The World is What We Think it is

Jan 26, 2004, 12.00am IST

Since ages we have been witness to an incessant face-off between faith and logic. European enlightenment exposed certain flaws in blind faith and ushered in an era of rationality, and logic became the dominant paradigm.

Metaphysics walks a tightrope between rationality and faith and it is here that the dissension between the two is sometimes at its peak.

Oriental metaphysical thought like the Advaita Vedanta are expounded on as rational a ground as metaphysics could ever be.

But at a certain point they have to forsake logic due to its inherent limitations and enter a realm where tools of logic are no longer applicable and things have to be taken on faith.

To understand these limitations, we have to first understand the nature and mechanism of logic.

Logic is a continuous build-up, a rearrangement of certain propositions whi-ch are known as elementary or object-propositions. These propositions, which we call 'facts', are based on direct perceptual know-ledge or empiricism.

These elementary building blocks of the logical process hinge upon the validity of human perception and are limited by the latter's scope and validity.

That's why theories such as the geocentric theory or even Newtonian mechanics that were once accepted as empirical truths, were later discarded when such perceptions were invali-dated in light of newer revelations of modern science.

Amongst western logicians it was Ludwig Wittgenstein, the Austrian philosopher who came nearest to proving the futility of all logical speculations to attain the Supreme Truth.

In his seminal work Tractatus Logicus Philosophicus Wittgenstein argued that logic is always conveyed through the instrument of language which itself is based upon direct human perception.

Language by its very definition is based upon the collective consciousness of all human beings, and is not drawn from perceptions particular to an individual.

So it can deal with and arrange relationally only those propositions that are commonly and nearly identically perceived through human senses.

Moreover, he argued that since the method of logic starts with elementary propositions as the premises and works upon its rearrangement, all it ends up with is another proposition dependent entirely upon the earlier ones, and thus is a result of a tautology.

It reveals everything already known; so it reveals nothing new.

Wittgenstein analogises the logical process with mathematical equations and says that starting from certain equations when we transform an equation, or generate new equations, we are actually doing nothing but playing with the same identity.

The same applies to any other logical process dealing with forms. Veda-nta and Wittgenstein upheld that even the elementary propositions that purportedly act as absolute premises, are not actually absolute. So if we start wrong we would always be wrong.

Any method dependent upon the senses is inadequate in capturing the Absolute. We can never speculate upon what is beyond our senses. The human thought process is logical in nature as it uses words as the building propositions.

What we sense could be known and expressed; but not what we do not. Every individual has to himself experience this extra-sensual Absolute premise that we call God.

The universe, which is the macrocosm, is just a chimerical reflection of the microcosm that is our 'I', and is therefore limited by it. The Absolute cannot be achieved through either thought or language.

Wittgenstein, who announces that one's conception of the world by logical necessity has to be limited by one's thought and language, is only confirming that the world is not what it is, but what we think it is.

Vinayak Lohani

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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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Find the Wavelength Of Celestial Sound

Jan 31, 2004, 12.00am IST


In most religious scriptures, Shabd or the Word is referred to as the creator of the universe. It is a current from the ocean of pure consciousness that is characterised by ethereal and sublime sound vibration .

It is the all-pervading manifestation of God, the radiant sound current, and it is the connecting link between God and His creation . All the powers of nature depend on and work through Shabd.

The Vedas speak of it as Nad or Akash Bani, the ''voice from heaven''. In Buddhist scriptures it is known as the flaming sound. The Qur'an mentions it as Kalma, that created the 14 divisions of the universe.

The Gospel according to St John says that the Word is the root cause of all creation. In the Upanishadic age it was known as Udgit or Songs of the Beyond.

The Sufis call it the Saute Sarmad or intoxication from sound. Vedic Shabd alludes to the power of God that sustains the entire universe.

It is this Anhat naam, the unstruck melody, that supports the various planes of creation ranging from pure spirit to gross matter. The strains of Shabd pervade every realm like a flowing river.

The seeker, who is inspired by the love of this river, is drawn upwards by its beatific power until he arrives at the very source from where the unmanifested comes into manifestation, and the formless assumes form.

It was this completeness of the inner journey made possible by the ''yoga of the sound current'' that made saint-poet Kabir to declare: ''All holy ones are worthy of reverence,/ But I adore only the one who has mastered the Word''.

The sound current undoubtedly offers the surest way to enable us to reach the formless from the form. Tuning into this beautiful, self-sustaining, self-supporting, eternal, ethereal sound would lead to the liberation of soul from human bondage.

The soul of the listener becomes all-pervading consciousness. When directly connected with this energy we rise in consciousness and then we enjoy love, peace, contentment and inner joy.


However, this wonderful sound is too subtle for us. We don't hear it normally as our consciousness is centred in the physical realm.

We tend to be so absorbed in material existence that we remain totally unaware of the space within and around us with all its wonders of beautiful light and sound.

It is the quality of Sehaj, of naturalness and ease, that makes Surat Shabd Yoga accessible to all.


The music of the divine word is vibrating in all and it flows through the Nadis in the body. By contacting the sound principle, the sensory currents are automatically drawn upwards.

The transcendence of physical consciousness — that the yogin pursuing the path of the pranas achieves only after a long and arduous discipline — is something attained by practitioners of the Surat Shabd Yoga even at the first sitting, during initiation.

To tune our consciousness to this wonderful energy, we need to seek the help of a Satguru, a master soul who can trigger a quantum leap in our consciousness; someone who can help refine our awareness to tune in to the eternal sound vibrations, the cosmic engine and source of all creation.

He can help us merge our soul with the oversoul or God, the source of love, life, wisdom, peace and contentment.

One such guru is Sant Thakar Singh Ji Maharaj, who has devoted his efforts entirely in this direction, to help seekers open their spiritual eye from the time of initiation.

Hridai Somani

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Decipher the Colour Code of Your Karma

Jan 29, 2004, 08.14pm IST

Amrit Gangar.

Jaina ‘soul’ metaphysics has an interesting colour-code called lesya, a unique concept in the phenomeno-logy of karma. The special aura of the soul can be described in terms of colour, smell, touch or taste indicating the stages of spiritual progress of a living being, whether human, animal, demonic or divine.

Lesya is determined by the adherence of karmic matter to jiva or soul, resulting from both good and bad actions. This adherence is compared to the way dust particles adhere to an oil-smeared body.

The jiva is classified according to the good or bad emotions that hold sway. The salesi or lesya-prone are all those who are swayed by emotion, and the alesi are liberated beings or siddhas who no longer experience feelings, of either pain or pleasure.

Lesya, according to the Sutra-kritanga, is a term that signifies colour (in Sanskrit, ‘light’ or ‘tint’). Jaina scholar K C Jain says: ‘‘The Aji-vika expression Chalabhitiya as explained by Buddhaghosha implies the same method of classification of men in terms of six colours.’’ Prof H Jacobi says Mahavira borrowed the idea of the six lesyas from the ajivikas and altered it to bring it into harmony with the rest of his own doctrines. As hinted in the Acharanga Sutra, the classification of living beings in terms of six colours could be traced back to Parsva’s doctrine of six jivanikayas.

