Let the New Year be The Wings of God

Swami Sukhabodhananda
2 January 2003, 12:00am IST

Where there are waves of love, bliss and beauty — prema, ananda and saundarya lahiri — a divine presence opens up. These waves are the wings of God. The new year will come alive if infused with the energy of these waves.

A true guru or master does not teach in words; he teaches through expression of His presence. A guru does not teach the Truth. It is a transmission that is beyond words and scriptures. Krishna taught Arjuna more by his presence.

How was it possible to teach Arjuna all that was contained in the Bhagavad Gita when the two armies were readying to fight? It would have taken hours for such a communication to take place — so, it was not in the realm of time or words. It was a communication between two hearts, far beyond words and time; it was effected through Krishna's presence.



A dream may last for about two minutes. But, it may take an hour to relate it in the waking state. The time-scale of the waking state is different from the time-scale of the dream state. So too, the communication between Krishna and Arjuna was in a different space.

Quieten your mind before approaching a master — let there be prema, ananda and saundarya. Life is the greatest master and scripture, so treat it with respect and love.

A Chinese carpenter who created many masterpieces of art was asked what the secret of his success was. He replied: "I approach a tree with deep love and joy and then ask if it is willing to be felled. Only when my intuition says 'yes' to a particular tree, I cut that tree with a prayer in my heart." In this manner, he was able to create masterpieces.

We are like the caterpillar who is unaware of its ability to become a butterfly. We are unaware that we can become a Buddha, an enlightened being.

It is difficult to love when we are surrounded by hate. Hate emanates from the lower self, where reside tamas and rajas, the lower qualities. When you operate from love, you are coming from a higher self, where resides the sattva guna, the higher quality.Every incident of hatred should invite you to be above hatred. Treat life like a game. Have fun with problems and challenges.

Can we live life in the presence of a feeling of divinity? Can our energies be one of love, bliss and beauty? We can — and if we do, then, the new year for us will have a beauty and depth that words cannot express — it can only be experienced by our very being. Without such a presence, we feel the world is imperfect, like the foolish man who said that snakes were imperfect creatures as they had no legs. With our wrong notions, we try to change the world.

We can make the new year a happy one by making the effort to reduce our problems. If you look at problems from the perspective of the jeevatma or the lower Self, they look like threats. Then you feel fearful and become unhappy.

Be like a tennis player who looks upon an approaching ball not as a threat but as an opportunity to play his best. The higher Self, the paramatma, will make you look at problems as an opportunity.

There are two types of creators in the world — one who works on the objects, like a poet, artist, painter, carpenter or engineer, and the other, a mystic who works on himself. We are like idols hidden in a rock. Removing a part of the rock reveals a beautiful figure.



Similarly, we have to look for the masterpiece hidden in our self. Like a sculptor who knows the potential hidden in a rock, we too should look for the hidden potential within us.


(http://www.swamisukhabodha-nanda.org. E-mail prasannatrust@vsnl.com)

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Icon with a Mission: Swami Vivekananda

Jan 13, 2005, 12.00am IST
Pranav Khullar.

Moorless in cyberspace and shackled by technologies like multimedia messaging, the youth today are sorely in need of an icon they can look up to. In fact, this is a good time to revive the memory of modern India's most popular youth icon: Vivekananda.


Vivekananda exhorted the young to "arise" and "awake", to reject all doctrines and dogmas that were based on superstition and prejudice. Instead, he encouraged youngsters to mine the wisdom of ancient philosophy and tradition. In spite of his fondness for drawing on ancient thought to aid modern living, he was hugely popular, especially among the young and impressionable.


"Jiva is Shiva", he would often say, encapsulating all Vedantic thought in that simple precept that conveyed the importance of treating all humans as equals. Sanyas, for him, was a mere calling. He did not allow it to become an ivory-tower pursuit for himself and his band of brothers. The roadmap to Narayana was through "Daridra Narayana", or service to the poor and the needy. Nirvana was not an escape route to personal salvation; it was a goal to be achieved through collective social uplift.


Brought up in the intellectual climate of late 19th century Calcutta, and touched by the simplicity of Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Vivekananda focused on social uplift — he was deeply perturbed by the terrible poverty of rural India. His dynamism and motivation woke up the youth from a self-induced slumber. Vivekananda advocated body- building and exercise to help boost one's morale and strength. He said: "It would be better to play football than read the Gita..." and the statement was a powerful metaphor for the way he wanted the youth of his time to evolve — fearless, strong and independent in the right sense. It was a call to action, to karma, rather than passivity and inaction.


Vivekananda saw the world as a gymnasium where one learns to become strong and fearless. He dared to attempt to revamp all that was rotting in Indian society, and to enrich and learn from all that was noble. He was a man with a mission, and he was the first to present Vedantic thought in the most simple terms possible. Romain Rolland said of him: "...his words are like great music, phrases in the style of Beethoven...".


Vivekananda's days as a wandering monk shaped his social vision as he came into contact with ground realities in a diverse India. This was to inspire Mahatma Gandhi later to go on a Bharat Darshan to acquaint himself with the 'real' India. "Give me 100 energetic young men and I shall transform India", Vivekananda would say and this led to the founding of the Ramakrishna Order of monks, young men committed to bring about common good.


Vivekananda's message to the West was that we in India were in possession of an enduring and altruistic philosophical legacy that was crucial to keep humans connected not only with one another but also with their environment. He highlighted the unique and redeeming features of Indian culture, but he was also aware that India was slipping in basic socio-economic issues. That's why he felt the need to inspire the young to stir them to act.

Rabindranath Tagore once told a group: "If you want to know India, read Vivekananda". He could well have said to the youth of today: "It is time to read Vivekananda again". Maybe some of his enthusiasm and vigour to bring about a transformation — in the way we relate to one another, think and act — will motivate those among us who need just that little bit of inspiration to start ticking right.

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Swami Vivekananda: The Manager Monk

Jan 12, 2004, 12.21am IST

Anshul Chaturvedi.

In an age when 30-something CEOs and VPs no longer surprise us and paradigms are busted each day, holding one's own at the workplace is a challenge in itself. One hundred and forty-one years after Swami Vivekananda was born, we need to evoke his vision and focus on the fact that life at the workplace can be much simpler and more fulfilling.

The Swami may not have been a student of management theory but the fundamental truths that he taught are invaluable in today's globalised workplace, where employees are often resentful of the relative success of others.

Talk of cultivating a spiritual approach at the time of annual increments might give rise to cynicism among some, but it is in tune with Vivekananda's thoughts: "We find ourselves in the position for which we are fit... if one has some capacity above another, the world will find it out too... He who grumbles at the little thing that has fallen to his lot to do, will grumble at everything. Always grumbling, he will lead a miserable life... But that man who does his duty as he goes, putting his shoulder to the wheel, higher and higher duties will fall to his share".

Wondering what the top bosses do with the astronomical sums they take home may be good for office chit-chat but it isn't of much help in getting to where they are. Vivekananda's analysis of how the hierarchy works can help us to assess our progress without regrets: "No man can long occupy satisfactorily a position for which he is not fit. By doing well the duty which is nearest to us, the duty which is in our hands now, we make ourselves stronger; and improving our strength in this manner we may even reach a state in which it shall be our privilege to do the most coveted and honoured duties in life and in society".

If we take a random look at those doing the "most coveted duties' — whether it is a Narayana Murthy or Amitabh Bachchan — we will find that they are people who did well the duty that was nearest to them at any given point of time; that is all that we need to do.

Equally, there is little sense in being aggrieved when one feels that some-one else has been elevated to a role beyond his competence. Even for the highest offices, the rule that ‘no man can long occupy satisfactorily a position for which he is not fit' has held true repeatedly; it is not difficult to find instances of former prime ministers who have faded into obscurity. If a person is not equipped to handle a role and make a mark at the job, it does not take long for that to be obvious.

An organisational weakness is that issues are often soft-pedal-led when personal equations come into play. But Vivekananda advises us to put aside such hesitations where professional issues are concerned: "All combined efforts in India sink under the weight of one iniquity — we have not developed strict business principles". Business is business, and no friendship should be used to subvert this.

"Let the world say what it chooses, I shall tread the path of duty... Otherwise, if one has to attend day and night to what this man says or that man writes, no great work is achieved in this world," said the Swami.

His profound thoughts continue to inspire thousands even a century after his demise, though he lived for barely four decades. Stephen Covey might be the current must-read but Vivekananda could well lay claim to being the original proponent of the character ethic.

(Today is Swami Vivekananda's birth anniversary)

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Yoga can set you free

Feb 6, 2010, 12.00am IST
SHEEL VARDHAN SINGH.



