The Sinner

Ten Chinese farmers were working in a field, when suddenly the sky darkened. There was thunder and lightning. It began to rain heavily. The farmers, holding on tightly to their large straw hats, ran for shelter to the ruins of a temple nearby. Lightning flashed again and again and the thunder shook the walls of the temple.

“The gods are angry with us,” said one of the men, his voice shaking in fear. 

“Why?” asked another.

“Obviously, there’s a big sinner amongst us!” a third voice said with apparent panic. 

“We must find him and throw him out, lest we all perish!” 

“I have an idea,” said one. 

“Let us all hold our hats outside the window. Let the gods show us the sinner.”

So they all thrust their hats outside the window. Immediately a lightning cracked and instantaneously one of the hats was reduced to ashes. The owner of the hat was a quite, middle-aged man who had not uttered a word till then. Now he began to plead with his companions to protect him.

“I’ve a wife and three children and aged parents to support,” he said. 

“What will happen to them if I die?” But the others were merciless.  

“Out, out with you!” they shouted and lifting him, they threw him out of the temple. The man scrambled to his feet and ran as fast as he could to the shelter of a tree some distance away. Hardly had he reached the tree, when a lightning struck the temple, which collapsed, killing all nine men inside.

Till then they had been protected by the presence of the only good man amongst them. God alone knows how often we are spared due to the goodness of others, whom we make scapegoats. 

Jose Kaimlett

Unitive Divine Consciousness

Baba continued: “True prosperity and abiding peace in the world need justice and sustainable development based on an integral vision of life and reality, and on a holistic and ecological worldview. Prosperity and sustainable development are impossible without a peaceful social order. Peace needs justice. Economic justice is basic to a just and peaceful social order….

“Economics and politics today are inter-related like the two sides of a coin. All economic progress comes from right political decisions. All political decisions are influenced by economic considerations….

“Hence, both economics and politics need to be rebuilt on the strong foundation of an integral vision of life and reality, and on a holistic ecological worldview if we are to find justice, sustainable development and lasting peace on earth. A unitive divine consciousness needs to provide their foundation… There is no other way….. Do you agree with me, my son?”, the Baba asked.

“Yes, guruji, I fully agree with you.” Atma Prakash responded to his guru’s question. 

The Baba continued…

“Peace in the world also needs appropriate technologies and renewable energy sources. Ecological harmony and environmental health are essential requirements for sustainable development and abiding peace on earth. This will mean that science and technology also need to be rebuilt on the foundation of an integral vision of life and reality, and on a unitive divine consciousness….. 

“Mother Earth is our common mother. She nurtures and nourishes all of us, and all forms of life. On her health and vitality will depend the health and vitality of all species of living beings inhabiting this planet, which is our common habitat in space….

“Today’s concept of ‘development’ is very short-sighted. It is also lop-sided. ‘Immediate gains at the cost of long term irrevocable losses!’… This is the model of development pursued by most of the countries today…

“The health of Mother Earth will depend on the health of her individual parts. By destroying her natural resources, and by polluting her air and water, we are destroying our mother and ourselves.” 

“Yes guruji. I was reading the book ‘Tao of Physics’ by Fritjof Capra that is in our library. He uses similar expressions to explain reality. He speaks of creation as ‘an interdependent organic whole in the form of a network of relationships.’ The unity of all life that you have mentioned is a profound experience that I myself am going through in this jungle during these days, guruji,” said Atma Prakash.

The Baba seemed very happy with his disciple. 

He continued… “As human beings, we are the most evolved species in the Earth Family. We are like responsible elder brothers and sisters to all other living beings constituting this Earth Family…

“We need to develop such an ‘earth family consciousness’ if we are to do full justice to the gift of life. But at the back of such an earth family consciousness, there has to be the unitive divine consciousness. This is our ‘planetary responsibility’ as human beings…

“The world today is being torn apart by individuals, communities, nations and religions that are divided within and among themselves. The oneness of reality and the wholeness of existence are being lost to us today. They are being replaced by conflicting worldviews and opposing claims…..

“The secular and the sacred, which are the two sides of reality, are being seen as being opposed to each other. The masculine and the feminine, the rational and the intuitive, which are complementary dimensions of the one reality are also seen as being at conflict with one another…. We need to rediscover an integral vision of life and reality, and a holistic ecological worldview. Don’t you think so, my son?’ 

The Baba stopped with a question.

 

Excerpts from ‘Integral Revolution’: Swami Sachidananda Bharati 

Some Practical Aids to Living

Conscientious living is difficult but extremely joyous and rewarding. I am putting down here some practical aids to living that I found helpful from my long, lived experience.

• You are a subject; you are not an object to be used and manipulated.

• You are a person on your own right. You are not any better or worse than anyone else as a person. No one is big or small.

• Do not lead; do not follow; be led by your own inner light.

• Do not imitate, though imitation may be necessary in one’s early life as all can follow good models; observe the world and the living around you, learn from all, and select what helps you without doing violence to your inner being.

• Be always a student of life.

• Learn from the school of hard knocks; adversities have precious lessons for life.

• Every bad happening contains a message for life; learn to interpret the message contained in it to guide your life.

• Adversarial and unpleasant situations, if taken in the right spirit, will purify and strengthen you instead of making you a bitter person.

• Change the world by changing yourself; when you change, the world automatically changes as you are a part of the world, and you will not be disappointed. Your business in this world is not to change anyone anyway.

• Put into practice first the very advice or suggestions you want to give to others.

• Give to others the freedom you take for yourself.

• Do not preach what you do not put or intend to put into practice.

• Say what needs to be said, and do what needs to be done courageously.

