Glory of Life

Srikensho

2006-01-18T12:18:46+01:00

A Page from my Life Diary
17th January 2006

Shrikant Vasudeo

Srikensho

Kensho is a Japanese word used in Zen Buddhism. It denotes an initial awakening experience. It is realising our True Nature or the Buddha nature. We have to constantly do the introspection to know the illusionary nature of separate self. The process of perception is through our consciousness. It involves the perceived object, the process of perception and a perceiving object. The actual process of Kensho requires the guidance of an enlightened Master or the Zen Master. The method is known as the constant questioning self about ‘Who am I ? or ‘Koh Ahum’ in Sanskrit.
I find this process extremely useful in Sri Anand Yoga – the Yoga of Happiness. I use it in totally different context and manner. For a common person, doing meditation is a hopelessly frustrating experience. What is commonly done under the term ‘meditation’ is mental simulation of some happy state. It is a sort of virtual reality. It invariably fails to make any substantive impact in everyday life of a common person. The actual reality in here is vastly different from the simulated scenario of the meditated state out there. At best of times, it only helps just as a person under the influence of psychedelic drugs or alcohol have euphoric feeling when he is ‘high’ on drugs. When the effect of the chemical is waned, one crash lands on the ground of reality. This happens only in best of the times. In actual practice and in most of the cases, we do not get even this benefit out of meditation. As soon as one closes his eyes and begins meditation, his mental machinery takes over his brain and he starts thinking all sorts of thoughts. At other times the very process of closing eyes and remaining motionless causes a person to go into a half-sleep state and then straight into semi-wakeful dreaming state. The meditation process gets hijacked without one realising its happening.
In Sri Anand Yoga, we follow different process. Instead of the process of doing meditation in seclusion under the guidance of Zen Master in some Ashram or Monastery for an extended period of time, the process I adopt in Sri Anand Yoga is that of doing a ‘parallel thinking of Kensho’ in every day living experience. There is no Zen Master, no monastery, no closing of eyes, no lying motionless. The impartial, non-Judgmental observing ‘I’ is my Zen Master. My inner mental atmosphere is my Ashram. To distinguish it from the Japanese-Zen Kensho, I call it Srikensho as part of Sri Anand Yoga.
Whenever any worry, tension, irritation, anxiety, excitement creates ripples in my mind, it is the point I have to do the Srikensho. It is a sort of ‘handle’ which I take a grip on. Doing pure meditation in seclusion needs some very high level techniques. It is meant for persons with particular level of spiritual development. The main difficulty in doing ‘pure’ meditation is that we can not think at ‘abstract’ level. Our mind is accustomed to focus on something ‘concrete’. Thinking of ‘joy’ as an abstract or pure idea is difficult to grasp. Thinking of the joy I get when I eat my favourite ice-cream is more concrete and easy to focus on. My mental act of responding to the event which triggers the ripples is at present done in an semi-automatic manner. This connection operates at two levels – reception of environmental data at Brain and reception of emotional data at Heart. The Heart also receives the emotional trigger from the Brain based on its interpretation of the external data received by it in the first stage. Through the process of Srikensho, I have to give an infinitesimally micro level pause between the process of action and the response. This is the Master Key of Srikensho. This breaks the autonomisity of my brain and heart to respond to the external events. There are also some complimentary yogic processes of ‘Solid Breathing’, ‘Energy Kriya Yoga’, ‘Sensual Focusing’ (Sensual = of and relating to Senses) and ‘Earth Rooting’ which greatly help in having effective Srikensho.
Whenever I get upset or excited of something, I immediately ‘grab’ this opportunity of doing Srikensho. I get a ‘handle’ to focus my mind on. I do the mental introspection of the process which causes the ripples on the waters of my mind. There is a limitation of our language to correctly explain this process graphically. Essentially I question my ‘helplessness’ in allowing the ripples to form on my mental water. I realise that I am vulnerable in the hands of my ‘automatic’ instrument of mind-brain-heart-senses. This awareness of the vulnerability is a giant step forward in doing Srikensho. The constant practice increases the fine sensitivity of our awareness to this process of ‘ripple formation’. In order to correctly perceive the process of Srikensho, I give the example of the game of ‘hitting the sliding ball’. In this game, a hollow cylinder of around 2 ft length is kept slanting on the table with an angle of 45 degrees. A person drops a table tennis (ping pong) ball on top of the cylinder. This is seen by the player. He is ready with a ‘hammer’. He gauges the time it takes for the ball to travel through the empty cylinder and come out of the other end at the bottom. As soon as the ball appears out of the bottom of the cylinder, he has to hit the ball with the hammer. This he has to do while the ball has come out of the cylinder and before it falls off the edge of the table. If he is able to hit the ball, he wins. It looks fairly simple and straightforward game. As the player sees the dropping of the ball at top of the cylinder, he immediately gets ready to hit the ball as soon as it appears at the bottom of the cylinder and before it falls off the table. Anybody who has actually played this game knows that it is extremely difficult to hit the ball. In 9 out of 10 tries, the attempt fails. This is just to give you an example of ‘hitting the ball’ in nick of time. Similarly, when we play the game of Srikensho, we have to watch the process of the external process triggering the chain reaction of ‘ripple formation’ on mental water and in the nick of time, put a pause between the two successive elements in this chain. It is difficult, but it is possible. The rewards of playing the game are immense.
This is such a game that even if you fail, you win a lot. Control over self is control over the Universe, which is a projection of the self. Attempt at control in right manner of Srikensho, even if one fails in it, results in giant leap forward in one’s ‘happy’ journey on this beautiful planet. The pinnacle of journey may not have been achieved, but the journey itself brings rich dividends on the way.

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Notes on Yoga

2005-10-22T09:25:30+02:00

Shrikant Vasudeo

Notes Divine and Human

Notes on Yoga

Solely and Exclusively based on
Sri Aurobindo’s
Synthesis of Yoga

Life and Yoga

(Introduction : The Conditions of the Synthesis : I Life and Yoga)

There are two necessities of Nature’s workings. It seems that they always intervene in the greater form of human activity. The activity may belong to our ordinary fields of movement or seek those exceptional spheres and fulfillments which appear to us high and divine.
First Necessity : Every such form tends towards a harmonised complexity and totality. This again breaks apart into various channels of special effort and tendency. And once more it unites, but this time in a larger and more puissant synthesis than the earlier one.
Second Necessity : Development into forms is an imperative rule of effective manifestation. On the other hand, all truth and practice too strictly formulated becomes old. It then loses much, if not all, of its virtue. It must therefore be constantly renovated by fresh streams of the spirit. This stream revivifies the dead or dying vehicle and changes it in order to acquire a new life.

To be perpetually reborn is a condition of material immortality. We are in an age full of the throes of travail. All forms of thought and activity that have in themselves any strong power of utility or any secret virtue of persistence are being subjected to a supreme test. They are given their opportunity of rebirth. The world to-day presents the aspect of a huge cauldron of Medea. Here all things are being cast, shredded into pieces, experimented on, combined and recombined. This is done in order to perish and provide the scattered material of new forms. Alternatively, it provides an opportunity to emerge rejuvenated and changed for a fresh term of existence.

Indian Yoga is in its essence a special action or formulation of certain great powers of Nature. The Yoga is itself specialized, divided and variously formulated. It is potentially one of these dynamic elements of the future life of humanity. This Yogic system of India is a child of immemorial ages. It is preserved by its vitality and truth into our modern times. It is now emerging from the secret schools and ascetic retreats in which it had earlier taken refuge. It is now seeking its place in the future sum of living human powers and utilities. However, it has first to rediscover itself. It has to bring to the surface the profoundest reason of its being in that general truth and that uncasing aim of Nature which it represents. It has then to find its own recovered and larger synthesis. This is to be achieved by virtue of this new self-knowledge and self-appreciation. This reorganisation will help it to enter more easily and powerfully into the reorganized life of the race. It is similar to the inner truth of the Indian Yoga which claim to lead within the most secret penetralia. It also leads upward to the highest altitudes of its known existence and personality.

If we take the right view both of life and of Yoga, we discover that all life is either consciously or subconsciously a Yoga. By Yoga we mean a methodised effort towards self-perfection by the expression of the potentialities which are latent in the being. It leads us towards the union of the human individual with the universal and transcendent Existence. This transcendent Existence we see partially expressed in man and in the Cosmos. But all life is a vast Yoga of Nature. This is evident when we look behind its appearances. It is attempting to realize her perfection in an ever increasing expression of her potentialities. It is leading to unite herself with her own divine reality. Her thinker is Man. In him she for the first time upon this Earth devises self-conscious means and willed arrangements of activity. This results in this great purpose more swiftly and puissantly being attained. Swami Vivekananda has said that Yoga may be regarded as a means of compressing one’s evolution into a single life or a few years or even a few months of bodily existence. Therefore, a given system of Yoga can be no more than a selection or a compression into narrower but more energetic forms of intensity. This compression is of the general methods which are already being used loosely and largely in a leisurely movement. It is done with a profounder apparent waste of material and energy. Yogic System achieves a more complete combination by the great Mother in her vast upward labour. It is this view of Yoga that can alone form the basis for a sound and rational synthesis of Yogic methods. In such a case Yoga ceases to appear something mystic and abnormal which has no relation to the ordinary processes of the World-Energy. It brings into relevance the purpose which great Mother keeps in view in her two great movements of subjective and objective self-fulfillment. Rather, it reveals itself as an intense and exceptional use of powers that she has already manifested or is progressively organizing in her less exalted but more general operations.

Yogic and Scientific methods have some similarity. There is a relation between scientific handling of the natural force of electricity or of steam to the normal operations of electricity and of steam. The similar relation exists in Yogic method when it handles the customary psychological workings of man. The Yogic methods too are formed upon a knowledge developed and confirmed by regular experiment, practical analysis and constant result. For instance, all Rajayoga depends on this perception and experience that our inner elements, combinations, functions and forces can be separated or dissolved. They can be new-combined and set to novel and formerly impossible workings. They can be transformed and resolved into a new general synthesis by fixed internal processes. On similar lines, Hathayoga depends on this perception and experience that the vital forces and functions can be mastered, its operations changed or suspended. To these vital forces our life is normally subjected. Their ordinary operations seem set and indispensable. This can be done with results that would otherwise be impossible. They may seem miraculous to those who have not seized the rationale of their process. It is likely that in some other of its forms this character of Yoga is less apparent. This is due to these systems being more intuitive and less mechanical. Even in such cases they start from the use of some principal faculty in us. This is done by ways and for ends not contemplated in its everyday spontaneous workings. This happens in the case of Yoga of Devotion which is nearer to the supernal ecstasy. In the case of Yoga of Knowledge it is nearer to the supernal infinity of consciousness and being. All methods grouped under the common name of Yoga are special psychological processes. They are founded on a fixed truth of Nature. They develop out of normal functions, powers and results. These are always latent in man. But the ordinary movements of Nature do not easily or frequently manifest these psychological processes in him.