Depending on the karmic density, the colour scheme for the six lesyas include taste, smell and touch. There are variations in colour decoding by diffe- rent scholars though essentially they imply the same meaning.

The black lesya, for instance, has the colour of a rain cloud, a buffalo’s horn, or is a shade darker than the colour of collyrium. The blue lesya is the colour of the red-flowered blue Asoka tree. The grey lesya is the colour of the pigeon’s neck or ash. The red lesya is the colour of vermilion or red lead. The yellow lesya is coloured like the orpiment or turmeric. The white lesya is the colour of a conch.

The taste of the black lesya is more bitter than that of neem leaves; that of the blue lesya is worse than that of a wild thorn, the grey lesya is sour; the red lesya is sour-sweet; the yellow lesya is sweet as honey while the white lesya tastes sweeter than sugar. The smell of the three bad lesyas is infinitely worse than that of a dead cow, dog or snake. The smell of the three good lesyas is infinitely more pleasant than that of fragrant flowers or pleasant perfumes.

The touch of the bad lesyas is worse than that of a saw, the tongue of a cow, or the leaf of the teak tree. The touch of the three good lesyas is more pleasant and softer than that of cotton, butter or the Sirisha flower.

The six tinges suggest an ascen-ding order of purity, black being the worst and white being the best. Jainism scholar and the author of Kalpa Sutra, K C Lalwani says: ‘‘Six persons with these six tinges desire to eat the fruits of a tree. How would they behave? The person with the black tinge will cut the tree at the very root. The one with the blue tinge will chop its branches. The one with the ash tinge will cut the branch bearing the fruit for his consumption. The one with the red tinge will pluck all the fruits, ripe or not. The one with the pink tinge will pluck only the ripe fruits. The one with the white tinge will take only those ripe fruits that have dropped on the ground.” Lesya, in this sense, is a subjective inclination that induces the soul to activity and imparts to jiva a certain tinge.

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Transcend Anger and Transform Your Life

Jan 28, 2004, 12.02am IST

Nilanshu Ranjan.

What do we do, generally, when we want to get something done or when we want to get rid of something? We vow not to do that and we think that the very act of taking a vow will help us in reaching our goal. We believe it will help us turn over a new leaf and we think it will help us live life afresh. But we forget that taking a vow is nothing but an embodiment of sheer unconsciousness; in fact, it is quite an unintelligent act.

When we vow not to do something, it means we have not understood the issue — it simply means we are unconscious at that level. The act of taking a vow gives the message that we have not realised the things at the core of our heart. So taking a vow is nothing but an act of repression or suppression.

When we repress something, it becomes an obsession and obsession poisons our life. When we repress something, it goes into our unconsciousness and disturbs the very equilibrium, leaving us in deep misery. That’s why the Buddha stressed consciousness. "Be conscious", he said.

Pythagoras speaks the same language. He says not to be angry. When he forbids you to be angry, he does not mean you have to repress your anger. He says: "Don’t be angry. It mars your happiness, it makes ecstasy impossible. It leads to nothing but to utter misery". When he says don’t be angry, he is simply telling us to transcend anger. But instead of transcending it, we just repress or suppress it. And this is where we make a mistake. We end up unable to overcome anger and make our lives miserable. Repression is no solution, it cannot be. On the contrary, we will have to understand anger, we will have to watch anger. In watching is transcendence. "Watchfulness is the greatest magic that one can learn, because it can begin the transformation of your whole being. It is only through watchfulness that resurrection happens... you are reborn", said Acharya Rajneesh (Osho).

"If you repress anger, the anger goes into your unconsciousness; you become more and more poisoned. It is not good, it is not healthy; it is going to drive you neurotic sooner or later. And one day or the other, the accumulated anger will explode and that will be far more dangerous because then it will be absolutely uncontrollable by you. You will not be able even to be conscious of what you are doing", said Osho.

Transcendence is a totally different process, it is an art; it is by itself an art of living. Transcendence is the highest stage of silence where supreme realisation is possible. Osho said: "In transcendence, you do not repress anger and you don’t express it either". You know only two ways to deal with anger: expression or repression. And the real way to deal with it is neither. The approach of all the enlightened people of the world is to neither express nor repress, but to watch silently. When anger arises, sit silently, let the anger surround you in your inner world, let the cloud surround you, be a silent watcher.


Buddha has said that when anger arises, listen to it, listen to its message. Keep alert, don’t fall asleep. Keep alert that anger is surrounding you. You will then come to realise that you are not it, but you are the watcher of it. That’s maturity and therein lies the key to overcoming anger.

Osho said that maturity has a fragrance. It lends tremendous beauty to the individual. It gives intelligence, the sharpest possible intelligence. It makes the individual nothing but love.

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Curtain of Ignorance Obscures the Truth

Jan 27, 2004, 12.00am IST
Acharya Mahaprajna.

Once upon a time, there lived a king, wise and just . He had a daughter who he loved dearly. As the princess grew up, the father found his daughter had a definite talent for music. One day she expressed her desire to learn the veena.

That afternoon the king told his courtiers to find a good veena teacher. His ministers told him of prince Udayan of the neighbouring kingdom. He was as handsome as he was good, as talented as he was skilled, as humble as he was learned. The king had to agree that there was indeed, no name better than that of Udayan’s.

It was no problem for the king to invite Udayan. The king was known for his excellent diplomatic relations all around. The king invited prince Udayan, who accepted. Now the king was faced with a problem. He wanted the princess to learn from Udayan and yet he wanted to keep them apart; he did not want them to meet. He was afraid his daughter might fall in love with the prince or the other way round. Either way, he was not sure if that was what he wanted. So he placed a curtain between the two.

He tried to block their minds also. He told Udayan that the princess was blind. “She is embarrassed to sit before you and so will sit behind a curtain,” he said. The prince’s heart bled when he heard that and he swore to himself never to chide his new student nor to ever embarrass her by appearing before her. He began teaching in earnest. The princess meanwhile was very excited to know that prince Udayan was to teach her. Just before her first class, her father came to her chamber and made her sit down while he spoke. He said, “Udayan suffers from leprosy and so is embarrassed to sit before you. He wants to sit behind a curtain.” The princess grieved for her teacher. She resolved to be very attentive and show him that she respected him.

The lessons commenced and went on for some time. Both the teacher and the student were enjoying themselves. They had deve-loped immense respect for each other. The king would visit the class periodically and was satisfied with the arrangement he had made.


One day, things went wrong. The prince was teaching, the princess was just not able to follow. Again he played on the five notes that he wanted her to repeat. The princess couldn’t find the right note. Several attempts later, the exasperated prince began to lose his composure. “We will try again tomorrow’’, he told the princess and they concluded the day’s lesson.

The princess had been so upset with her practice that she had not slept that night. Finally, at daybreak, she slept for a few hours. But this did not help and today again, she could not play the right notes. Udayan flew into a temper. He said: “Be attentive. How many times have I taught you these notes and you still do not learn, blind as you are!” Hurt, the princess reacted in anger: “You diseased person, you who suffers from leprosy — speak with caution.” Udayan wondered who she was referring to. Even the princess wondered why the prince was calling her blind. Desperate to find out, they removed the curtain.