• Do not carry in your head evil and toxic persons who wronged you or betrayed your trust; become wiser so you do not place yourself in similar situations; consider the loss as the costly fee you gave to learn a little more about humanity. In spite of all your cautions, you will still be deceived. Nonetheless, be more cautious, but do not stop trusting lest you stunt your own growth. Besides, humanity cannot progress without trust, and a life without trust and faith is no life at all.

• The good you do for others always comes back to you in some form though not necessarily from expected persons. Besides, doing good is being part of human, and does not require any reward as it is its own reward. Being good and doing good are a beautiful way of being. 

• Criticize persons only when your love for them is stronger than your criticism; when your near or dear ones begin to resent what you think is helpful criticism, stop it because they will not be able to benefit from it anyway.

• Things could always be worse. Be grateful that they are not worse than they really are.

• Let no one condition you or program you without your conscious permission.

• The opportunities that we get to help others and make their lives more bearable and worthwhile are truly privileges to celebrate life and bring humanity back on its track toward its destined course.

The above guidelines may help us examine our own contribution to humanity. For those who love and have a positive outlook on life, everything ultimately works unto good.

Swami Snehananda Jyoti

Sounds of Success

For some people success speaks for itself. For some others they have to speak a lot to be successful. One fine day I was just sitting in my balcony and was watching the passersby on the road. I heard a vendor selling his food items by creating original verses. His sound was loud and his verses were definitely quite interesting. Children on the street were attracted towards him. While preparing his recipes, he created more verses and I could see children laughing and enjoying his preparations as well as his poems. Then came one more vendor, who started banging the karahi in which he used to fry the pop-corns. His way of attracting the customers was to create peculiar metallic sound that goes straight into hearts of the children even if they are sitting quite deep inside their study rooms. 

These two vendors also reminded me of another vendor who comes in my lane every morning and plays a rubber horn, while selling bread and biscuits on his bicycle. There is a sound behind every sales made by these sales people. Behind this sound is a well thought out strategy. For these people their strategy has been working for many years. No amount of raw material price rise affects their enthusiasm. Every day has been same for them, but every day is always eventful. 

I started thinking behind the philosophy of such “Sounds of Sales” or “Sounds of Success” for these people. The books I read during my management course talked about push and pull concept of marketing. These people are pulling customers, by pushing their unique sounds. I feel that success anywhere in any domain can be related to such an approach. We have to persuade people and push all our efforts to convince them that we are also worth their attention. Attention seeking is our basic need, as basic as food, clothes and shelter. Since early childhood we know, how to get attention of our mother. We continue this habit all through our life. Our attention seeking instinct can also have positive or negative impacts. It is up to us whether we do it with a planned strategy or we just do it for the sake of it. 

Dr. Sunil Ji Garg 

Are You Mad?

Habits are hard to dissolve. Try deleting one letter each from the beginning of the word ‘habit’; all combinations and even the last of letters appears to be meaningful. Habits are good and bad; and there are many in both these categories. Each one of us is sure that all others we have met have bad habits about which they are not at all aware of. The question is on how aware we are on the details and grade of all the habits we inherit. Unless you are aware of what you do, I am compelled to call you mad.

 

Madness is not limited to getting angry or showing severe mental illness only. It also means lack of clear and sensible thinking. Science knows that no human being is exactly what we see with our outward eyes but a combination of subtle and gross energy units called body, mind and spirit. So it is not exactly what you eat that you are but more what you think. Clear and sensible thinking is proof of one’s overall health. Almost all of us are under some sort of personality disorders at some degree. Personality disorders are relatively stable patterns of thinking, perceiving, reacting, and relating that differ from expected norms and that begin early in life.

 

Yes, mind and consciousness keep on playing a big drama here. Whatever you do, your inner conscience supports you with enough of necessary justifications. You will be surprised to realize that the most heinous criminal you have heard of also had a conscience that justified everything he did. Here is the crisis! We need to double check before we speak something, think something or do something. This ends up in awareness. Doing everything with absolute awareness is practically impossible. It took some time for Gautama Buddha to scare a mosquito, which landed on his shoulder. By the time Buddha lifted his hand as if controlled by an operator, the mosquito had sucked enough blood and fled away in joy. However, Buddha affirmed that being aware is the only way to realization. Our road to absolute awareness is through awareness exercises done in daily lives. It is quite an interesting experience to do everything after a double check and being fully aware of what is being done. Awareness exists only in present simple tense, nowhere else.

 

Joseph Mattappally

KABIR PEACE MISSION — Brief Introduction

Today, there is an atmosphere of despondency all around and most of the people believe that the evil has overtaken the virtue. Though this in itself is a subject of discussion, but even if it is true, such belief only strengthens the negative forces and in the process, the positive forces get discouraged. The problem is further compounded by the fact that most of those who believe like this take no steps to change this situation. Even those few who think of taking some steps, do not proceed much as they do not find the atmosphere conducive. In such a situation the question arises how to solve the problem and further, who would do so.

We feel that the situation is not so horrible as it appears. No doubt that today the negative forces are raising their head but such has been the situation always in one form or the other. It is also true that in the end, the negative forces have to face only defeat. Therefore, firstly, it is necessary to believe that the negative thinking is a symbol of ignorance and those who think negative only harm themselves. On the other hand, though the positive thinking may not appear rewarding in the short run, eventually our welfare lies only in the positive thinking. It is also true, there is no dearth of positive forces in the society. Had it been so, the creation would have ceased to exist. If at a point of time, negative forces appear to be flourishing, it is only a process of their destruction.