In physical knowledge the multiplication of scientific processes has its disadvantages. For instance, it tends to develop a victorious artificiality which overwhelms our natural human life under a load of machinery. It tempts us to purchase certain forms of freedom and mastery at the price of an increased servitude. Similarly, the preoccupation of man with Yogic processes and their exceptional results may have its disadvantages and losses. The Yogin tends to draw away from the common existence and lose his hold upon it. He tend to purchase wealth of spirit by paying impoverishment of his human activities. Purchase inner freedom by causing an outer death. If he gains God, he loses life. On the other hand, if he turns his efforts outward to conquer life, he is in danger of losing God. Therefore we see in India that a sharp incompatibility has been created between life in the world and spiritual growth and perfection. And although the tradition and ideal of a victorious harmony between the inner attraction and the outer demand remains, it is little exemplified. In fact, when a man turns his vision and energy inward and enters on the path of Yoga, he is supposed to be lost inevitably to the great stream of our collective existence and the secular effort of humanity. This idea has strongly prevailed. Prevalent philosophies and religions have greatly emphasized this idea. This has its inevitable result in a general perception that escape form life is commonly considered as not only the necessary condition, but the general object of Yoga.

No synthesis of Yoga can be satisfying which does not, in its aim, reunite God and Nature in a liberated and perfected human life. Its method not only permit but should favour the harmony of our inner and outer activities and experiences in the divine consummation of both. Man is precisely the term and symbol of a higher Existence descended into the material world for some hidden purpose. In this symbol it should be possible to for the lower to transfigure itself and put on the nature of the higher. At the same time, Man is also the term in which the higher should be able to reveal itself in the forms of the lower. The life has given man the possibility of the realisation of that possibility.
To avoid this life can never be
• The indispensable condition, or
• The whole and ultimate object
of his supreme endeavour, or
of his most powerful means of self-fulfillment.
It can only be a temporary necessity under certain conditions. It can be specialized extreme effort imposed on the individual so as to prepare a greater general possibility for the race.

The true and full object and utility of Yoga can only be accomplished when the conscious Yoga in man becomes like the subconscious Yoga in Nature. It is outwardly conterminous with life itself. It is accomplished when looking out both on the path and the achievement we can say once more, say in a more perfect and luminous sense : “All life is Yoga”.

Nature and Her Triple Aspects

(Chapter II : The Three Steps of Nature)

We have seen that in the past developments of Yoga, a specializing and separative tendency. Like all the other things in Nature, this tendency had its justifying and even imperative utility. We seek a synthesis of the specialized aims and methods which have come into being as a consequence of this tendency.
In order that we may be wisely guided in our effort, we must know :
• First, the general principle and purpose underlying this separative impulse, and
• Second, the particular utilities upon which the method of each school of Yoga is founded.
For the general principle, we must interrogate the universal workings of Nature herself. We need to recognise in her not just the specious and illusive activity of a distorting Maya (illusion). We also need to understand in the workings of Nature, the cosmic energy and workings of God Himself in His universal being. He does the action of formulating. He is inspired by a vast, an infinite and yet a minutely selective Wisdom. It is prajna prasrta purani of the Gita. It is the Wisdom that went forth from the Eternal since the beginning. For the particular utilities we must cast a penetrative eye on the different methods of Yoga. We need to distinguish among the mass of their details the governing idea which they serve and the radical force. This force gives birth and energy to their processes of effectuation.
This will facilitate us to more easily find the one common principle and the one common power :
• From which all derive their being and tendency
• Towards which all subconsciously move, and
• In which, therefore, it is possible for all consciously to unite.

The progressive self-manifestation of Nature in man must necessarily depend upon three successive elements. This self manifestation of Nature is called Man’s evolution in the language of modern thought.
These three elements are :
• That which is already evolved
• That which is persistently in the stage of conscious evolution, and
• That which is to be evolved.

We have to note that in the case of the third element of future evolution, it may perhaps be already displayed in primary formations. It may or may not be happening continuously, but certainly on occasional basis or with some regularity of recurrence. It may be displayed in others more developed realisations of our present humanity. It may well be in cases that are near to the highest possible realisation of our present humanity. However, this is possible in some rare cases.

The reason for above phenomena is that the march of Nature is not drilled to a regular and mechanical forward stepping. She reaches constantly beyond herself even at the cost of subsequent deplorable retreats. She has rushes. She has splendid and mighty outbursts. She has immense realisations. She storms sometimes passionately forward hoping to take the kingdom of heaven by violence. These self-exceedings are the revelation of that in her which is most divine. It may be most diabolical. But in either case they are most puissant to bring her rapidly forward towards her goal.

That which Nature has evolved for us and has firmly founded is the bodily life. She has effected a certain combination and harmony of the two inferior but most fundamentally necessary elements of our action and progress upon earth.
They are :
First, the Matter.
Second, the Life-Energy

Matter is our foundation and the first condition of all our energies and realisations. This is irrespective of the fact that matter may be despised by the too ethereally spiritual persons.
Life Energy is our means of existence in a material body and the basis there even of our mental and spiritual activities.

Nature has successfully achieved a certain stability of her constant material movement.
This movement is at once
• Sufficiently steady and durable; while at the same time
• Sufficiently pliable and mutable
to provide a fit dwelling-place and instrument for the progressively manifesting god in humanity.

This is what is meant by the fable in the Aitareya Upanishad. It tells that the gods rejected the animal forms successively offered to them by the Divine Self and only when a man was produced, cried out, “This indeed is perfectly made”. They then consented to enter in that vehicle.

Similarly, the Nature has effected a working compromise between
The inertia of matter, and
The active Life that lives and feeds on it. It enables the sustenance of vital existence. It also renders possible the fullest developments of mentality.

This equilibrium constitutes the basic status of Nature in man. It is termed in the language of Yoga his gross body composed of the material or food sheath (anna kosha) and the nervous system (prana kosha) of vital vehicle.

We have now seen that
• This inferior equilibrium is the basis and first means of the higher movements which the universal Power contemplates
• The body constitutes the vehicle in which the Divine here seeks to reveal Itself
• Indian saying is true that the body is the instrument provided for the fulfilment of the right law of our nature.
This leads us towards the inevitable conclusion that any final recoil from the physical life must be a turning away from the completeness of the divine Wisdom and a renunciation of its aim in earthly manifestation. For certain individuals, owing to some secret law of their development, such a refusal may be the right attitude. But it can never be the aim intended for the mankind. Integral Yoga can not afford to ignore the body. It can not make its annulment or its rejection indispensable to a perfect spirituality. On the other hand, the perfecting of the body also should be the last triumph of the Spirit. To make the bodily life also divine must be God’s final seal upon His work in the universe. The obstacle which the physical presents to the spiritual is no argument for the rejection of the physical. It is interesting to note that in the unseen providence of things, our greatest difficulties are our best opportunities. A supreme difficulty is Nature’s indication to us of a supreme conquest to be won and an ultimate problem to be solved. It is not a warning of an inextricable snare to be shunned or of an enemy too strong for us from whom we must flee.

On an equal ground, the vital and nervous energies in us are there for a great utility. They also demand the divine realisation of their possibilities in our ultimate fulfilment. The catholic wisdom of he Upanishads has powerfully emphasized the great part assigned to this element in the universal scheme. “As the spokes of a wheel in its nave, so in the Life-energy is all established, the triple knowledge and the Sacrifice and the power of the strong and the purity of the wise. Under the control of the Life-Energy is all this that is established in the triple heaven”. Integral Yoga therefore does not and can not kill these nervous energies, force them into a nerveless quiescence or root them out as the source of noxious activities. The transformation, control and utilization of these energies, their purification and not their destruction is the aim in view with which they have been created and developed in us.

As a first step, the Nature has firmly evolved the bodily life for us as her base and first instrument. It is our mental life that she is evolving as her immediate next aim and superior instrument. In her ordinary exaltations this is the Nature’s lofty preoccupying thought. The exception is her periods of exhaustion and recoil into a reposeful and recuperating obscurity. Otherwise, it is her constant pursuit wherever she can get free from the trammels of her first vital and physical realisations. For here in man we have a distinction which is of the utmost importance. He has in him not a single mentality. He has a double and a triple mentality.
• Material and nervous mind
• Pure intellectual mind which liberates itself from the illusions of the body and the senses
• Divine mind above intellect which in its turn liberates itself from the imperfect modes of the logically discriminative and imaginative reason.

Mind in man is first enmeshed in the life of the body. Whereas in the plant it is entirely involved. In animals it is always imprisoned. It accepts this life as not only the first but the whole condition of its activities. It serves its needs as if they were the entire aim of existence. We have to remember that the bodily life in man is a base, NOT the aim. It is his first condition and not his last determinant. In the just idea of the ancients man is essentially the thinker, the Manu, the mental being. He leads the life and the body. He is not the animal who is led by them.

Therefore, the true human existence only begins when
• The intellectual mentality emerges out of the material, and
• We begin more and more to live in the mind independent of the nervous and physical obsession, and
• In the measure of that liberty are able to accept rightly and to use rightly the life of the body.
For freedom and not a skilful subjection is the true means of mastery. The high human ideal is a free and not a compulsory acceptance of the conditions and also not the enlarged and sub-limited conditions of our physical being.

The mental life thus evolving in man is not, indeed, a common possession. In actual appearance it would seem as if it were only developed to the fullest in individuals as against the majority in whom it is not evolved. It may appear that there were great numbers and even the majority in whom it is either a small and ill-organised part of their normal nature or not evolved a tall. Or may be in majority it is latent and not easily made active. Certainly, the mental life is not a finished evolution of Nature. It is not yet firmly founded in the human animal.
We get the sign in this world from actual observation that
• the fine and full equilibrium of vitality and matter, the sane, robust, long-lived human body
is ordinarily found
• only in races or classes of men who reject the effort of thought, its disturbances, its tensions,
• or think only with the material mind.
As a further progression of Nature, the civilised man has yet to establish a equilibrium between the fully active mind and the body. He does not yet normally possess it. Indeed, the increasing effort towards a more intense mental life seems to frequently create an increasing dis-equilibrium of the human elements. This has resulted in a situation wherein eminent scientists have described genius as a form of insanity, a result of degeneration, a pathological morbidity of Nature. However we have to take all the phenomena which are used to justify this exaggeration in connection with all other relevant data. We should not take it separately. We then come to a different conclusion. Genius is one attempt of the universal Energy to quicken and intensify our intellectual powers. This is done with the sole purpose that these powers shall be prepared for more puissant, direct and rapid faculties. This will lead towards the constitution of the play of the supra-intellectual or divine mind. Genius is not then a freak, ad inexplicable phenomenon. It is a perfectly natural next step in the right life of her evolution.

The Nature has already harmonised the bodily mind with the material mind. Currently she is in the process of harmonizing it with the play of the intellectual mentality. No doubt it tends to depress the full animal and vital vigour. But it does not and need not produce active disturbances. And she is shooting yet beyond in the attempt to reach a still higher level.

Even the occasional disturbances created by her process are NOT as great as is often represented. Some of them are the crude beginnings of new manifestations. Others are an easily corrected movement of disintegration. It is often fruitful of fresh activities and always a small price to pay for the far-reaching results that she has in view.

Life Wanderer

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Life Divine and Beautiful

2005-10-20T10:58:46+02:00

Shrikant Vasudeo
My search for the
Living Truth

Life Divine and Beautiful

Solely and exclusively based on God
Sri Aurobindo’s
Life Divine

Aspiration of Humanity

(Book One : Omnipresent Reality and the Universe;, Chapter One : The Human Aspiration)

The earliest preoccupation of man in his awakened thoughts is also the highest which his thought can envisage. It is interesting to note that it is also his inevitable and ultimate preoccupation as it survives the longest periods of skepticism. It returns after every banishment.
The human aspiration manifests itself
• In the divination of Godhead
• The impulse towards perfection
• The search after pure Truth and unmixed Bliss
• The sense of a secret immortality.
The ancient dawns of human knowledge are witness to this constant aspiration. The victorious analysis of the externalities of Nature is not able to satisfy the humanity today. This is in spite of total abundance of such material before us. The Nature of Man always returns to its primeval longings. The earliest formula of Wisdom is also its last. It is summed up in just four key words ; God, Light, Freedom and Immortality.

