Unlock Your Energy With True Yoga

Feb 1, 2004, 08.48pm IST
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev.

The term ‘yoga’, for many, means physical postures , and that too twisted, impossible ones. But that’s not what we’re referring to as yoga .

Yoga means to be in perfect tune . Your body, mind, spirit and existence are in absolute harmony . When you fine-tune yourself to such a point where everything functions beautifully within you, the best of your abilities will just flow out of you.

When you’re happy, your energies always function better. In fact, when you’re happy, you have endless energy. Even if you don’t eat or sleep, it doesn’t matter; you can go on and on. So just knowing a little happiness liberates you from your normal limitations of energy and capability.

Yoga is the science of activating your inner energies in such a way that your body, mind and emotions function at their highest peak. If I don’t sleep for two days, you won’t notice any difference in me. I can still have a full day of activity.

When your body and mind function in a completely different state of relaxation and a certain level of bliss, you can be released from most suffering. You come to your office, and you have a nagging headache.

Your headache isn’t a major illness, but it takes away your capability for that day. The throbbing pain takes away everything. But with the practice of yoga, your body and mind will be kept at their highest possible peak.

When you activate your energies, you can function in a different way. As you’re sitting, you consider yourself to be a person. You’re identified with many things, but what you call as “myself” is just a certain amount of energy.

Modern science tells you that the whole of existence is just energy manifesting itself in different ways. It follows then that you’re also just a little bit of energy functioning in a particular way. In science, this same energy which you call as ‘myself’ can be here as a rock, lie there as mud, stand up as a tree, bark as a dog, or sit here as you. Everything is the same energy, but functioning at different levels of capabi-lity. Though all of us are made of the same energy, we don’t function at the same level of capability. What you call capability, talent, ability or creativity, these are just a particular way in which your energy functions.

The same energy, in one plant, creates rose flowers; in another, it creates jasmine. By gaining a bit of mastery over your own energies, you will see things that you never imagined possible, you will do them simply and naturally.

The same mud with which we construct huge buildings, is also used to build little huts. What you call a computer is dug out of the earth. We thought we could only dig mud and make pots or bricks out of it. Now we dig the earth and make computers, cars, and even spacecraft out of it. It’s the same energy; we have just started using it for higher possibilities. Our inner energies, too, are like that.

There is a whole techno-logy of applying this energy for higher possibilities. Each one of us must explore and know this. Otherwise, life becomes limited and accidental; you get to do only what you’re exposed to. Once you start activating your inner energies, your capabilities happen in a different sphere altogether. Yoga is a tool to find ultimate expression to life.

Read More

Religion Turns Trendy In Modernist Wave

Feb 28, 2004, 12.00am IST
Bachi Karkaria, TNN.

Two weeks ago a bright young research assistant from the BBC asked if I would take part in a global '90 Minutes' programme on whether people still believed in God.


A few days later, she called back in some embarrassment and said they'd decided that they wanted a Hindu. I could hardly take this to the Human Rights Commission, so I gave up my place.


Regrettably. For, I've been intrigued by the way the young of all creeds are turning aggressively to institutionalised religion even as the BJP has begun to water down its saffron.

It's very clear that God has a new incarnation in India — cool, user-friendly, results-oriented, upwardly mobile, and probably carrying one too. Seriously. Those who think 'Jingle Bells' is too pseudo-secular a ring tone and Saare Jahan Se Achcha too jingoistic, download Raghu-pati Raghav...


Today's New Age cults are no-thing more than flower-power genetically modified. Like the sitar, guru shirts and transcendental meditation in the Beatles-era, India Cool has discovered nirvana, yoga, incense sticks, Shiva chants and Vastu Shastra via the West.

But much of this is confined to the Tai-chi and Chai-Tea crowd. Ordinary, middle-class 20-somethings have an equation all their own with God.
Young Hindu-Muslim-Sikh-Isai — and the Parsi Zoroastrian — see no contradiction in their enthusiastic embrace of religion and their 21st century globalised aspirations.

Pretty young things genuflect to patriarchy by fasting every Tuesday, and Karva Chauth, for the long-life of present and future husbands, has joined the pantheon of events on the social calendar.

But they also subpoena the manifestations of 'Shakti' to fight their social battles. Gender-bender iconography pops up in the most unexpected places.

Ganesha has always had a secular stretch perhaps because the desire for success is non-denominational. But now there's also a new Om-nipresence.


The mystic word once reverberated in an exclusively religious context. Today it has acquired a dubious universality even among those not attuned to Madonna mantras and Sunset Boulevard spiritualism.


The urbane young have converted Hinduism's most potent symbol into a fashion accessory; diamond-studded "Om" pendants flash from Evian-splashed throats and jangle on charm bracelets. The spiritual O-Word beams out from almost every episode of popular TV soaps.


Remember Rani Mukherjee in a micro-mini belting out the aarti Om Jai Jagdish Hare... in Kuchh Kuchh Hota Hai?

Where the young differ from their parents is their attitude to faith. If faith wants to keep them, it has to work for it. It's a commercial relationship. You can have my prayers, provided you get me my girlfriend back.

Personal belief is easy to understand in the young. What is more surprising is the exuberance with which they plunge into ritual.

Young couples want the works at their wedding to the bemusement of parents who probably had upset their own folks by insisting on Shaadi Simplified — 'mumbo jumbo' pared down to the bare minimum.


Elsewhere technology comes to the aid of the Almighty, via the tele-puja and the tele-darshan.


But it's not all sanitised sanctity. A regressive fundamentalism has inveigled its way into middle-class sections of youth of all religions, including such traditionally liberal ones as Zoroastrianism.


Its disturbing manifestation is an obdurate intolerance, communal exclusivity, and the demonising of the Other.
Hidebound, insular, middle-aged fundamentalists may not know any better. What's the excuse of the urbane, educated, have-it-all young?

Read More

Hardship Throws Up A Million Saviours

Feb 27, 2004, 12.00am IST
Marja Ludwika Jarocka.

When we run for cover as the sky opens up and the rain comes thundering down to the accompaniment of a million kettle-drums; when in the middle of the night, our bed dances across the floor of our room in the arms of a mighty earthquake, we exclaim: "Please, God, help me out of this!" — no matter in what language we've muttered the words, no matter what age we are living in, or where. Then there is one God, the protector of all humanity.



Why don't we remember this reaction at other times — when we ride a high horse, expounding on comparative religion, all the while defending our side and attacking the other's? We fail to realise that every one of us — whe- ther Catholics, Vaishnavas, Buddhists or Jews — are members of the same species, homo sapiens.


Ever since we first burned our fingers or smelled the ozone in the air produced by a too-near bolt of lightning, we have been invoking someone, usually of our own invention, asking to be rescued from fear and trouble. We must remember that neither our forefathers nor those of others were different from us.

In ancient Tenochtitlan (modern Mexico City) an Aztec facing floods muttered: "Oh Tlaloc (God) get me out of this". And somewhere in Saptasindhu, when an elderly man had to run for his life from a gathering storm, in all likelihood he invoked the grace of Varuna, the God of Rta, the master of the waters.

Similarly, when a woman in the ancient Aztec world was faced with that brush with death which is hidden in every life-giving birth, her thoughts turned to old, serpent-headed Coatlicue, with her necklace of human hands and hearts, at the centre of which there were two skulls with eyes in their sockets. And why not turn to mother Kali, with her necklace of skulls, when one is in trouble, desperately ill, perhaps, or even at death's door, and one happens to live, any time, anywhere, on the blessed earth of India?