When the curtain was removed, the truth was out. The princess was not blind, the prince was not diseased. We, too, make judgments without ascertaining reality. Our mind block prevents us from accessing truth from all perspectives. Similarly we find it difficult to understand other religions or philosophies, because ignorance is blocking our perspective. Once we know that all pers-pectives are plausible, that truth has several aspects to, we become free of prejudice.

(As told to Sudhamahi Regunathan)

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Story of ZamZam and The Holy Water

Jan 23, 2004, 12.00am IST


The holy water known as ZamZam, brought from Makkah (Mecca) by Hajjis returning home, is believed to have healing powers.

In a parched desert where there wasn't a trace of water, Allah showered his blessings on Ibrahim's family, by commanding Angel Jibreel to dig the earth with his heel (or his wing), and water started flowing in the desert to quench the thirst of Ibrahim's wife Hajar and her son Ismael.

When Ibrahim married Hajar and she conceived Ismael, Sarah, Ibrahim's first wife, became jealous of her and swore that she would cut three parts from her body.

So Hajar tied a girdle round her waist and ran away, dragging her robe behind her so as to wipe out her tracks lest Sarah should pursue her.

Ibrahim brought her and her son Ismael near the Ka'bah under a tree on the spot of Zam-zam. Those days no one lived in Makkah nor was there any water. So he made them sit over there and placed near them a leather bag containing some dates, and a small water-skin containing some water, and set out homeward.

Ismael's mother followed him saying, "O Ibrahim, where are you going, leaving us in this valley where there is no person whose company we can enjoy, nor is there any- thing (to enjoy)? Has Allah ordered you to do so?" "Yes", he said. "Then he will not neglect us," she said and returned.


Ibrahim reached Thaniy-yah, faced the Ka'bah, and raising both hands invoked Allah: "Lord! I have made some of my offspring to dwell in an uncultivable valley by Your Sacred House (the Ka'bah at Makkah): in order, O our Lord, that they may perform As-Salat (Iqamat-as-Salat). So fill some hearts among men with love towards them, and (O Allah) provide them with fruits, so that they may give thanks" (Quran V.14: 37).

Ismael's mother continued to suckle the child and drank all the water she had. She left Ismael, for she could not endure his thirst, and found the mountain of As-Safa. She saw no one. She crossed the valley and reached Al-Marwah mountain where, too, she could see no one.
She ran between As-Safa and Al-Marwah seven times. The Prophet said: "This is the source of the tradition of the Sa'y (the going) of people between As-Safa and Al-Marwah.

When she reached Al- Marwah for the last time she heard a voice and said: ‘‘You have made me hear your voice; have you got something to help me?" And behold! She saw an Angel at the place of Zam-zam, digging the earth with his heel (or his wing), till water flowed from that place.

The Angel said to her: ‘‘Don't be afraid of being neglected, for this is the House of Allah which will be built by this boy (Ismael) and his father (Ibra-him), Allah never neglects his people".

She lived in that way till some people from the tribe of Jurhum passed by her and her child. They landed in the lower part of Makkah where they saw a bird that had the habit of flying around water and not leaving it.

They sent messengers who discovered the source of water, and they all came (towards the water). The Prophet added: "Ismael's mother was sitting near the water.

They asked her, "Do you allow us to stay with you?" She replied, "Yes, but you will have no right to possess the water." So they settled there, and later on sent for their families who came and settled with them and some families became permanent residents there.

Fayyaz S Pathan

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Year of the Monkey, Lantern Festival

Jan 22, 2004, 12.00am IST


Today is the first day of the Chinese New Year which has been designated the Year of the Monkey, 4701. The date is computed on the basis of the Chinese Lunisolar Calendar which harmonises both the lunar cycle and the solar year by incorporating astronomical observations of the phases of the moon and the apparent path of the sun.

The Chinese New Year is celebrated on the second new moon (lunar) after the winter solstice (solar). The winter solstice occurs when the apparent path of the sun reaches its lowest point on the horizon.

To an observer in the northern hemisphere, the sun reaches its lowest height of the year on that day. The shadow it casts is the longest. For an observer in the southern hemisphere, the opposite is true.

The Chinese calendar normally has 12 moons or months in a year. Since the moon has a 29.5-day cycle, each month is rounded off to either 29 or 30 days.

The ability to determine the seasons, especially the arrival of spring, is vital to an agricultural society. By measuring the length of the shadow cast upon a pole, ancient Chinese astronomers quantified the seasons into 24 intervals of roughly 15 days each.

Due to variations in the motion of the earth, the summer intervals are slightly longer than the winter ones. Chinese astronomers settled for a value of 235 lunations or months in 19 years. The Chinese new year coincides with the spring festival.

In the Chinese lunar calendar, one of the schemes for counting years is a 12-year cycle. Instead of designating 12 special symbols for this purpose, 12 animals are used to represent these 12 years. Rabbit (hare), for example, is the fourth year of the cycle.

On New Year's eve, families enjoy a festive meal and visit colourful flower markets, especially in Hong Kong, open virtually all night long, to shop for lucky flowers and plants to herald the Lunar New Year.

Later, around midnight, people offer prayers at the temple, hoping their wishes will be granted throughout the year.


In Hong Kong, the New Year is a huge event. You can catch all the excitement of Chinese New Year with a visit to the flower markets in Victoria Park, Causeway Bay or Fa Hui Park in Mong Kok. Strolling along the promenade in Tsim Sha Tsui affords a splendid view of the harbourfront.

On New Year, local people greet one another thus: ‘‘Kung Hei Fat Choi'' — Wish you a prosperous New Year — and hand out red Lai See packets containing money to children and unmarried adults.

That evening families often enjoy a vegetarian dinner with dishes that signify good fortune for the year to come.

On the second day of the New Year, the Chinese tradition is followed of visiting relatives with sweets, cho-colates or fruit. You start the new year with a sumptuous lunch featuring dishes whose names signify good fortune and blessings.

Today, too, Lai See packets are distributed.

On the third day of the New Year, families visit Che Kung Temple. The Che Kung festival actually falls on the second day of the Chinese New Year.

However, in Hong Kong people visit the temple on the third day because it is believed that people are prone to quarrel on that day.

The Spring Lantern Festival is celebrated on the first moon, on the fifteenth day of the New Year. Popularly referred to as Chinese Valentine's Day, this festival draws to a close the Chinese New Year celebrations.

Based on an old Chinese tradition, flower markets, restaurants, homes and parks are filled with colourful lanterns in traditional designs. This is the time for match-making when girls and boys meet one another in the backdrop of the colourful lanterns.

Vibha

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Surya the Sun God, Eternal Healer

Jan 20, 2004, 12.00am IST

SUDHANSHU RANJAN.

King Hieron asked Archi-medes to invent new weapons when the Romans were threatening to invade his native city Syracuse. On discovering that a Roman fleet had set sail under Marcellus, the feared Roman Commander, Archimedes turned to the king and said, “I believe I can destroy the fleet.” “By what means?” asked the king. “By means of a burning mirror,” replied Archimedes.