These persistent ideals of the race pose to us a contradiction between two opposite movements of human nature. On the one hand we have the normal experience of humanity and on the other hand we have the affirmation of higher and deeper experiences. These experiences are abnormal to humanity.
They can be attained in their organized entirety by
• A revolutionary individual effort (in a very short period of time), or
• An evolutionary general progression (over a very very long period of time)

The manifestation of God in Matter is the goal of Nature in her terrestrial evolution.
It is represented by various aspirations such as :
• To know, possess and be the divine being in an animal and egoistic consciousness
• To convert our twilit or obscure physical mentality into the plenary supramental illumination
• To build peace and a self-existent bliss where there is only a stress of transitory satisfactions which is besieged by physical pain and emotional suffering
• To establish an infinite freedom in a world which presents itself as a group of mechanical necessities
• To discover and realize the immortal life in a body subjected to death and constant mutation
The ordinary human intellect takes its present organization of consciousness as the limit of its possibilities. The above aspirations of humanity are made invalid by ordinary nature when it sees the direct contradiction between the realized fact and the unrealized ideals. On the other hand if we take a more deliberate view of the world’s workings, we find that the above contradictions are part of Nature’s profoundest method. It is her seal of completist sanction.

We should understand that all problems of existence are essentially problems of harmony. These problems arise from following two opposite factors of human nature :
• The perception of an unsolved discord on the one hand and
• The instinct of an undiscovered agreement or unity on the other.
The animal and most practical part of man can rest content with an unsolved discord. However, it is impossible for his fully awakened mind. Even the practical part of human nature which seem to accept the discord can do so either by shutting out the problem or accepting a compromise. This compromise is a rough, utilitarian and unillumined compromise. This is because one very essential fact of Nature : All Nature seeks a harmony. Life and matter seek harmony in their own sphere. The mind seek harmony in the arrangement of its perceptions. The force of Nature to seek harmony is directly proportional to the level of apparent disorder of the materials or apparent disparateness. Greater the disorder, greater will also be the urge to seek the harmony. This principle applies even when the opposition between the constituent elements is irreconcilable.
This urge in the face of strong opposition drives the Nature towards a more subtle and puissant order. This would have been not possible under the condition of less difficult endeavour.

The Nature has already successfully solved the problem of opposites between inertia of material and active Life with a material form. Nature continues to solve this problem better with greater complexities. The solution offered by Nature is only an intermediary solution. It is in the continuous process of perfection. The final destination of this process will be the material immortality of a fully organized mind-supporting animal body. As a next step in this evolution, the Nature has accorded conscious Mind and conscious Will with a Form and a Life which are not themselves overtly self-conscious. By themselves, the Form and Life are capable at best of a mechanical or sub-conscious will. But the Nature has wonderfully managed to put conscious Mind and conscious Will in the Form and Life in spite of this opposition. Even here the Nature aims at higher marvels. The ultimate goal of the Nature in this respect will be an animal consciousness no longer seeking but possessed of Truth and Light. This consciousness will possess practical omnipotence which would result from the possession of a direct and perfected knowledge.

This brings us the logical conclusion that there is a perfect rationality to the upward impulse of man towards the accordance of yet higher opposites. We see that it is the only logical completion of a rule and an effort. It is a fundamental method of Nature. It is also the very sense of her universal strivings.

What is the rational explanation of this phenomenon? We speak of the evolution of Life in Matter. The evolution of Mind in Matter. However, evolution is a word which merely states the phenomenon without explaining it. We say that Life has evolved in material elements. OK. But what is the reason for life to thus evolve? Similarly, the word evolution can not explain as to why the Life has evolved out of living form. Here, Vedanta offers a solution. Vedanta states that Life is already involved in Matter. Similarly, the Mind is involved in Life. This is because in essence Matter is a form of veiled Life and Life is a form of veiled Consciousness. Thus we see that what is already involved is getting evolved.

Life Wanderer

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In Praise of Mystic Fire

2005-10-19T13:59:23+02:00

Shrikant Vasudeo
My search for the
Living Truth

In Praise of Mystic Fire

Solely and exclusively based on God
Sri Aurobindo’s
Hymns to the Mystic Fire

The Hidden Meaning of Poetry of the Mystic Fire

The Doctrine of the Mystics

Veda is an inspired knowledge. It does not much use intellectual and philosophical terms in its expression of the Divine Truth. Like Upanishad, it contains high spiritual substance. However, it lacks the phraseology of Upanishad. Veda is a language of the poets and illuminates. The poetry that is Veda is rich in experiences which are real, vivid and sensible. It is even concrete to our consciousness. However, it is not a work of the thinkers and systematisers to whom the realities of the mind and soul have become abstractions. Even so, we find a system and a doctrine in Veda. But the structure of the doctrine is supple. Its terms are concrete. The cast of its thought is practical and experimental. It needs to be emphasized here that the doctrine of Veda is in the accomplished type of an old and sure experiences. It is not crude and uncertain system coming from persons on their learning curve of life. Vedas present to us the ancient psychological science and the art of spiritual living. Upanishads are the philosophical outcomes of Vedic thought. Extending this timeline further, Vedanta, Sankhya and Yoga represent late intellectual result and logical dogma. Veda is like all life and science which is still vital. It is free from the armoured rigidities of the reasoning intellect. It is a wonderful thing that with all its established symbols and sacred formulae, the Veda is still large, free, flexible, fluid, supple and subtle. It has the movement of life and the large breath of the soul. Veda is a Book of Works. It ignites our hopes after spurning our present bonds and littleness. It strives for perfection, self-achievement and immortality. On the other hand, the later Philosophies are books of Knowledge and make liberation (Moksha) from the cycle of life and death the one supreme good.

The Doctrine of the Mystics recognizes the limitation of the studious pursuit of the mind. It recognizes that the final Truth is un-definable because it is Unknowable, Timeless and Un-nameable. The same Truth appears to us in various aspects. From the Impersonal point of view, the Truth is That, the One Existence. On the other hand, from the pursuit of our personality, it reveals itself out of the secrecy of things as the God or Dewa. For the ordinary reason we find the paradox of the Nameless Truth having many names. It is immeasurable and beyond description while at the same time it is also that which holds in himself all description of name and knowledge and all measures of form and substance, force and activity.

Veda reveals that the Dewa or Godhead is both the original cause and the final result. He is Divine Existent, builder of the worlds. He is lord and begetter of all things. He is Male and Female, Being and Consciousness. He is also the Father and Mother of the Worlds and their inhabitants. At the same time, the Ultimate Truth is the Son of the Worlds – for he is the Divine Child born into the Worlds. He manifests himself in the growth of the creature. He takes various forms and personalities of Rudra and Vishnu, Prajapati and Hiranyagarbha, Surya, Agni, Indra, Vayu, Soma, Brihaspati, Varuna, Mitra, Bhaga and Aryaman – all the gods. He is the wise, mighty and liberating Son born from our works and our sacrifice. He is the Hero in our warfare and Seer of our knowledge. He is the White Steed in front of our days who gallops towards the upper Ocean.

Veda has compared the soul of man with the Bird – the Hansa. He, like the Bird, soars past the shining firmaments of physical and mental consciousness. He climbs as the traveler and fighter beyond earth of body and heaven of mind. He moves towards his goal by an ascending path of the Truth to find this Godhead waiting for us. The God leans down to us from the secrecy of the highest supreme where it is seated in the triple divine Principle and the source of the Beatitude. Deva is attracting and exalted in the other worlds. Here in this world he is helpful to us in the person of the greater Gods. In both these states, Dewa is always the Friend and Lover of man. He is pastoral Master of the Herds. He gives us the sweet milk and the clarified butter from the udder of the shining Cow of the infinitude. He is the source and out pourer of the ambrosial Wine of divine delight. We drink this wine in ecstasy. This Wine is believed to be drawn from the sevenfold waters of existence. It is also believed that it is pressed out from the luminous plant on the hill of being. When we get uplifted by raptures of this divine wine, we become immortal.

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Mystery of River of Life

2005-10-18T10:52:13+02:00

Mystery of River of Life

Completely and Exclusively Based on
Sri Aurobindo’s Essays on the Gita

Chapter One
The origin of the River

‘Our Demand and Need from the Gita’

We have plenty of scriptures which are sacred or profane. They contain full or partial revelations. They promote religions or discuss philosophy. They may relate to sects, schools of thought or systems of thought and knowledge. The immature or partially mature minds of humanity attach a certain kind of exclusivity to one of these scriptures. With full passion and zeal they call a Scripture as the one and the only ‘Word of God’. They treat other scriptures as false. In some cases, even if they may attach some value to other scriptures, they call it imperfectly inspired. They treat their preferred scripture as the last word of the reasoning intellect. All the other scriptures are treated as either errors or as containing only a fragment of truth. This tendency of thought often leads towards a philosophical cult. Even the material science has fallen pray to this type of thinking. The material science then becomes a creed and refuses any place to religion or spirituality in the life of humanity. It treats spirituality as ignorance and superstition. This habit of excluding all the others to the selection of one is universal in the community of spirituality, religion, philosophy and material science. Sometimes even the wise men seem to fall pray to this type of thinking. They are misled by the spirit of darkness that has overshadowed their intellect. They are overtaken by the intellectual egoism or spiritual pride.

Happily, we have now progressed by a little bit to higher level of understanding and maturity. We have become more modest and wiser. We no longer hold the extreme views. We do no kill other human beings in the name of God’s Truth. We do not persecute others who have their minds differently trained or differently constituted from ours. We do not jump to the action of cursing or abusing or severely criticizing our neighbour because he has done the crime of having different opinion than ours. We do not call others wicked or presumptuous if they are following different path. We are even ready to admit the all pervasiveness of the Truth and relinquish our sole monopoly on the Truth. The purpose of our study of other religions has now become to be the search of Truth in these religions. Earlier, we used to study other religions and philosophies solely for finding faults in them so that we can damn these religions and philosophies, criticise them for their errors in our view point.

So far so good. But we still fall prey to the temptation to declare that our religion or philosophy offers The Supreme Knowledge. All others have either missed or partially or imperfectly grasped the Truth. We claim that the other religions and philosophies deal with subsidiary and inferior aspects of the truth of things. Sometimes we believe that these religions are for less evolved souls. Our religion is for more developed souls. We are also stubborn in our insistence that every dot and comma and underline contained in the original Scripture should remain unchanged as they all are part of the Eternally Valid Truth. The original inspiration of the prophets contains full details of the dots and commas and the underlines. It is all sacred.

In the above background our standpoint in studying the ancient Scripture like Veda, Upanishads or Gita need to be properly understood. Firstly, we need to indicate the spirit of our enquiry. We need to clearly understand as to what wisdom we may derive from these ancient Scriptures. We also need to know the benefit and utility of this wisdom to the humanity for its present and future needs. We also need to understand that first and foremost, we are seeking a Truth which is one and eternal. All other truths have their origin to this eternal Truth. In the light of this eternal Truth, all other truths are properly understood in their right place and relation to the scheme of knowledge. We have also to be cautious in not falling into the old trap of shutting up the Truth in one trenchant formula. We have to understand that the eternal Truth in all its entirety and bearings is not likely to be found in any single philosophy or Scripture. It can also not be preached by one single Teacher, prophet or Avatar. We can not also claim our full understanding of the Truth if we fall to the temptation of intolerantly excluding the truth underlying other systems. Any passionate rejection of other system means that we have not at all understood the Truth.