Therefore it is very essential that, first of all, we make our thinking positive so that the process of establishing peace in the society is expedited. `Kabir Peace Mission' was established in the year 1990 with this objective in mind and since then, this mission is humbly endeavouring in this direction. The results of our endeavour have been very encouraging and this gives us motivation to work further. We believe that more important than ‘Gross National Income' is `Gross National Happiness'. In the absence of peace, money loses its importance and happiness eludes us. The purpose of naming the mission after `Kabir' is that our central point is man and we consider him above any religion, caste or nation. For us peace has a comprehensive meaning and we see it as an integrated development. This is possible only when our life has a clear mission.

`Mission' is taking several steps for achieving its objective. Among them, publicity and extension of inspirational books is a major one. From this viewpoint, the mission has published many books and the process is on. We also promote the publicity and extension of other similar books. The mission is specially engaged in making the thinking of young students positive. We believe that the future of the country and the world is in the hands of today's children. The effort made on them, is therefore, the best investment. In addition, we are trying to make every work place, be it in any field, positive. For this we organise special lectures, seminars, discussions and other programmes. We also honour the positive forces of the society from time to time. In this humble effort of ours, we need the cooperation of all. We believe that essentially every man or woman is divine and virtues are hidden in all. If their virtues can be brought out, every one's contribution becomes positive. Our request is that we must also see the positive side of every situation so that inspiration and the strength to overcome the negative side is generated. We shall be very happy to extend any cooperation in this effort of yours. Our mission has the cooperation and the blessings of many and this is our real asset. This is what we expect from you also.

(Those who are intereste to join Kabir Foundation may kindly contact :

Rakesh Kumar Mittal IAS (Founder & Chief Coordinator)

‘UPVAN', 1/14, Vishwas Khand, Gomti Nagar, Lucknow-226010

Tel: 0522-2309147, E-mail: kabirpeacemission@yahoo.co.in).

Return to Nature

Guruji continued: “We often forget the fact that the evil in the world are mostly social expressions of the evil within us. Injustice, corruption, rape and murder are only outer expressions of the selfishness, greed, lust and violence lurking within our own selves... 

“A healthy body is the most important requirement for a happy and fruitful life…. Most of our sicknesses are created by ourselves, because of our un-natural food habits and life-styles…. Then we set up multi-specialty hospitals and spend a lot of money to treat our sicknesses…. We refuse to accept the truth that a return to nature is the only way to regain our lost health. It is the only way to live healthy and fruitful lives… 

“A return to nature will imply eating uncooked fruits, nuts and vegetables; drinking unboiled and unchlorinated fresh water, exposing the body to enough sunlight, breathing fresh air, and walking barefoot on mother earth. But we refuse to return to nature, even when we fall seriously sick, though we know pretty well that such a natural life-style alone can cure us of all sicknesses, and keep us healthy and happy,... and this form of natural and non-violent lifestyle alone can help us build a culture of peace on earth… 

“Economics and politics also need to be rebuilt on the basis of such a holistic ecological world view…. The true basis of a New Creation,…. of an Integral Revolution that the world so badly needs today,… is a return to nature and natural life-styles…..

“Violence and bloodshed in the world are caused mainly by the greed, anger or frustration accumulated within individuals, communities and nations ….

“Seeds of peace, my son, have to be sown in the hearts and minds of individual human persons. That is why the UNESCO Constitution begins by saying: ‘As the wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that defenses for peace must be constructed’…..

“An inner transformation of the individual and a return to nature and natural life-styles are pre-requisites for any true and lasting social transformation, and for abiding peace in the world… It calls us to develop a unitive divine consciousness. This means a consciousness of our inherent unity and divinity as children of God created in His own image and likeness. 

“A unitive divine consciousness will develop in us an awareness that we are united with all living beings,… that we are one family bound with a common destiny;... not only the whole humankind, but also, all life and the whole creation… Religions and nation states are smaller families within the larger human family…”

The Baba stopped and looked at his disciple.

Atma Prakash was all attention.

After few minutes of silence, the Baba continued: 

“The means and ends are inter-related, like a tree and its fruits. Violent means cannot bring peaceful ends. Corrupt means cannot build a corruption-free society or a corruption-free Government….

“Selfish and corrupt Parliamentarians and Legislators cannot bring forth just and righteous laws and rules. Unjust laws cannot build a world of justice…

“Hence, just as inner transformation of the individual and a return to nature and natural life-styles are pre-requisites for any true and lasting social transformation and for abiding health and happiness, right means and right people alone can bring about right ends. Do you understand these realities, my son?’ The Baba asked and looked into the eyes of Atma Prakash.

“Yes guruji, I understand and accept fully what you have said so far. But I want to hear first all that you wish to tell me. Then I may please be allowed to clarify my doubts, if any.” Atma Prakash told his guruji.

‘Yes, of course, my son. That is how it should be.”

The Baba said and was silent for few minutes.

Excerpts from Integral Revolution: Swami Sachidananda Bharati 

BS 267 200815 The Supremacy of Conscience

There is something within all of us that may be considered to be a principle or an energy or an overseer or a monitor that presides over our behavior with regard to its rightness or wrongness. This monitor may be called our conscience. Gandhiji called it the ‘little dictator’ that guided him in all his actions. The basis of our conscience is universal ethical and moral principles or maxims such as “do good and avoid evil” and “give everyone his or her due”. I like to call conscience the divine spark of consciousness within us as it witnesses to our conscious mental processes and evaluates our decisions. It is a spiritual faculty within us and works as judge of our values. Our conscience then is a product of the prolonged training that instills within us the values and purpose of the Cosmos or the Organizing Intelligence (God) that governs the world. As we embark on anything our conscience spells out for us the path we need to take. When things are not clear and our mind is not yet made up, our conscience very understandably and patiently stays with us until we in our creative tension sort things out and come to a decision that is individually (at the spirit-mind-body level) holistic and collectively (at the entire humanity level) beneficial.