What have been described here are normal human reactions in times of trouble. And trouble, as we know all too well, comes to all of us no matter what language we speak or where we live. And when it does, most of us turn to someone above for help. Primordial and modern man are decidedly in the same boat.

But some scholars of comparative religion, filled with ideas of belonging to a superior civilisation, argue that their God is the answer to the problems of all people. They were apt to believe that the Aztec was incapable of inventing his own deity: It had to be transmitted to him by someone else, from across the sea if possible.

Women, too, were thought to be incapable of communion with their favourite deity or goddess — they had to wait for a ‘supe-rior' gender to show them the way, to help them focus on a higher being to which they could pray for help.


However, diffusionism is definitely out, except among some people who believe themselves to be torch- bearers of all culture and civilisation. There are those who, remembering France's many contributions to the lexicon of the world, would call them chauvinistic. Many gods were carried hither and thither, all over the world, by traders and missionaries and adventurers and conquerors. But many gods were also born all over the world independently of each other. For God's sake, let people be the authors of their own consolation!

(The writer is a researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.)

Read More

Intensity of Faith Yields the Truth

Feb 26, 2004, 12.00am IST
T G L IYER.

A devotee asked Ramakrishna Parmahansa: “Sir, is God real and can I see Him?” Ramakrishna replied: “Yes, God is real. I see Him just as I see you or any other object around me.” The devotee continued: “Can I also see Him as you do?” Said the sage: “Yes, you can, if the intensity of your longing for God is equal to the intensity of a drowning man longing for fresh air; or the intensity of a mother longing for the life of her only child in the grip of serious illness; or of the miser longing for more wealth. If your longing for God is at least a fraction of the longing which Radha had for Krishna, then you will see God.”



James Van Praagh, author of Talking to Heaven travelled in a bus to work. Waiting for a bus was like waiting for eternity. He intensely wished he had a car. He didn’t earn enough to buy a car, but he visualised himself driving a beautiful two-seater, with lea-ther seats, and an attractive dash-board. But it was a mere dream, and it remained imprinted in his mind.

A few months later, a friend leaving for Hawaii needed someone to look after his house and James volunteered his services. After four weeks, James received a telephone call from his friend telling him that he has decided to live in Hawaii. Could James find out a customer to sell the house?


So, James started look- ing around for prospective buyers and struck an attractive deal. James asked his friend if he should arrange to transport his car to Hawaii. The friend wrote: “It is not worth the expense. I can purchase a new car in Hawaii. You have done a great service to me by selling the house. You can keep the car”. It was the car of his dreams, a brand new two-seater-convertible.

James concluded that if you believe in something and desire for it intensely, it materialises from nowhere as a gift. If you desire to see God intensely, you will at least experience his presence.

When your thoughts accumulate, they become your beliefs and the beliefs haunt your mind. The mind is a vast ocean of potential. You can dive into that, surf it; float on it, swim in it, play and have fun in it.

God speaks through dreams, hunches, instincts and inner voices, opening closed doors. For example, author Robert Louis Stevenson got most of his ideas for his books from his dreams. As soon as he woke up, he would sit at his desk and write down his dreams, word by word. These dreams eventually became his novels. The work of Thomas A Edison, music composer Mozart and Albert Einstein have all been inspired by dreams.
Like dreams, prayer is a powerful tool to realise God. Joseph Murphy who spent many years in India writes: “The law of your mind is the law of belief itself”. Whatever we feed our subconscious mind; false or true, good or evil, will register as a fact.
So, be careful about misfortune, as the subconscious has no sense of humour and the misfortune can occur if the mind figured it in the beginning. Murphy refers to the rituals of ancient India with the mixture of incantations and repetitions which converts suggestions into realities.


The miracle of healing, according to Murphy, is simply the body offering the subconscious mind’s ‘knowledge of perfect health’ when the questioning nature of the conscious mind is silenced. Real faith is about things happening in the present. If it is hundred per cent faith, it must happen.

Read More

The Passion of Christ And Ash Wednesday

Feb 25, 2004, 12.01am IST
Janina Gomes.

Lent, the season of fasting, penance and prayer begins today, on Ash Wednesday. The Lenten theme has often been negatively interpreted as a time for self-flagellation rather than empowerment.


However, signing the heads of Christians with ashes on this day is viewed today as a positive symbol: Repent and believe in the Gospel or the Good News, often preferred to the old formula, “Dust thou art and into dust thou shall return”. The good news with which the Gospel empowers us is that we are all sons and daughters of God, the King, and so should view ourselves with the empowering eyes of our divine inheritance.

Edwina Gately, a woman who worked with homeless and abused women once narrated this story: Once upon a time a country was invaded and the king was killed but his children were rescued by servants and hidden away. The smallest, an infant daughter, was reared by a peasant family who did not know she was the king’s daughter. Brought up in the peasant household, she dug potatoes and lived in poverty.


One day an old woman from the forest approached the young woman who was digging potatoes and asked her: “Do you know who you are?” And the young woman said,: “Yes. I’m the farmer’s daughter and a potato digger.” The old woman said: “No, no you are the daughter of the king” — and disappeared dramatically back into the forest.

After that, the young woman still dug potatoes, but she dug them differently. There was something different, almost elegant, in the way she held her shoulders — and there was light in her eyes because she knew who she was. The young woman knew she was the daughter of the king.

Robert J Wicks says the message of empowerment through love is to go from place to place saying to the dispossessed, to the lonely and the downtrodden, “Do you know who you are?” The poor may continue to dig potatoes, or engage in whatever jobs that is their lot, but now, they will do it with a sense of dignity.


In today’s globalised world, where human beings are often treated in the workplace as dispensable commodities and in a society where human worth is measured by the money one possesses, the power one wields and the social circles one moves in, Lent is a time to remind the potato diggers of the world, that they have an immeasurable human worth. They are all in a sense, true princes and princesses and the sons and daughters of the king. They have the capacity to transcend their potato digging lives and empower themselves and others. Outer change first begins by effecting inner change.

Empowerment follows from rea-lising who we truly are. The well-known parable of the prodigal son is really the story of a son who fled from his true self, family and extended family and squandered his time. Once he came to his senses and realised who he truly was, he could return to his inner home and his loving father who received him with open arms.

Sometimes, weighed down by our own personal problems and limitations, we find it difficult to reach out to others in love. It is so much easier to be preoccupied with ourselves and our concerns. The Lenten season calls for going beyond our narrow mental and spiritual visions. On Ash Wednesday, we remind ourselves that we are all children of God, the King. We also affirm that we have come from dust and will return to dust. Theologian Karl Rahner says: “We are nothingness that is filled with eternity; death that teems with life; futility that redeems; dust that is God’s life forever”.

Read More

Knowing to Being: A Paradigm Shift

Feb 24, 2004, 12.00am IST


His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who founded the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique, is recognised worldwide as the foremost authority in the field of consciousness. He recently said that a great shift is about to take place in the world; a new paradigm is unfolding for faster progress. Maharishi said this great leap of progress for mankind will be a shift from “knowing to Being”.


For generations, life has been lived on the level of “knowing” (I know this, I know that). But “Being” is the basis of knowing. The field of Being is infinitely more powerful than the surface level of “knowing”. Physics tells us that more subtle levels of nature contain more intelligence, more power (the atomic level is more powerful than the molecular level).


Physicists describe an unmanifest field of nature — the “ground state” or “vacuum state” — which is a field of perfect orderliness. This Unified Field of Natural Law (UFNL) is the source of all the energy and intelligence seen in the entire universe. It is a “field of all possibilities”, since it is the source of the great diversity we see around us. This same UFNL can be located within each individual, in the most silent level of the mind, in the transcendental state of consciousness. This is one’s Being, the Atma.