This brings us to the second part of our enquiry. We have to understand that the Truth has two aspects. One temporal and the other eternal. The eternal Truth expresses itself in Time and through the mind of man. The very act of expressing the truth makes the expression temporal. The Scripture expressing the Truth is influenced by the culture and ideas of the period and country and people in which it is expressed. This part is temporary and therefore perishable. The other part and the one in which we are interested here, is the truly eternal and imperishable Truth. This Truth is applicable in all ages and countries.
The following aspects of the statement of Truth as it gets expressed in the Scripture are therefore subject to losing their original force due to the passage of time.
These are :
1 The actual form (this includes the style of presentation)
2 The System and arrangement (of words, ideas etc)
3 The metaphysical and intellectual mould (as per the stage of development of humanity at the time)
4 The precise expression used (as per the language prevailing at the time, symbols and its prevailing meaning)
The reason for this losing of its original force is that the human intellect always modifies itself. It is in the habit of continually dividing and putting together its arguments. It shifts its divisions continually and rearranges its syntheses. It replaces old expressions and symbols with the new expressions and symbols. Even when it uses the old expression or symbol, it mildly or radically changes its connotations or at least its exact content and association. This makes it extremely difficult task in precise understanding of the ancient book of this kind. We can never accurately know the precise sense and spirit it bore to the people of its time.

The Truth has to be Universal. It also has to have been experienced, lived and seen with a vision which is higher than the mere intellectual understanding. This is of permanent value for us. We are more concerned here with this eternal aspect of the Truth.

We are here less concerned to know the exact metaphysical connotations as it was then understood by the men of the time. Even if we assume for the sake of argument that it is accurately possible to do so (i.e. to understand the exact metaphysical connotations as understood long back in time), we do not give importance to it. In actuality, it is not even possible to do so. This is very clear from the divergence (of meaning, interpretations and conclusions) of the original commentaries on Gita which have been written in the past and present. They all agree to disagree ! Each commentary finds in Gita its own system of metaphysics and trend of religious thought. This error is even inescapable from the most painstaking, impartial and disinterested scholarship. The most luminous theories of historical development of Indian philosophy are also susceptible to these errors.

We are therefore more concerned here about what is useful to the present day humanity. We want to understand the actual living truth it contains. This truth is timeless and therefore valid even today. We want to leave aside its metaphysical form in order to extract form Gita helpful wisdom for the present day humanity. We want to put the eternal wisdom of Gita in the most natural and vital form and expression. This need to be suitable to the mentality and spiritual needs of the present day humanity. We are aware that our attempt to do this may mix a great deal of error arising from our own individuality. It will also be influenced by the ideas of the present time. This type of susceptibility was also there in the case of greater men before us. It is bound to happen.

We need to comply with two conditions. Firstly, we should immerse ourselves in the spirit of this great Scripture. Secondly and most importantly, we should try to live in that spirit.
This will help us to
• Find in the Scripture as much real truth as we are capable of receiving
• Benefit from the spiritual influence and actual help that personally we were destined to receive.
Above is the main aim of writing the Scriptures. The rest is academic disputations or theological dogma.
In order for a Scripture, religion, philosophy to be of living importance to mankind, following criterions need to be fulfilled :
• They need to be constantly renewed and relived
• Continuous reshaping and development of their stuff of permanent truth
• This has to be done in the inner thought and spiritual experience of a developing humanity.
If above conditions are not followed, the Scripture remains as monument of the past. It has no actual force or vital impulse for the future.

In the Gita there is very little that is merely local or temporal. Its spirit is so large, profound and universal that even this little thing (which is local or temporal) can easily be universalized. This is achieved without reducing the value or violating the principle of the teaching. On the other hand, this process of widening the scope from its original country and epoch to the present day situation results in adding depth, truth and power to the teaching. Very often we find this principal stated in the Gita itself. There are clear hints in the Gita that an idea which is local or limited can be universalized.

Take for example the ancient Indian system and idea of sacrifice as an interchange between gods and men. In India itself, this system and idea has been practically obsolete for a long period of time. It is no longer a living system to the general human mind. However, if we closely study the meaning of word ‘sacrifice’ we find in it a very subtle, figurative and symbolic sense. Similarly the conception of gods is very little local or mythological, It is entirely cosmic and philosophical. This makes it easy for us to accept both the words of ‘sacrifice’ and ‘gods’ as
• Practical facts of psychology
• General law of Nature.
We can now apply these concepts to the modern conception of
• interchange between Life and life
• Ethical sacrifice and self giving
This will result in widening and deepening of these concepts. We can cast over them a more spiritual aspect. We can put a light of a profounder and more far reaching Truth.

Similarly the following concepts may at first sight seem to be local and temporal.:
• Idea of action according to the Shastra
• The Fourfold order of Society
• The allusion to the relative position of the four orders
• Comparative spiritual disabilities of the Shudras and Women
If we interpret these concepts in their exact literal and a very narrow sense we deprive them the benefit of universal application and spiritual depth. We then limit their validity for the mankind at large. We need to look behind these concepts to understand the true spirit and sense of them. We should not restrict our interpretation to the local name and temporal institution. When we do this, we realize that here too the sense is deep and true. The spirit is philosophical, spiritual and universal.
Let us have a look at the true meaning of Shastra and fourfold order of the Society according to the Geeta :
• Shastra : The true and underlying meaning of Shastra according to Geeta is then perceived the ‘law imposed on itself ’ by the humanity as a substitute for the purely egoistic action of the natural unregenerate man. Its purpose is to control man’s tendency to seek the standard and aim of his life in the satisfaction of his desire.
• Fourfold Order of the Society is merely the concrete form of a spiritual truth. This truth is itself independent of the form. This truth rests on the conception of :
Right works as a rightly ordered expression of the nature of the individual being. This individual being is the doer of the works.
Nature assigning him his line and scope in life. This is based on his inborn quality and his self-expressive function.

We have seen above that in this universal and eternal spirit the Geeta advances its most local and particular instances. We are therefor justified in extending this principle to all the other instances of local and temporal concepts and arrive at a deeper general truth. We shall always find that deeper truth and principle is implied in the grain of the thought even when it is not expressly stated in its language.

On the similar lines, we will interpret the element of philosophical dogma or religious creed which enters in to the Geeta. It may also hang about it. This is because of the use of philosophical terms and religious symbols current at the time.

For example, when Gita speaks of Sankhya and Yoga, we shall restrict ourselves only to the bare minimum discussion essential for our interpretation.
In the case of Sankhya, we will NOT dwell on
• Its theory of One Purusha
• Strong Vedantic colouring to the non-theistic or “atheistic” Sankhya that has come down to us with its schemes of many Purushas and one Prakriti
In the case of Yoga we will NOT concern ourselves with :
• The Theistic Doctrine of many-sided, subtle, rich and flexible system
• Yoga of Patanjali – fixed, scientific, rigorously defined and graded system

In the Geeta, the Sankhya and Yoga are evidently two convergent parts of the same Vedantic truth. We can also say that these two are the concurrent ways of approaching the realisation of Truth. These two ways can be classified into
• Philosophical, intellectual and analytic
• Intuitional, devotional, practical, ethical, synthetic - reaching knowledge through experience
We have to understand that in essence Geeta recognizes no real difference in the teachings of these two systems.

Similarly, we will not discuss the theories which regard Gita as the fruit of some particular religious system or tradition. We need to stress that the teaching of Geeta is universal irrespective of its origin.

We have to understand that what is most vital, profound and eternally durable in Gita is NOT the philosophical system on which it is based or its arrangement of truth. What is important is the core material on which the philosophical system is composed. Also what is important is the principal ideas contained in Gita. This is the eternally valuable and valid part of the Gita. The arrangement of truth is woven in to the complex harmony through a suggestive and penetrating manner based on these principal ideas.

The principal ideas presented in Gita are not merely the luminous ideas. Nor are they the striking speculations of a philosophic intellect. They are rather enduring truths of spiritual experience and verifiable facts of our highest psychological possibilities. We can not afford to neglect these aspects if we are making a serious attempt to read deeply the mystery of existence.

It should be noted that irrespective of the system of presentation in Gita, it is NOT framed or intended to support any exclusive school of philosophical thought. It does not predominantly put forward the claims of any one form of Yoga. Many commentators have strived to do so but it is wrong.

The Gita with its
• Language
• Structure of thought
• And Combination and balancing of Ideas –
does not belong to –
• the temper of a sectarian teacher
• spirit of a rigorous analytical dialectics which cuts off one angle of the truth to the exclusion of all the other angles of truth.
We find in Gita a wide, undulating and encircling movement of ideas. These ideas are manifestation of a vast synthetic mind and a rich synthetic experience.

Gita contains synthesis of varied ideas of Indian philosophy. Gita is as rich as these various branches of philosophies in their creation of the more intensive and exclusive movements of knowledge and religious realisation. The various Indian branches of philosophies follow out with an absolute concentration one clue, one path to its extreme issues. On the other hand, Gita does not chop off truth in pieces, rather it reconciles and unifies the various exclusive branches of the truth.

Let us see how Gita reconciles the various branches of philosophy.
Monism
The thought of Gita is not pure Monism. However, Gita sees in one unchanging, pure and eternal Self the foundation of all cosmic existence.
Mayavada
Gita does not endorse the theory of Mayavada (i.e. this world is an illusion). However, it speaks of the Maya of the three modes of Prakriti (Satvic, Rajasic and Tamasic) omnipresent in the created world.
Qualified Monism
Gita also does not support Qualified Monism. However, it places in the One his eternal supreme Prakriti manifested in the form of the Jiva. As supreme state of spiritual consciousness the Gita lays most stress on dwelling in God rather than dissolution of the worldly existence.
Sankhya
Gita does not endorse Sankhya philosophy. However, it explains the created world by the double principle of Purusha and Prakriti.
Vaishnava Theism
Gita is not Vaishnava Theism. However, it presents to us Krishna, who is the Avatar of Vishnu according to the Puranas. Krishna is stated to be the supreme Deity. On the one hand, the Gita allows no essential difference between Krishna and the relationless Brahman. On the other hand Gita proclaims Krishna as not inferior to Brahman. Krishna is stated to be the Lord of beings who is also the Master of the universe and the Friend of all creatures.

The spiritual synthesis of the Gita is like that of earlier Upanishads. It is both spiritual and intellectual. It avoids every type of rigid determination. This helps in not compromising the main feature of Gita – Universal Comprehensiveness. The polemist commentators on Gita found this Scripture established as one of the three highest Vedantic authorities. They attempted to turn it into a weapon of offence and defence against other schools and systems. The aim of Gita is precisely the opposite of this. The Gita is not a weapon for dialectical warfare. It is a gate opening on the whole world of spiritual truth and experience. The view of the Gita embraces all the provinces of that supreme region. Gita maps out. But it does not cut up or build walls or hedges to confine our vision.