Most of our actions are habitual and automatic and the conscience stays inactive.  It is in those actions that qualitatively move us with the rest of humanity to a higher, spiritual plain that our conscience is most active. Conscience plays a great role in expanding our awareness that is pure Godly quality operating at the level of unity of humanity. Truly, the more aware we are the more divine we are, the more human and humane we are, and the more beyond strife, conflicts, competition, power and control, and recognition. As our conscience grows and matures, we move from MY interests to OUR interests. This is nothing but LOVE at its zenith.

A few days ago I was sitting near a central passage way of the ashram sipping a cup of tea. One of the workers came and asked me about what I thought of a well-known God-woman in the area. I told him: “Not much”. He wanted to know more. I told him: “The difference between her and you is: She, perhaps, knows who she is, and, at this juncture, she appears to put her talents or gifts or charism to good use. Additionally, fortunately she has the recognition factor that brings fame and popularity which in turn induces people from far and wide to throng to her. They think they get something. In fact some persons do get some benefit as mere placebo effect. The mere motivation to visit her itself can bring some relief from what they are suffering or lacking. On the other hand, you do not know who you are. You do not know your unique gift. The sheer fact of your thinking that there is someone out there in this world who is better than you as a human being blocks you from being and becoming who you really are. This thinking of yours will get you going helter-skelter reaching nowhere. The fact that you actualize your potentials does not mean persons are going to come to you. You could be like a beautiful, fragrant flower that blooms and withers unseen and unrecognized in the middle of a thick rain forest. In fact most holy men and women are unrecognized. In my concluding remarks to him I also told him that at the level of awareness that he is, it is alright to visit the so-called God-women and find his bliss or get his high until he becomes fully aware and awake and will no longer needs her.”

I began with the supremacy of conscience. Conscience is not given the importance it needs. Political and religious leaders play a great part in dumbing people down. While they talk of protecting others, what I hear is their interest in protecting their vested interests. According to the scriptural saying that a tree is known by the fruit it produces, many political and religious leaders do not stand much of a chance. Their staying in power as also their feeling of indispensability will be considerably diminished by people who are aware and enlightened. That is the main reason I can think of their infantilizing and stultifying their followers. I have experienced religious leaders who think that even a well-formed conscience is misguided if it is not formed according to their religious doctrine or criteria or guidelines. 

Let no one bamboozle you into thinking and believing that they are better than you are as a human being, that your conscience is misguided if it is sincere and if you have taken painstaking care in forming it.  Your creator has given you all that you need for your salvation. You are a subject and not an object to be pressured by others to conform to their thinking. Critically examine everything. If you are not clear about issues in your mind and conscience, make every effort to get the knowledge to firm up your conscience. Your conscience witnesses to what is going on within you. You should not allow your indebtedness to anyone to compromise your conscience and destiny. Once you are clear, follow your conscience. Your conscience is supreme. It may also be important here to mention that politicians and religious leaders do not give the importance conscientious objections, on account of which persons put their own lives at risk, deserve.

Swami Snehananda Jyoti

Wisdom of Freedom

Freedom is a word which is used in many different contexts by people from different age, race or religion. It has positive connotations, when I use it in its most relevant sense of freedom of making my own choices. Choices can be in form of choice to let me vote for government of my choice or the choice which religious belief I want to follow or the choice where I would like to build my dream home. Still all these examples talk about external freedom. When I start talking about internal freedom, we can definitely say that we are in a much more confusing state. We have many choices, we have complete freedom of making those choices, but we remain indecisive for a very long period. 

Here I recall a childhood story, which my mother used to tell me regarding a fair choice. “A butcher was running behind a cow. On a crossroad, the cow disappeared from his sight. A person was standing on the crossroad. He saw the cow running into a particular direction. The butcher asked this person regarding the direction in which the cow ran ahead. This person understood that the butcher will definitely slaughter the cow as soon as he will catch her. In order to save life of the cow, he pointed in a different direction.” After telling this story, the obvious question for me was, whether the person on the crossroad did the right thing, even though he told a lie. Forty years back, the answer was a definite “Yes”. Although this person did tell a lie, but this lie was for the purpose of saving a life. Today if I tell this story to a child, he will react back and say that the butcher of today will keep the knife on the neck of the person standing on the cross-road and will forcefully ask the same question. If an incorrect answer is given, the butcher will return back and cut the throat of that person. The choice of telling truth or lie in a given situation is also enforced upon us. One can always write many version of this story. We may say that we are not free enough to have internal or external freedom. But! Can we produce more leaders like the Mahatma Gandhi, where a butcher brings a loaf of bread and throws his knife in front of Gandhi Ji when he was fasting unto death in Kolkata to stop the riots that broke down after Indian Independence? 

So friends! Before I give you more food for thought in my subsequent posts, let me congratulate my fellow Indians on completion of sixty eight years of neat freedom this 15th of August. So folks! Happy Independence Day. Let independence of thoughts prevail forever. 

Dr. Sunil Ji Garg 

The Destiny of a big Tree

This story is from an American city of Chicago, generally known as the windy city (though not the windiest in USA). The story opens as heavy rain and strong wind passes brushing an avenue of houses in one of its suburbs. In between two rows of houses, at their backsides, lay the ally with an old tall tree in it. It could not withstand the pressure of the wind and it slowly fell down with its heavy branches touching the compounds of three houses but only doing minor damages to them. The tree also had hit the local power line pushing some 20 houses into darkness the whole night. 

Within some 10 minutes came in the police followed by ambulance. They fixed barricades and warning boards on the cross roads touching the ally. One gentle man visited the nearby houses and warned every one not to go near the fallen tree and power lines. The next day came electricity people; they cut just those small branches, which lay obstructing the power lines and went off. Two days later came the city people. They cut the main trunk and cleared the ally, which was under their administration, and did not touch the other branches. In USA, no workers are allowed to leave the garbage anywhere and so both of them had to remove what they cut. 