The field of Being is like the sap in a flower. We don’t see the sap, but it is the sap which is responsible for all the different aspects of the flower: the hard, green stem; the soft and red petals. The sap, giving rise to all the different expressions of the flower, is a field of all possibilities. Like that, our inner Being is a field of all possibilities, the basis of our creativity, intelligence, and energy. If a gardener had that supreme skill of being able to function from the level of the sap, he could create any desired effect on the surface of the flower. Likewise, if we had the ability to think and act from the level of Being, any level of achievement, progress and happiness would be possible.

Maharishi says the most important verse in the Bhagavad Gita is chapter II, verse 45. Krishna tells Arjuna, “Nistrai-gunyo bha-varjuna” — Be without the three gunas. Krishna advised Arjuna to come out of the field of activity, of diversity, and experience the field of inner Unity, Being. Then, in verse 48, Krishna said: “Yogasthah kuru karmani” — Established in Being, perform action. This is the technique for “skill in action”: Do less, accomplish more.

For so long, the saying has been “know thyself”. But this is only on the intellec-tual level. Maharishi says what is needed now is “being our Self”. Function from the level of Being, of perfect silence, energy and bliss.

Maharishi says, “Consciousness is the prime mover of life.” Everything that we do depends on the quality of our consciousness. If one’s consciousness is tired, chaotic or anxious, then everything they perceive will reflect that incoherence. If one’s consciousness is fresh and alert, everything they do will reflect those values. The Rig Veda says: “Knowledge is structured in consciousness”. Maharishi says, “The world is, as we are.” The key to life is: “Handle that one thing, consciousness, by which everything else is handled.”


The Maharishi’s message is simple: “Water the root to enjoy the fruit.” By nourishing the basis of life, by enlivening the field of Being, all aspects of life automatically get enriched. Maha-rishi’s TM technique is a direct, effortless way to open one’s awareness to the field of Being.

(The writer is International Director of Maharishi Corporate Development Programme. E-mail: lane@ maharishi.net. website: www. maharishi-india.org)

Read More

Lal Ded's Vaakhs and Kashmir Shaivism

Feb 23, 2004, 12.00am IST

Kashmir, often described as the abode of saints , has produced a number of spiritually evolved persons. Among them Lal Ded, better known as Lalla Yogeshwari, ranks as a great mystic poetess of the 14th century.



She was an ardent practitioner of Kashmir Shaivism which is also known as Trika Shastra founded by Vasu Gupta. Lal Ded took Shaktipat Diksha from her guru , Sri Neel Kanth.

Married young, Lal Ded was abused in her marital home. The suffering prompted her to renounce worldly life and turn to spirituality. From a state of despondency, Lal Ded turned her thoughts to God.


Her spiritual journey commenced with a note of uncertainty, she confessed, but as she progressed she claimed to have realised Lord Shiva to become a jivan mukta — a liberated soul even while living in this illusory world.


Lal Ded gave expression to her mystic and poetic inclinations thro-ugh her vaakhs, the four-line poetic verses in the Kashmiri language.


In verse, Lal Ded covers a vast area of spirituality — religion, Kashmir Shaivism and even Vedanta — where she says that she is reading the Bhagavad Gita every moment of her life.

She was also inspired by Islam and Sufism. Lal Ded's vaakhs' universal appeal attracts ordinary people as well as spiritually evolved persons.

Simple rural folk, too, sing these vaakhs to get inspired while they work the fields.

The vaakhs are suffused with such deep meaning that both eastern and western scholars and saints have studied them with great interest.


They have commented upon a total of 138 vaakhs which are recognised as authentic. Each vaakh reveals Lal Ded's knowledge of kundalini and other yogas.

Her vaakhs are an outpouring of her soul, both an expression of inner experience and observation. Her central theme is her discovery of Shiva within. Lal Ded says: "Chanting 'Om' and maddened with love, I set out in His search. I roamed day and night. My most auspicious moment came when I discovered my Lord ensconced in my own heart."

Her love of Shiva is sometimes compared to Mira's love for Kri-shna. Lal Ded eschewed the rigidity of religion and rituals. She rejected social and religious rites, rituals, dogmas, chanting, fasting, idol worship and even taking a dip in sacred waters.


She preferred deep and silent meditation which she described as a mantra to reach God.


The vaakhs speak of the oneness of all existence, service to mankind, equality, purity of mind and self- control. This conveys not only the significance of self-control but also advises not to covet things that belong to others.


She says that the uncontrolled mind runs amok in the five streets (senses): "Let abuses come to me from all sides; still, I will not harbour any ill will towards those who abuse me.''

Lal Ded does not advocate escapism — she asks us to arise and ascend with our karmas, to attain liberation here and now. For, if we cannot realise Him in our lifetime, how can we see Him after death?

“Will the sun not shine alike at all places? Will it give heat only to holy places?" She never differentiated between a Hindu and a Muslim. She was equally revered by both communities.

Like the Gita's ver-ses Lal Ded's vaakhs advocate a moral and ethical code of conduct and provides tips for spiritual advancement.

She gives a call to ascend to a higher level of growth while performing one's duties in the world. Her vaakhs reveal the affinity between Vedanta and Kashmir Shaivism.

She believed that all religions and philosophies speak of similar ideals; the more we plumb their depths, the more similarities we are bound to discover. All religions are similar in spirit even though they may appear different in practice.

R K Langar

Read More

Love's Fable Lost in Springtime Sale

Feb 21, 2004, 12.00am IST
A Srinivas.

Spring's in the air and it's time for love and flowers to bloom. Teenagers serenade each other on boulevards and in parks. But are the celebrations an outpouring of love or a mere affectation of it? In the lambent light of spring, there is a suspicion of shadow in the soul. We are a lonely lot; deep down, a spring morning can seem a day's burden.


Our outer gaiety conceals an inner expanse of grey. We speak of all the problems of the world but not of our anguish, our manifest inability to receive and radiate love. As a result, a creeping neurosis is becoming the norm rather than the exception. Unsure of acceptance, we tend to retreat into a hard, sullen narcissism. Our insecurity forces us into acquisitive, unloving behaviour patterns. Love is the most fundamental urge in a human being — the urge to feel close not just in an erotic sense, but crucially in a filial and general way. Psychologist Eric Fromm points out that a generalised ‘brotherly love' forms the basis of all compassion, if not a rational spiritualism.


Fromm details respect, res-ponsibility, care and know-ledge as the essentials of love between equals. But for this to happen, individuals would have to grow up to evolve with complete awareness of themselves and love their existence. But doesn't modern society splinter existence and destroy holism? The love of gnarled souls, filled with misgivings towards life, is likely to be less than convincing.

Modern society manufactures neurotics as it does consumer items, creating more repressed, atomised individuals than Sigmund Freud visualised. As Fromm observes, a market-oriented society creates homogeneous people with predictable wants and attitudes, therefore their inner self remains undeveloped and unduly self-centred. Fromm and Hans Sullivan also sought to dispel the Freudian fallacy that love was a product of sexual instinct. In a consumer society, the two are evidently poles apart. We amputate erotic love from parental love and brotherly love, as though erotic love was meant to survive in fetid isolation. Mystics inform us that phy-sical intimacy is a transient phenomenon, its need seeming all the more intense in a loveless, alienated society.