There have been other synthesis in the long history of Indian thought.
1 In the beginning is the Vedic synthesis of the psychological being of man. It dwells in its highest flights and widest rangings of divine knowledge, power, joy, life and glory. It covers the cosmic existence of the gods. It pursued behind the symbols of the material universe into superior planes. These planes are hidden from the physical sense and the material mentality. The crown of this synthesis was meeting of man and god. It was in the experience of the Vedic Rishis. They saw in it something divine, transcendent and blissful. In their unity the increasing soul of man and the eternal divine fullness of the cosmic godheads meet perfectly and fulfill themselves.
2 The Upanishads take up from this crowning experience of the earlier seers. They make it their starting point for a high and profound synthesis of spiritual knowledge. They draw together into a great harmony all that had been seen and experienced by the inspired and liberated knowers of the Eternal. These experiences were from a wide range of great and fruitful period of spiritual seeking.
3 The Gita starts from this Vedantic synthesis. On the basis of its essential ideas the Gita builds another harmony of the three great means and powers. These are Love (Bhakti Yoga), Knowledge (Dnyan Yoga) and Works (Karma Yoga). Through these means the soul of man can directly approach and cast itself into the Eternal.
4 There is also a fourth system. It is a Tantric system. Though this system is less subtle and spiritually profound, it is even more bold and forceful than the synthesis of Gita. The Tantric system seizes even upon the obstacles to the spiritual life and compels them to become the means for a richer spiritual conquest. It enables us to experience the whole of Life in our divine scope as the Lila of the Divine. In some directions the Tantric system is more immediately rich and fruitful. It brings forward into the foreground the secrets also of the Hatha and Raja Yogas. This it does along with divine knowledge, divine works and an enriched devotion of the divine Love. It makes use of the body and of mental askesis for the opening up of the divine life on all its planes. To these aspects, the Gita gives only a passing and perfunctory attention.

Most importantly, Geeta grasps at the idea of divine perfectibility of man. This idea was possessed by the Vedic Rishis but thrown into the background by the intermediate ages. This idea is destined to fill a very large space in any future synthesis of human thought, experience and aspiration.

We at the coming day stand at the head of a new age of development. This new age must lead to such a new and larger synthesis. In this march towards the new age, we are not called upon to be orthodox Vedantins of any of the three schools or Tantrics. We need not adhere to one of the theistic religions of the past. We need not even entrench ourselves within the four corners of the teaching of the Gita. That will amount to limit ourselves and to attempt to create our spiritual life out of the being, knowledge and nature of others – of the men of the past. We need to build our spiritual life out of our own being and potentialities. We do not belong to the past dawns but to the noons of the future. A mass of new material is flowing into us. Certainly we have to assimilate the influences of the great theistic religions of India and of the world. We have also to incorporate a recovered sense of the meaning of Buddhism. But more than that, we need to take full account of the potent though limited revelations of modern knowledge and seeking. And beyond that, the remote and dateless past which seemed to be dead is returning upon us with an effulgence of many luminous secrets long lost to the consciousness of mankind. This past is now breaking out again from behind the veil.

All this points out to a new, a very rich, a very vast synthesis. A fresh and widely embracing harmonization of our gains is both an intellectual and a spiritual necessity of the future. The past syntheses have taken those which preceded them for their starting point. Similarly the future synthesis must proceed from what the great bodies of realized spiritual thought and experience in the past have given. This will put the new synthesis on firm ground. Among these the Gita takes a most important place.

Therefore, our object in studying the Gita will NOT be any of the following :
• Scholastic or academical scrutiny of its thought
• To place its philosophy in the history of metaphysical speculation
• To deal with it in the manner of the analytical dialectician
We approach it for help and light. Our aim must be to distinguish its essential and living message. We need to find in it the essence which humanity has to seize for its perfection and its highest spiritual welfare.

Chapter 2

Divine Teacher

The peculiarity of the Gita among the great religious books of the worlds is that it does not stand apart as a work by itself. It is not the fruit of the spiritual life of a creative personality like Christ, Mahomed or Buddha. It is also not of an epoch of pure spiritual searching like the Veda and Upanishads. Gita is given as an episode in an epic history of nations. This history is related to wars, men and their deeds. It arises out of a critical moment in the soul of one of its leading personages. The moment is when he stands face to face with the crowning action of his life. The time is when he is called upon to do the work terrible, violent and sanguinary. The critical point is wen he must either recoil from it altogether or carry it through to its inexorable completion.

The modern criticism supposes that the Gita is a later composition inserted into the mass of the Mahabharata by its author. This was supposedly done in order to invest its teaching with the authority and popularity of the great national epic. We are here hardly concerned with this supposition. There seems to me to be strong grounds against this supposition. Moreover, the evidence, both extrinsic and internal, in support of this supposition is in the last degree scanty and insufficient.

For the arguments sake let us assume that the evidence is a sound evidence. Even in such a scenario, we have to note that the author has taken pains to interweave his work inextricably into the vast web of the larger poem. More ever, he is careful again and again to remind us of the situation from which the teaching has arisen. He returns to it prominently, not only at the end, but also in the middle of his profoundest philosophical disquisitions. In this background, we must accept the insistence of the author and give its full importance to this recurrent preoccupation of the Teacher and the disciple. The teaching of the Gita must therefore be regarded not merely in the light of a general spiritual philosophy or ethical doctrine. It is having a bearing upon a practical crisis in the application of ethics and spirituality to human life.

Firstly we must determine if we would grasp the central drift of the ideas of the Gita. Then only we can understand
• What that crisis stands
• What is the significance of the battle of Kurukhsetra
• Its effect on Arjuna’s inner being

Very obviously a great body of the profoundest teaching can not be built round an ordinary occurrence. There has to be
• Gulfs of deep suggestion and hazardous difficulty behind its superficial and outward aspects
• The crisis should be such as can not be governed well enough by the ordinary everyday standards of thought and action
There are indeed three things in the Gita which are spiritually significant. They are almost symbolic. They are typical of the profoundest relations and problems of the spiritual life and of human existence at its roots. These three things are :
• The divine personality of the Teacher
• His characteristic relations with his disciple
• Occasion of his teaching

We have to understand the symbolic meaning of these three things. These meanings are :
• The teacher is God himself descended into humanity
• The disciple is the first, as we might say in modern language, the representative man of his age. He is closest friend and chosen instrument of the Avatar. He is Avatar’s protagonist in an immense work and struggle. The secret purpose of this struggle is unknown to the actors in it. They are known only to the incarnate Godhead who guides it all from behind the veil of his unfathomable mind of knowledge.
• The occasion is the violent crisis of that work and struggle. It is at the moment when the anguish and moral difficulty and blind violence of its apparent movements forces itself with the sock of a visible revelation on the mind of its representative man. It raises the whole question of :
The meaning of God in the world
The goal and drift and sense of human life and conduct.

India has from ancient times held strongly a belief in
• The reality of the Avatars.
• The descent into Form
• The revelation of the Godhead in humanity
In the West this belief has never really stamped itself upon the mind. This is because it has been presented through exoteric Christianity as a theological dogma. It did not have any roots in the reason and general consciousness and attitude towards life. On the other hand, in India it has grown up and persisted as a logical outcome of the Vedantic view of life. It has taken firm root in the consciousness of the race. All existence is a manifestation of God because He is the only existence and nothing can be other than a real figuring or else a figment of that one reality. Therefore every conscious being is in part or in some way a descent of the Infinite into the apparent finiteness of name and form. But it is a veiled manifestation. There is a gradation between the supreme being of the Divine and the consciousness shrouded partly or wholly by ignorance of self in the finite. The conscious embodied soul is the spark of the divine Fire. This soul in man opens out to self-knowledge as it develops out of ignorance of self into self-being. In the same way the Divine pours itself into the forms of the cosmic existence. It is revealed ordinarily in an efflorescence of
• Its powers
• In energies and magnitudes of its knowledge, love and joy
• Developed force of being
in degrees and faces of its divinity.
On the other hand the height of the conditioned manifestation of the Divine is reached when the divine Consciousness and Power takes upon itself the human form and the human mode of action. It possesses it not only by powers and magnitudes, by degrees and outward faces of itself but out of its eternal self-knowledge. It is when the Unborn knows itself and acts in the frame of the mental being and the appearance of birth. It is the full and conscious descent of the Godhead. We can then call it the Avatar.

The Vaishnava form of Vedantism has laid most stress upon this conception of Avatar. It expresses the relation of ‘God in man’ with the ‘man in God’ by the double figure of Nara-Narayana. It is associated historically with the origin of a religious school. It is very similar in its doctrines to the teaching of the Gita. Nara is the human soul which is the eternal companion of the Divine. It finds itself only when it awakens to that companionship. As the Gita says, it then begins to live in God. Narayana is the divine Soul. It is always present in our humanity. It is the secret guide, friend and helper of the human being. It is the “Lord who abides within the heart of creatures” as per the Gita. The supreme uplifting of the embodied human conscious-being into the unborn and eternal happens when the veil of that secret sanctuary is withdrawn from within us. Man then speaks face to face with God, hears the divine voice, receives the divine light and acts in the divine power. He then becomes capable of that dwelling in God. He gives up his whole consciousness into the Divine. This the Gita upholds as the best or highest secret of things – uttamam rahasyam.

This eternal divine Consciousness is always present in every human being. This God is always in man. When he partly or wholly takes possession of the human consciousness then we have the manifest Avatar. For this to happen, the God has to become in visible human shape the guide, teacher and leader of the world. We are not here referring to the case of the men who while living in their humanity yet feel something of the power or light or love of the divine Gnosis informing and conducting them. This is not Avatar. What we need is the direct action from that divine Gnosis itself, direct from its central force and plentitude. Then only we can call him the manifest Avatar. The inner Divinity is the eternal Avatar in every man. The human manifestation is its sign and development in the external world. This happens only in the case of manifest Avatar.

When we thus understand the conception of Avatarhood we see that the external aspect has only a secondary importance. This may be from the point of view of the fundamental teaching of Gita which is our present subject or for spiritual life generally. Such controversies would seem to a spiritually-minded Indian largely a waste of time. On the other hand there is a raging controversy in Europe over the historicity of Christ. An Indian would concede to it a considerable historical, but hardly any religious importance. In the final analysis, it does not matter whether a Jesus son of the carpenter Joseph was actually born in Nazareth or Bethlehem. It also does not matter whether he lived and taught and was done to death on a real or trumped-up charge of sedition. What is of relevance is to know by spiritual experience the inner Christ, to live uplifted in the light of his teaching and escape from the yoke of the natural Law by that atonement of man with God. The crucifixion is just the symbol of this atonement. We are mainly concerned if the Christ, God made man, lives within our spiritual being. If this be so, then it does not matter whether or not a son of Mary physically lived and suffered and died in Judea. Same is the case with Krishna. He matters to us as the eternal incarnation of the Divine. We are here not seriously interested in the historical teacher and leader of men.

Therefore in seeking the kernel of the thought of the Gita we need only concern ourselves with the spiritual significance of the human-divine Krishna of the Mahabharata. He is presented to us as the teacher of Arjuna on the battle-field of Kurukshetra. It is certainty that the historical Krishna existed. His name is cited first in the Chhandogya Upanishad. Here all we can gather about him is that he was well-known in spiritual tradition as a knower of the Brahman. In fact so well known in his personality and the circumstances of his life that it was sufficient to refer to him by the name of his mother as Krishna son of Devaki. This identified correctly the Krishna as we know him. In the same Upanishad we find mention of King Dhritarashtra son of Vichitravirya. Both of these persons are leading personages in the action of the Mahabharata. The tradition has therefore associated both of them closely. Therefore we may fairly conclude that they were actually contemporaries and that the epic is to a great extent dealing with historical occurrence imprinted firmly on the memory of the race. We know too that Krishna and Arjuna were the object of religious worship in the pre-Christian centuries. There is some reason to suppose that they were so in connection with a religious and philosophical tradition.
From this tradition the Gita may have gathered
• Many of its elements.
• Even the foundation of its synthesis of knowledge, devotion and works.
• Perhaps also that the human Krishna was the founder, restorer or atleast one of the early teachers of this school
In spite of its later form the Gita may well represent the teaching of Krishna in Indian thought. The connection of that teaching with
• The historical Krishna
• Arjuna
• The war of Kurukshetra
may be something more than a dramatic fiction.
In the Mahabharata Krishna is represented both as the historical character and the Avatar. His worship and Avatarhood must therefore have been well established by the time when the old story and poem or epic tradition of the Bharatas took its present form. This is apparently from the fifth to the first centuries B.C. Story or legend of the Avatar’s early life in Vrindavan has also been hinted in the poem. This has been developed by the Puranas into an intense and powerful spiritual symbol. It has exercised very profound influence on the religious mind of India. We also have an account of the life of Krishna in the Harivansha. It is very evidently full of legends which perhaps formed the basis of the Puranic accounts.