Relationships gone sour remain with us as a load for a very long time. They constantly gnaw at our mind, upset our emotional balance and adversely impact our health.


It is said that time heals but the scars remain. With the passage of time wounds turn into memories. However, a small trigger could turn memories into raw wounds again. This vicious cycle can lead to a depressive spiral. Yoga’s healing powers can help to break this cycle.


Yogic healing is achieved with asana, pranayama, dharana and mantra sadhana. What really is sadhana? Sadhana is a way, a path. It is also a method of transformation. Further sadhana is a journey from the impure towards the pure. The impure relates to the world of name, fame, ideas and that is our normal mind where it is the ego that is interacting with the world. The pure relates to atma and acceptance of the world without delusions or illusions. That is the world, as it exists.

When sadhana is done regularly, with conviction and over a long period of time, it transforms a person into being more simple and natural internally. From this pure mind arise affection, universal love, compassion and devotion. These bring us closer to divinity and atma bhav - that is, seeing your own self in others. Above all, this journey on the path of yoga leads us to acceptance of individuals and circumstances.


In yoga sadhana, the healing process is threefold: physical, mental and psychic. At the physical level, we work through asanas and pranayama - that is, hatha yoga, to purify the body. At the mental level, we connect to our inner self and begin the journey within. This is achieved through pratyahara, dharana and mantra. The psychic level is purified by kriya yoga, kundalini yoga, naad yoga and laya yoga.

However, most of us need to begin the healing process at a very basic level, that is, at the physical and mental levels and for this, asanas, pranayama, dharana and mantra chanting are useful. They balance, heal and liberate. You feel free.

According to Pantanjali’s Yoga Sutra, asana is sukham-sthiram-asanam, that is, the posture in which one experiences joy, happiness and stability. This is achieved when asanas are done with awareness. Pranayama balances the pranic body and has subtle influence on the mind. According to one’s need specific pranayama is done in order to energise or calm the mind. Dharana sharpens the mind and improves your focus.


Mantras are sound vibrations; they help you to connect the inner self to the cosmic energy and help you overcome energy blockages within. Mantras are powerful and work at a deep level to transform from within. For centuries mantras have been used to improve spiritual status as well as to deal with distress. Mahamritunjaya Mantra, Gayatri Mantra and Goddess Durga’s 32 names are some of the well known beneficial mantras.


With yoga and mantra sadhana one achieves harmony with the self and with the world. The body becomes healthy, the prana balances and at the level of spirit the process ‘sets you free’ and unravels creativity in life.

The only constant in life is change. What sadhana does is to put the sadhak or aspirant on the path of acceptance, change, adaptation and deep within it inculcates the ability to step back and see the world dispassionately.

The writer is affiliated to the Bihar School of Yoga, Munger.

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Silent Saint as Guiding Spirit

Dec 15, 2004, 12.00am IST
R K Langar.

Gopinathji, the shaivite saint of Kashmir, spoke very little. But whatever he spoke was rich with sublime values and guided his devotees on both the worldly and spiritual life. According to him, man must first become morally sound before entering spiritual life. The saint spelt out the desirable qualities of an ideal person in three Kashmiri words: sezar, pazar, shozar — straightforwardness, truth and purity. With these three divine traits, a person would become eligible to raise himself to the highest level of perfection with self-effort and divine grace. Gopinathji attached great significance to God's grace for self-elevation. He was a celibate, but Gopinathji advised his devotees not to shun married life in the search of godhood for it can be attained irrespective of his status or station in life. Spiritual enlightenment can be achieved wher-ever you are depending upon the intensity and sincerity of your sadhna.
The twin purpose of human life is self-perfection and service to humanity — sadhna and seva. Man should be ever willing to help remove the miseries of afflicted persons. The greatness of a man is in helping his fellow beings irrespective of who they are. One should not undertake special exercises for awakening the kundalini, the spiritual power


lying dormant within. Love for God and working for the good of others awakens the kundalini on its own. There can be no spiritual progress as long as man is attached to worldly gains and has not given up worldly desires.


Gopinathji believed that silence is God. He became emancipated after seven years of yoga sadhna when he remained in solitude and observed complete silence. He emphasised on silence and vichara. Gopinathji's consciousness can be des-cribed as a state when man thinks, speaks and acts with a pure and pious mind. Such a person becomes a practitioner of truth and righteousness. He lives for others. The easiest way of uprooting one's ego was by surrendering oneself to God, by living a disciplined and regulated life without compromising on principles. To those who studied scriptures, his advice was that one should live the teachings of scriptures; their study alone would be of no use. He said that all human beings are equal in the eyes of God and God-realisation is available to all and not only to a select few.


By calling Brahmn a tree and its branches the different religions, Gopinathji upheld the Vedic thought that truth is one; only, the wise speak of it in different ways. No founder of any religion has deviated from this fact and if there is any misinterpretation regarding oneness of ultimate reality, it is due to the followers and not the religion. In fact they are themselves imperfect who perceive imperfection in religion. The truthful and selfless person acquires purity of mind which is a precondition for God-realisation. In silence one hears the inner voice and it comforts the restless mind.


The truly great saint's message is heard at distant places without his being physically there. Gopinathji spent his entire life in Kashmir but his followers can be found everywhere. Some of his devotees consi-der him in the lineage of Rama, Krishna and Buddha. A devotee abroad states that Gopinathji exercised spiritual power unequalled since the time of Jesus Christ. Gopinathji is known to have cured devotees of dreaded diseases. His followers declare that they feel his presence whenever they are in distress. There could not have been a larger tribute to Gopinathji than this. Known as a miracle man, he was, according to media reports, noticed guiding our troops during the recent Kargil war.

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Freedom from biology

Aug 22, 2010, 12.00am IST
Swami Sukhabodhananda.

What happens to our soul when our body turns to ashes on the funeral pyre?

Our physical body is called sthulashariram or gross body. Our limited self is called sukshmashariram or subtle body. There is a third entity called karanashariram or casual body. Now the sthulashariram is the abode of jeevatma, the spirit of life. It is not the body, but it gets identified with the body. The soul, along with the mind, is the seat of consciousness. The body is only a vehicle, and when it is consigned to flames after physical death, the soul is set free from its mortal coils. Then it searches for another body that will be its vehicle for another lifetime. At the end of this search, depending upon its karma, it is assigned to a particular body. The soul begins life anew in that body. In reality, the soul is immortal.

For example: The space in the room appears limited by the room. Is the space enclosed within the four walls of the room or is the room a small enclosure in the vast unlimited space of the universe? The room is a tiny speck in space. But we say there is space in the room. Think of the jeevatma as space and of the body as the walls of the room that encloses part of the space. Now suppose the walls of the room crumble down. Will the space previously contained within the room suffer any damage or dissolution? No, the space returns to its state of continuity which had earlier with the space outside the walls. To realize this is gnanodayam or the dawn of knowledge.

Doesn't the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth negate the law of karma?

No, it does not. It means the soul is on an unending journey of evolution. The question is whether you want to hasten this process, or you want to allow this process as it happens at its own pace. For example, if you are into agriculture, you pump water into your fields when there is no rain for a long period. The water enriches the process of crop growth which would otherwise be slowed down by delayed rains. Irrigation technology speeds up the agricultural process. Likewise, there are spiritual methods to enlighten the process of birth and rebirth.

Is time a dimension of the world of life even after death?

When you are conscious of the soul's essential transcendence of physical dimensions, you are beyond the confines of time. But if you don't have this awareness, that is, if you are operating from ignorance, you are subject to time, even though you have the potential to transcend it. For example, we know that space is not limited by the walls or the roof of a room. But space, not being conscious, is incapable of extending itself to its vast expanse outside until an external agency brings the walls down. It stays confined within concrete boundaries. The liberation that the heightened consciousness leads to is called jeevan mukti – liberation from biological life. If we remain ignorant of our true nature, we remain in bondage to our body nature with its trappings of kama or sexual desire, krodha or anger, lobha or non-restraint, and moha or greed. True knowledge liberates, whereas ignorance binds.

Student, " Where can I find God?"

Master, "Right in front of you"

Student, "Then why don't I see him?"

Master, "Why doesn't a drunkard recognise his own house? Find out what you are drunk with, and then you will find God in front of you."

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Sankara’s Path of Self-inquiry

May 17, 2002, 12.00am IST.
Adi Sankaracharya’s life was dedicated to a quest for spiritual truth. His views on Advaita are best summed up in his own words: Brahma satyam jagat mithya, Jiva brahmaiva naparah — the Brahman alone is real, the world is illusory, the individual and Universal Soul are one. This pronouncement is in contrast to other thought-systems of the time, like Ramanujacharya’s Vishishtadvaita which treads a middle ground by focusing on the relation between the world and God; and Madhva’s dvaita or dualistic world-view.