The responsibility of clearing these branches and compensating the damages belonged to the insurance companies concerned. Fortunately or unfortunately all the three houses were under the care of three different insurance companies. Each company individually assessed the damages and cleared the branches under their responsibility in three different days. This fortunate tree thus had the privilege of being cremated in five holy centres followed by solemn ceremonies that continued for two weeks. Photographers were there, videographers were there and press people also were there for its wake. Common cents and common sense are different; right?

Joseph Mattappally

SP 229 150815 Who Needs God?

I am closing this book with this lesson. Many years ago, I read a book titled Who Needs God? written by Harold Kushner, the author of a famous book called When Bad Things Happen to Good People. Since then I have been contemplating over the subject deeply, but frankly speaking, the true concept of God is still not clear to me. I think that it is a mystery for most. Everyone has his own perception of God and proceeds from there. Perhaps, God is not comprehensible for mortals like us. All my contemplation has led me to believe that there is a higher being like God whom we need sometime or the other. Even those who deny the existence of God think of Him, though in a different form. I shall try to give an answer to the question ‘Who Needs God?’ and for this I quote a portion of the introduction from the book which goes like this: 

“I deal with bright, successful people, people I genuinely like and admire, and I sense that something is missing in their lives. There is a lack of rootedness, a sense of having to figure things out by themselves because the past cannot be trusted as their guide. Their celebrations, from their children’s birthday parties to a daughter’s wedding to a business milestone, can be lots of fun but rarely soar to the level of joy. And as they grow older, I suspect they either confront or actively hide from confronting the thought that ‘there must be more to life than this.’ 

“There is a spiritual vacuum at the centre of their lives, and their lives betray this lack of an organising vision, a sense of “this is who I am and what my life is fundamentally about.” Some look for that centre in their work, and are disappointed when corporations choose not to repay the loyalty they demanded or when retirement leaves them, feeling useless. Some try to it in their families, and don’t understand why they are so hurt when adolescent children insist, ‘Let me lead my own life!’ and adult children move to another state and call every other Sunday. And for some reason, it never occurs to them to ask, ‘How did previous generations find meaning in their lives?’ 

‘For almost thirty years, I have tried to show my congregants how much more fulfilled they would be if they made room for their religious tradition in their lives. I have urged them to do it, not to make God happy but to make themselves happy. I have told them the Hassidic story of the man who got a telegram telling him that a relative had died and left him some valuable property. He was to contact the rabbi for details. Excited, he went to the rabbi, only to be told that the relative was Moses and the valuable property was the Jewish religious tradition. And much of the time, they reacted as I suspect the man in the story did, disappointed that their legacy was religious wisdom and not downtown real estate. 

“This book is the product of those years of thinking and teaching on the issue of what we lose when we become too intellectual or too modern to make room for religion in our lives. It is about what has happened to the souls of modern men and women under the impact of modern life, what we have lost in the process of gaining personal freedom and material comfort. But more than that, it is the summary of what my own life has been about, what has gotten me through bad times and taught me how to celebrate the good times, how I have learned to recognise the extraordinary things that even the most ordinary lives contain.

 

“The thesis of this book is that there is a kind of nourishment our souls crave, even as our bodies need the right foods, sunshine, and exercise. Without that spiritual nourishment, our souls remain stunted and undeveloped. In the physical realm, we understand that our ancestors’ hard physical work built muscles and burned off calories, but today we are the victims of a modern lifestyle, so we need to diet, to jog, to work out at the gym. So, too, the kind of spiritual communion our forebears knew is less accessible to us because the world is so noisy and full of distractions, because we are so dazzled by our power and success, because religion in the late twentieth century is often badly packaged or presented by people we cannot trust or admire.” 

I feel that this extract is enough to convey my message. We all have some vacuum in our lives, howsoever fulfilled we may feel. It is only God who can fill this vacuum and make our lives meaningful. It is a different matter that some of us may fail to see or pretend not to see the vacuum, but all of us do need God. 

Rakesh Mittal IAS

Choosing our Way

The Baba continued, 

“All of us revolutionaries, my son, want to change the world and make it a better place for ourselves and others to live in. We are also very sincere about our goals and objectives……

“The goals and objectives of our revolutions are often based on and motivated by our personal, communal, social, economic, political, class, ideological, religious or national interests and ambitions.... We are prepared to kill, and also die, for achieving them…. Sometimes there can also be multiple interests and motivations… 

“But we want justice to be done. We want poverty and hunger to be eliminated from our country and from the world. We want the land and livelihood rights of the poor and landless fellow human beings to be respected. We want the Governments to be free from corruption…. We want all things to go well and work well for all people. We want a global community of justice, liberty, equality, fraternity, health, peace and prosperity. We want ourselves and others to be secure and happy… We are revolutionaries for such a great new world…. Am I right, my son?” The Baba asked Atma Prakash.

“Yes, guruji.” Atma Prakash answered. 

After a pause, the Baba continued: “We organize ourselves and all other interested people and groups, and resort to social action. It can be a public campaign or an organized agitation; it can be a people’s movement or a political revolution… 

“Some of us are prepared even to give up our lives to achieve a noble goal. Some of us kill others to achieve our goal…

“The means we adopt to achieve our goal can be either violent or it can be peaceful. We either kill or die for the goal….

“There were great military Commanders like General Patton who believed and taught that ‘no son of a gun ever wins a war by dying for his country, but by making the other son of a gun die for his country.” There were also Revolutionary leaders like Mao Tse Tung of China who believed and taught that ‘power comes from the barrel of the gun’….