The market and malls choose to define love for us. The celluloid Raj Kapoor would have never met his Valentine today, because he would have been too poor to take her out to dinner or buy her an expensive lipstick. The rays of ‘love', as socio-logist Peter Berger observes, are refracted through a prism on class and culture, but never has this become as apparent as it has today with the market laying the ground rules.

An individual outside this orbit of social-ly well-defined behaviour faces failure in love, or he could turn neurotic. He lacks the class-culture credentials and therefore the suave confidence of a Shah Rukh Khan in Kal Ho Naa Ho. Gauri and Baiju in Baiju Bawra simply do not fit the bill. That was unglamorous, pre-Valentine love. The effervescence of cola is enough to shut out their chemistry.


Today's Valentines, for all their ‘happiness', betray fear in their eyes. They know little of brotherly love, still less of love for God. What passes in the name of religiosity today is mere bi-gotry. They, poor souls, might scarcely know who they are, where they are and what they are doing. Life is a pacy film without substance, and love, a mere kit-kat break.

Can the spirit of St Valentine thrive in a world where desire is manipulated at will? Love, as Faiz Ahmad Faiz would have said, is the domain of the maverick and non-conforming dreamer, the offspring of pluck and real individualism. It would survive best in the garden of spiritual stillness, not in the sumptuous sets of a Karan Johar film.

Read More

Relevance of Buddhism In the New Century

Feb 20, 2004, 12.00am IST
H H The Dalai Lama.

In the 20th century great changes took place as a result of experiments and developments in a broad range of human activities, in economics, politics, and science. The past hundred years' experiences have made us appreciate the importance of freedom, and the significant contributions of individual and private enterprise in improving the economy. We also began to recognise the importance of putting a stop to the production and proliferation of weapons of tremendous destructive power.



The difficulties and challenges we faced have helped us mature. So from the 20th to the 21st centuries, there have been positive developments in human thinking and our approach to problems. This is a source of hope.

Earlier, it was thought that human happiness could only be achieved through physical satisfaction. Tremendous human energy was directed into material development. However, the closing years of the century saw a widespread growth of awareness that material progress alone was insufficient. Also, more people are recognising the need to employ non-violence, to work for peace and the protection of the natural environment.


It is necessary to work on internal development by nurturing the ideals of non-violence, peace and the abolition of war from within. So the time is appropriate for all religious traditions to promote the positive qualities of compassion, tolerance, contentment, and self-discipline.


Consequently our different religious traditions have an important role to play and there should be good understanding and harmony among the different religious traditions of the world; they should engage in a common effort to contribute to human welfare.


The 25,000-year-old Buddha Dharma has a special role to play because Buddhism uniquely propounds the concept of interdependence, which accords closely with the fundamental notions of modern science.


There are those Buddhist traditions that look to the collection of scriptures preserved in Pali as their source and those who look to the Sanskrit tradition. This latter tradition reached its zenith at the renowned ancient university of Nalanda, where the literature and understanding of philosophy and logic were profoundly refined by Buddhist scholars of the time. This Sanskrit tradition is a crucial part of our Buddhist heritage. Until relatively recently there has been a lack of contact and interaction among even Buddhists. In future we need to encourage and foster an exchange of knowledge and experience among our different traditions and improve communications amongst us.


When I was young and studying in Tibet, like every Tibetan I regarded India as the Aryabhumi, the Holy Land, the source of our Buddhist religion and culture. Like every devout Buddhist I associated Bodh-gaya with the highest achievements of the spiritual path, the Buddha's attainment of perfect enlightenment. It was a place I longed to visit and fortunately an opportunity arose in 1956 with an invitation from the Mahabodhi Society to attend the Buddha Jayanti.

When I finally stood in the presence of the seat of enlightenment, I was profoundly moved. Reflecting on Shakyamuni Buddha's great accomplishment in this place I also could not fail to remember his overwhelming kindness to all sentient beings. Not only did he achieve perfection himself, but also he revealed that each of us has such potential. I believed then, as I do now, that the teachings of the Buddha could lead not only to inner peace in the lives of individuals, but also to peace between nations.

(Abridged from His Holiness's address at the International Conclave on Buddhism & Spiritual Tourism, New Delhi, February 17.)

Read More

Practice Vedanta and Return to Godhead

Feb 19, 2004, 12.00am IST

Spiritual development is a systematic, methodic process that needs to be learnt and practised like any other skill. But very few understand spiritual growth as being systematic or methodic.


Most people randomly pick up books and practices without understanding their significance and place in the overall process. Consequently they remain where they are — or they could end up harming themselves.


So it is essential that one puts in the effort to learn the knowledge of life and living systematically. The philosophy of Vedanta is useful in this regard.


Spiritual practice or yoga has greater significance than what is commonly understood. The term 'yoga' in Sanskrit and 'religion' in English have a common meaning. Yoga is derived from the root yuj, which means to join, unite.

The word 'religion' is derived from the Latin terms re and ligare, which mean to bind back or join back. Thus, religion or yoga is the process by which one unites to the Self, the godhead within.

A human being is separated from his true Self, atman or godhead by a mass of desires. He needs to slowly overcome his desires and reveal that Self.

Human beings are made up of body, mind and intellect. One needs to use these equipment effectively for spiritual evolution. The use of the intellect for gaining spiritual knowledge is Gnana Yoga. Engaging the mind in devotion is Bhakti Yoga.

Karma Yoga refers to the use of physical action for spiritual growth. There is a misconception that one has to choose a single yoga for one's growth. Actually, one needs to perform all three yogas.

The extent of their effect will differ from one individual to another. For example, a person of predominantly active temperament would need to do Karma, the service that will determine his evolution.

The proportion of Gnana, Knowledge, Bhakti and Devotion would be smaller in comparison. But he would still need to perform them to ensure an all-round development of his personality.


Gnana Yoga is training the intellect to think and contemplate upon the realities of life including understanding the purpose of human existence. Bhakti Yoga is mis- understood to be mechanical performance of rites and ritual.

One turns to God anticipating fulfilment of selfish motives. This is not true devotion. Bhakti envisages a much deeper import than what is commonly understood.
Devotion begins with an attitude of gratitude. An understanding of all the benefit that one has been showered with. Oxygen is provided for sustenance. The eyes are able to see.
Ears to hear. A mysterious power bestows these and numerous other provisions to sustain us. True Bhakti unfolds with gratitude for these miraculous provisions.
Karma Yoga is action performed with a higher ideal. Purposeful action that transcends mere selfishness, that encompasses the interests of the community, progressive action that renders the mind peaceful and provides the initiative for dynamic action.
Performance of the three yogas slowly reduces the desires within. When most of the desires are removed, the mind becomes calm and steady, fit for deeper contemplation.
Only such a controlled mind can be directed to meditation. Meditation is therefore for advanced spiritual practitioners, for those who have consistently performed the three yogas with dedicated effort.
Only a seeker with a perfectly controlled mind is qualified for meditation that can expose the Self within. Self-realisation is our ultimate goal. This state of ultimate bliss, fulfilment and liberation is the culmination of human existence.

Gautam Jain

Read More

Creator & Destroyer: Incorporeal Shiva

Feb 18, 2004, 12.00am IST
B K Mohini.

Mahashivratri or Shiva Jayanti is a festival imbued with deep spiritual meaning. Today, it is celebrated by devout Hindus as one of the many festivals and very few are aware of the deep significance of observing Mahashivratri.
Shiva symbolises the universally worshipped form of God, the Eternal Light. Shiva literally means one who is Kalyankari, the Benefactor of all souls.
Mahashivratri, therefore, is the memorial of the divine incarnation and divine acts of the incorporeal God.