Archimedes trained a battery of specially cons-tructed concave mirrors that reflected the blazing rays of the Sun directly onto the ships. And lo and behold, the fleet was destroyed!

The legendary Marcellus, on seeing the devastation wrought upon his fleet, is said to have exclaimed: “Let us stop fighting this geo- metrical monster, who uses our ships like cups to ladle water from the sea, and has whipped our most efficient engines and driven them off in disgrace, and with un- canny jugglery of his mind, has outrivalled the exploits of the hundred-handed giants of mythology.”

Its devastating power is only one manifestation of the Sun’s awesome energy. Its true manifestation is in the form of life force. The Sun is inextricably linked with life on earth. Without it, life is impossible. Sunshine is most cherished where it is cold most of the time. In fact, people start talking of annihilation if the Sun is not visible for a few days at a stretch.

The Hindu scriptures present the Sun as the most potent god. There are only five Puranic gods and the Sun is one of them but the images of the remaining four gods — Vishnu, Shiva, Ganesh and Durga — are also found in Him. In Surya Sahastranam several syno-nyms of the Sun are actually Vishnu’s names and at one place He is also called Jyotirlinga, representing Shiva. Mahakal is both the name of Shiva and the Sun. Ganesha, the son of Shiva, is also represented in the Sun. Image of the rising Sun in a water reservoir or pond appears like an elephant’s trunk due to the ripples, resembling Ganesha. Gayatri and Savitri are forms of the Sun. Aditya is derived from Aditi, which is the name of Durga. The worship of the Sun God means the worship of all the five Puranic gods and goddess.

Hymns of the Rig Veda confirm that the Sun is the manifestation of the whole universe. Prayers to the Sun God are found in all the four Vedas unlike the names of Vishnu, Shiva, Ganesha and Durga. Vishnu does not figure anywhere in the Rig Veda. Puranic gods are evolved forms of Vedic gods. The Sun is the most visible god who can be worshipped directly without a priest or intermediary. In the Chhandogya Upanishad the Sun has been called Omkar and Udgeet. The Rig Veda says the Sun is the soul of the universe and it controls the animate as well as the inanimate.

The Sun’s rays have the amazing power to heal. Sun worship helped Sambha, Krishna’s grandson, get cured of leprosy. Solar treatment was a well-developed science in ancient times. Its exponents could revive dead persons by concentrating the Sun’s rays on the dead body. Till recently, Swami Viryananda, Swami Dayananda’s preceptor, and Swami Vishuddhananda were experts of this science and reportedly, could perform such mira-cles. Gopinath Kaviraj has recorded that he himself saw Vishuddhananda reviving a dead bird thus. When Alan Leo, the renowned astrologer, visited India, he was astounded to see the longevity of rural women who ate very little nutritious food. Then he noticed that they wore heavy silver ornaments and concluded that they got solar energy through the silver which probably prolonged their lives.

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Listen to the Music Of the Holy Spheres

Divine music, when you experience it, brings with it intense and lasting bliss. How can one who has heard this divine melody describe it to one who has not?


Anyone who attempts to describe it would have to use pale analogies. If we think of the most beautiful music we have ever heard in this world, it still does not compare with the music known as the Voice of God.

The divine music is playing within us all the time. We don’t hear it because no one has shown us the way to listen to this inner music.

There is reference to this inner music in the scriptures.

This sound has been called the Word in the Bible, naad, jyoti and sruti in the Hindu scriptures, sraosha in the Zoroastrian scriptures, kalma in the Muslim scriptures, sonorous light in the Buddhist scriptures, naam or shabd by the Sikhs, and the Theosophists call it the voice of silence . It is the power of God manifesting in creation.

When God decided to create, this thought ema-nated as two principles: Light and Sound. The current of divine light and music was the cause of all creation. This current flows out from God and also returns to God. We can access this current within us through Shabd meditation.

Why is the divine music different from worldly music? First, the music of the Lord is not made by any instrument. It is a melody that reverberates from God. So, it is the source of all outer music.

Outer music is but a reflection of God’s inner music. Second, the music of the Lord is like a magnetic current that elevates the soul into the spiritual realms beyond. Once we contact that sound, we are enabled to rise far above from mere body-consciousness.

That sound fills us with indescribable ecstasy. We become so intoxicated that every pore of our being cries out in ecstasy.

The holy name has the power to lift our soul above body-consciousness to travel through inner realms.

The scriptures of the East describe various planes of existence. These descriptions are not to be dismissed as mere mythology. They are actual regions that we can experience in this very lifetime.

We are all children of one God. The Name or Word is available to all. God has made the gift of the Light and Sound available to all who want it, regard-less of which religious denomination one belongs to.

Similarly, there is no distinction of colour or class, qualifications or status. The divine path to liberation is open and accessible to all, equally.

Once we awaken to the Music of the Lord, our life will be the same — but only on the surface. We will still have the same job, the same family, the same house, and the same body, but a whole new inner life will open up for us.

To everyone else we will look the same, but inwardly we will be lost in the ecstasy of God’s love. We will ultimately attain our merger in God. To outer eyes, no one will know we are in communion with the Lord.

They will see the same person they always knew. But inwardly, we will know that we are more than just this body. We will have identified with our soul, we will connect with the Light and Sound of God, and we will experience spiritual realms beyond the here and now.

Finally, we will achieve total union with the divinity, and experience bliss, love, light and music.

Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj

( The writer is head of the Sawan Kirpal Ruhani Mission headquartered in Delhi. The mission encourages discussions on the science of spirituality. )

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Nurture the Tradition Of Harmonious Living

Jan 16, 2004, 12.00am IST


Karmapa comes from the word karma or karmaka, which means activity. The Karmapas are the first to have realised successive reincarnations. This unbroken succession of masters who have preserved and transmitted the instructions of the Karma Kagyu tradition is referred to as the ‘Golden Rosary’.

Hence in the Kagyu lineage and practice, the oral teachings and the master-disciple relationship are of supreme significance.

The process of choosing the spiritual head, the Kar-mapa, is intricate. Generally, it is not easy to recognise a rebirth or reincarnation.

This is hidden from ordinary minds. Normally, individuals have no idea as to who is the incarnation of whom. It takes certain blessed individuals with a particular insight into the past, the present and the future, to be able to do this.

In reference to the Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, the Karmapa lineage started with its first Karmapa way back in 1110-1193.

The general emphasis is on the doctrines of the Buddha, but more signi-ficantly, the Mahamudra path of meditation, which is of course based on Buddhist views and tenets but with particular emphasis on the practice of meditation.

In order to understand the nature of the mind and to evolve spiritually, one needs to do spiritual practice.

This tradition of the path of Mahamudra can be practised either in serene mountains or when taking part in some retreats with the monastic community or through the discipline of monasticism, the purpose being to gain self-realisation.

Buddha’s philosophy revolved around attaining freedom from the samsaric state. He taught that enlightenment or embodiment is not something that can be gifted to anyone.