All this information is of considerable historical importance. However, it has no importance at all to our present purpose. We are concerned only with the figure of the divine Teacher as it is presented to us in the Gita. We are also concerned with the Power for which it there stands in the spiritual illumination of the human being. The Gita accepts the human Avatarhood. This is seen when the Lord speaks of the repeated and the constant manifestation of the Divine in humanity. He the eternal Unborn assumes to clothe itself apparently in finite form, the condition of becoming which we call birth. This he does by his Maya and by the power of the infinite Consciousness. But is not this upon which stress is laid. The stress is laid on
• The transcendent, the cosmic and the internal Divine.
• Source of all things
• Master of all
• Godhead secret in man

When the Gita speaks of the
• Doer of violent Asuric austerities troubling the God within
• Sin of those who despise the Divine lodged in the human body
• Same Godhead destroying our ignorance by the blazing lamp of knowledge.
it is referring to this internal divinity.

The divine who speaks to the human soul in the Gita is this eternal Avatar and the God in man. It is the divine Consciousness always present in the human being who manifested in a visible form. He illumines the meaning of life and the secret of the divine action. He gives it the light of the divine knowledge and guidance. He offers assuring and fortifying word of the Master of existence in the hour when it comes face with the painful mystery of the world. This is what the Indian religious consciousness seeks to make near to itself. This it does in whatever form This includes :
• Symbolic human image it enshrines in its temples
• In the worship of its Avatars.
• In the devotion to the human Guru through whom the voice of the one world-Teacher makes itself heard.
Through these it strives to awaken to that inner voice, to unveil that form of the Formless and stand face to face with that manifest divine Power, Love and Knowledge.

Secondly, there is the typical, almost the symbolic significance of the human Krishna. He stands behind the great action of the Mahabharata. This is not as its hero but as its secret centre and hidden guide. That action is the action of a whole world of men and nations.
1 Leader - Some of these men have come as helpers of an effort. They do not personally profit by the result of these efforts. To these people Krishna is a leader.
2 Opponent - Some of these men are the opponents. To these men he is also an opponent. He is the baffler of their designs and their slayer.
3 Instigator - To some men he seems to be an instigator of all evil. He is the destroyer of their old order and familiar world and secure conventions of virtue and good.
4 Counsellor – Some are representatives of that which has to be fulfilled and to them he is the counsellor, helper and friend.
5 Unseen Aid - Where the action pursues its natural course or the doers of the work have to suffer at the hands of its enemies and undergo the ordeals which prepare them for mastery. In such situations the Avatar is unseen or appears only for occasional comfort and aid. But at every crisis his hand is felt. However it is done in such a way that all imagine themselves to be the protagonists.

Even Arjuna, his nearest friend and chief instrument does not perceive that he is an instrument. He has to confess at last that all the while he did not really know his divine Friend. Arjuna has received counsel from the wisdom of Krishna, help from his power, has loved and been loved, has even adored without understanding his divine nature. Like all the other men Arjuna has been guided through his own egoism. The counsel, help and direction have been given in the language and received by the thoughts of the Ignorance. Krishna does not reveal his Avatarhood even to those whom he has chosen for his work till the time of final crisis. This is the moment when all has been pushed to the terrible issue of the struggle on the field of Kurukshetra. This is when the Avatar stands at last as the charioteer in the battle-car which carries the destiny of the fight. Even at this moment he does not pose himself as the fighter but as the charioteer.

Thus the figure of Krishna becomes, as it were, the symbol of the divine dealings with humanity. Like the life of Arjuna and other personages of the Mahabharata and the fierce battle of Kurukshetra, we are moved through our egoism and ignorance. We think that we are the doers of the work. We vaunt ourselves as the real causes of the result. We only occasionally see that which moves us. We see it as some vague or even some human and earthly fountain of knowledge. We see it as aspiration, force, some Principle or Light or Power which we acknowledge. We adore without knowing what it is. This goes on until the occasion arises that forces us to stand arrested before the Veil.

The whole wide action of man in life is covered by the action in which this divine figure moves. It covers not merely the inner life but all this obscure course of the world. We can judge it only by the twilight of the human reason. This happens when it dimly opens up the little span in front of our uncertain advance. Gita is the culmination of such an Divine action. It is its distinguishing feature from other Scriptures. This action gives rise to its teaching. It assigns prominence and bold relief to the gospel of works. This gospel is enunciated by Gita. It is done with an emphasis and force which we do not find in other Scriptures. Krishna emphatically declares the necessity of action not only in Gita but also in other passages of the Mahabharata. However in Gita only he reveals its secret and the divinity behind our works.

The symbolic companionship of Arjuna and Krishna and of the human and the divine soul is also expressed elsewhere in Indian thought. We can find it in the heavenward journey of Indra and Kutsa seated in one chariot. We also meet it in the figure of two birds upon one tree in the Upanishad. It is also there in the twin figures of Nara and Narayana – the seers who tapasya together for the knowledge. In all these three examples of companionship, the main focus is on the idea of Divine Knowledge in which all action culminates. On the other hand we find in Gita that the emphasis is on the action which leads to that knowledge and in which the divine Knower figures Himself. Arjuna as human and Krishna as divine stand together not as seers in the peaceful hermitage of meditation. Instead, they appear as fighter and holder of the reins in the clamorous field. It is in the midst of the hurtling shafts of the chariot of the battle.

The Teacher of the Gita is therefore not just the God in man who unveils Himself in the world of knowledge. He is more importantly the God in man who moves our whole world of action. Our humanity exists and struggles and labours by and for this God. Towards this God all human life travels and progresses. He is the secret Master of works and sacrifice and the Friend of the human peoples.

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Did You Commit Suicide Today ?

2005-10-18T10:50:22+02:00

A Page from my Life Diary

From
Life Wanderer

12th October 2005, Dasara

Did You Commit Suicide Today ?

What Suicide ? Me ? What do you mean ? Are you in your senses ? What makes you say so ? Are you crack ?
These are the typical answers one may expect for the title question. Yet most of us commit suicide several times a day. I know this statement is not palatable to us. Some may say that it is in bad taste. But it is true. Here is how.

What is suicide ? Suicide means intentionally and voluntarily killing one self. Ending our existence on this terrestrial life. This is a major event and needs a major step of crossing the line between intention and action to commit suicide. For every suicide committed, there are at least 1000 suicide candidates returning back from line of actual action for want of courage or last minute prevalence of rational mind over desperate mind. I am not referring to any of these.

The main motivating force for suicide is to find an escape from the present dead-locked situation. There is a frustration and desperation. It is giving up trying to find the solution as all the efforts to tide over the difficulty have failed. The inner energy to try harder has vanished. This is what I am trying to emphasize when I ask the title question.

We all want to do something. Sometimes we succeed. Many times we fail. When we fail, we keep on trying till we succeed. However, the struggle for trying takes its toll on our personality. It puts its permanent scars on our mind. Then we give up. We stop trying. We resign to our fate. Sometimes we strait away accept it. But many times we give it different color by saying that we do not want the intended result, we have something more important thing to do, it is not worth the struggle, I will get it at some later date, I will try in different manner at some other time, I am a different person now and has become Yogi etc. If we honestly do the everyday analysis of every minute of our life from morning to next morning, we will discover that our life is full of compromises. It may be a very minor thing as pressing the toothpaste from the wrong side, keeping the toilet seat cover down, allowing other person jumping the queue to elevator of the building, tolerating the suit not pressed properly, silently accepting being pushed by the man behind you while alighting from the bus. It may be major thing like being ignored at office in increment list. Not getting ones recognition while the boss promotes undeserving colleague on some extraneous grounds. Then there are in-between cases when we grudgingly accept the bad road conditions, higher taxes, corruption in government, hooliganism, bad management of educational institution, unemployment etc.

What happens ? We lose our zeal and enthusiasm for trying to better our life. We get into the little corner of our life for comfort and safety of the cave. Our rational mind convinces us that the trade off between the cost of the struggle and the reward thereof are not matching and it is a bad bargain. We then give up. But we do not accept the defeat. This is the worst part of the story. We give our retreat different names as indicated above. We kill a tiny fragment of our personality every time we need to but do not try to better our life. This is what I call Suicide of a Bit of our Life. Bit by bit, a major chunk of our personality is finished much before we die.

This has its major cost in terms of lack of enthusiasm and zeal to enjoy life. We then find readymade entertainment as our escape from the frustration of failures. These escape routes can be as benign as watching TV to as damaging as alcoholism, womanizing, gambling etc. The worst is yet to come. The immune system of our body gets considerably weakened and we are more susceptible to sickness.

On the other hand, trying to better our life conditions without getting the secret key is also damaging. It may sometimes cause more damage due to insults, defeats, spoiled relationships, loss of money etc.

I feel that the solution lies in always trying to better our life conditions without getting emotionally involved in the struggle. We should always be communicative about our feelings and wishes in a very clear, non offensive, polite, non-pushy non-selfish but fearless manner to the other party. We should also try to do something about the situation to be improved. While doing this we should have the love and wellbeing of the other person in our heart. We should not be violent. But we must try. Always try. If we are not passionate and emotional and egoistic in our efforts, we will not tire out with continuous struggle. In fact we should not take it as a struggle. It is the game of life. We should perform our part happily.

Many a times we have frustrating situation of having a scope to do very little or nothing in improving our situation in certain circumstances or locations. I have a easy and interesting solution for this. Remember, we must keep the fire alive. It should not die out due to lack of opportunity. I help other non-known or not-connected persons in a non-monetary way. When I buy fruits in the market, I give one or two fruits to the beggar on the street. I give fruits or sweets to our society watchmen, my driver, postman, washer-man, milk man, house maid etc alternatively. While giving the fruit or the sweet, I do not have the feeling of charity or help. I give it in the sense of returning the favour of the mother earth in having me these things. I share the wealth of the mother earth with her children. All are her children – whether they can afford to buy her wealth or not. These people are not used to receiving these gifts. It is my experience that invariably these people are greatly moved by my gesture. I get my benefit in terms of trying and succeeding in improving the welfare and goodwill of my immediate environment – may be even to a very very tiny extent.

Other thing I do is do the job of cleaning in a very small way our immediate surrounding. I do it myself. I may sweep the floor in front of my house, plant trees, do flower arrangement, burn incense sticks, water the plants outside my house, pick up rags and small paper or plastic chits lying on the floor outside my house, give water to the thirsty dogs and cats – something I am not supposed to or normally expected to do by the Society. I do it with a satisfaction that I am taking positive step in improving my environment. This gives a happy and joyous signal to my Universe and it goes on in a chain effect to improve the living conditions on this planet. I know that these are only the token things. They are only symbolic things. These will not remove the corruption from the government, they will not improve the traffic jams, they will not reduce the crowd in the local trains. I will certainly need to do something about it. But whether I actually do anything about it or not, I am keeping the fire in me alive by doing the small things mentioned above. These small things does not make me hero. Nobody probably notice them. There is no appreciation from the society for these works. I am not concerned about these. In fact when nobody is likely to notice the good work done by you, it is the best way to do the good work. The reward for such good work is 24 carat gold. There is no ego satisfaction from such work as nobody is there to appreciate your work.