Sankara’s Bhasya is essentially a treatise on the Brahma-Sutras of Vyasa, 555 aphorisms that contain the quintessence of Upanishadic thought. His deliberations, as of most Vedantists, are triggered by the call of the very first sutra: Athato Brahma Jignasa — now therefore the inquiry into Brahman. This is a call to free inquiry, which sets the tone of all speculation.

Sankara’s appeal lay as much in his erudition and dialectical skills as in his being a child prodigy. In a short life of 33 years, he set ablaze the intellectual world, redefining, revamping and revitalising old concepts with power and humility. From the backwaters of Kaladi in Kerala to the northern Gangetic plains, Sankara took on scholars, sages and savants in challenging debates. When it came to rituals, he was a rebel as is evident in his insistence on performing the last rites of his mother despite being a sanyasi and that too in the backyard of his ancestral house. But most of all, Sankara was a young sage who reached out and inspired the masses to renew their faith through intense devotional lyrics and simple hymns like the Bhaja Govindam and the Saundaryalahari.

Sankara’s two-level theory of the Brahman is at once abstruse and simple, as detailed in his magnum opus Brahma-sutra Bhashya, and also in smaller masterpieces like Atma-Bodha and Vivekachudamani. He perceives the Brahman as being essentially featureless, nirguna, but manifesting itself with attributes, saguna, and that nirguna is ultimately real and saguna, false. This Brahman-world relation he illustrates with the snake-rope analogy where the illusion is mistaking a rope for a snake.

Sankara uses everyday metaphors and similies to illustrate advaitic concepts, comparing at one point the practice of knowledge (Jnana-Abhyasa), which purifies by removing ignorance with the method of purifying muddy water with kataka-nut powder. Just as powder sprinkled on the surface of water forms a film and drags all impurities to the bottom leaving pure water on the surface, constant practice and use of knowledge removes the dirt of ignorance. Also, like the kataka-nut powder, which merges into the water after doing its work, knowledge too disappears after the Self emerges.

Sankara also used the analogy of mistaking oyster-shells scattered along a beach on a moonlit night for silver. Just as the illusion of silver lasts in the perceiver’s mind only till he recognises the reality of oyster-shells, so too does the world of names and forms exist till Self-Knowledge dawns. Sankara reinforces the spirit and content of the Upanishads by alluding to the Mahavakyas in his delineation of the nature of Brahman, reiterating the well-known method of arriving at the nature of the Brahman by practising neti, neti, not this, not this.

Sankara was a seminal thinker but no less a great apostle of bhakti. Hence he had mass appeal. His devotional outpourings were meant to inspire people to their innate divine self. His own life was exemplary and reflective of the cosmic stature of his thought. But most importantly, Sankara was a spirit of free enquiry, whose works are a call to the heart as much as a call to the mind.

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Life, a laughing matter

Aug 27, 2010, 12.00am IST MURALI A RAGHAVAN.

Humour relieves boredom, eases tension and enlivens the atmosphere. Laughing at oneself is a good way to keep one's ego in check. Yet `serious' spiritual seekers tend to think that humour and spirituality are poles apart. This is far from the truth.

Evolved masters have a sense of humour, and they often use humour to drive home a point. Gurus like Kanchi Paramacharya, Ramana Maharshi, Swami Chinmaynanda and Swami Dayananda Saraswati sprinkled their talks liberally with humour.

Swami Chinmayananda was once scouting for a suitable venue in Chennai to hold his Geeta Gyana Yagna. Most temples, under the dominant influence of Brahmins, were reluctant to help out. Finally, one of his disciples rushed to him with the news that a Muslim was ready to make available his empty bungalow for the purpose. "But there is a problem," said the disciple, "the house is believed to be haunted." On hearing this, the Swami quipped: "What a wonderful opportunity! I've never seen a ghost in my life!"

Every morning, Ramana Maharshi would walk up the Arunachala hill. Once a stranger spotted him all alone, and wishing to have darshan, he walked faster and managed to overtake the Maharshi and stood in front of him, blocking his way. With folded palms he said " Swamiji, this is a great day for me. You have blessed me with your darshan." The Maharshi responded: "This is really funny. What darshan you're talking about? It is you who have come before me and given me your darshan."

On another occasion a group of American devotees who were seated at a distance from Maharshi because of the crowd, asked him whether they could move forward so that Maharshi's grace will be upon them. Maharshi replied that he has no objection to their moving forward but his grace was always there for everyone irrespective of proximity. The group, nonetheless, pushed forward and almost came near him. After some time the devotees requested Maharshi to place his palms on their head so that they can receive the grace in full measure. An amused Maharshi said: "Next you might ask me to sign a bond and take me to court if you imagine that the grace has not worked!' The entire gathering burst into laughter.

While delivering a discourse on the Gita Swami Dayananda Saraswati narrated the following story: There were three terminally ill patients and the doctor asked them to express their last wish so that he could arrange to fulfill them. The first patient said that he would like to meet the priest and confess. The second said that he would like to meet his entire family. The doctor took care of the requests. He turned to the third patient who muttered: "I'd like to see another doctor."


A scholar approached Kanchi Paramacharya and boasted that he was an expert on the Gita. The seer asked him if he could spare some time to hold a 10-day discourse at the local temple. The scholar assented. On the first day 50 people were came to hear him and the attendance dwindled on subsequent days. The scholar said to Paramacharya and said: "What sort of a town is this? No one seems to be interested in the Gita. On first day there was a crowd of 50, second day 25 and on the third day there were only two persons to listen to me!'
With a twinkle in his eye the seer remarked: "Why fret? When Krishna spoke the Gita there was only one person to listen to him!"

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Mind-Matter Divide in Science, Philosophy

Mar 10, 2004, 12.00am IST
RANJIT NAIR.

The root formulation of Indian philosophy goes back to Dirghatamas, the Rig Vedic philosopher, who said ekam sat vipra bahudha vadanti, or the Real is one, though the wise speak of it variously. How the fundamental unity of the Real could be reconciled with the diversity of phenomena was a key problem in Indian philosophy. Philosophy in India emerged as a rational, discursive exercise when orthodoxy, which regarded the Vedas as revelation, was challenged by major schools like that of Buddhism, Jainism, the Ajivika and the Lokayata.
The origins of western philosophy are usually attri-buted to Plato challenging the gods of Homer for their all-too-human behaviour, substituting in their place truths established through dialectical argument. Indian philosophy arose against the demand that claims on the veracity of a text or principle should be subjected to the canons of argumentation. The schools of logic emerged out of the attempt to formalise rational debate, to distinguish between valid arguments and fallacies. It is remarkable that all schools of Indian philosophy accepted perception as a means of knowledge. The great Shankara asserted that even if hund-red scriptures maintain that fire is cool and non-radiant, that would not prove it.
Indian philosophy and modern science share common features, at the level of parallels, isomorphic themes and problems. First, the search for unity resonates with the holy grail of the theory of everything in theoretical physics, which began with Albert Einstein. The search for a fundamental theory, Steven Weinberg says, lifts human life above the level of farce and gives it some of the grace of tragedy.
The second similarity concerns the debate on the nature of reality and the ability of our concepts to represent reality. Vedantic and Buddhist schools rejected the Nyaya view that the real was expressible. For the Upa-nishads, the fundamental realm is where words return, unable to reach with the mind. Nagarjuna, the Madh-yamika Buddhist philosopher, argued that concepts were inadequate to describe reality by exposing the inner contradictions of concepts like motion and rest, somewhat in the manner of Zeno, the Eleatic philosopher. Here we may recall the debate between Einstein and Niels Bohr, the former maintaining that physics should give a causal, observer-independent account of reality, while the latter believed that microphysics had to be content with a pastiche of concepts for the same physical system.
Third, the mystery of the self or consciousness, which, as atman, is identified with the fundamental reality or Brahman in the Upanishads. Modern science lacks an adequate account of the mind. The strict separation bet-ween mind and matter enforced by Descartes, allo-wed matter to be viewed as pure mechanism, expli-cable in causal terms. Major schools in Indian philosophy such as the Advaita Vedanta, posit the atman/brahman as the sole reality and phenomenal reality as maya, neither absolutely true nor abso- lutely false. Barring the Austrian physicist Erwin Schrodinger, who affirmed his commitment to the Advaita Vedanta in a tract written shortly before his fundamental papers on wave mechanics, few physicists regard a unitary consciousness as the fundamental rea-lity. Buddhist philosophers, on the other hand, regarded consciousness as a composite of factors.
However, the application of quantum theory runs against the Cartesian grain of disenchanting the mate-rial world. It unifies East and West, mind and matter.
(The author is Director, Centre for Philosophy and Foundations of Science, New Delhi)

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Experience Directly The Nature of Life

Jan 28, 2005, 12.00am IST
Andrew Cohen.

