Keeping good company

Aug 15, 2010, 12.00am IST

As we go through the biographies of great souls, we find that whenever the supremely benevolent have incarnated on earth, slanderers have left no stone unturned in maligning them.

The intellect becomes mean with the association of slanderers but remains stable in the association of equals and becomes superior with the association of those who are superior to us. You reap fruits according to the kind of company you keep. Therefore, you should always be careful in selecting the company you keep.

Long ago, there lived a man named Chajju Bhakta in Lahore. One day he was with his friends when a fruit vendor down the lane shouted, "Acche san ... tare, acche san ... tare ... (buy good oranges)" Chajju Bhakta asked his companions, "Do you hear what that man is saying?" They said: "He is selling santaras (oranges) Bhaktaji!" Bhaktaji said, "You did not understand. Listen carefully, he is saying. 'Acche sang...tare ( good company redeems).' He is saying that those who associate themselves with good people are redeemed, while those who fall into bad company meet with destruction."

Bhaktaji told a story to illustrate this: A crow and a swan had become friends. One day the crow took the swan to its house and made him sit on a dry and wilted Babool tree. The place stank of dung, flesh and bones that were scattered all around.

The swan said, "Brother! I cannot stay in such a dirty place, even for a moment. If you know of any pious place, you take me there."

The crow then took him to the secret grove of the king and made him sit on the tree, and then sat near him. Beneath the tree he was resting. As the swan looked down, he saw the king sitting under the tree with his head exposed to the sun. A swan is kind by nature, and out of compassion it spread out its wings to provide shade to the king who felt some relief from the sun. A crow, however, is uncaring by nature. So it dropped its excreta on the king's head. The king shot an arrow upwards which brought the swan down, while the crow flew off quickly. The dying swan said: "O King! I am not the crow that dropped the excreta. I am the swan that lives in pure water, but due to the company of the mean crow, my life has been ruined."

In the Sundara Kandam, Section 45.4 of the Sri Ramacharitamanasa, Rama says to Vibhishana, "May providence keep us from the company of the wicked! It would be better, O respected one, to live in hell." (Because the company of the evil leads to the cycle of birth and death and repeated relegation to hells.)

Evil company destroys good virtues and is feared by those who recognise this truth. All scriptures and great souls have taught the jiva with great emphasis on the importance of staying clear of bad company. Bad company leads one to degeneration very quickly. For example, one has to make great efforts to climb a tree, but there is no effort required in falling down. Similarly, one has to make great efforts to attain spiritual power and earn the wealth of sadhana; but all our efforts carried out for over a long period of time will come to naught in a moment by keeping the company of slanderers.

(Satsang: Asaram Bapu. For e-satsangs visit www.ashram.org)

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Anatomy of Success And Failure

Dec 13, 2004, 12.00am IST
Swami Kriyananda.

When William the Conqueror landed in England, the first thing he did was to stumble and fall down. A gasp went through his army at this omen of disaster. William, however, rose to his feet, crying: "I am so determined to conquer this land that, behold, I've seized it with both my hands!" At that, a great shout of renewed confidence went up from every throat. William's army went on that day to win one of history's greatest battles. Failure comes only when we accept it as failure. Instead of telling ourselves, "I've failed!" we should say, "I haven't yet succeeded".

A military leader would be foolish to forge ahead in the mere hope that his soldiers will follow him. He must address them; stir them to faith in him and in his enterprise. So must we do with our disorderly subconscious. It isn't enough to ignore its bad habits and conflicting messages. We must inspire it to link hands with our conscious resolutions. A strong affirmation of will has the power to do this.

Many people tend to say: "I shouldn't have those qualities; therefore, I don't have them. I shouldn't be angry; therefore, it wasn't anger; I just displayed a justifiable impatience. I shouldn't be morally weak; therefore, I'm not to blame: It's others who were weak, and who inflicted their weaknesses on me".

Troops whose grievances go unaddressed may eventually become rebellious. So it is with the subconscious. We can't afford to ignore it. Nor, on the other hand, do we need to be led by it, helplessly. We can command it if we face it squarely and honestly.

A general doesn't need to know each and every soldier in his ranks. What he must do is put out the kind of energy they'll respect and obey. The same thing is true for us in our relation to the subconscious. We needn't face each and every mental foe of our conscious resolutions; just address the subconscious with that kind of magnetic determination which will enlist its support.

Meditation is one of the best ways of bringing the subconscious into alignment with one's conscious resolutions. The peace of meditation filters down into deeper-than-conscious layers of consciousness. The practice of meditation, moreover, brings on an awareness of the mind as a totality: subconscious, conscious, and also superconscious (that region where our highest inspirations dwell).

The nature of the superconscious is to be solution-oriented. To tune in to that aspect of your nature which, ultimately, can truly command your destiny, don't dwell on the problems you face. Exert your will in the full expectation that a solution to every problem can be found. If you follow this practice, the right answers quickly come to you. You won't behold the fences around you any longer. They'll simply cease to exist for you. You'll see beyond, farther than the broad meadows and high mountains of expanded awareness, and expanded power. At all times, therefore, be solution-oriented!

Energy generates magnetism. The stronger the flow of energy, the greater the magnetism. It is magnetism, finally, that attracts to us divine blessings and all that we receive in life. Our magnetism depends to a paramount extent on the positiveness with which we direct our will. Positive thoughts are magnetic; negative thoughts weaken our magnetism.