Buddha shows the path of know-ledge and enlightenment to his disciples, but implementation of the knowledge is something that the disciple must accomplish on his own.

To attain liberation, one should follow two essentials: karuna or compassion, prajana or wisdom. In spiritual terms, compassion and the wisdom of Shunyata (realisation of the empty nature of things) should go hand in hand.

This needs to be understood not merely by the ordinary gross intelligence but by a refined wisdom combined with the deep understanding of unconditional refined compassion. A combination of these two leads to liberation.

To make these Buddhist teachings available widely, an institute has been established in the Capital where Buddhist studies are taking place.

For a peaceful future, there are three spheres one can think about: The past, the present and the future. The past, which is in the memory realm, is insigni-ficant. Similarly, to ponder over the present is not of much use, as the present is not stationary.

The future is the only area on which we can focus. And shaping the future is completely in the hands of the youth. With the increasing trend to acquire large-scale destructive potentialities, the world is becoming only more insecure.

So the youth should be trained to cultivate altruistic intentions and nurture a clear consciousness. Secondly, the right kind of education should be imparted and this, combined with a ‘carrying consciousness’, could hold out hope for lasting peace in the world.

Regardless of however genuinely altruistic you are, without the means to put it into use, you remain ‘ignorant’. Peaceful traditions and heri-tage should be handed down to successive generations so that there is less disharmony and destruction.

Urgyen Trinlay Thaye Dorje

( The Karmapa is the 17th spiritual head of the Karma Kagyu tradition, one of the four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism. He spoke to Niti Panta .)

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Conflict Resolution Begins at Home

Jan 15, 2004, 12.00am IST


If one were to explore the philosophical basis of normative ethics to examine where terrorism falls on the moral spectrum, it will become evident that terrorism, sabotage and guerilla tactics are all acts of violence , essentially no different from overt war in the conventional sense.

Terrorist attacks amount to war by stealth, shadowy figures replacing uniformed combatants, attacking innocents to send a message to the real targets who are out of reach.

All acts of violence spring from fear, uncertainty and hate, as well as a total disregard for the lives of fellow human beings. The end is all-important and the means do not matter to the frenzied violators.

A cause is invoked in the name of a group, sect or territory. The starting point, however, is often an individual going berserk, resolute in his own self- indulgent eyes but losing touch with reality.

A qualitative transformation must, therefore, begin from within, where the conflict originates. According to a Sufi saying, the peacemaker must first make peace with himself before trying to make peace in the world.

The Bhagavad Gita teaches self-restraint, fortitude, truthfulness and faith as essential attributes of character.

Patanjali describes restraint as "the accommodation of the senses to the state of the mind" and avers that there is no inimical feeling in a Yogi who has attained the cultivated enlightenment of the soul, in whom harmlessness and kindliness are fully developed.

Swami Vivekananda said: "This life is short, the vanities of the world are transient, but they alone live who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive... Love never fails; today or tomorrow or ages after, truth will triumph.

Love your fellow human beings. Do not care for doctrines, do not care for dogmas, or sects. They count for little compared to the essence of existence in each man, which is spirituality."

The essence of the Gita, according to Swami Vivekananda, lies in these words of Krishna: "He who sees the Supreme Lord dwelling alike in all beings, the Imperishable in things that perish, he sees indeed. For seeing the Lord as the same, everywhere present, he does not destroy the Self by the Self, and thus he goes to the highest goal."

All evil comes from ignorance and all good from faith in equality, in the underlying sameness and oneness of things.

Hobbes said: "War consists not in battle only or in the act of fighting, but in the will to fight, the attitude of hostility." The so-called peace treaties do not make peace unless they are backed by honest intentions.

Peace does not require men to become angels or saints and live together in perfect brotherly love which is all too much to expect. Peace is that state of affairs in which men can settle their differences by talking to each other instead of using force.

Kant declared: "The morally practical reason utters within us its irrevocable veto: There shall be no war".

Violence as a means to achieve ends is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. An "eye for an eye" will leave everybody blind, said Mahatma Gandhi.

The concept is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than understand and thrives on hatred rather than love.

It creates bitterness in survivors and brutality in the destroyers. Ultimately, you can't reach good ends through evil means, because the means represent the seed and the end represents the tree. There is no such thing as a ‘just' war.

M N Chatterjee

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Service before Self: Seva as Sadhana

Jan 14, 2004, 12.08am IST

Pranav Khullar, TNN.

Rishikesh: The ideals and motto of the Divine Life Society — “Serve, love, give, purify, meditate and realise” — are reflected in the life and work of Swami Chidananda Saraswati. His spiritual journey began on a Buddha Purnima day in 1943 inspired by his mentor Swami Sivananda.

Chidananda’s fervour to serve found the perfect outlet in the welfare work he undertook at Rishikesh. He believes that service alone can purify and prepare the soul for deep contemplation.

A story is often recounted of how Chidananda found a leprosy-afflicted person on the Hardwar-Rishikesh road. He carried him all the way to the ashram on his shoulders. He served him through the day, as a mother would care for a child. Eventually, he established a colony for similar patients in Rishikesh, as a means of preserving the self-respect and dignity of the suffering. The spirit of seva has become the core of his own teachings on sadhana. When he was asked what was necessary to obtain the Guru’s grace, Chidananda immediately pointed out that the path of selfless service, seva, is what should be valued as the perfect sadhana.

According to Chidananda, love is the law of life and to love is to fulfil the adage: “To live is to love”. You live that you may learn to love, you love so that you may learn to live. True religion is not about ritualistic observances, baths or pilgrimages, so the Swami asks us to heed the universal psychological law: Hatred breeds hatred, love begets love, and fear breeds fear. In his morning meditation talks at Sivananda Ashram, compiled as Ponder these Truths, he says the key to blessedness is to be aware of that blessedness. The path that leads us beyond sorrow can be found through compassion, humility, truthfulness and self-control.

A Franciscan by heart and an Advaitist by calling, Chidananda has always held that yoga cannot stop at the psycho-physical level — the body has to transform itself into a vehicle of sattva or purity through paropkara or selfless service. This sadhana or discipline will in turn lead one to a meditative state: Dhyana or medi-tation is not possible without a preparatory ethical disciplining of oneself.

Swami Chidananda often narrates the parable of the two monks journeying together, to illustrate the true yogic paradigm. The two monks encounter a village woman beside a stream. She has missed the last ferry and is perplexed as to how she can cross the stream. Seeing her predicament, the younger monk lifts her up and fords the stream along with his older companion. The companion monk is extremely upset as it is against monastic rules to touch a female, and castigates the young one throughout the rest of the journey till they reach their mona-stery. Finally, the younger monk said to him: “While I have left the woman long ago by the stream, you seem to be still carrying her in your head”.

Swami Chidananda’s message evokes the fundamentals of human life — of unrequited love and compassion, which alone can sustain and bond commu- nities. His teachings have embodied the ancient Vedantic truths in the simplest and most endearing way possible. He says: “Let your example speak more than your words. Reform yourself and be yourself what you want others to be. Practise what you preach; otherwise don’t”.