What is enlightenment? The person who is truly enlightened has directly experienced the ultimate or absolute nature of life itself. In that revelation, he has seen far beyond the boundaries of the personal self and discovered the universal nature of all his human experience. That explosive realisation liberates the self from the perpetual tyranny of being trapped in a relationship to life that is merely personal. Enlightenment is a condition in which the individual has come to the end of a fundamentally self-centred relationship to life.

What do you mean by the term 'absolute'? Absolute means free from limitations. Those who directly experience enlightenment find themselves infused with a consciousness that transcends time, a consciousness that was never born and therefore is free from death. They experience that which is immortal. They are no longer fundamentally limited by the conditioned human personality that they have exclusively identified with since the body was born.


Does it happen gradually, or instantly? It really depends upon the individual. But it doesn't matter whether it happens instantaneously or gradually. The only important thing is that it happens. Because as long as we are self-centred, lost in that which is merely personal, we are simply not going to be available.

Available for what? Available to manifest the profound and extraordinary evolutionary potential that in most of us lies dormant. This suffering world is in dire need of truly conscious beings — human beings who know who they are and why they are here.

But wouldn't moving beyond the personal discount many important aspects of human life? Absolutely not. The enlightened condition in no way denies any aspect of our humanity. The condition enlightens it. It means that our perspective dramatically deepens and widens. The perspective of the one who has not awakened is limited by definition. The reference point for all of his personal experience is the separate ego. But the perspective of the one who has awakened is free from this fundamental limitation because he has realised the absolute nature of life and the universal nature of his own human experience. And that changes everything. It transforms his relationship to being alive because the context in which he is living now infinitely transcends the merely personal dimension.

Therefore, the question I encourage people to ask themselves is: How enlightened is my perspective on my own personal experience? So would we see all our experience in a much, much bigger context? Yes. And that bigger context reveals itself automatically when we make the thrilling discovery that who and what we are, beyond the personal ego, is a profound mystery that is completely free from any sense of limitation. A truly enlightened human being spontaneously expresses that freedom from limitation as his own humanity. Indeed, simply through spending time in the company of the enlightened, we can awaken to that same mystery that is also our own true nature. In their reflection, it becomes obvious how, in our ignorance, we have been living in an alarmingly small context. And we see directly that it is that small context alone which creates the painful sense of suffocation and isolation that is so familiar in the unawakened state. The miraculous experiential discovery of the enlightened perspective is instantly liberating. And it is in this discovery that our humanity is finally set free to manifest its evolutionary potential without inhibition.

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Legendary Tales of True Sanyasis

14 January 2003, 12:00am IST
S Srinivasan

A true sanyasi is one who has no attachments to worldly things. He has no self interest and whatever he does is for the benefit of society. This is more a state of mind and does not depend on whether he is a grihasth, brahmachari or sanyasi. Once Swami Vivekananda was invited to Mysore. The king had arranged for a grand reception befitting royalty that included a dance by a dasi. When Vivekananda heard of it, he chose not to attend the reception. The dasi, overcome by sadness, sang a song to express her feelings: "Parasmani, which turns metal into gold, can convert an idol of god into gold as well as the knife of a butcher. It does not distinguish between the two, because parasmani is pure. Similarly, a true sanyasi does not distinguish between people. I was awaiting your visit, hoping it would give me an opportunity to cleanse myself." On hearing these words, Vivekananda felt ashamed. He rushed to the place with folded hands and told the dasi that he had become a true sanyasi only after hearing her words. Another interesting story of sages acting for the greater good involves saint Ramanuja. With great difficulty, he managed to learn the divya mantra from his guru. This mantra was supposed to absolve one of all sins and take one closer to moksha. Ramanuja's guru made him promise that he would disclose this mantra only to the most distinguished among his disciples. The very next thing that Ramanuja did was to climb to the top of the temple in a place called Tirukottiyur, and call out to the people of the town. He then recited the divya mantra in his loudest voice for them. He declared that he was ready to go to hell, but at least all the other people would be absolved of their sins and attain moksha. According to another story in the Vedas, Janashruthi was a rich man who was very pious. He would give donations of food and money to the needy and the poor. Once, while standing on the terrace of his eight-storied building, he overheard the conversation of two swans flying above him. One bird was asking the other: "Is there anybody greater than Janashruthi?" The other bird asked in reply: "Is he greater than Raickwer?" Janashruthi was intri-gued. He wanted to meet Raickwer. He thought that Raickwer would be richer than him and sent his men in search of him to all big cities. But they could not find Raickwer. Then he sent his men to towns, but they failed to locate him. Ultimately, his men found a person named Raickwer sitting under a cart in a small village. Janashruthi went personally to meet him with a cartload of riches. Raickwer was suffering from leprosy, with wounds all over his body. Insects were eating his wounds and if they fell down, he would put them back. He told Janashruthi that his wealth consisted of these insects. Janashruthi learnt about atmagyan and ways to reach God from Raickwer. Vedanta Desika was a great Vaishnavite scholar. Once, when somebody gave him diamonds, he threw them away, saying that they were stones. At once, the diamonds turned to stones. Once, a poor man approached Vedanta Desika for money for his daughter's marriage. Vedanta Desika sang Sristuti in praise of Goddess Lakshmi and it is said that gold coins showered on the poor man. Madhvacharya composed poems addressed to Lakshmi and he too was blessed with gold, with the condition that he could use it only in his next birth. Immediately, he took sanyas, as sanyas is a new birth, and utilised the wealth for public good. In all these cases, these sanyasis prayed for others and not for themselves. Thus sanyas is a state of mind and the true sanyasi makes no difference between human beings. He spends his time for the betterment of all.

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Inner Engineering for Effortless Living

Jan 19, 2004, 12.00am IST


Consciously, why would anyone choose to be anything where he has to seek something from someone or something else? Maybe out of his helplessness he seeks, but consciously would anyone choose to do this? Wouldn’t every human being want to be hundred per cent within himself?

This doesn’t mean you have to become totally self-sufficient. Always, there is interdependence, but within yourself everything is there; you don’t have to seek anything from outside.

Even someone else’s company is not needed for you. If another person needs it, you will give it, but by yourself, you don’t need anyone’s company. Only for external things, maybe you will have to go to the world outside. This is ultimate freedom.

Spirituality is not to be taken as being only for those who can’t do anything in life. If you have the strength and the courage to take up anything in the world and do it well, then you might also have the capacity to turn spiritual.

Only if you have the will and ability to do something constructive in life, can you be fit enough to seek the spiritual.

Right now, there is this impression among many that only good-for-nothings turn to spirituality. Spirituality does not mean merely wearing ochre-coloured clo-thes and sitting in a temple or ashram. But living on charity will not get one anywhere. That’s not spirituality.

There are two kinds of people who depend on charity: Highly evolved thinkers like the Buddha, belong to the highest order of those who live on charity. Most others merely live off others.

A beggar on the street and a king sitting on the throne are both beggars. They are continuously asking for something from the outside. One looks for money, food or shelter. The other, the king, might be looking for happiness, or ways to conquer another kingdom.

Gautama, on the other hand, begged only for his food, for the rest he was self-sufficient. Others, however, beg for everything else but food. A spiritual person has earned everything else from within, so he begs only for food.

Whichever way you think is better, be that way. Whichever way you think is a more powerful way to live, live that way.

Once there is no hankering, we will come to know what love, joy and sharing are. Sharing has to be unconditional. Setting up a whole life of barter may be conve-nient, but it is the way of the weak. This weakness is the first thing that has to go if you want to meet Shiva.

There are two ways: Gnana and bhakti. Bhakti means you make yourself a zero, then you meet Him. Gnana means you meet Him on his terms, you become infinite. Otherwise, there is no chance of a meeting.

Love, or bhakti, looks like a much easier path. It is, but there are more pitfalls on that path than in gnana. With gnana you know where you are going, you know if you fall. In bhakti, you don’t know.

Even if you’re trapped by your own illusions, you will not come to know about it easily. In gnana, every step that you take, you know. I can’t say it is a hard path, but it’s the path of the courageous, not of the weak.