Shiva is the Supreme Father, He who performs the triple role of creation, sustenance and destruction. This divine Trinity is symbolised as Brahma, Vishnu and Shan-kar in Hindu theology.
When devotees offer prayers to the Trinity form, they say “Brahma devtaya namaha, Vishnu devtaya namaha, Shankar devtaya namaha” and “Shiv Paramatmaya namaha”. Shiva denotes the Supreme God who is the creator of these three subtle deities through whom he performs divine acts. Only God the Father has the power to create, sustain and also destroy creation in order to renew it. Shiva is the Paramatma, the Supreme Soul, the Incorporeal, the Formless. But all deities and incarnations have corporeal form. Shiva and Shankar are worshipped distinctly as God and deity respectively.


The Shiva lingam denotes the incorporeal form of God Shiva. The three lines and a dot in the centre signify the subtle form of God as a point of light and his three divine acts. The 12 renowned temples in India, the Jyotirlingam Maths, are dedicated to the divine attributes of Shiva. The prayer Om Namo Shivay signifies that Om is the soul who is worshipping Shiva. Those who believe themselves to be manifestation of God say Shivoham (I am Shiva). We seldom hear of anyone referring to themselves as God, taking the name of deities. The deities are addressed as Lord; they are earthly rulers who appear in the cycle of karma, according to the fruit of their actions. God remains always beyond joy and sorrow. Deities are the highest creations of God; hence they are also worshipped alongside God. But they take birth in the corporeal world while God never appears in the cycle of birth and death, for, He is beyond it.


Deities are worshipped as pure beings but only God is patitapavan, the Purifier of all impure beings. All Shiva temples are named after His divine attributes and acts. Legends tell us that even the most revered deities, Krishna and Rama, invoked the blessings of Shiva, and this is represented by the temples at Rameshwaram and Gopeshwar. God is known as the Liberator who grants salvation to all souls because He is the only one who remains libera-ted, eternally.


Shivratri signifies the night of ignorance and unrighteousness when Shiva incarnates in order to open our third eye of wisdom. Today, due to ignorance, we say that God is omnipresent; yet, we continue to suffer and seek Him for salvation. In blind faith, we believe every spark of light to be the Sun.


When we cannot comprehend God, we look up to His divine creation as God. But it is the Supreme Soul who is the eternal source of Light and Might. All that seems divine, are, in fact, His creation.


Due to spiritual ignorance, we have lost our divinity. We can regain our divine nature only when we link ourselves to the Supreme Soul Shiva, who is the Ocean of all divine virtues and powers. As the Gita points out, when the Ocean is bestowing everything, why stop at a river or pond?
(Today is Mahashivratri)

Read More

Celestial Marriage: Shiva and Shakti

Feb 16, 2004, 12.00am IST

There is an interesting legend connected with Mahashivratri , the day Shiva got married a second time to Shakti , his divine consort.


Once Shiva and Sati or Shakti were returning from the ashram of sage Agastya, after listening to Ram Katha or the story of Ram.

On the way when Shiva saw Rama roaming the forest — in search of Sita who was kidnapped by Ravana — he bowed his head in reverence. A surprised Sati inquired of Shiva why he was paying obeisance to a mere mortal.


Shiva told her he did so because Ram was the incarnation of Vishnu. But Sati was not satisfied. Then Shiva asked her to go and verify the truth for herself.

Sati assumed the form of Sita and appeared before Ram who recognised her true identity. He asked: "Devi! Why are you alone, where's Shiva?" Sati realised the truth about Ram. Sita was like a mother to Shiva. Since Sati had adopted Sita's form, her status had changed.

Shiva mentally detached himself from her as a wife and Sati was saddened by the change. But she did not leave Mount Kailash; she just stayed on.

One day Sati's father Daksha organised a yagna, but did not invite his daughter and son-in-law as Shiva and Daksha had had an altercation in the court of Brahma.

But Sati wanted to attend the yagna and she went despite Shiva's advice to the contrary. Once there, Sati felt humiliated — for neither did she receive a warm welcome, nor did Daksha bother to offer sacred prasad to Shiva, who was, of course, not even invited.

A grief-stricken Sati jumped into the yagna fire and immolated herself.

A furious Shiva began His dance of destruction, the Rudra Tandava, carrying the body of his now dead wife. A perturbed Vishnu, in order to mollify the enraged Shiva, severed Sati's body into 12 pieces and threw them on earth.

Wherever the pieces fell, there emerged a Shakti Peetha, including the Kamaroopa Kamakhya in Assam and the Vindhyavasini in UP.

Meanwhile, Taraka the demon was ruining the peace of the rishis. The sages predicted that only Shiva's son could kill him. But Shiva could have a son only if he remarried.

So Kamadeva, the god of love, was sent to arouse passions in Him but got burnt by Shiva instead. At this time Sati or Shakti was reborn as Parvati.

She performed penance to marry Shiva. Persuaded by the sages, Shiva relented. And the marriage was solemnised a day before Amavasya in the month of Phalgun — this day is celebrated as Mahashivratri.

On this day devotees offer milk, fruits and bel leaves to the lingam. There is a myth behind the bel offerings: Suswar, the hunter, lived near Varanasi.

Returning one day from a hunting expedition, he lost his way. He climbed a bel tree where he spent the night. Nervous, he kept plucking the bel leaves, dropping them down one by one.

Beneath the tree was a Shiva lingam. That night happened to be Shivratri. The hunter had unknowingly worshipped Shiva on this auspicious day.

So, in his next birth, the hunter was reborn as king Chandra-bhanu, who is believed to have evolved all rituals connected with Shiva worship.

Shiva is ashutosh or easy to please; abdar or bestower of boons; Papkateswar or reliever of sins; Mukteswar or liberator, Hara the destroyer and a preserver.

Since destruction in Hinduism implies regeneration, Shiva represents the reproductive power which perpetually restores that which has been destroyed or dissolved.


He is also represented as the Ardhnarishwara — half-man, half-woman, signifying the power of the Shiva-Shakti combination.
C D Verma

Read More

Use the Present to Close the Past

Feb 14, 2004, 12.00am IST
Neeraja Raghavan.

Why do unhappy events stay on in the mind? Why are we haunted by those episodes in our lives which left us grief-stricken, frustrated, resentful, hurt, guilty or upset, and not by those which left us happy and contented? Across the mind’s screen, unpleasant images of the past flash by more often than fulfilled, pleasant ones.
Perhaps the key lies in the word ‘fulfilled’. Fulfilment implies completion. It refers to something that is over, finished with, with no loose ends. In today’s computer jargon, that file would be said to be ‘closed’.

We need to click the mouse on the filename if we wish to open it. Otherwise, the file is safely tucked away inside some folder, somewhere: Part of the many seldom-opened files in the mental computer. However, the numerous haunting memories conti-nue as ‘current’ files. Something in each one of them remains to be finished. It may well be an apology that was due. It could also be an unwillingness on our part to accept a loss. It may well be that a part of the mind continues to deny the reality of that particular event.

With each ounce of resistance, the episode nags us even more with its haunting presence.

Even without such strongly evocative feelings, the merest twinge of regret about a past event (why didn’t I qualify for that post?) is enough to bring it periodically into our focus.

Whatever the case, that niggling file is always open in the mental computer screen. We call it to our attention, effortlessly. All it takes is a lull in the external hub of life for the file to flash painfully across our relentless monitors.

We can, at best, minimise those files. But they get restored with a mere touch on the mind’s button. And all those unwanted emotions sweep through the mind, creating havoc within us, even though the trigger is safely embedded way back in the past.