Watching the Ganga flow past on a wintry evening in Rishikesh, I was overcome by the sheer simpli-city of the message, an anahata (universal) nada (sound), which can be easily heard if only we care to listen carefully.

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Andal's Divine Union With Sri Narayana

Jan 13, 2004, 12.56am IST

N N Subramanian.

The Tiruppavai, a 1,000-year-old collection of 30 Tamil songs in praise of Krishna , was composed by Goda when she was barely 15 years of age. It is sung during the month of Margazhi in Tamil Nadu, between mid-December and mid-January. The Tiruppavai is also called Godopanishad because it contains the quintessence of the scriptures.

An incarnation of Bhudevi, Goddess Earth, the consort of Mahavishnu, Goda's appearance was to show us the pathway to God through bridal mysticism - looking upon God as the bridegroom.

One day, Vishnuchittar Periyalvar was gathering flowers for the daily puja at the temple when he found a child under a Tulsi bush in his garden. He took her home and brought her up as his own child. He named her Goda (or Kothai, in Tamil), meaning 'maiden' or 'song-girl'; also 'giver of cows, speech or light'.

Goda grew up listening to the sweet tales of Krishna her father narrated to her. Goda's dream was to marry the Lord. Daily, she would wear the garlands her father strung for the temple deity and peer into the well to admire her reflection in the water. One day, her father saw this and saddened by her impiety, he forbade her from ever touching the flowers meant for the Lord.

The next day Periyalvar took the garlands to the temple. That night the Lord appeared in his dream and said that only the garlands worn by his daughter were dear to Him. From then on, Goda would wear the garlands first and then send them to the temple. Soon she came to be known as Sudikkodutta Sudarkodi (the lady who offered garlands to God after first wearing them).

Goda became lovelorn. Long before dawn, she would go door-to-door, rousing her friends. Singing loudly the praises of Krishna, they would arrive at the palace of Nandagopa, and wake up everyone there, including Krishna. They would appeal to the Lord to provide them with conches, drums, lamps, flags and festoons. They also wanted Him to reward them for singing His praises. Finally, Goda would disclose to Krishna the true purpose of their visit - to be granted one boon that they could be with Him always.

Goda's Nacciyar Tirumozhi (poems of the Lord's bride) is a longer composition of 143 verses in which she expresses her love for Krishna in moods ranging from the agony caused by the pangs of separation from Him to the ecstasy born of union with Him.

As Periyalvar watched with grave anxiety his daughter's boundless love for Krishna grow, he was perplexed; how could he arrange a marriage between a mere human being and the Supreme Lord of the Universe? Krishna announ-ced to Periyalvar in a dream that He would take care of that. Krishna spoke to the temple priests of Srirangam and told them to go to Srivilliputtur and escort His bride-elect to Him. On the appointed day, Goda, in bridal finery, was taken in a palanquin from Srivilliputtur to Srirangam right into the sanctum sanctorum. Softly stepping down from the palanquin and proceeding with a swan-like gait towards the deity reclining on Adisesha, Goda climbed onto the serpent-bed. Then she just disappeared, getting absorbed into Him.

At Periyalvar's request, the Lord agreed to a traditional marriage ceremony which was performed on the panguni uthiram at Srivilliputtur. Every Vaishnavite temple in Tamil Nadu has a shrine for Goda who came to be known as Andal, 'she who rules', because she rules over the heart of Lord Narayana Himself; and Andal's divine marriage is celebrated to this day, every year, on the panguni uthiram day.

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Don't Get Trapped By Your Emotions

Jan 10, 2004, 12.02am IST

Rohini Singh Chopra.
Have you ever wondered why you sometimes feel low, drained, energyless? You might feel so after a stressful period — because of trying circumstances, a spell of hectic work or sudden trauma.

Often, you are unable to pinpoint a reason for it. And for some of us it may have become a state of being; a joyless, purposeless existence. Each of us has been given the gift of life fuelled by the life-force or prana. Why does this precious resource dwindle, sometimes to desperately low levels?

Take a look at the following energy-guzzlers:

Worry: For many of us this is as natural an activity as eating or sleeping. We worry about things that we are convinced are doomed to happen: that those who are ill will not recover; others who aren’t, will fall ill; bad times will remain bad; good ones will take a turn for the worse; children who are in school will not get admission into good universities; those who have might not do justice to the opportunity given to them, bright children of marriageable age will not find good alliances; and of course good potential candidates might turn out to be not-so-good. In fact, as a worrier can tell you with conviction, nothing in life is certain so there is much to worry about. It is responsible to worry. There is always ample fuel for the fire of worry. And this is a greedy unsatisfied fire, always ready to devour more. It is a vicious story of burnout.

What does this mean in energy terms? Consider this: Energy follows thought; so as you continue to feed that fire — as you think negative thoughts about all the things that may not turn out as well as you wish, you are actually giving energy to those very occurrences that you wish to avoid. As you continue to obsessively think about them and imagine the consequences, energy continues to flow to them. Often you find them manifesting, little realising your role in their creation. Soon you feel drained, unhappy, low in energy.

Resentment: If worry drains you with fears of the future, then hurt, resentment and regret keep you chained to the past. As you nourish memories of people who have hurt you or let you down, of circumstances that have betrayed your expectations, or of unfulfilled dreams, you are only draining energy to something that is in fact dead and gone. Think about it: Somebody said something hurtful to you years ago. You can still remember and talk about it with tears in your eyes. The person meanwhile is no longer a part of your life; he may even have passed on, but you continue to leak energy to this thought. No wonder you wake up feeling life is unfair and joyless; a burden rather than a gift.

Guilt: This is one of the heaviest emotions that wears you down as you continue to carry it. We all make mistakes, feel regret or remorse over situations in our lives; commit acts of omission or commission. But we cannot let go; we believe it would be irresponsible to forgive. So we continue to internally condemn and scold, instead of learning from the fall and getting up to move on. It is much like climbing a mountain with a heavy trunk tied to your back. How can you really look around and enjoy the view?

Is all this just glib talk? Can we really decide not to worry for the future or let go of our disappointments of the past easily? Can we just as simply forgive others and ourselves? Can I be emotionally free to decide?

(The writer will teach a radical energy therapy called Emotional Freedom Techniques on Jan 17 & 18. For registration contact: 95124-5063004, 2350324, 98-111-09015 or 98-111-21711.)

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Don't be a Worrier, Savour Your Life

Jan 9, 2004, 12.00am IST


Worry causes fear, anxiety, tension and stress. These emotions deplete energy and weaken the immune system. Worriers become sick and this is manifested in poor health, because of all the problems that are eating into their vitals.

And worry is certainly not the same as constructive thinking; if it were, we would have found solutions to most of our problems.

Worry usually occurs when we find ourselves faced with a likely outcome we feel is beyond the scope of our control — an outcome we think will be wholly damaging and detrimental to us.

But how can we be so certain? Maybe some good comes out of it as well. So why despair and agonise over something that may actually turn out well, or if it does not now, it might be okay in the long term?

A king once accidentally lost his little finger in an accident. His close friend and minister, how-ever, exclaimed that it was a fine thing that had happened.