The way we think is the way we become. Whatever you hold as the highest, naturally all your energies get drawn towards that. Once you achieve that, once inner engineering equips you to live life effortlessly, it will put an end to all your daily struggles.

Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev

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A way to deal with frozen feelings

Feb 22, 2010, 12.00am IST
WARREN STAGG.


Did we ever grow up? Well, yes and no! A part of us did and some parts of us didn't. Let's find out how that happens.


Every child experiences all that happens around him with total awareness. In the first seven years the child's brain is like a sponge, taking in all sensory inputs and building his idea of his surroundings. As long as the environment is safe, the child learns with incredible speed. However, when the environment is scary or stressful, the child unlearns past learning just as rapidly.

In the early years of every child's life, whenever there is shock, violence, fear or pain, these intense emotions are imprinted deeply into memory. Whenever the same activity or situation is repeated, the nervous system and body subconsciously re-experience the memory of that trauma. This creates a blind spot in the child's neurological process and he literally goes blind to any alternative except knee-jerk, repetitive reactions.


As an example, if a toddler is happily playing with a puppy and gets accidentally scratched or bitten he might forget the incident consciously but never be able to like being around dogs and may not know the reason why. All compulsive behaviours begin this way and continue into adulthood, until we are willing to make another choice.


For instance, when a child is learning the alphabets, say ABC, if there is stress around him like people shouting or judgements like, 'You'll never do it right', or constant comparisons, this activity gets fused together with other sensory inputs like hearing and seeing and one package of memory is formed. From then on whenever he attempts to learn ABC or write he subconsciously remembers past events and feelings and the same stress comes on line. This interferes with his ability to do it well. Over time, the child may even avoid trying to read or write because he believes it is stressful and undoable.


Any emotional situation that takes us out of the present and into the past means that whenever the same kind of emotion crops up later in our life we return to the past for our reference point. If that point was at age three, we find ourselves behaving like a three-year-old. We feel childish and we behave childishly. Even worse, we condemn ourselves for being stupid or immature and through our mental self-talk; reinforce the problem while desperately searching for a solution.


Whenever we feel deeply stressed our brain and body goes into a fight or flight response. It's good if we can actually fight or run away, but most times we just freeze emotionally. Our 'frozen feelings' are the cause of this 'glitch' in our learning process. We know we should be able to make a positive change, but that doesn't change anything. With a sense of helplessness we fear the future and self-doubt rules our lives.


The process of change need not be traumatic. We need to understand that whatever pain we experienced in the past because of which we made certain choices, were the only recourse we had at the time. We couldn't have done any better because we didn't know how to. But we should realise that was then and this is now! We can get help from trained professionals and learn to unblock the negative emotions fused in our past that affect our positive future. We can choose to choose again. It's up to us. It's our movie!

(The writer is the co-founder, AJNA Centre for Learning, Pune)

E-mail: ajnacenter@yahoo.com

Website: www.ajnacenter.com

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Trimurti of Maths, Music, Meditation

20 January 2002, 12:09am IST
Osho, TNN.

Music comes closest to meditation. music is a way towards meditation and the most beautiful way. meditation is the art of hearing the soundless sound, the art of hearing the music of silence — what the zen people call the sound of one hand clapping. when you are utterly silent, not a single thought passes your mind, there is not even a ripple of any feeling in your heart. then you start, for the first time, hearing silence. silence has a music of its own. it is not dead; it is tremendously alive. in fact, nothing is more alive than silence. music helps you from the outside to fall in tune with the inner. music is a device; it was invented by the buddhas. all that is beautiful in the world, all that is valuable in the world has always been discovered by the buddhas. only they can discover because they have travelled the inner country — the inner, immeasurable universe. whatsoever they have found and experienced in the inner world, they have tried to make something similar on the outside for those who can only understand that which is objective, who are not yet able to enter the interior of their own being, who are not yet even aware that there is an inner world. devices can be created on the outside which can help. listening to great music you suddenly become silent — with no effort. falling in tune with the music you lose your ego with no effort. you become relaxed, you fall into a deep rest. you are alert, awake, and yet in a subtle way drunk. whenever any art is perfect it ends in meditation — it has to end in meditation. if it is not leading you towards meditation then something has gone wrong. that’s why much of modern art is not art. much modern music is not music; it simply makes you sexually excited. it is just the opposite of real music. real music helps you to transcend your biology, your physiology, your psychology. real music takes you to the world of the beyond — what buddha calls the farther shore, even beyond the beyond. to me, music and meditation are two aspects of the same phenomenon. and without music, meditation lacks something; without music, meditation is a little dull, unalive. without meditation, music is simply noise — harmonious, but noise. without meditation, music is an entertainment. and without music, meditation becomes more and more negative, tends to be death-oriented. hence my insistence that music and meditation should go together. that adds a new dimension — to both. both are enriched by it. remember the three ms just as you remember the three rs. the first m is mathematics, the purest science. the second m is music, pure art. and the third m is meditation, pure religion. where all these three meet, you attain the trinity. my approach is scientific. even if i make illogical statements, i make them very logically. even if i assert paradoxes, they are asserted in a logical way. whatsoever i am saying has a mathematics behind it, a method, a certain scientific approach. i am not an unscientific person. my science serves my religion; the science is not the end but it is a beautiful beginning. and my approach is artistic, aesthetic. i cannot help you unless this energy field becomes musical. music is pure art. and if it is joined with mathematics, it becomes a tremendously powerful instrument to penetrate into your interior. of course, it will not be complete unless meditation is the highest peak, the purest religion. and we are trying to create the ultimate synthesis. this is my trinity: mathematics, music, meditation. this is my trimurti — three faces of god. you can attain to god through one face, but then your experience of god will not be so rich as it will be when you attain two faces. but it will still lack something unless you attain all the three faces. when you know god as a trinity, when you have come through all the three dimensions, your experience, your nirvana, your enlightenment, will be the richest. my effort here is to give you a total religion, which contains all the three ms in it...the journey is not going to be dull, it is going to be very alive. we are going to move towards god in such a multidimensional way that each moment of the journey is going to be precious.

(sourced from the dhammapada: the way of the buddha, vol 1 chapter 2 and vol 12 chapter 4, courtesy: osho world foundation).

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Dance of Shiva in The Golden Temple

27 January 2002, 09:58pm IST
Karan Singh.

Whenever the golden temple is mentioned, we tend automatically to think of the beautiful harmandir sahib in amritsar which is known worldwide by that name. however, there is another golden temple down south - the great nataraja temple at chidambaram in tamil nadu. this temple figures prominently in tamil shaivite literature and is considered to be one of the most holy spots dedicated to lord shiva, next in importance to mount kailash itself. numerous miracles have been associated with this temple in the centuries since it was constructed by the chola kings. its four magnificent gopurams or ornate towers, great temple tank with colonnades and the sanctum sanctorum covered with solid gold make it a truly unique place of worship. the concept of nataraja, lord of the cosmic dance, is a most profound one. it portrays the deity not as a static entity but in a kinetic form, which could reflect equally the great inter-galactic dance of the galaxies or the sub-atomic dance of the neutrinos. in his right hand lord shiva holds the drum, representing the great sound - the logos, from which all creation springs; the big bang from which time and space both flash into being. in his left hand is the eternal fire, representing destruction that is the inevitable counterpart of creation. had there only been these two symbols, the individual soul would have no locus standi. but there are two more arms, signifying more truths. the third hand, raised in the gesture of benediction, reassures the devotee, telling her not to be afraid, and the fourth points to his upraised foot as the path to salvation. shiva dances on a small dwarf-like figure which represents our individual ego. he is surrounded by a nimbus of light symbolising the vast unending cycles of time. from his matted locks the ganges flows down to irrigate the earth, while the crescent moon shines in all its glory. in one ear he wears a ‘male’ earring and in the other a ‘female’ one, symbolising the concept of ardhanarishwar, the creative fusion of the male and female entities into a single divinity. the snakes twined around his arm represent the kundalini power that resides at the base of the human spine - which, when aroused, leads to the transmutation of consciousness. this image of nataraja is surely one of the greatest artistic creations of the human race. if a single image had to be chosen out of the vast profundity of indian iconography to represent the quintessence of our cultural heritage, it would surely have to be the nataraja. there are beautiful hymns in tamil in praise of the lord of chidambaram, many of which are depicted through the dance form, bharatanatyam. one hymn that particularly describes his ecstatic dance is called nadanam aadinar written by the poet gopalakrishna, and it runs as follows: "so, in the golden hall, danced the divine one, / with celestial exquisiteness. long long ago, in kailash, his home in the north, / he asked the rishis to assemble at tillai on the / day sacred to the guru in the month of tai, that they / might witness his wondrous dance. the eight spheres of the universe trembled. adi shesha, upon whose head rests the world, swayed / in fear and shook the earth. from the storm-tossed waters of the ganga fountains / gushed forth. then the assembled devas chanted praise to the lord and gopalakrishna sang with joy in his heart. ornamented with hooded serpents, the hair of shiva / swayed as he danced. and his dance brought the world to salvation". there are several different kinds of tandavas, notable among them being the anand tandava, the dance of bliss and the vinasha tandava, the dance of destruction. the world today is experiencing a great deal of unhappiness and pain as a result of widespread unrest, violence and conflict. some of us would naturally hope and pray that the lord is inclined to the anand tandava rather than the vinasha tandava at this critical juncture in human history. perhaps it is our vanity or ego that causes us to believe that this is a critical juncture - for the shiva within us, there is no time or space. in fact, it is our conceptualisation of these two artificial constructs, that the tandava seeks to destroy.