A cheerful attitude is magnetic; discouragement is de-magnetising. Hope is magnetic; despair is de-magnetising. Love is magnetic; hatred and indifference dull our magnetism. Faith is magnetic; doubt destroys magnetism. Be, therefore, always positive, cheerful, full of hope, faith, and love for God.

(Excerpted from Money Magnetism.)

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Life, gross and subtle

Aug 21, 2010, 12.00am IST
P V VAIDYANATHAN.

Life is complex, its nature is duality, it's complicated, unpredictable, and it's multi-dimensional. But more than that, life is a combination of the subtle and the gross. The gross, though easy to comprehend, has its own set of problems and the subtle is difficult to comprehend.

For example, the body is gross, the mind is subtle. Again, the mind is gross in comparison to the soul, or being. While moving from thoughts to words to actions, we are moving from subtle to gross. Actions and words are such that anyone can understand and control them, but thoughts are difficult to control or understand. Emotions, feelings, and intuition belong to the subtle world, while doing is usually of the gross world. Even in emotions, anger, jealousy, greed, and worry are gross and easy to acquire, while love, patience, honesty, forgiveness and altruism are subtle, and difficult to cultivate.

The gross elements in life are useful, but without the subtle elements, their use is limited or is accompanied by much pain and sorrow. For example, any medicine that doctors use to cure an illness is a gross thing. While medicines do their job quickly and efficiently, they also cause a lot of side effects, and can even prove fatal. The same effect or cure can be achieved by going deep into the mind, using positive thoughts, energies, emotions and feelings to boost one's own immunity and fight the disease. This subtle level treatment is without any side effects, but takes time, and is not possible for everyone. Only those who are highly meditative and who can see inward, can harness their subtle energies and bring them together in a strong manner, to achieve this. But one can at least combine both, to get better results.

Once we are aware that life has these components, we can literally feel the days when the body is loaded with negative energy, and is feeling unmotivated, lethargic, tired, listless, and futile. Such are the periods when you need to sit quietly and meditate, go deep into your inner recesses, and find your innermost being or soul, which is a powerhouse of energy. If we don't, then these frustrations will eventually act on our appetite, sleep and our immunity, making us victims of disease — stress, acidity, hypertension, insomnia, diabetes and cancer.

A rose is the gross element. Its fragrance is the subtle element. A flower is incomplete without fragrance. Similarly, human beings can exist as physical bodies for 70 or 80 years, but they can be fruitful, or life can be meaningful, and they can be existentially successful only if they are able to discover their fragrance. A human being is declared as being alive or dead only on the basis of the presence or absence of his sukshma sharira or subtle energy. Apart from this subtle energy running through us, there is no difference between someone alive or dead.

Our aim should be to acknowledge and get in tune with this subtle force or energy, what is known as prana, or soul or atma. It is by connecting to this that we get an inkling of the subtle elements, and can harness unlimited potential and energy, to live our lives with joy, happiness, good health and peace. Otherwise, we will go on living at the gross level, finding life only good in phases, often finding life meaningless and frustrating.

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Of passion and compassion

Aug 18, 2010, 12.00am IST
Osho.

We know what passion is hence it is not very difficult to understand what compassion may be. Passion means a state of biological fever – it is hot. You are almost possessed by biological, unconscious energies. You are no longer your own master, you are just a slave.

Compassion means you have transcended biology and physiology. You are no more a slave, you are master. Now you function consciously. You are not driven, pulled and pushed by unconscious forces; you can decide what you want to do with your energies. You are totally free. Then the same energy that becomes passion is transformed into compassion.

Passion is lust, compassion is love. Passion is desire, compassion is desirelessness. Passion is greed, compassion is sharing. Passion wants to use the other as a means, compassion respects the other as an end unto himself or herself. Passion keeps you tethered to earth, to mud and you never become a lotus. Compassion makes you a lotus. You start rising above the muddy world of desires, greed and anger. Compassion is a transformation of your energies.

Ordinarily you are scattered, fragmentary. Some energy is being absorbed by your anger, some by your greed, by your lust, and so on. You are left hollow, empty.

All your energy keeps on going down the drain. When all these energies are no longer being wasted they start filling your inner lake, your inner being. You become full. A great delight arises in you. When you start overflowing you have become a Buddha and you have come upon an inexhaustible source.

Compassion is a key word, but you will understand it only if you go deep into meditation. Meditation is the key to transform passion into compassion. You will have to become more conscious. Right now you are unconscious.

We live like robots... The more like a robot you are, the better you function, the better the society feels with you – because it is a society of robots. To be awakened, alert, conscious is dangerous. It is a society of blind people; to have eyes is to invite danger.

But without creating consciousness you will never be able to know the beauty, the blessing that existence has bestowed upon you. You will never know the great opportunity that has been given to you to grow, to become. You can be sunlit peaks and you are just dark holes!

Socrates says, "If you know that you don't know, that is a great beginning. Then it is possible for you to know." To be aware that "I am ignorant" creates the possibility of seeking, searching in your own interiority for the truth – for your truth.

Compassion is the ultimate transformation of passion. You are in passion, but you go on thinking that you are right as you are. You go on defending yourself. And anything that disturbs your comfortable, mechanical life, you go against...

When you come to me you don't come to be awakened, you come to me so that you can dream beautiful, sweet dreams. That is your purpose in coming; that is not my purpose in being here. Once you are here you are caught. Then, slowly, slowly i start taking your dreams away. Then, slowly, slowly i go on destroying your illusions. Once your illusions are dropped, your dreams shattered, a great awakening is waiting you for you – a great awakening which makes you a Buddha. And compassionate.

Excerpt from Walking in Zen Sitting in Zen.

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