As sole operators of the ‘files’ that trouble us, we have it in our power to ‘complete’ those files and save them, too, in that folder tucked away in the recesses of the mind. But to do that, we will have to let go of some of the pride, hurt, guilt, resentment or whichever emotion is coming in the way of our ‘completing’ that file.

We will have to embrace the loss, be it of a person, possession or our own self-image. Far more important than any external manifestation of our closing that file — a mere verbal apology will not complete the file if we are still seething with resentment — is our own inner total acceptance of all that it throws up within us.

If we are unable to forgive that ‘cruel wrongdoer’, how completely can we embrace our own inability to forgive? If that humiliating loss of self-esteem is unforgettable, how lovingly can we accept that humiliated self within us? For, until we can do that, unreservedly and unabashedly, we can be sure that those incomplete files will keep rearing their ugly heads, from time to time.

Each religion has its own prescription for this kind of ‘completion’. Confession, forgiveness, mindfulness, conscious acceptance — all these are different ways of telling those open files to close. For this is one computer that never shuts down: Not even when we sleep. Our troubled dreams testify to that.

So each time you are haunted by an unpleasant memory recognise that it is your inner self’s way of pointing to you the unfinished business that you still have: It is up to you to make use of the present to close the past.

Read More

Eternal Game of Hide-and-Seek

Feb 13, 2004, 12.00am IST
K P Rastogi.

I've nursed a deep desire since childhood to see truth, face-to-face. I knew that truth would remain elusive unless I learnt to recognise the true nature of my own self and the world around me. But bookish knowledge did not take me any closer to this goal. Knowledge derived with the help of the senses is not entirely dependable, for our senses can deceive us.


Restless, I read the biographies of Jesus Christ, the Buddha, Ramakrishna, Mirabai, Mahatma Gandhi and others. Inspired, I tried to acquire qualities that could elevate me to a higher position. But it was not easy; I was young and passions and desires had me in their grip.


In the midst of my worldly pursuits I would often slip into a pensive mood when nothing mattered except my search for truth. I would say to myself, “If man’s soul is a spark from the ultimate reality or God, then the knowledge of that Truth must come from within, not from without.” So I waited for truth to emer-ge from within. But nothing happened.
Dejected, I turned towards ‘Gyan Marg’, I read a lot. The result? I became an atheist. There is no God, there is no power that controls the universe, I told myself. Evolution is at the root of all that has evolved and that is evolving at present.

All the mysteries of the universe are the result of evolution, including even consciousness and self-consciousness. God is not the creator of man; man is the creator of God.


Atheism, however, makes the mind judge matters beyond its ken. The mind can show us relative truths and not the absolute Truth. Relative truth is maya or illusion. Our mind is incapable of revealing to us the ultimate reality. Truth-seekers cannot be satisfied with logical propositions, mathematical formulas or scientific laws that give us knowledge of the apparent, often imperfect truth. The mind is too poor a tool in this search.

Perhaps a purified, controlled mind can do what an unpurified mind cannot do. Yogic exercises can help us control the mind, silencing it completely. A mind free of thoughts might be able to ‘see’ God. But had it been so, Buddha would not have kept silent when he was asked three times by a renowned saint, “Do you believe in God?” Buddha was a man who knew his limitations and he did not like to mystify things. Newton, too, knew that his knowledge was shallow: “I am picking up pebbles on the sea shore”, he remarked.

Where the mind fails, can the heart succeed? Feelings perhaps have a wider reach than thoughts. ‘Prem Marg’ could well help us achieve what ‘Gyan Marg’ has failed to do. The Bhakti saints adopted this path with success. I followed this path for a while but remained unsatisfied.

At the age of 75 years, I am now convinced that the absolute Truth lies beyond our reach. We will never get to know it. We can at best make a guess and draw our own conclusions, and these are bound to be far away from Truth. The Vedas rightly say (about truth): “Neti, Neti, Neti” — Not this, not this, not this.

Sometimes, I ask myself: “Suppose I had more than five senses, say 20 or 30 — how would the universe appear to me?” I should think, very different indeed. New dimensions, facts, ways of thinking and new methods of approach will appear and as a result, the world as we know it will be transformed into a newer one.
What will happen to my idea of reality, to present-day science and mathematics, and to the arrogance of man?

Read More

It’s Time to Herald A New Humanity

Feb 12, 2004, 12.00am IST
Osho.

The most important need of humanity today is to be made aware that its past has betrayed it. There is no point in continuing with the past, for doing so will be suicidal. The new humanity will not be a society in the old sense, where individuals are only parts of it. It will be a meeting of individuals, where individuals are the masters and society is to serve them. It will have many different aspects to it. It will not have so many religions, it will have only a religious consciousness.


The individual, for the first time, will not be programmed; he will be helped to be himself . He will not be given any ideals or discipline, nor any certain pattern. He will be given only tremendous love for freedom, so that he can sacrifice everything, even his own life — but he cannot sacrifice freedom. He will not be repressive; he will be natural, with no inhibitions, expressive of everything that he has, as plants express themselves in different colours and fragrances.

The new individual will not be under the illusion that all human beings are equal, for they are not. That each individual is unique is a far higher concept than equality. Although the new individuals will not be ‘equal’, they will have equal opportunity to develop their potential.

There will be no marriage; love will be the only law.

The new humanity will have an ecology in which nature is not to be conquered, but lived and loved. We are part of it — how can we conquer it? It will not have any race, nation, state, colour or caste. It will have only a functional world government that will not be chosen by mediocre voters — because they necessarily choose people of their own category.

The new humanity will have a totally different pattern. Unless everyone is well-educated and has at least a bachelor’s degree, he will not be allowed to vote. There will be a no-party system because people will vote directly for individuals. The government, unlike now, won’t have any power; it will be simply functional. It will serve society in the real sense, not just in words.

Life has so many dimensions, but politics has dominated them all. Looking at a newspaper, someone on another planet would find it difficult to conceive what kind of people live on earth — only politicians? Murderers? Rapists? Criminals? Because, the media reports are full of these people, and on top of everything is the politician.

Every creative dimension of life will be brought to light, and the ugly aspects don’t need to be advertised. If somebody has murdered, it should be brought to light — not to say that he was a criminal, but to show how the very psycho-logy of the man, his upbringing, went wrong, and why he had to commit murder. In his place, with the same background, anyone would have done the same. So you are not condemning the person, you are condemning the training, the background, the upbringing; this is absolutely scientific.

Newspapers should be full of creativity and positivity. Ninety per cent of a newspaper should give coverage to musicians, poets, sculptors, dancers, actors, philosophers and only 10 per cent should be given to the politicians and the negative elements. The negative elements should be analysed so that the indivi-dual is not condemned. And the politicians should only be given space as information, no more. If they are doing something good or not good, it should be reported — but they should not be dominating our entire life.

(Excerpted from ‘The Path of the Mystic’)

Read More

Lasting Happiness And Bhakti Yoga

Feb 11, 2004, 12.00am IST
Yogacharya Kundan Kumar.

To attain jitendriyata is to achieve full control over one’s senses. This leads to what is called God-realisation. In this controlled state all pain and suffering cease permanently. Achievement of this bliss is the sole aim of human life.


There are different paths to achieve this height as there are different routes leading to, for instance, Mount Everest. Gyan, karma, bhakti, raja, hatha, swara, nada, astanga yogas; all of these lead to the same goal of achieving communion with God.