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Life has much to offer, don't go away yet

Feb 16, 2010, 12.00am IST
MURALI A RAGHAVAN.


A spate of suicides reported recently makes us wonder: What drives an individual to take his own life? The drastic action is perhaps due to intense despair and a feeling of helplessness.

The question then arises: What is life and what sustains it? No doubt the physical frame is sustained and supported by air, food and water. But at the psychological level it is hope, the perception of self-worth and moral strength that affirm the will to live. All excuses like loneliness, loss of wealth, humiliation, shame and guilt that might force the decision to give up on life midstream could be traced to the loss of the will to live.

Hope is the springboard of all activity. A new hour, a new dawn and a new year, all hold out hope. Hope can also spring forth in a manner that is unconnected with us. A good turn of events for someone else can kindle hope in us. However, hope could turn out to be a double-edged sword. Unfulfilled hope can be devastating, as in business, love and competitive situations. Grief might blur one’s vision but the flicker of hope helps us navigate the darkness of despair.

In contrast, death is total darkness. One way of handling this is to hope realistically rather than reach for something that is unattainable. There will be less chance, then, of falling so short of the goal that everything seems out of reach and hence, life will not lose all meaning. To act and not be distracted by the fruit of action is a good way to avoid such situations. The Gita advises us to remain detached from fruit of action.


Self-criticism and introspection are useful exercises to appraise one’s strengths and weaknesses so that one can understand one’s potential. This is not to sit in judgement and find fault. Any assessment of one’s worth can only be relative and so is not absolute. Comparisons are odious, wrote a poet. So when we desist from making comparisons, it helps us overcome a great many problems.
Everything in the world is there because it is of some worth. Ramakrishna Paramhansa said that a stone that lies on the road is there for a reason we might not be aware of. Every person likes to be loved, to receive compassion and kindness. No one would like to be hurt, deceived or offended in any way. So the universal moral code is clear: Do unto others what you would have them do to you. A convicted criminal appeals for mercy or clemency hoping that the very moral code he violated will somehow pull him out of the dire situation he has put himself in. In some cases a one-off moral transgression may make it difficult to justify the continuance of life.

Speaking a lie while being aware of the truth and doing wrong intentionally even while knowing what is right could lead to dilemmas that erode self-worth. A fractured mind, like a broken mirror, does not reflect reality. It leads to misconceptions and creates confusion, leading one to jump to conclusions. When one is unable to reconcile contradictions in perception, hasty decisions are made and when translated into action, these can have disastrous, and maybe irreversible consequences. Such as the decision to take one’s life.
A unified mind is the key to peace, happiness and fullness. It can help us see the whole picture rather then get trapped in ephemeral details. Not everyone might turn out to be a Beethoven or Stephen Hawking. However, by not getting disheartened by setbacks and by finding ways to overcome difficulties, we can learn to appreciate and enjoy whatever we have instead of calling it quits.

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Moving Heaven, Earth To Create the World

Nov 24, 2004, 12.00am IST
Narayani Ganesh.

Rotorua, NZ: The Maoris, the original inhabitants of Aotearoa, "the land of the long white cloud" (today's New Zealand) live close to Nature and revere the Earth and the Sky as their ancestors. According to Maori mythology, we are descendants of Rangi, Heaven, and Papa, Earth.


In the beginning, there was Nothing, Te Kore. From Nothing came Darkness, Te Poo. In that "impenetrable" darkness Rangi and Papa clung to each other and had six sons: gods of the forest, of winds and storms, of fish and reptiles, of "fierce" human beings, of uncultivated food, and of cultivated food. Overcome with the suffocating closeness of their parents, the sons of Rangi and Papa longed for light and space and dreamed of stretching their cramped limbs with abandon. As the primal pa-rents continued to hold each other tight, Taane-mahuta, the god of the forests and father of all things that love light and freedom, rose to his feet with great difficulty and summoned all his strength. Standing on his head on Papa, his mother, he pushed upwards with feet against Rangi, his father.

After what seemed like eternity, Taane's persistence paid off: the parents were forced apart; Earth and Sky became separated. Rangi was hurled far away while angry winds screamed through the space between earth and sky. Light was able to creep through this huge gap and the earth was illuminated. Taane and his brothers were able to see the beauty of their mother's body but were saddened by the silvery mist that hung over her shoulders — a sign that she was grieving the separation from her husband. Rangi, too, was desolate. He shed tears of rain that fell on Mother Earth to form beautiful waterfalls, streams, rivers, lakes and oceans.


True, Taane had forcibly separated his parents, but he did love them dearly. He set about atoning for his act by decking his mother with beautiful flora with plenty of trees. Covered in green, the blue ocean lapped her body and the air was rent with the songs of birds and insects. However, one brother, Taawhiri-maatea, the god of winds and storms was inconsolable — till today he blows between the earth and sky.

Distressed at his father's loneliness, Taawhiri adorned Rangi's back with the bright Sun with the silvery Moon on his front. He threw a glowing red garment around his father but later removed it. A few strands of the garment remained, still visible at the time of the setting sun. Taawhiri looked farther for suitable adornments so that he could brighten the darkness that surrounded the sky. He went to Uru, a brother whose children, the "Shining Ones", lived at the foothills of the Maunganui mountain. Taane, the other brother, persuaded Uru to give him some of the Shining Lights to fasten on the mantle of the sky. At Uru's call, the children came rolling up the slope of the mountain to their father. Uru let Taawhiri collect some Shining Lights into a basket.

The five glowing lights that Taane placed in the shape of the cross on the breast of Rangi is the Southern Cross. The Children of Light were sprinkled on the dark blue robe of the Sky and the basket that lay suspended in the sky came to be known as the Milky Way. Sometimes, some of Uru's children tumble and fall swiftly towards the earth. We call them shooting stars. But most of the time, the Shining Lights remain twinkling like fireflies in the night sky, giving us the opportunity to star-gaze.

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Physics is the New Bhashya of Vedanta