The big work like going on a crusade against corruption makes you hero. Here is the danger of heightened Ego. One may reach the height with constant danger of crashing to the ground. I am not against such endeavors. But they are not for every man. For us, we have to do small, insignificant jobs in the field of social action with little or no appreciation. But we must do them. How to go about it is a different issue altogether. If one is eager to take part in such social action but does not know how to start, he can keep the fire alive by doing the things mentioned above.

I am having an idea of starting an initiative of involving common people in apolitical manner in the non-aggressive social action. It does not include starting a violent protest against the corruption and booking the corrupt officials. It means making mass awareness of these issues and inducing the masses not to be party to corrupt practices. There are many projects which do not require anti-establishment actions. I am particular about these matters as I do not expect Great Sacrifices from a common man. We need to do little things. It is enough. It will keep the fire alive. Those who have a call, can go for bigger actions. The masses can at least do little things instead of committing micro-suicides every day.

Let us make a vow to stop committing micro-suicides. Let us be watchful about these things. Next time somebody else jumps the queue, tell him on his face in a polite and non-aggressive manner. But you must tell him. He may be a bully with menacing face. Do not get scared of him. If he insults you back, you need not take the battle further. You may then ignore him. But you must take the small first step. If you do not then take the second step, it is OK. Do something beyond the normal call of your duty and responsibility. Do little bit. Not great things. But do you must. Be forward moving. There is nothing like staying neutral. If you are not forward moving, you are not static or neutral. You must then be backward moving. You are committing micro-suicides.

This is what I call the true sense of respecting the Life.

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Little Things in Life are Precious

2005-10-18T10:49:14+02:00

A Page from my Life Diary

From
Life Wanderer

13th October 2005

Little Things in Life are Precious

We are always fascinated by the small people making big bucks. We are having a pet term for it as ‘Rags to Riches’. We all want to become part of ‘rags to riches’ story. Usually there is a single or very few incidences wherein the person has played his cards right and lo ! He is eventually a very rich man – like Bill Gates. We are then told of the importance of hard work, dedication, spotting the big opportunity, getting help, market intelligence, having a product breakthrough etc.

Actually you may be wondering what I am up to ? Yes we are having rags to riches stories and we want to make it big in a similar way. What is wrong with it ? What is your objection to it ?\

Yes, you put it right. I do have an objection to the way we get mystified by these stories. Frankly, every time I hear a new rags to riches story, my stomach used to turns inside out for I having missed this opportunity. I used to feel that I am some how being left out of the God’s lucky draw. I was highly uncomfortable with my jealous attitude. It will not help me a bit in getting rich – I used to tell myself. While at the same time, I could not deny the logic in my argument. Rags to Riches Stories do have an element of ‘lucky draw’ in it. Whatever may be the qualities of hard work, intelligence, product break through etc which have gone into making of this ‘rags to riches’ stories, it was not enough. It was not the whole story. One has to be at the right place at the right time and with right people and with the right environment….. Isn’t it a matter of luck ? If it were so, then what is wrong if I refuse to appreciate the winner of the lottery.

After much deliberation, introspection and meditative thought in the matter I have come to the conclusion that I am right. There is nothing in rags to riches stories for the common man. He can not emulate the success of these lucky persons. So what is the solution ? Here is the solution.

We must grab every small opportunity passing our way. Luck is the ability of the person to be consciously and constantly aware about spotting and grabbing the stream of opportunities which pass our way – everybody’s way. These opportunities may be very small opportunities indeed. They may not have the appeal of ‘rags to riches’ story. But surely they have the potential of adding to your wealth. Unfortunately, with our eyes to the skies for spotting a big breakthrough, we miss several small breakthroughs passing our way. And when we do not get any big lotteries, we stop trying. We resign to our fate. On the other hand, the person who always grabs the small opportunities, gets richer and richer. We should remember the ratio of getting richer is compounded in geometric proportion. The man gets richer in the ratio of 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 etc and not 1,2,3,4,5,6 etc. The reason is that the confidence of the person who grabs the small opportunities is boosted by his success and this in turn pumps up his ability to spot bigger and better opportunities.

Now I am making a very daring proposition. I have applied it to myself with good success and have also seen it being profitably used by few other people. If we want to increase our sharpness and alertness for spotting the small opportunities passing our way every day, WE SHOULD STOP DREAMING ABOUT BIG BREAKTHROUGHS LIKE THOSE FAMOUS PEOPLE. This may raise many eyebrows. I will explain the reasons why I am making this bold proposition.

The alertness and awareness is directly related to the ‘here and now’ focus of attention. There are some breathing and meditative techniques for achieving heightened state of awareness. But first and foremost, we should stop dreaming. We should start living. Living consciously and with full awareness. We should stop playing lotteries. Secondly, we should learn to transform the little irritations and resistances and hesitations into free flowing energy which can be used for the much needed ‘forward push’. We may have to call a friend every 3 months and keep the contact alive. We know that he is a good source of possible opportunity in future. The reason we do not call him is not that we forget. The reason is subtle and sub-conscious hesitation. This may be due to our past experiences when after calling the friend, he was not available, his household gave us rude replies, he was busy and told us that he will call us later and did not called up and we took it as his avoidance of our contact… there may be many reasons. We may not even discern that we are having such hesitations. But we may not just call him. How many such contacts are we losing ? Far too many. All these contacts are like seeds. They may or may not work out. But we must sow the seed before we come to these conclusions. This is only just one example. Life offers ample small, tiny or micro opportunities continuously. Everybody is potential lucky person in a very tiny way. But who is interested in small gains ? We all want Big Gains.

I will make another daring statement. If you are not a scholar, you are lucky. You earn more money if you do not study and score good marks and get admission in prestigious institutions and become doctor and engineer. In good many cases this holds very much true. We all know the cases of our friends and relatives who did not study, were therefore slow starters and suddenly in their thirties they make it very big in some catering business or tourist industry or some franchise chains etc. The reason is that because of the lack of good qualifications, these people become more mobile. They can look for and take up versatile type of jobs. On the other hand a highly qualified MS doctor can not run a dept store even if he does not get a good job in his field. Though this is not a universal rule, it is a good pointer towards the validation of my theory. We should be mobile. We should not narrow down our stream of opportunities. We should not demarcate our poverty level.

In order to follow this path, you must first remove the clutter in your mind about the fixed dogmas and notions about the method of earning money. We need also to do certain types of Yoga and do the Prosperity Meditation. But even if we do not do this, just the simple rule of not letting go of an opportunity just because it is smaller than our ‘entry level’ standards will go a long way.

The issue here is not just the monetary gain you make. The issue is of far more profound. When we take every opportunity presented to us – small, micro or big or very big – we send a very clear and loud signal to the Universe. This signal is that of warm and loving welcome to the Goddess of Wealth.

And this is the Master Key.

Life Wanderer

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Meditation on Death

2005-10-18T10:47:39+02:00

A Page from my Life Diary

From
Life Wanderer

14th October 2005

Meditation on Death

We do meditation in various ways. But meditation on death sounds a little eerie. It may sound a little frightening to some. Death for us is like the dark side of the Moon. In spite of whatever the spirituality may teach us about the transition of human soul which takes place at the time of death of man, deep in our consciousness there is a silent, unspoken fear of death.

We all know that we are going to die one day. Though many people may wish for immortality, nobody expects to live for ever. In spite of this accepted reality of practical life, the statement that ‘you are going to die after X number of days’ sounds like a bad omen. We live as if we are never going to die.

Having worked in a hospital for many years, I have seen death as a matter of routine occurrence. It was routine for us but exceptional for the patient and his relatives. I have seen patients and his relatives more worried about the bill than the prospect of recovery. At the same place we have star babies born very frequently and the jubilation that followed. Here I do not want to sound philosophical. I am amused by the play of life and death and how we take it.

I have myself gone through a deep traumatic period of personal crisis in my life. I used to be always concerned about the course of events that will unfold and my role in it. Every success used to bring with it further web of human relationships and the tension about the outcome of my future endeavors. Hardly in my life I have enjoyed my achievements unperturbed by tomorrow. The only good thing was that in the midst of all this crisis I was in constant search for a stable and secure station in life. This kept the fire in me burning bright. It kept me alive in a deeper sense.

Then in one day, I got a breakthrough. In the process of ‘mental discussion’ about the various possible outcomes of my various actions and the tension it created on my life, I tried to think about the ‘worst case scenario’. I fearlessly extended my argument towards its logical conclusion. In the worst case scenario, I will be dead. It was the end of the road.

Or was it really ? I decided to explore further. What happens when I am dead. How will I know ? All the theories of the after death scenarios are only hypothesis for me. I was not interested in unverifiable hypothesis. Were I ready to die ? Certainly not. I was a fighter, I told myself.

Then the idea flashed in my mind. How about just thinking that I am dead without actually dyeing ? I closed my eyes. I told myself that I have now died. Then I did a silent meditation on the ‘nothingness’ which I was most likely to experience after death. Having reached this stage, I decided to further extend my logical reasoning from the point I left just before I died. I started to do the job of mental discussion of worrying about the possible worst of worst case (first worst for my living period and the next worst for my after death period) scenarios.

And here I got a crude shock. I tried to worry but could not do it. Again I tried hard to worry. I could not manage it. There was now the question before me which I could not answer : What is the relevance of the situations, events, relationships, tensions etc of ‘my living era’ to my new situation of ‘after death era’ ? Unless I am able to establish the core requirement of ‘relevance of things to my present (i.e. after death stage) situation’ my mind refused to co-operate with me in my intense desire for worrying about something. I tried hard but could not do it. In my situation of ‘after death’ I am neither able to influence the events nor in a position to enjoy ‘life’. I am in a ‘no-thing’ stage. It is neither happy nor sad mental state. I felt highly uncomfortable with this ‘no worry’ state and quickly returned to my terrestrial existence of ‘pre death stage’ of living. I felt much better now. I again started the process of worrying. I could do it now. It is a stage of ‘something always happening’ - may be just the act of worrying over the things.

In this process of ‘living and dyeing’ a more subtle change was taking place in my ‘mental constitution’. I did not notice it first. It became apparent after several ‘cross jumps’ between life and death. The intensity and the depth of my attachment to the emotions – whether happy or sad – got considerably softened out. I could not as intensely feel sadness or happiness in my ‘living state’ as I used to feel before my crazy experiments with life. I could still do the same logical argumentation and worry about the things, but the ‘charm of worrying’ has gone out of my life.

My further meditations on the subject gave me new insights. Earlier I had handled the issue of ‘relevance of things’ in my ‘post death’ state and in my ‘pre death state’. Now I moved a step further. What is the actual relevance of things in my ‘continuous state’ of pre and post death ? This was a tough question. Not because it was difficult to answer. It was tough because the answer was not palatable. It shook my whole basis of logical reasoning foundation. I realized that the things which are causing me most annoyance, worry, tension etc are not going to remain when I die. And I am sure going to die someday. So why I carry a baggage which the airline authorities at the departure lounge are not going to allow me to embark on the plane ? I had gone through the experience of having to painfully leave my baggage behind in such situations. This had happened in the case of actual air travel. Now the situation was very much similar. All my mental constructions will have to be abandoned at the departure lounge of Life. And on top of it all, this will be done very abruptly and ruthlessly and rudely. I would have felt very much insulted had it happened in any living situations. I would have certainly avoided the course of events which will sure lead me towards such an insulting situation. I had my self respect. Then why am I meekly accepting such an humiliating situation in a situation of death when all of a sudden all my valuable possessions of tensions, worries, joys, excitements are stripped off me ? I will need to have a re-look at how I live my life so that at the time of my death my passage is honourable and my self respect is not harmed.