“If the means we adopt is violent, it will bring forth violence. If it is peaceful, it will bring forth peace…

“We cannot expect peace from violence, or good from evil. Good will beget good, violence will beget violence, and evil will beget evil…. 

“Actions beget equal and opposite reactions’… This is the law of the physical world. This is an eternal law operating in the universe, my son.’ The Baba stopped and looked at his disciple.

After few minutes the Baba continued: 

“The global human community is the sum total of the national communities on planet earth. A nation is nothing but a large joint family consisting of all citizens of that nation, and their families and communities….

“It is said by the wise that, ‘when there is peace within the individual, there will be peace within the family; when there is peace within the family, there will be peace within the society; when there is peace within the society, there will be peace within the country; and when there is peace within the country, there will be peace within the world.’ This means peace in the world begins with peace within individual human persons…..

“Similarly, any true and lasting social transformation has to begin with and within individual citizens, with and within our own selves, my son. And, a healthy and happy world is possible only with healthy and happy individuals. Do you understand this?’ The Baba asked his disciple. Atma Prakash nodded.

 

Excerpts from Integral Revolution: Swami Sachidananda Bharati 

Living Simply Living Godly

The entire spectrum of vegetative and animal life both on land and in water in the world can reach their destiny without any problem. Living for them is instinctively imprinted in their very being. They live simply in a pre-determined way and thrive in nature. Interestingly, humans endowed with intelligence and freedom have the greatest difficulty in reaching their natural destiny or final goal whether it be heaven, paradise, salvation, moksha (liberation or self-realization), or nirvana (the state of perfect happiness and peace). That free and intelligent humans cannot achieve their goal or salvation without mighty feats and that too often going against their own nature beats my understanding. Even if I were to understand it, I do not want to accept it, because there is no earthly reason for salvation to be so difficult. I cannot think of a God or Messiah who would make salvation nearly unreachable for human beings. So I conclude without any hesitation that human beings knowingly or unknowingly brought this problem upon themselves. As human beings created the problem, they need to solve it.

I did not question until recently the ingenious story of human fall on account of disobedience to God as narrated in the first book of Genesis of the Bible. Neither did I question moksha that is liberation from samsara (the cycle of death and re-birth) or paripurna- Brahmanubhava (the complete experience of Brahma or the One Supreme Self) found in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. We are not encouraged to question; we are merely asked to believe. Besides questioning basic traditional beliefs is not considered to be kosher. After having lived through good and bad experiences on my way to a ripe old age, I am appropriating my right to question and scrutinize everything in my final stage of search for truth. Here I want to make sure that I do not intend to question anyone’s belief system. I only ask everyone to come to one’s beliefs after due reflection and deliberation. As humans as God’s children are in various stages of perfection, I feel I can use a good guru or model on my way to God. For me that prime good guru is Christ on account of what he said and how he lived.

The best theological, philosophical, psychological, and scientific insights as human heritage are there for all to benefit from. Everyone has a duty to examine them. After studying them thoroughly, everyone has an obligation to come to one’s own conclusions. With the available knowledge one has to form one’s own conscience, that then becomes the informed, supreme guide in everything. I am well aware that there are officials of religions, who would question this stance as misguided because according to them a good conscience has to function in accordance with the teachings of their religions. I strongly believe that a good conscience is a sincere conscience that has taken relevant facts and knowledge into consideration before coming to a decision.

I want to firmly assert that liberation or salvation does not require heroic acts. Living a simple life that discerns God’s will as communicated to one’s conscience and puts that into practice every day is all that is required to reach one’s salvation. I cannot think of a God’s will that does not include the love of all creation especially humans. We can all be comforted by the thought that come from Scriptures that for those who love God and humankind everything works unto good. This life is not only simple but blessed and divine.

Swami Snehananda Jyoti  

Iron Box – Rubber Carpet

When I sit with myself in my leisure time, I keep remembering many things and my brain introduces lot of philosophy to such things. Here I would like to share with you a story, which relates to philosophy of comparison. Those days I used to work for an IT company. In addition to handling my development team, I also had the role of organising a lecture series, where eminent personalities in their field were invited to give lectures on a weekly basis. Getting such personalities was quite a bit of task, just on reference basis. 

Very often my boss who also happens to be the owner of the company used to give me his personal references. One such reference was of an eminent personality who was an old colleague of my boss. When I called this personality, he enquired about well wishes of my boss and asked me which car my boss rides now. I was surprised and amused with this kind of question. I handed over the phone to my boss to talk to him further. What I could understand from their talks was that he was obviously quite close friend of my boss. The answer of my boss to him was even more amusing. He answered, “The iron box with a rubber carpet I ride is just a little bigger than your Iron box, and everything else is same. Even the seating capacity is same. So how does it matter?” Somewhere on “Indian Thoughts” I read that most human problems in this world are either because of jealousy or because of ego. A larger car versus a smaller car is often seen as a point of jealousy amongst many individuals. An expression like “Iron Box with a Rubber Carpet” for a car in the above episode downplays that comparison. Downplaying the reasons for jealousy is also done sometime with a lot of ego. Sometimes it is done with a clean heart. The message of state of the heart does pass on. 

Dr. Sunil Ji Garg 

GOD AND THE GOVERNMENT

For all rational people, God is the greatest mystery despite the fact that He is said to be omnipotent and omnipresent. It is also said that God is present in all things sentient as well as non- sentient. If it is so what is His form and where does He live? This is a question which comes and should come to every thinking mind. Most of us accept God in the form, our mind has been trained to believe by our observation of family and social traditions. Some form their opinion by the study of books both authentic and not so authentic. No wonder God is conceived in different forms by different people resulting into more and more confusion. I have myself been quite confused about the concept of God and have contemplated a lot on the subject. In this brief write up I am trying to narrate the outcome of my contemplation on God.