Apr 6, 2002, 02.10am IST

Vedas are four in number: the rig veda, the sama veda, the yajur veda and the atharva veda. each of these four vedas has four parts: the samhita, the brahmana, the aranyaka, and a number of upanishads. the first three parts of all the vedas are collectively called the vedas, and the fourth and the last, the upanishads, are collectively called vedanta. vedas are four in number: the rig veda, the sama veda, the yajur veda and the atharva veda. each of these four vedas has four parts: the samhita, the brahmana, the aranyaka, and a number of upanishads. the first three parts of all the vedas are collectively called the vedas, and the fourth and the last, the upanishads, are collectively called vedanta. these four parts of the vedas represent the historical order of their development over millennia. the samhitas are the most ancient, and of them, the rig veda samhita is the earliest. the samhitas are considered the vedas proper; the brahmanas, the aranyakas and the upanishads are periodic additions, made by way of growing with the changing times. the samhitas are hymns addressed to gods representing the forces of nature, followed by rites and sacrifices to propitiate those gods. the famous nasadiya sukta occurs in the rig samhita. the brahmanas were added to the samhitas by way of updating. the satapatha brahmana and the aitareya brahmana are well known. the aranyakas are so called because they were composed in the forests. during this period the sages and seers took to the practice of retiring into the forests to contemplate ‘the cream of all and what takes place’. in the fourth and the last stage, the upanishads appeared. there are 10-12 principal upanishads: the chandogya, the brihadaranyaka, the aitareya and the kaushitaki, forming the end part of the rig veda. the kena concludes the sama veda, with the taittiriya, isha, katha and shwetashwatara topping off the yajur veda, and the mundaka, mandukya and prashna signing off the atharva veda. these terminals of the vedas are generally called vedanta or shruti. the brahma sutras and the bhagavad gita make post-vedic literature, and are called smriti as opposite to shruti. together, shruti and smriti (the upanishads, the brahma sutras and the gita) are called prastana traya meaning the ‘threefold movement’, and this prastana traya is said to be the scripture of the hindus. the prastana traya has a self- perpetuating spirit and mechanism by which it adapts itself to periodic reinterpretations in order to fit in with the changing times. these periodic reinterpretations are called bhashyas. the latest bhashyas to the prastana traya are by shankara, ramanuja and madhwa. these bhashyas have now lost their edge because of the passage of time. the prastana traya needs a new bhashya to be in tune with the present age. the prastana traya looks for a new shankara for a new bhashya. in the samhitas, the vedic literature starts with a passion for the truth — ‘truth in clay, truth in iron’. it grows in search of this truth through the brahmanas and the aranyakas and ultimately in the upanishads, that truth is arrived at and declared to the world. what is that truth? the ultimate essence of the universe is space (akasho ha vy brahma). consciousness is but a condition of space (prajnanam brahma). the content of the world is the distortion, vikara, of its container, consciousness-space. the distorted 3-d space is saguna brahman and space minus its vikara or distortion, that is the unified field, is nirguna brahman. brahman-space is the ultimate reality underlying all existence: it is the biggest ‘i’ that contains all our small ‘i’s. our small ‘i’s can be merged in the big ‘i’ through contemplation or tapas and that is salvation or moksha. modern physics takes us to the same conclusion. physics is the study of how and why the nirguna distorts to become saguna. shruti lives in smriti which is the progressive knowledge and understanding of shruti over ages. physics is the new smriti; physics is the new bhashya of vedanta. there is talk in the air of introducing vedic studies in schools and colleges. however, what should be taught there is not the traditional vedic studies, but vedanta as the anta (omega) of not only the vedas but also of modern science, and as an intellectual and spiritual force capable of enlightening, inspiring and bettering the modern global village. introducing mere traditional vedic studies will further only narrow agendas, and will not serve the meaning or purpose of modern public education. we need to widen our vision by looking beyond the written word; and for this, it is essential that we rise above mere dogma.

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Spiritual technique for mind repair

Apr 5, 2002, 02.19am IST
RAJA M.

Some of us believe that happiness is subjective. others, however, point out that its objective roots are beyond debate. maintaining balance of mind despite the bumps on the road of daily life means overcoming being miserable. even a moment’s perfect equanimity is actual happiness, peace of mind, or whatever one labels optimum mental functioning. such a temperament does not come readymade. for most of us, attaining a state of level headedness requires hard work and training. occasional unhappiness is an inevitable part of life. so too is disease, bad health and accidents. but we don’t shrug it off saying that it’s just part of life and refuse medical help. so why should we ignore mental short circuits, ranging from mood swings and bad temper to depression and insecurity? a practical-minded person cares as much for repairing the mind as to healing bodily malfunctions. mind repair is simply spirituality at its core practical level. we optimise mind machinery for a better life, for ourselves and for those around us. we need a powerful mind tool, and vipassana is an ancient mind-enhancing technology. in pali, vipassana means ‘insight to see things as they really are’. over 75 vipassana centres worldwide conduct residential 10-day courses for both beginners as well as senior students. vipassana is a self-observation technique taught by gautama the buddha. “its origins were already lost in timeless antiquity”, he had said. he rediscovered it in his prolonged search for a fundamental antidote to human misery. the sakya crown prince who had already mastered every prevalent teaching in india of those times, realised that nothing, including systems of the famous alara and ramputta, touched deep-rooted impurities entrenched in his mind. observing bodily sensations, he realised, led to hidden depths of the mind where our habit patterns are formed and multiplied. at the deepest level, our mind is constantly in touch with any feeling in the body like pain, heat, cold, perspiration and pressure. at the subtler subatomic level of the body, these sensations are felt as a biochemical flow of particles arising and passing away with tremendous velocity. any pleasant feeling in the body, and the mind reacts with clinging. unpleasant feelings are instantly greeted with aversion. the reactions go on every moment of our life, unnoticed. it seems that we are reacting to the external world. but in reality we constantly react with like or dislike to a biochemical flow within caused by our sense organs in contact with external stimuli. this blind reaction pattern forms the root cause of our mind’s malfunctioning, the buddha realised. so instead of neither reacting nor suppressing reality within, he gave humanity the middle path of merely observing reality as it is. this technique of objective observation of mind matter interaction at the level of sensation without blind reaction is vipassana. this practical, universal technique represents the quintessence of the buddha’s actual scientific teaching. it was lost to india and the world 500 years after the buddha’s passing away. fortunately, a little known chain of teachers in neighbouring burma (myanmar) preserved it in its pristine purity. every vipassana student independently performs self-surgery of the mind. a teacher guides and makes clarifications. but the student works very hard nearly 13 hours each day of the meditation course. alone, sometimes in a meditation cell, he or she braves inner demons and fights pain barriers. confronting reality within needs courage. it often shatters carefully polished self-images. “you are your own master”, sayagyi goenka, a vipassana teacher, tells his students. “the cause of your happiness or misery is within you”. this emotional self-dependence helps accept accountability for one’s condition in life. a vipassana practitioner realises everything in the world changes constantly, including people and situations. our full enjoyment of life is not dependent on any particular circumstance. happiness means a balanced mind to face the reality of the moment. only then can the mind calmly and dispassionately unleash its awesome power to solving our problems. life turns from negative reactions to beneficial positive action.

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Nothing belongs to me

Aug 20, 2010, 12.00am IST
TNN.

Who is responsible for action that takes place? If you think that you are, you will need to reflect on the question. Never consider yourself as the doer of actions.


God himself is the doer and the one undergoing action. You have not made this world and the weight of this world is not over you. If you surrender to the One who has made this world and who is taking care of this world, then whatever you do will be noble and good for everybody.

Krishna said to Arjuna in the Bhagvad Geeta: "Give up your pride, beliefs and attachment to body and then come to my rescue. I am all-knowing and am the supreme soul. By doing so, you will experience divine peace and reach the supreme blissful state."

By believing God to be the doer, the karta and the one undergoing action (Bharata), one surrenders to God completely. If you feed a beggar and then think that you were the one who fed the poor beggar, then this reflects petty behavior, it's tamas. A believer in rajas or action will think that he was fortunate to feed the beggar and thanks God for giving him this opportunity to offer his service.

While a believer of satva or truth will think that he was just a mediator, it was God who gave strength to his hands to feed the God who is in the beggar. Your heart will become pure if you believe that by serving your mother or a guest or anybody else you are actually serving God in another form. Don't think that you served the helpless mother or guest. Those people appear to be helpless in their physical form but in reality the all-knowing God is present in them. God is the doer and the one undergoing action.

You will be successful every time you believe in the presence of God behind every action. One enjoys meditation, japa, worship or service when there is the belief that, "My dear Lord is doing and He only is getting that done!"

Whenever you come in submission to God knowingly or unknowingly, your work becomes divine, you are able to complete work without being worried and after completion also you feel the sweetness of that work. The result of selfish and evil work is unhappiness, depression and loss of peace of mind.

People may praise an officer using attractive words even if he is not praiseworthy, in order to get their work done. The officer then starts thinking that he is indispensable to the work being done. But when that officer retires, nobody recognises him.

God is the only true officer of all. If somebody praises you that you are a big person, then you should understand that you are not big, He is big who is making your heart beat and brain work.

If you sit down for meditation for two hours and spend the rest of 22 hours in inflating your pride, there will be no spiritual growth. It is good to devote time to prayer and meditation, but the rest of the time one should think: "There is the hand of God in whatever work is being done, that very God is the doer and is the one undergoing action." If you start contemplating on this thought, then you will soon realise the true self of God.

There is nothing mine in me, whatever is there is yours.
www.ashram.org
(Discourse: Asaram Bapu)

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True Reflections of A Spiritual Seeker

Jun 23, 2004, 12.00am IST
Robert Carr.

We had not met before, but my new friend knew something of my interest in spirituality. He also knew that I knew U G Krishnamurti, the sage-teacher. There is so much to know, he said, that I don't know where to start.



Look, I said, all the questions we have are born of the answers we already know. We tend to ask the same questions that mankind has been asking since the beginning of time. But we are not satisfied with the answers.


Yes, he said. I want to know for myself — I am not interested in stereotyped readymade explanations. They don't bring about any peace or understanding.