Shocked at his insensitive remark, the king dismissed him. Even then, the minister who'd just lost his job only remarked that his expulsion could be for his good. This puzzled the king.

Sometime later, the king got lost during an excursion in a jungle and was captured by cannibals. They were planning to put him in the pot over the fire when they suddenly noticed he had a finger missing.

An 'incomplete' human being was unacceptable to the gods, so they released him. The king realised that losing his finger earlier had, in fact, helped save his life.

"But tell me", asked the king of the minister after returning to the palace and reinstating him, "what good came of your expulsion? You temporarily lost your wages and prestige".

The minister replied: "If you had not expelled me, I would pro-bably have accompanied you to the jungle and both of us would have been caught by the cannibals. You would be back here safely today, but because my body is whole, I wouldn't!"

The chain of cause and effect is extremely subtle. The slightest, invisible variation in an event could well lead to dramatic consequences in the future.

Therefore, it is almost impossible to predict what will happen in the long term, and whether it will be good or bad because we cannot know all the variables precisely.

Neither do we know how the fortunes and misfortunes of other people may forward or reverse ours — or for that matter, too, how our fortunes or misfortunes may affect those of others.

It would be sensible to look at life as a long chain of surprises and new revelations. So live it sportingly. The goal of life is not to achieve some mythical point of perfect materialism.

No such apex exists. The goal of life is simply to work hard at becoming better than you were yesterday.

In life, there are no wars to be won, only battles to be fought — personal, physical, social, psychological and spiritual. In our efforts to live life sensibly, God plays the role of the eternal comrade, the invisible companion, the universal friend.

The revered Pramukh Swami Maharaj was approached thrice by a person asking for blessings to ensure that his new business venture runs well.

Maharaj told him that blessings are given not to the individual but to the efforts of the individual. Only if you start working, the blessing will begin to take effect.

God will build a castle for you — not up in the air but within your heart, and it is you who has to lay a strong foundation for it.

Sadhu Vishwamurtidas

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Ezpiphany: Festival of The Twelfth Night

Jan 6, 2004, 12.00am IST

Anniyil Tharakan.
Epiphany celebrates the intervention of God in the life of a people, relating effectively, the Christmas message which emerged from Christ’s birth place at Bethlehem. Hence it is also called the Feast of Lights or the Candlemas Feast.

In the past it was also known as the Twelfth Day as it falls on the twelfth day after Christmas and winds up formally the Christmas season of rejoicing.

The Twelfth Night celebration begins on the evening of January 5 and the feast of Epiphany is celebrated on the following day. In the Jewish tradition a day begins the previous evening. The ceremonies and festivities are called “revels”. Comedies were performed at the courts and homes of nobles.

Shakespeare’s comedy, Twelfth Night, embodies the genial spirit of the Twelfth Night’s revelry. Coming early in the year, it superseded rival feasts that occurred in ancient times. The festival of the god Aeon, Persephone the Virgin’s son, was celebrated on January 6. Each year on this day, the waters of the Nile in Egypt were believed to have acquired special powers, and in Asia Minor and Arabia fountains sacred to the god Dionysus were reported to have flowed with wine.

The feast originated in the first half of the fourth century sometime before Christmas was introduced in Rome around 354 A.D. Epiphany was originally celebrated by the people of the Eastern Churches, commemorating Christ’s birth and the manifestation of his divinity to the world at the time of his baptism. It was the “Christmas” of the Christian Orient.

In the tradition of the western Churches the festival marks the visit of the three Wise Men or Magi from the East to the infant Jesus. The visit of the Magi is symbolically the manifestation of Christ to the world outside the Jewish community or the Gentiles. Though the eastern and western traditions proffer different perspectives of the feast, they concur in that it invariably celebrates the manifestation of the spiritual mystery latent in the person of Christ.

Much has been written about the whereabouts of the Wise Men from the East who were led, as the Bible says, to the infant Jesus by the course of the stars they read in the sky. India, Victor Cousin wrote, was the centre of the East and the East was identified with India. So the Biblical reference to the three Wise Men visiting Infant Jesus could well have been from India. Why would wandering yogins travel all the way to Judaea?

Roman historian Suetonius pointed out that there had spread all over the East the belief that some great sage was to be born into Judaea, who will spiritually transform the world. The gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, which the Magi carried to the Babe, are the traditional eastern ways of honouring a great personage.

The feast of Epiphany telescopes into the focal point of India’s religious discourse. For the feast inaugurates God’s descent into the world with an invitation to partake of its mystery and thereby ascend to Him. Indian spirituality is a cyclical rhythm of ascent and descent, occurring both at the individual level and the cosmic.

At the end of a cycle, man and the universe devolve into the Absolute thereby ascending to the Divine. This pattern is evident in the feast of the Epiphany: the Manifestation of the mystery of Christ to the world at large.

In Christian tradition it is a unique event whereas in Indian spirituality, it is a recurring one. But the Christian perspective telescopes into the Indian when the linear historic event is re-enacted cyclically in the ritual celebration of the feast annually.

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Guru Gobind Singh's Service to Humanity

Jan 5, 2004, 12.00am IST

Inder Raj Ahluwalia.

Guru Gobind Singh was no ordinary mortal . The signs were there right from his birth. In 1666, on the Guru’s birth, a pious Muslim fakir, Sayyad Bhikhan Shah, declared: “God has sent a new light on this earth”.

He then decided to test the newborn ‘prince’. Producing two jars of sweets obtained from a Hindu and a Muslim vendor, Bhikhan Shah tried to learn the child’s preference from the jar he touched. The baby, however, clutched both jars and smiled, whereupon the fakir acknowledged him to be a master of both communities.

Seeking a new order based on the ideal of sacrifice for the cause of ‘dharma’ and the rejection of slavery, the Guru created the Khalsa, meaning the pure, on Baisakhi day in 1699. His followers were a spiritual and social entity rather than a politically dynamic force. The Khalsa were ordained to believe in one God, shun rituals and superstitions, inculcate respect for women, and consider everyone equal.

These tenets are of crucial importance even today. Equality for all citizens is one of India’s primary social objectives. And respect for women is something most of us badly need to cultivate and practise, in a society that has seen women burnt for the sake of material benefits. The Guru’s teachings, therefore, are of special significance in today’s world.

The symbols associated with the faith have a deep relevance. Like an- cient sages or Kshatriyas (warriors), the Khalsa grew their hair as a pledge of dedication. While this injunction — not to cut hair — was to give them an identity, the other symbols had deeper meaning.

A steel bracelet to denote the universality of God, a comb to keep the hair clean as cleanliness is next to Godliness, underwear to denote chastity and a steel dagger for self-defence.

Administering amrit or nectar to his five disciples and to himself, the Guru had declared: “The Khalsa shall not only be warlike but shall also sweeten the lives of those he is chosen to serve”.

Calling the Khalsa the ‘pure’ and his very own, he formalised entity to the concept of the ‘warrior saint’. However, Guru Gobind Singh advocated the use of force only if it were absolutely essential and that too, for a good cause.