In India, most of the people still believe in personal Gods. For them God has a definite form either human or non-human. They believe that God is a kind of super ruler and behaves that way. He has the power of rewarding as well as punishing. People also believe that God can be pleased by their external acts and in order to seek His blessing they indulge in all sorts of rituals. If their wishes are granted fully or partially they feel that the God is kind and just. But if their wishes are not granted despite their rituals, they even call Him cruel and unjust. Those who think rationally refuse to accept such an arbitrary God and in the process stop believing in the existence of God itself. I feel that this write up may be helpful for them though I also feel that many such rational people must have their own concept of God. The problem is further compounded by the fact that God is invisible through external senses and any discussion about Him can only be appreciated at level higher than that of senses. With this background let me speak about my concept of God.

According to me God is akin to a Government. As a Government runs the administration of a country or a province or a district, in the same way God also runs the administration of the Universe. We must appreciate that there are laws of Universe which have to be followed or complied with properly. If it is not so there shall be greater disorder and the living will become impossible. There has to be some power which must be controlling all these laws of the Universe. I feel that God is this power and that is why it is called omnipotent. However, here omnipotent does not mean to be arbitary. Such a great power like God can never be arbitrary. God's purpose is to ensure that Universal laws are followed by everyone and if there is any defaults, corrective action is taken accordingly. We may call such actions by any name like punishment or cruelty but God does not inflict them with any such intention. He only ensures the enforcement of laws in order to run the Universe. Similarly there is no such thing as reward and everyone only reaps the fruits of his or her actions. This way God is the most neutral entity which neither distributes any awards or inflicts any punishment but only ensures that everyone gets his due. There may be phase difference between our timings and His timings and that is why at times there is delay in the system of awards or punishments. Some of us may interpret it as God's injustice or arbitrariness but the fact is that virtue is always rewarded and evil is always punished. While there may be exceptions and failures in the system of human Government, there is no such chance in God's Government. Thus while God is all powerful, His exercise of power is governed by fixed Universal laws and there can be no arbitrariness. This way God is very much like an ideal Government, which is supposed to make laws and ensure their compliance in order to run the society smoothly.

Now we come to the omnipresence and invisibility of the God. For this also we have to understand the nature of the Government. After all whom do we call Government in a geographical unit be it a country, a province or a district. If we think deeply no single person can be called Government and whosoever is carrying out the function of the Government, he or she is the Government at that place. It may be a Minister, a Collector, a Police Official, a Tax Official, a Peon or any other functionary of the Government. While the nature of their jobs or level of powers may vary, but all of them perform the duty of the Government at their respective places. This way Government instead of being concentrated in a single person is spread in all its constituents. This is not the case only with sentient constituents, it is so with non-sentient components also. That is why a vehicle, a piece of furniture and all the articles belonging to a Government office also become part of the Government. Seen this way, Government is something which is manifested in all its constituents while as a single entity it is always invisible.

The same thing applies to God. God being the Government of the Universe is also manifested through all its creation sentient as well as non-sentient. Whatever God does is through its constituents only. When God helps someone, He does so through some of its creature and also when He punishes some of us, He does so through some different creature. Thus the whole system of creation is so interwoven that each of the units carries out the function of God only. This is perhaps each creation is said to be a part of God only and one who sees God in all is Godly in true sense. This way God is nothing but the sum total of the creation and that is why it is called "Paramatma" while its constituents are called "Atmas". Since the creation of God is present everywhere, God is also omnipresent. Also God is so subtly present in its creation that it is not possible to see or experience Him easily. That is why it is Invisible to most of us.

Somehow I find that this explanation of God clarifies all possible doubts about Him. Hence I am sharing it with others. However, everyone is entitled to his or her own version of God. Surely it does not affect the reality and God will continue to be what It is. To me it only shows that God is really incomprehensive for little minds like us and even we all together fail to describe God in totality.

Rakesh Mittal IAS

Being Healthy

Guruji spoke to Atma Prakash, “The global human community is the sum total of the national communities on planet earth. A nation is nothing but a large joint family consisting of all citizens of that nation, and their families and communities…

“It is said by the wise that, ‘when there is peace within the individual, there will be peace within the family; when there is peace within the family, there will be peace within the society; when there is peace within the society, there will be peace within the country; and when there is peace within the country, there will be peace within the world.’ This means peace in the world begins with peace within individual human persons…..

“Similarly, any true and lasting social transformation has to begin with and within individual citizens, with and within our own selves, my son. And, a healthy and happy world is possible only with healthy and happy individuals. Do you understand this?’ The Baba asked his disciple. Atma Prakash nodded. 

Guruji continued: “We often forget the fact that the evil in the world are mostly social expressions of the evil within us. Injustice, corruption, rape and murder are only outer expressions of the selfishness, greed, lust and violence lurking within our own selves... 

“A healthy body is the most important requirement for a happy and fruitful life. Most of our sicknesses are created by ourselves, because of our un-natural food habits and life-styles. Then we set up multi-specialty hospitals and spend a lot of money to treat our sicknesses. We refuse to accept the truth that a return to nature is the only way to regain our lost health. It is the only way to live healthy and fruitful lives. 

“A return to nature will imply eating uncooked fruits, nuts and vegetables; drinking unboiled and unchlorinated fresh water, exposing the body to enough sunlight, breathing fresh air, and walking barefoot on mother earth. But we refuse to return to nature, even when we fall seriously sick, though we know pretty well that such a natural life-style alone can cure us of all sicknesses, and keep us healthy and happy,... and this form of natural and non-violent lifestyle alone can help us build a culture of peace on earth… 

“Economics and politics also need to be rebuilt on the basis of such a holistic ecological world view….The true basis of a New Creation,…. of an Integral Revolution,.. that the world so badly needs today,… is a return to nature and natural life-styles…..