Look my friend, have you ever asked yourself, is there anything to know and how do I know anything at all? You want to be certain that what you know is real and not just some imagined idea. Yes, that's right, he said, I can't get anywhere with the different gurus I've met... They just give the ready answers that I have heard over and over again.


True, the world is a mess; you and I have created this world, the greed, the inhumanity of man, and the destruction of nature.

Everywhere man is in conflict with himself and the world around him. We have created a mess, and so we will have to pay the price. Right, he said, but we will have to set it straight. How?


He fell silent, looking at the floor and then at me. We will become enlightened and that will change the world, he says. I ask, will you become enlightened?

Trying to be something that you are not is not possible. The very want is no different than any other want that we might have. The Sanyasi wants to find liberation, the poor man wants to be rich and you want all this and heaven, too.

The wants you have are not really yours but your gurus have created the want to be in some other state that you think will solve all your problems that you think you have.

But why do you say the gurus have created the wants in me? Down the ages man has tried to discover life's meaning, the purpose of living, whether there is a God or release from suffering...and to attain to some spiritual state where all the questions are understood by some experience, a transcendent mystical union with the ultimate.

What you are is the past. That knowledge is colouring your perception with images that are just the memories that mankind has collected and put before you as the goal to reach. So the goal that you have is using you to express the wants of others...

What you are saying is too much; you are asking me to put an end to searching. You cannot stop the momentum that is pushing you to struggle and try to find the ans-wers to your questions.

What you call You is the question; you are no different than that. You are full of thoughts about this and that. You are planning the future every moment of your life; you want to keep your thoughts, your dreams and hopes going on and on. What you are is just a continuity of thoughts, thoughts that belong to the deep stream of consciousness that we are all part of.

That consciousness is only interested in continuing its pattern of repeating over and over what it knows. That knowledge is misery; the struggle to keep intact all the memories, beliefs and that is the content of our culture.

He was silent for a moment; he saw the implications of what we were talking about. After some time he smiled and asked if we could meet again?

(The writer has authored 'God Man Con Man'.)

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Searching For A Lost Childhood

Aug 10, 2002, 12.00am IST,
RAMNATH NARAYANSWAMY.


Children have a special place in all the wisdom traditions of the world. The gospel according to Saint Luke says that people brought their babies to Jesus, asking him to place his hands on them in blessing. When his disciples tried to prevent the people from approaching their teacher, Jesus said, "Let the children come to me. Do not stop them because the Kingdom of God belongs to them. Remember this! Whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it".


In a child, the thought of the ego, the first primal I-thought is present only at an infinitesimal level.


Identification with the body, the mind or the intellect is absent.


As we grow older, these identifications result in misery, unhappiness and suffering. That is why we often rue the passing of childhood. The primal I-thought is responsible for reinforcing the notion of I-am-the-doer, I-am-the-body, I-am-the-ego or I-am-the-intellect.


All these identifications result in suffering as they bring with them desire and attachment. The phenomenal world is mistaken for reality. The child is the father of man because the child does not suffer from ego, identity or fear — the characteristic concomitants of adulthood. That is why there is something divine in the innocence of a child.


Sri Ramana Maharishi, looking at a child in the prayer hall, reportedly remarked: "One can attain the bliss of Brahman only when the mind becomes pure and humble, like the mind of this child".


The image of the child in world scripture is therefore a powerful symbol of purity, innocence, simplicity and humility.


As St Augustine said, "Let your old-age be childlike and your childhood like old age; so that neither may your wisdom be with pride, nor your humility without wisdom".


The Brihadaranyaka Upa- nishad exhorts the Brahman or the one who is steeped in Brahman, to "reject erudition and live as a child".


Sri Ramakrishna affirmed the same counsel when he said, "So long as one does not become simple like a child, one does not get divine illumination. Forget all the worldly knowledge that thou has acquired and become as ‘ignorant’ as a child and then you will get divine wisdom".


Swami Ramdas recollects that, "When we were children we were innocent. But there was in us a seed of ignorance which grew as we grew, and finally overpowering us, cast away our innocent nature and led us astray. We were thereafter caught in the toils of desire and action and we move in a vicious circle of transitory pleasure and pain. It is necessary to hand ourselves over to the Divine and through His grace burn up the seed which is the cause of our misery and bondage and regain our lost childhood. Once we get it back, it cannot be taken away from us. The burnt seed does not germinate. We will remain pure children for all our lives".


We find similar evocations in the Buddhist tradition as well. "Abandon thought and thinking", said the Sage Saraha. "Be just like a child. Be devoted to your master’s teaching and the Innate will become manifest".


Indeed, the essence of Zen according to Takuan, founder of the Tokaiji Zen temple in Tokyo, is having "the heart and soul of a little child".


Finally, a Tibetan master declares that the pupil "must regain the child state he hath lost before the sound can fall upon his ears".


In a way, the Divine Musician sings to us through the purity of the hearts of children — we can hear Him if we only listen.


So, the way to enlightenment lies in rediscovering the child in ourselves.

SACRED SPACE
Aug 10, 2002, 12.00am IST

Vision of the Divine

For seeing you ablaze with all the colours of the rainbow, touching the sky, with gaping mouths and wide, flaming eyes, my heart in me is shaken. O God, I have lost all certainty, all peace. Your mouths and their terrible tusks evoke the world in conflagration. Looking at them I can no longer orient myself. There is no refuge. O Lord of Gods, dwelling place of the world, give me your grace.


Bhagavad Gita 11.3-25
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Find the eternal object of your quest within your soul. Enough have you wandered during the long period of your quest! Dark and weary must have been the ages of your searching in ignorance and groping in helplessness. At last when you turn your gaze inward, suddenly you realise that the bright light of faith and lasting truth was shining around you. With rapturous joy, you find the soul of the universe, the eternal object of your quest. Your searching mind at last finds the object of the search within your own heart. Your inner vision is illuminated by this new realisation.

Yajur Veda
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Man has two eyes. One only sees what moves in fleeting time, the other what is eternal and divine.

Angelus Silesius
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Learn to Lead from Within Yourself

Dec 20, 2003, 12.00am IST
Thomas M Easley.

What defines a gathering of individuals as a religious organisation? Belief? If so, why is a belief in God defined as a religion whereas a belief in free enterprise is not? Should all beliefs be defined as religious and all that is believed in, defined as God? If they do, are we free to assume that all who believe are equal in their belief and equally illuminated by the presence of “God”?


Those who create and support a free enterprise entity do so because they believe they will benefit from that organisation. Equally, believers in God maintain their belief because to do so benefits them. So there is no distinction between those who believe in a divine being, a country, family, gang, group, cult or fashion statement.

The adage that “all men are created equal” is wholly applicable when taken to mean that all men believe and all believers aspire to glorify the subject of belief. Then why do we disagree to the point of violent conflict when the subject of belief for one man differs from that of another?

We often disagree because leaders and subjects of belief are not regarded as equal in their capacity to bestow benefit upon the believer. A belief in God, for some, has more value than a belief in atheism or family, for instance. All organised bodies are similar — whether they are defined as religions, corporations, political parties, sports leagues or environmental movements — because they are created by the need for benefit. Also, they are sustained by leaders who strive to regulate social norms through manipulation of belief and the even- tual control of food, water, shelter and property, the hereditary and archetypical roots of man’s power.

The greater the perceived religious or spiritual value a subject of belief has, the more intense its imaginative interpretation and vulner-ability to manipulation by corrupt leadership. Any belief renders the believer malleable in the hands of group leaders and equally subject to harsh reprimand if he doubts the supremacy of his group identity and his behaviour contradicts the prevailing behavioural standards dictated by the subject of belief.

Behavioural regulation is essential to an organi- sation’s vitality and its longevity. In the absence of rules and its conformity there can be no cohesive group identity, no repetitive standards upon which to attach acceptance of group morality, no means of securing loyalty and no justification for leaders to assume possession of the believer’s will, his indivi-dual identity and his personal possessions.

A believer needs no proof of the existence of what is believed in. He will make no separation between himself, his belief, and the subject of belief. He will defend “the faith”, see non-believers as less pure, less moral and less right. Any challenge to his belief is a challenge to him, a direct affront to his ‘God’. He becomes one with his group and perfectly programmed to defend the group.

We fight because we follow. Were all men leaders with none to follow, differences in the subject of belief would not evoke conflict as each man would feel the gain and loss of every other man. Belief in leadership would then become unnecessary.

An individual human body is a self-organising system. There is no leader in the body, not one single cell, gene, system, or organ that leads the rest. All the body’s parts work as a whole and not as parts in search of a whole. The degree to which man will evolve will be measured by man’s ability to wean himself of the illusion of leadership.

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