Just as the time taken by different routes to reach a particular destination vari-es, each path of yoga takes its own time. The shortest and most suitable path ordained in this Kali Yuga is bhakti yoga. This form of yoga and all other forms of yoga come under astanga yoga or the eight-fold yoga which comprises the following:

1. Yama or ahimsa, satya, asteya, brahma-charya and aparigraha, meaning non-violence, truthfulness, non-stealing, continuous meditation or remembrance by salutation to God and non-accumulation of non-essential things.

2. Niyama or sauch, santosh, tapas, swadhyaya and ishwara pranidhana, meaning cleanliness, both internal as well as external, contentment, rightful penance, self-study and self-surrender to God.


3. Asana or body postures in the yogic tradition.


4. Pranayama or control of prana.


5. Pratyahara or withdrawal of sense organs within.


6. Dharana or contemplation.


7. Dhyana or meditation.


8. Samadhi or total union with God.

A practical thing to opt for is a practice of the eight-fold yoga with a special stress on bhakti yoga.

The importance of bhakti and the resultant cessation of dukh or sorrow has been recorded in the scriptures. Saints and also ordinary people who have practised bhakti yoga in their day-to-day life vouch for its efficacy. Bhakti yoga stands for intense love of God.

Practitioners of bhakti yoga do not ask for anything in return from God; they believe that God, as the mother and father of all, understands his children. Sometimes God does not fulfil the immediate desires of His bhaktas. However, the bhakti yogi continues to nurture his devotion and love for God as he is convinced that whatever God gives, He gives for the ultimate good of the bhakta.
Two shlokas in the Bhagavad Gita extol the virtues of bhakti (9:34 and 18:65). Krishna emphasises that bhakti is the theme which is the secret of all secrets (18:64) and Krishna cautions Arjuna and through him, cautions entire humanity, to pay special heed to it.


Bhakti yoga acquires greater potency when it combines with some kriyas of astanga yoga like trataka, neti and its various forms, according to the needs of the practitioner. However, all yogic kriyas should be learnt and performed under competent guidance to avoid unpleasant results.
Another kriya which is very powerful for yogic accomplishments and all-round happiness is the sabd brahm kriya of nada yoga. In special yogic posture the anahat nada — the sound which is produced in our body without any external effort — is meditated upon. This anahat nada is the divine sound and is experienced by the sadhaka in the form of ghosha, kanshya, sringa, ghanta, veena, banshuri, dundubhi, sankha and megha garjana.

The practitioner of nada yoga under the guidance of a siddha nada yogi avoids falling into the trap of self-destructive human weaknesses and ultimately achieves communion with God. Having done so, nothing remains but bliss.

Read More

We are in a Prison of Our Own Making

Feb 10, 2004, 12.00am IST
Swami Sukhabodhananda.

Every one of us is pre- programmed, in accordance with the culture, family, society or religion we are born into and grow up with. Most of us are indifferent to the fact that we operate with little awareness. So we end up living in a self-made prison.


Once a philosopher asked a cobbler — who was himself a Sufi saint — to repair his shoe. The cobbler expressed his inability to do so as he was about to close his shop for the day. If his shoe were not repaired immediately, he would have only one shoe to wear, explained the philosopher to the cobbler. “Please, this is urgent,” he pleaded.

“You may please borrow my shoe for the other foot’’, said the cobbler. ‘‘But I don’t wear another’s shoes,’’ said the philosopher. ‘‘If you can borrow someone’s ideas why not a shoe?’’ asked the cobbler. Truly, our ideas are largely borrowed ones. Borrowed ideas have become a part of our inner programming. Myths and disempowering words and thoughts have invaded our inner engineering.

Learn to observe life deeply. If you observe yourself deeply you will find that you are not one ‘I’ but multiple ‘I’s. There is an ‘I’ that supports you and another ‘I’ that pulls you down. You should learn to de-identify from the negative ‘I’ and invite the positive ‘I’. Can we observe how we touch the outer world with our inner thoughts and attitudes? If our thoughts and attitudes are negative, a negative system gets created. Then the negative system takes control of our life, develops its own survival mechanism and we become slaves of that system. The art of wise living is to dismantle the negative system from our lives.


We have to learn the art of inner separation and not allow inner thoughts and attitudes of negativity to eat into our lives. Negative, ignorant, addictive, narrow, foolish ‘I’s eat our life forces just as rats eat crops. Some ‘I’s in us are our friends and some, our enemies. To recognise and de-identify ourselves with the negative ‘I’s is ‘inner separation’.

If we identify with negative thoughts and emotions coming from multiple ‘I’s and feel them to be our true self, it will lead to chaos and conflict. Any thought or emotion that passes through us is not ours. The traffic on the pavement does not belong to us... neither does the traffic of thoughts. We should learn to select and reject, only then we will not find ourselves in prison.

Don’t allow moods that emerge from the negative ‘I’ to overtake your life. Allow wise influences to impact your life. Don’t allow the influences of darkness impact your life. Allow the influences of the Sun to energise you. Learn to be in association with the conscious humanity and not the sleeping humanity. This will make you look at ordinary things in a new way. A new “will” will be created. A new meaning will emerge. A new understanding will guide you and give you wings to fly.

Be like the bee which goes from one flower to another, savouring the nectar from each of them. A fly, on the other hand, sits on garbage, and then flies to a sweetmeat shop and again to the gutter and back to the rose garden. The fly is alternating between goodness and toxin. But the bee picks and chooses from what is available and is attracted to the good alone and hence flies from one flower to another. Being like a bee in life, will enable us to move from one form of goodness to another, and we will be attracted to all the sacredness of existence. To be like a fly is to indulge in negati- vities like anger, hatred and jealousies and then visiting the temples and shrines for prayer.

(Mantra Yoga workshop will be conducted on Feb 14 and 15. Contact: 98-105-84300 98-105-84300. Website: www.swamisukhabodhananda.org)

Read More

The Ideal Way to Get Really Close to God

Feb 9, 2004, 12.00am IST
Swami Sadyojat Shankarashram.

Once upon a time, a musk deer went searching for musk. Round and round the forest she went, month after month, quite unaware that the heady fragrance, so desperately sought by her, lay beneath her own belly button. Many times, we humans, too, behave like the musk deer. We search for self-realisation outside, blissfully unaware that it lies within us, all the while untapped.


To experience this bliss , however, the seeker has to put in a different sort of effort with regularity and devotion. One way lies through the world of forms, through the path of bhakti, where the seeker concentrates on any of the manifest forms of the Ultimate. The other more arduous way of knowledge involves seeking the truth as the Unmanifest, without any attributes. The former is called saguna upasana and the latter, nirguna upasana, of no-attributes.


“Of the two, which is superior?” the Pandava prince Arjuna asks Sri Krishna, his divine charioteer, in Chapter 12 of the Bhagavad Gita. While both paths lead to the same goal, the way of no-forms is not an easy journey for ordinary mortals, the Lord replies. How do you grasp That, which lies beyond all epithets and qualities even as you control your senses and keep searching for the truth with absolute even-mindedness?
Much as you may want to do so, you just cannot reject maya or illusion overnight. You cannot suddenly deny all that your senses are taking in as unreal or non-existent. You can only pray to the Lord to part the curtains. This then is saguna upasana, where the seeker takes sole refuge with the Lord with unswerving faith or bhakti. And the Lord, in turn, assures the bhakta that He will indeed redeem him swiftly from the ocean of transmigratory existence, over which the shadow of death hovers permanently. To earn such grace, however, the devotee has to consecrate all his actions, offer all that he is, or does, to the god he worships. The devotee does not stop performing his duty, he only does what he has to do with constant awareness of his ultimate objective.