This led me to the final analysis. There is nothing actually worth to feel sad for. Life is a play. You should play it till the whistle blows. The rewards for this play is not in the number of goals you score.

It is in the very act of playing !

Life Wanderer

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Right Vs Right

2005-10-11T14:00:39+02:00

A Page from my Life Diary

10th October 2005

Right Vs Right

( Right is taken as meaning just, proper, fair etc. The other meaning of ‘entitlement, privilege, due, justification etc’ is not implied in the following note)

We are often caught in the selection of right from the wrong. We want to do things which are right. We expect everybody to do the same thing. We believe that if everybody is honest, does right thing, does not harm other etc we all will be living in a paradise on this planet. The problem, according to us, is that there are some people who are unscrupulous, selfish, liars, cheats etc and there are many people who do nothing about these ‘some’ people.

The religions Guru of all the religions bombard us with the lessons of ethics, morality, virtuous living etc. Social activists tell us about the social evils. We are born and brought up in this atmosphere of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ things.

With all the life’s experiences behind me, I am coming to the opinion that the problem lies in defining who is ‘we’ and who are ‘they’. We have basic assumption that there is absolute truth. And that truth is on our side !

When I am saying that I am right and the other person is wrong, that other person also feels that he is right and I am wrong. He may even be far more aggrieved party than me. He has his version of the story and it may be an honest version according to him. But I am blinded by the belief in ‘my right’ thing. On many occasions the battle is between ‘my right’ Vs ‘his right’. If we remove the common factor of ‘right’ from this equation, it simply becomes ‘Me’ Vs ‘He’.

So then what is the solution ? The religious guru will tell us to ‘love each other, to do sacrifice, be peaceful’ etc. I am afraid it is not the solution. I do not wish to forgo the right (meaning entitlement) of right (meaning justified thing). And why should I ? Afterall I am right and he is wrong.

Some may suggest a fair compromise. Again it will not be solution because any compromise only postpones the problem, it does not solve.

The above is not a hypothetical situation. It is very very real and we face these situations several times in a day. We only do not realize it.

The legal minded will try to interpret the law in the particular matter. But law is designed by humans and the interpretations is to be done by human and there is ‘right’ way of interpretation and ‘wrong’ way of interpretation. So the question becomes about the law being on my side Vs the feeling of the other party that either the law is on his side or the law is not applicable or the law is unfair or the law is misinterpreted. It poses more questions than it answers.

I am offering somewhat different solution. We all should assert our way of doing things and at the same time try to understand as to how the other party believes that he is also right. If we try to honestly know the mind of the other party, we will understand that behind this battle of ‘Right Vs Right’ there is another hidden element of what is beneficial. What is beneficial to me is not necessarily what is right. If I am fighting for what is beneficial to me, then the rules of the game are totally different. The Jungle Law will apply in such situation. Let us not confuse these two issues.

We may not find any right and perfect solution for this dilemma. Anybody who offers a ‘packaged’ solution is cheating. But we will realize that there is no ‘absoluteness’ to our firm conviction about the ‘right’ thing. We will also come to know that the battle really is between not right Vs wrong but between ‘my right’ Vs ‘his right’. In such situations we should be guided by our own individual ‘call of the Self’. If we feel of forgoing our right (i.e. entitlement) to right (i.e. justified thing), we may do so, or we may continue the battle. There is no definite solution. If the call of our Self is to fight and we give up after listening to some Guru, we will keep the problem un-resolved in our mind and the ghost of this unresolved conflict will subtly and behind the scene influence our future thought pattern.

Instead of finding or even expecting to find any definite solution, we should understand that it is the process of resolving the conflict which is important. This process of conflict resolution will give us many insights of the nature of human mind and this insight will make us more mature and add more depth to our understanding the Life. The most fundamental condition for this Process to become beneficial to our understanding of the Life is that we should look behind the veil of Ego and try to see and understand the real issue involved. It will help us understand a bit of Truth. Instead of being a stressful event the ‘Truth Conflict’ will become a game of life and the joy of Play will be ours in abundance.

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Quest for Answer

2005-10-11T13:59:44+02:00

My Life Diary
10th October 2005

Quest for Answer

Today I had a very humbling experience. I was participating in an institutional meeting run on co-operative basis wherein every member had equal vote. The occasion was General Body Meeting. The members were not well informed about the matters to be discussed at the meeting and some vested interests were subverting the whole process to their advantage. I knew the whole game through and through and was desperately trying to inform the members on factual matters. I had partial success and to some extent I was able to educate and alert the members. However, in a meeting of some 50 persons, I was the only one who had done full homework. The members were driven variously by their outward impressions of the governing body members, their own selfish motives, their own personal grudge against me due to some past instances and mostly due to just their eagerness to finish the meeting early. The members with vested interests took full advantage of this situation and were able to quiet me. It was a frustrating experience. In order to make members understand the situation and the game the people were playing, I became more assertive and aggressive. This worked to a large extent. There was deliberate commotion created by some members. I raised my voice and fully utilised my persuasive and argumentative skills backed up by the factual data I possessed. In the end, I can rate my success as 30 %. Considering that some members (on my side) initially took it as a hopeless situation, this 30 % success is a good achievement. But I was not comfortable as the balance 70 % could not be achieved. I get angry due to the deceit and dishonesty of the people and try to correct these people in so far as I consider it my duty to do so. I have a high sense of duty and social responsibility. In the end, when I am writing this note, I have a bitter taste of the whole episode.
Now, after you have read it, I want to share with you my personal observations and the insights I am having. These may startle some.
Being logical, rational and truth seeker puts you in a deep trouble unless you are also political. I consider it as mutually exclusive qualities. But in today’s world, one has to be political first and foremost. I am absolutely sure that I do not want to play politics. While at the same time, I can also not keep quiet when wrongs are done in my immediate circle of environment.
I feel I should practice the art of ‘letting go’. It does not mean not putting any effort to correct the situation. It only means that beyond a particular point, I should not try to assert myself. I should put the limit to my assertiveness and aggressiveness and persistence. Beyond those self made limits, I should allow the situation to take its own turn – may be against my desired outcome. I \must be quietly persistent with my efforts. I should not retire from the active scene. I should engage myself in the action. But I must observe the limits of my action. I should also behave myself decently. When the other person is not behaving decently, I used to give ‘tit for tat’. This should not happen. I should let go.
The above thought used to give me frightening scenario when I am constantly on the losing ground due to these self imposed limits. It may even happen. Let it be so. I should not cross my limits.
What are those limits ? I feel that I should not do anything which puts bitter taste of the incident. When somebody has abused me and I teach him a lesson and may be I succeed, It still leaves me in a bitter taste and I do not feel comfortable for abusing the other person or in other words, for lowering my level to the other person. In the process of getting things done, I get gradually lower level of my personal worth. Therefore, it is a bad bargain to get the things done but lower my self worth. So what is the alternative ? I feel the alternative is to ‘let it go’ beyond a particular point of effort.
We are taught of ‘getting it done’ by putting our best and trying hard. I feel this is wrong. I am realizing it now. We are constantly being bombarded by the environment about the ‘competitive advantage’, getting 110 % of our efficiency, being successful, winning. But what about happiness ?
Some people who get caught in the similar dilemmas, adopt either of the following options
1 They just give up trying and start doing Yoga, meditation, spirituality etc to find the answers.
Note : I am referring above to the passive yoga meditation etc. It means that they refrain from further action to avoid the Karma. I am myself doing Yoga, Meditation etc. But it is not to escape from the situation but to 'penetrate' through the situation. I am doing 'Active' Yoga, Meditation. I am not scared of Karma. I belive in Yoga in Action. Living the Life fully and not Escape from Life.

2 They accept the situation out of frustration.
3 They change themselves to the ‘ways of the world’ and join the league of political, selfish and half-truth people.
4 They convince themselves that they will won their rewards in afterlife and then do not try at all.

I am rejecting all of above. Not on any ground of ‘principal’ but just because I want to be true to my own self. That is why I called it life’s dilemmas. I accept that it is a dilemma and I do not have a full answer. But I know for sure what is NOT an answer. The path I am going to follow – I am not sure how much successful I will be. But I want to be a happy person and success is not a guarantee for happiness. At the same time, my intrinsic nature of truthfulness and warrior does not allow me to make half efforts or avoid conflicts. I am not going to any spiritual guru to get the solution. I am also not seeking solutions from Gods. Being in the above dilemma, I do not have definite answer. But I am getting to a firmer conviction that I must always try, be assertive, be persistent, be truthful and be warier. But do not take it to the end – fight to finish. Leave my fight somewhere inbetween when I am starting to realize that I am exceeding my limits or getting lowered down in my personal worth. And then let it go. Move forward. Whatever may be the outcome. I may not be successful. I may not even be happy. But at least my search for the answer will be on. And I will be more true to my own true nature. This will give me strength. What worse is going to happen ? Taking the reasoning to its logical end, I may lose everything. But my soul will be my own. Nobody can take it away. And the search will be on.
The fight to the finish entangles you in the process with the events and the objects of the situation. Letting it go makes you free of such entanglements. And I feel that to be free of any entanglements is of immense value. It makes the path clearer to you and you get good insights about the correct path.
Unfortunately, I am not seeing any person around me who is following my way.
On earlier many occasions, due to my above qualities, I landed in deep mess. I ‘over did’ it. People were hurt. I lost friends, I lost sympathy. I was totally alone. I was ditched. And on top of it all, I also lost the battle. But almost miraculously, I was literally lifted out of the mess and put in a clean ground – again to get into some another mess. I was very definitely helped by the divine grace. At every juncture of deep trouble in my life, I was offered help by people – as if being directed by some higher power. But before the help was offered, I went through hell. And it was mostly due to my fool-hardiness. The world is full of political, selfish and deceitful people. And I dashed against my opposition like a bull. It does not take great imagination to know what will be the result.
I am also proud and happy in retrospect that on most occasions, I had fantastic success and I did many things which are very much commendable. And all this in seemingly hopeless situations, The problem is that in the process, I made many enemies and I exceeded my limits of decency. I was aggressive and pushy. Moreever, I lost the political game and end result of every battle was frustratioin.
Now is the time in my life to do some introspection. In fact I am doing the introspection constantly. But the path I am following does not offer ready made answers.
When I see spiritual gurus offering advice of love and peace, I get a strong desire to kidnap these guru, shave their beards and hairs, make them look and dress like very ordinary person, make them travel in the horribly crowded suburban trains of Mumbai and then ask their advice about love and peace. Will they be able to practice what they preach ? Very much doubtful.
I am convinced that the path I am following will lead me forward in my search for realizing the Truth of My Being. Staying confident and comfortable in life and ENJOYING LIFE without fear, anxiety, deceitfulness and degradation of my self worth. I am not a seeker for god, heaven, Nirvana etc. I am a seeker for STABLE HAPPINESS. My own TRUE SELF is like a diamond. I want to fully realize my DIAMOND NATURE.

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