, everyone is indebted to agriculture.

The cost of agriculture is for hard work, sweat and the soil.



There is a place where farmer grows salt,

gets his hands rotten in the process,

and yet is neither paid well,

nor cared by anyone, after eating his produce.

Don't make the same of agriculture here.

The cost of agriculture is for hard work, sweat and the soil.



Don't get divided, O educated ones, this nation is yours,

the one who waters the field,

and the one who serves at the border,

both are equally respectable.

If you can't go and stand, then at least hold your pens or speak.

lest the agriculturist becomes estranged.

They are our own brothers, it is our own soil.

Don't become a puppet in hands of politicians and be divided. Speak up for what is right,

The cost of agriculture is for hard work, sweat and the soil.

The present podcast is about one of the fundamental text of the Spanda (vibration) school of Kashmir Shaivism. Vasugupta, the founder of the Spanda school, is said to have been directed by the Shiva in his dream about a message on the rock at the Mount Mahadeva in Kashmir. Vasugupta went to the mount and saw the Shiva Sutra inscribed on a rock. Based on the teachings of Vasugupta, Kallata Bhatt one of his foremost disciples wrote the Spandakarika or The Stanzas of the Tremor. The present text is based on this text of Bhattakalattacharya.

The fertile valley of the ancient Vitasta river (now Jhelum) in the northernmost tip of the Indian subcontinent has been a lush playground for spiritual philosophy since ancient times. Its influences included the spread of philosophies of Buddhism to China and Tibet as well as of various schools of Hinduism to rest of India and southeast Asia. One of the most important contributions of the classical philosophical current of Kashmir has been the study and practice of Agama texts or Shaiva Tantras. This philosophical current constitutes what we know as Kashmir Shaivism.

Shaivism in Kashmir has been attributed by Kalhana as having been practiced since times well before the emperor Ashoka. However, one of the primary spearheads of Kashmir Shaivism, Abhinavgupta, stands apart of all others. A Brahmin of Atri gotra, Abhinav was the son of Narasimhagupta. Narasimha was invited from his home at Ujjain in central India to Pravarapura, the city The fertile valley of the ancient Vitasta river (now Jhelum) in the northernmost tip of the Indian subcontinent has been a lush playground for spiritual philosophy since ancient times. Its influences included the spread of philosophies of Buddhism to China and Tibet as well as of various schools of Hinduism to rest of India and southeast Asia. One of the most important contributions of the classical philosophical current of Kashmir has been the study and practice of Agama texts or Shaiva Tantras. This philosophical current constitutes what we know as Kashmir Shaivism.

Shaivism in Kashmir has been attributed by Kalhana as having been practiced since times well before the emperor Ashoka. However, one of the primary spearheads of Kashmir Shaivism, Abhinavgupta, stands apart of all others. A Brahmin of Atri gotra, Abhinav was the son of Narasimhagupta. Narasimha was invited from his home at Ujjain in central India to Pravarapura, the city

About how greatness and gentleness should go hand-in-hand.

I would like to narrate this story to answer your question on gaining knowledge of the gentle mind.

Deep into the grasslands of the Caucasus in the central Eurasia, they say that a guy names Sasruquo was the first ever human to tame a wild stud. He approached the aggressive wild horse, shiny black in color, and spent days to make himself familiar to the majestic creature. Once the horse came closer to him, he let it be there without bothering or startling it till the horse was confident that Sasruquo meant no harm. Then one day Sasruquo got a mulberry branch for the horse and held the branch close to its mouth for it to feast. As the horse was nibbling at the branch, Sasruquo mounted it. This startled the horse and it ran swiftly, but the boy didn't lose hold. The startled beast ran into the turbulent river, but didn't know how to cross it. It was then that the boy steered the horse to the other end through gentle pats of the mulberry branch close to the horses' ears. The wild stud was able to cross the river safely. Exhausted as it was, it realized that the boy had saved him in the river and decided to follow his instruction. The beast wasn't a beast anymore, but had become something much more valuable. He rode Sasruquo to innumerable battlefields to win over countless tribes of the Caucasus till both became legends, still talked about in Caucasian folklores by the bonfires on breezy nights.

The mind is just like that beautiful shiny black stud. Till it is wild, it is turbulent. You will know of mind's turbulence by watching innumerable new thoughts and determinations arise in it. With each new thought comes a doubt on ability to complete and at the same time a compulsion to work on it immediately. This is just like a horse needs to run and gallop immediately and spend its energy. It ends up going round and round, reaching nowhere.

Till the mind doesn't know you, it will keep doing the same thing all over again. To tame the mind and make it your friend, first you have to make it know that there is you. To just sit with your mind and observe it till it comes close to you by itself. Then start instructing it. It is then that it will revolt and go into the river of turbulence. Once it is there, guide it with the stick of discipline. It is then, that the wild stud of mind will become tranquil and gentle like a domestic horse. It will trust you forever and lay all its energies and capabilities at your disposal. A tranquil mind will make you reach your goals. It will obey when you tell the thoughts it feeds to you to wait till the job at hand is completed. Then both of you will become legends, talked about by the bonfires on breezy nights.