The best way to get immediate and everlasting peace, Krishna finally tells Arjuna, is through the renunciation of the fruit of all action. This means doing your duty with the full faith that the fruit, whatever it may be, is the prasad or blessing gifted by the Lord. Seeing this from the reverse perspective makes renunciation of the fruit of action the first step in the ladder to ultimate realisation. If you can be completely honest to yourself and truly act without clamouring for the fruit of your action, positive energy will be released. This will automatically lead you to higher levels of awareness. However, one also needs to guard against complacency as well as feverishness if one is to progress on this path of abhyasa.


“He who has schooled himself to rise above any rigidity; one who uses his judgment to accommodate change; he who is free from ego, envy, fear and anxiety; he who remains unaffected by all pairs of opposites such as praise or censure, joy or sorrow; he who is clean and compassionate, selfless and detached, and most important, one who feels, nay, exults in the knowledge that he is working through Me alone — such a devotee is extremely dear to me”, Krishna assures Arjuna. One who is thus enlightened relates to the world out of his own fullness and not out of any calculated need to seek anything from anyone.

(The writer is the 11th Mathadhipati of the Shri Chitrapur Saraswat Math. He will deliver a discourse at Kamani Auditorium in Delhi on February 11 at 6.30 p.m. Website: www.chitrapurmath.net)

Read More

Unifying Spirit Of Jungle Lore

Feb 7, 2004, 12.00am IST
Narayani Ganesh.

Garjia, Uttaranchal: The jungle has inspired many an individual to turn philoso-phical and it is not difficult to see why. The five elements — air, water, fire, earth and sky — and trees, animals, birds and reptiles have all been the subject of reverence or worship in various communities worldwide either because of the fear and awe they invoke or because we need them for our own survival.
A group of journalists visiting the Corbett National Park in Uttaranchal, we were following a nature trail in the periphery of the jungle, led by naturalist-guide Rajesh Bhatt.
Treading heavily on dry leaves and twigs, we were wrecking the peace of the forest. “Do you know, a tiger would not make a single sound if he were to walk the same path?” he chided us gently. He proceeded to explain the intricate and intimate relationship between the various constituents of the jungle, including even the tiny termites city-dwellers try desperately to fumigate from their homes.

Termite mou-nds hide within intense activity and contribute greatly to forest biodiversity. More than 200 species of birds feed on termites as do monkeys and bears. Termites work methodically. A mound resembles a modern city system with air-conditioned rooms.

Acknowledging the industry of the termites, ancients have referred to them as being sarva shreshta or the ‘best’ of all. Termite mounds are still worshipped in many rural areas. “Look at the Sal,” Rajesh tells us, pointing to a tall tree tapering to the skies, arms outstretched upwards.

“It is the pride of the Corbett National Park. There’s a saying that the Sal tree stands for 100 years at least; even when felled it stays preserved for 100 years and it takes another 100 years for the rot to set in.” He points to the Banyan tree and tells us how its aerial roots strengthen the tree as well as harbour a variety of life forms. Again, the Banyan is also worshipped by many. Religious veneration was one sure route to preservation.

Clutching a few blades of Durba grass, Rajesh tells us how no puja was thought complete without it but now, with religious rituals on the wane, not much importance is given to this grass whose virtues have been extolled in Hindu mythology and the puranas. He tells us that nature, environment and culture were considered to be as vital for the survival of the species as are the brain, heart and backbone in a human being. He proceeds to quote a shloka: “Pathe pathe cho deva naam/ Saakha panch Maheshwara” — every leaf is the abode of God, and each branch is equal to the five gods...”

Jim Corbett, the legendary hunter of man-eating tigers — who was born and brought up in the Kumaon region and spent most of his life there — was also a committed conservationist and community leader who pain-stakingly deve-loped what is known today as Choti Haldwani. Corbett believed that human encroachment into forests and denudation turned tigers into man-eaters, because human activity reduced biodiversity and deprived the tiger of its natural prey.

Corbett championed conservation of the forest and took up the cause of the tiger who was fast becoming an endangered species. He said: “A tiger is a large-hearted gentleman with boundless courage and when he is exterminated — as exterminated he will be unless public opinion rallies to his support — India will be the poorer by having lost the finest of her fauna”.


The fact that we know more about Corbett the Hunter than we do about Corbett the Conservationist only goes to show that our appetite for gore is far greater than our inclination to learn about the art of friendly survival.

Read More

Divine Inspiration of Narada Bhakti Sutra

Feb 6, 2004, 12.00am IST
SEEMA BURMAN.

Sage Narada had the knack of bringing about social change and spiritual growth wherever he went. Adored and respected by Lord Krishna , Narada employed different ways to bring people nearer to God . He convinced the dacoit Ratnakar to chant “Mara, Mara” — the reverse of “Rama, Rama” — helping him evolve enough to get transformed into a sage (Valmiki).


Narada taught five-year-old Dhruv how to meditate. The result? The Lord manifested Himself before Dhruv. Narada’s pointer that all eight children of Devaki could be a threat to King Kansa’s life led to Kansa being killed and liberated at the hands of God. Somehow, Narada brings all to God.

Narada once confided to Krishna that he yearned to experience maya or illusion. The Lord transformed Narada into a pretty girl, Naradi. A man falls in love with her, marries her and they have several children. Naradi is happy for a while, looking after her family. But when her child dies, she is inconsolable. Naradi weeps on the banks of a river when she hears someone asking for water. Looking up, she finds a smiling Krishna — at which point she realises that she is actually Narada, the sage. All that transpired was maya.

Maya is the Unreal that hides the Real. Man forgets his divinity due to ignorance. The Self is One with Brahman. But ignorance makes the Self and thinks itself to be limited, helpless and finite. The unchangeable atman superimposes upon itself the nature of changeable body and mind.


In the Narada Bhakti Sutra, Narada recommends various ways to come out of maya. One should give up attachment (sangam tyajati), serve the great (mahanubhavam sevatae) and be freed from ‘I and mine’ (nirmamao bhavati). To give up attachment one must restrain the senses and practise austerities. Krishna says in the Gita: “ A restless mind can be restrained by renunciation and practise” (10.35).


Narada recommends a life of solitude (viviktasthanam sevate) to enable cutting through worldly bondage (loka-bandham unmulayati), go beyond the three gunas (nistraigunyo bhavati) and depend on God for living (yogakshemam tyajati). Cutting worldly bondage is to see God in all and serve all with selfless love. Going beyond the three gunas is to be free of all moods. To depend on God means total surrender to Him.
Narada says that one who gives up fruits of action (karma-phalam tyajati), renounces all selfish activities (karmani sannyasyati), and passes beyond pairs of opposites (nirdvandvo bhavati), crosses maya. The Law of Karma says that all actions and thoughts yield fruits of happiness and misery and bind us further.
The greatest remedy of all ills is to surrender the fruits of karma to God. Work performed as worship crea-tes love and devotion. Such devotion leads to non-attachment freeing the devotee from cause and effect. One who accepts pairs of opposites (happiness-misery, heat-cold, success-failure) with equanimity is freed from ignorance and achieves immortality. In order to achieve all this, one has to love God unconditionally and cons-tantly — and it means living in constant Bliss. Only when one reaches such a stage, one becomes equipped to overcome maya. A true devotee never forgets God — not even for a moment, just like the gopis, says Narada.

Narada assures that God reveals Himself to the devotee who worships Him day and night, whose voice chokes while speaking of Him, who is moved to tears by merely hearing His name, whose hair stands up on end in ecstasy. When God reveals Himself to such an evolved devotee, maya is dissolved.

Read More