The Guru’s message was that physical prowess was as sacred as spiritual sensitivity and both had a significant role in our lives. He asked his followers to revere their weapons, and excel in horse-riding, marksmanship, and swordsmanship. They were to act as a bridge between the Hindus and the Muslims, and serve the poor without distinction of caste, creed, or colour. Service to humanity was the key.

Guru Gobind Singh had ordained that Deg, the community kitchen, would be as important as Teg, the sword.

The Guru’s inspired leadership prompted the Sikh soldiers to exemplary bra- very, earning for them the distinguished title Sava Lakh — each being able to fight a lakh and a quarter enemies.

But perhaps his greatest message was that one should ignore cosmetic images and look at each and every person as a human being. Each being deserved to be treated well and with kindness. Each had a right to lead a peaceful and dignified existence. Despite his turbulent life, the Guru patronised the arts. At Paonta Sahib he wrote much of the Dasam Granth, verse that resound with devotion and chivalry.

Considering his achievements and impact on society, it is hard to imagine that Guru Gobind Singh lived for barely 40-odd years. He served the Sikh community but was also a saviour of other communities. His quest for dharma was ceaseless. His new order’s mission was to ‘do right’.

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Unburden Yourself With Laughter

Jan 3, 2004, 12.00am IST


Gautama Buddha made a profound statement: "Be a light unto yourself". To this, Osho adds another: "Be a joke unto yourself". Osho would say: "I have to tell jokes because you are all religious people, you tend to be serious. I have to tickle you sometimes so that you forget your religiousness, your philosophies, theories, systems, and you fall down to earth".

Osho has seen that in spontaneous laughter the noise of the mind stops for a few precious moments, allowing us to experience mindlessness or meditation, however fleetingly.

The seriousness of 'religious' people, however, is heavy on the human heart. It creates guilt in people: when you laugh, you feel you are doing something wrong. Laughter is good in a movie hall, but not in a church or temple.

Osho said: "I declare laughter to be the highest religious quality. And if we can decide that every year, for one hour, at a certain date, at a certain time, the whole world will laugh (together), it will help to dispel darkness, violence and stupidities - because laughter is a unique human characteristic... It can relax you, it can make you feel light, it can make your world a beautiful experience. It can change everything in your life. Laughter can make life worth living, something to be grateful for."

"German thinker Count Keyserling wrote that health is unreligious. But an ill person is desireless not because he has become desireless but because he is weak. A healthy person will laugh, he would like to enjoy, be merry - he cannot be sad."

"But 'religious' persons tell you to go on a fast, suppress your body, torture yourself. Laughter comes out of health. It's an overflowing energy. That's why children can laugh and their laughter is total. Their whole body is involved in it when they laugh; you can see their toes laughing."

Laughter, according to Osho, is multi-dimensional. When you laugh, your body, mind and your being laugh in unison. Distinctions, divisions and the schizophre-nic personality disappears. That's why Osho introduced laughter to religion. Seriousness is of the ego whereas laughter is egolessness.

Religion cannot be anything other than a celebration of life. The serious person is handicapped: He creates barriers. He cannot dance, sing or celebrate. He becomes desert-like. And if you are a desert, you can go on thinking and pretending that you are religious but you are not.

You may be sectarian, but not religious. You believe in something, but you don't know anything. A man burdened by theories becomes serious. A man who is unburdened starts laughing.

The whole play of existence is so beautiful that laughter can be the only response to it. Only laughter can be the real prayer of gratitude. Osho talks about a great Zen master Hotei who was known in Japan as the 'Laughing Buddha'.

Osho said: "Hotei is tremendously significant... more people should be like Hotei; more temples should be full of laughter, dancing and singing. If seriousness is lost, nothing is lost -in fact, one becomes more healthy and whole. But if laughter is lost, everything is lost. Suddenly you lose the festivity of your being; you become colourless, monotonous, in a way, dead. Then your energy is not streaming any more".

But to understand Hotei you will have to be in that festive dimension. If you are too much burdened with theories, concepts, notions, ideologies, theologies, philo-sophies, you will not be able to realise the significance of Hotei.

Osho warned that taking man's laughter away from him is taking his very life away; it is a form of spiritual castration.

Swami Chaitanya Keerti

( January 1 was celebrated as World Laughter Day )

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Yoga of the Vision Of the Cosmic Form

Jan 2, 2004, 12.00am IST


The Bhagavad Gita is a scientific text dealing with the knowledge of life and living. This knowledge consists of the eternal principles governing human existence.

These principles remain as relevant today as when they were expressed thousands of years ago on the battlefield of Kurukshetra.

Arjuna was a prince and decorated warrior of those times. However, when confronted with a personal challenge on the battlefield, he succumbed to the pressure of the situation and became incapacitated; he was beset with doubt, and he could not act.

Arjuna represents today's human being. The battlefield of Kurukshetra is symbolic of the world, with the numerous challenges it presents. In spite of being well educated and proficient in our respective fields of activity, we succumb eventually to the stress and strain of life when faced with challenges.

The reason for this paradox is that the education we receive is woe- fully inadequate in helping us deal with life itself. It only provides us with the information necessary to work in a particular field of our choice.

But living is a skill, a technique. One needs to learn and practise it just as to be a good sportsman or musician involves regular practice and perseverance.

Yet, very few of us look at the act of living as a skill. As a result, we remain stunted, with an extremely narrow vision limited to our petty, mundane existence and its innumerable worries and anxieties.

We end up missing the larger picture. Steeped in ignorance, we continue to live, oblivious to the purpose for which we exist.

The eleventh chapter of the Gita is titled The Yoga of the Vision of the Cosmic Form. The cosmic form is presented before Arjuna as a gigantic figure of Krishna, the form that is symbolic of the Underlying Reality that supports the manifested universe.

"Arjuna, behold as concentrated within this body of Mine the entire creation consisting of both animate and inanimate beings, and whatever else you desire to see. But surely you cannot see Me with these human eyes of yours; therefore, I vouchsafe to you the divine eye. With this you behold My divine power of Yoga" (XI.7, 8).

Krishna explains to Arjuna that he ought to understand that Reality and not get carried away by the passing phenomenon of names and forms that he perceives in the everyday world.

This universe is governed by an essential Law that holds its functioning toge-ther. We must try to understand the functioning of that law and our role in it. Without knowledge of these fundamental issues, we become confused and deluded in life. And then we succumb to the pressures of various challenges.

Krishna then expounds the know-ledge to Arjuna in detail. He explains to him the functioning of the cosmos and his role in it. As a Kshatriya, his duty is to fight with a higher vision.

He should re-establish righteousness in a country battered by the immorality and barbarity of the Kauravas. In the process, he should not worry about the results that would accrue to him.

Armed with this know-ledge, Arjuna regained the intellectual clarity he had lost and became composed. He cast aside his mental weakness and emerged with a firm vision of his duty in life. He was able to overcome his enemies and emerge successful.

We too can be successful, armed with this knowledge, in gaining the vision of life's mission, and acquire the mental stamina necessary to discharge our duties and responsibilities in life. We can then live fulfilling, meaningful lives.

Gautam Jain

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