“Violence and bloodshed in the world are caused mainly by the greed, anger or frustration accumulated within individuals, communities and nations ….

“Seeds of peace, my son, have to be sown in the hearts and minds of individual human persons. That is why the UNESCO Constitution begins by saying: ‘As the wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that defenses for peace must be constructed’…..

“An inner transformation of the individual and a return to nature and natural life-styles are pre-requisites for any true and lasting social transformation, and for abiding peace in the world… It calls us to develop a unitive divine consciousness. This means a consciousness of our inherent unity and divinity as children of God created in His own image and likeness.. 

“A unitive divine consciousness will develop in us an awareness that we are united with all living beings,… that we are one family bound with a common destiny;... not only the whole humankind, but also, all life and the whole creation… Religions and nation states are smaller families within the larger human family.” The Baba stopped and looked at his disciple. Atma Prakash was all attention.

After few minutes of silence, the Baba continued: 

“The means and ends are inter-related, like a tree and its fruits. Violent means cannot bring peaceful ends. Corrupt means cannot build a corruption-free society or a corruption-free Government….

“Selfish and corrupt Parliamentarians and Legislators cannot bring forth just and righteous laws and rules. Unjust laws cannot build a world of justice…

“Hence, just as inner transformation of the individual and a return to nature and natural life-styles are pre-requisites for any true and lasting social transformation and for abiding health and happiness, right means and right people alone can bring about right ends. Do you understand these realities, my son?’ The Baba asked and looked into the eyes of Atma Prakash.

Excerpts from Integral Revolution

God!

Two great theologians of all times, one a Hindu from the East and the other a Christian from the West, came to similar conclusion about their writing on God. Sree Shankaracharya, the main systematizer of Hindu religion, said that his mistake was to attempt to define God who could not be defined. St. Thomas Aquinas, perhaps the greatest Doctor of the undivided Christianity, repeatedly asked to start writing by his companion after a spell of not writing, stated that all he wrote seemed to him like straw, that is, not worth much. He did not write anything more since then. Keeping these two great theologians in the background, we come to the inescapable conclusion that a human cannot really know anything about God. And rightly so. What we know about God, we know by analogy. That is, in anthropomorphic or our own human way.

How do we get our idea of God? The moment we are born we are conditioned and programmed about relevant knowledge and information about the world and God. Beginning with the basics at home and our immediate surroundings, we acquire the knowledge from religious settings, educational institutions, and the society we live in. Our life is one of continuous learning from the university of hard knocks. Thus our idea and knowledge about God come from others who hand down the tradition from one generation to the next.  Although we are taught critical thinking, we are not encouraged to question traditional values or even our given concept of God. It is amazing how we unquestioningly went on living racist, casteist, sexist, slavish, and classist attitudes and values for centuries! To question them might have meant one’s own life. Yet we are not still out of the woods. We are not fully free. It is interesting to note that we cannot still talk and share our views about God freely without heavy censure or ostracism from keepers of God, a God who interestingly in infinite wisdom gave us the ultimate freedom even to reject God. The official, hierarchical keepers of the Catholic Christian faith, for instance, would have the subscribers to believe that the Church is the guardian of the Deposit of Faith and true doctrine from which no one would deviate without impunity. Does God need any church or authority to keep certain doctrine pure and unsullied through anathema? I do not think so. Humanity has not still learned to agree to disagree in an agreeable way. Only a few have learned to accept others’ views respectfully without denigrating or condemning them.

As a sequel to my article on A Simple Way to God, I am attempting to express my understanding and experience of God. It took years before I managed to break loose of the deep programming from childhood on, and express my views of God in the final stage or setting zone of my life. God for me is the all-embracing Cosmic Ocean with safe harbors as well as terrible dangers in which I am privileged to negotiate and celebrate my life. God to me is the Higher Power that powers all, the Intelligent Organizer of the cosmos that keeps on going amid human made chaos. God is the Energy of the Universe (Prapanchashakti) that energizes and keeps all beings in equilibrium. Is God personal or impersonal? I do not know.

What about the role of prophets, sages, and universal teachers (Lokgurus)? Some of the world teachers that influenced me most are Buddha, Christ, and Gandhi. Of these three, Christ has the first place in my heart. Among the things that he taught to help us actualize the Kingdom of God that is in our midst are: Truth alone can set us free; purity of intention is essential in every word, thought, and action; God is compassionate; accepting and forgiving us unconditionally, God celebrates our life when we turn to him; all are our neighbors, God’s children, truly brothers and sisters; nothing is more important than doing the will of God; loving the least of humans is loving God; unconditional love, forgiveness, and reconciliation are the basis of all human relations; no one is given preference before God; God prefers those who serve humans in distress.

Christ has a universal appeal. Some Hindu seers think of him as an avatar (incarnation) of God. Islam thinks of him as a prophet, second only to Muhammad. Enlightened as Buddha was, he did not believe in God as everyone could achieve salvation on one’s own effort. Gandhi was remarkable in that he put Christ’s teachings into practice putting most Christians to shame while staying steadfast in the best traditions of Hinduism. Christ reveals God as his father. Presenting himself as the way to the father, he modeled life for all humanity through his teaching.  Is Christ God? I do not know. No one, including the keepers of the deposit of faith, is sure of the saving faith. What remains for all then is to work for salvation with “fear and trembling”. Or we work out our salvation doing God’s will made manifest in our conscience. Either way we are safe as God saves all sincere persons. Do I always believe in God without doubt? No. When in doubt, I hear: “Believe, you man of little faith”. And my prayer is: “Lord, you do take care of doubters; ‘I do believe, help my unbelief’”.

Swami Snehananda Jyoti