HOW RELIGIONS DEVELOPED

First there were very powerful charismatic leaders with a mission. I am going to consider four leaders who gave rise to four world religions. 1. Christ is believed to incarnate into history, preached the Kingdom of God, and revealed God as his Father. He proclaimed the glorious liberty of God’s children, especially to the poor and the down-trodden. His mission was to reconcile humans among themselves and them to God. He taught his followers that truth alone shall set all free. He told humanity to forgive and love one another as God forgives and loves. 2. Mohammed believed to be the last messenger of God, the compassionate and merciful Allah. He taught his followers to surrender to God absolutely and completely. He exhorted all to take care of the poor and the disadvantaged. 3. Shankaracharya, though not an initiator of a path as Sanatana Dharma was already in existence, laid the foundation for organization of Hinduism. Purified from his vicious caste mentality reportedly from divine intervention one evening in Kashi, raised all to the one level of supreme consciousness, and enlightened all through his commentary on existing scriptures related to advaita (non-duality), and brought all to the awareness of One and Sole Reality behind all appearances, and made all “Aham Brahmasmi (I am God)”. In his famous Shatka Nirvanam he left no doubt as to our state of being  Pure Bliss, Consciousness. 4. Gautam, renouncing a luxurious kingly status got into a deep meditation of long duration, acquired enlightenment, became Buddha, and discovered the cause of unhappiness. He did not give any indication that he believed in a Supreme Being. Buddhists consist of two branches Heenayaana (does not believe in God) and Mahayaana (believes in God).

Four powerful religions arose from the teachings and examples of four irresistible leaders. These religions, ways of life, got corrupted beyond recognition over many centuries, often through powerful, egotistic, and narcissistic leaders, malignant cancerous growths, unhappy world events, and above all, basic human insecurities. Insecurities lead to unhappiness. Let us take, for instance, two world events that are very much talked and commented about in the recent world news. The two countries in question are two powerful economic powers in the world that enormously affect the world economy as indicated by the recent crash of some major stock markets. The USA succeeded the one-time, all-powerful, exploiting, colonial, and imperial power, UK, in the world. As we have barely got out of the evil era of the apartheid, and before that of the demonic eras of authoritarian, fascist leaders such as Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini who cashed out on human miseries, insecurities, and fears, rose leaders such as Boris Johnson in UK and Donald Trump in USA. UK voted its frustration and insecurities coming out of its inability to manipulate and dominate European Union nations, and possibly also due to its nostalgic, arrogant days of the empire. Trump, cleverly engaging in a version of American fascism, vamped on insecurities of people and whipped up enough insecure emotions of vulnerable Americans to become a presumptive presidential candidate of the Republican Party. Banking on the fears caused by emigrants Trump is not aware that America is almost entirely is a land of emigrants and that he himself is a second generation emigrant from Scotland. Both world events do not indicate a bright future for the world and the oneness of humanity. But humanity eventually will survive and overcome these two obscurantist events as it survived many in the past.

Drawing a parallelism between the religious and the secular world, we can draw the conclusion that growth and development is not linear, it zigzags and gets lost in blind alleys, and stays in darkness for a long time as happened for the Catholic Church and other Christian Churches in the Dark Middle Ages. The contention without any doubt here is that the Christian Church got separated from its roots so far that Christ would not recognize it from the Jewish pharisaism that he so mercilessly condemned in his time. Christianity, especially the Catholic Church, needs to be thoroughly overhauled, reformed, and decentralized so it can reconnect with its vital roots and capture anew the vigorous charism early Christian communities experienced and lived. Christianity should become a way of life and portray the image of a strong person brimming with life and vitality rather than the image of a worn-out, weary person laden with unnecessary and oppressive dogmas, doctrines, and rituals too heavy to carry. Those who want doctrines and rituals can have them. But Christianity has to be a way of loving and easily flowing nourishing river in this world. All other religions also need to be radically overhauled so that all religions together can develop a mighty life of love that makes life bearable for all in this world while they believe in their concept of the One and Only God we all believe in.

Swami Snehananda Jyoti 

Unstoppable Speaker

He was the designated head of the organization, where I went to attend a special function. After few initial ceremonies and brief speeches were over, then came the turn for him to speak. It was a simple topic, where he did explain few standard points, some with regular boredom and some with a little humor. Other speakers in the queue thought that okay the talk would be over soon. But the wait for them was far from being over. It went on and on and became repetitive after first few minutes itself. He being the designated head, no body reminded him about the time. Finally after some deliberations between the anchor person and another senior person an indication was passed on to the speaker. After the indication also the repetitive narration continued on. What a great relief! The speaker asked everyone, “Did you understand?”. Everyone in the audience loudly replied in affirmation. “If you still have any doubts, please ask me now”, again reiterated the speaker. Listeners went numb and finally the time to end the talk came. 

Many of you must have seen a similar situation in your lives too. Some speakers are literally, unstoppable. The message of this post for you is simple. If you are a public speaker, do you understand your limits? If you are one such unstoppable speaker, your public speaking days will surely be limited. As much listeners want interesting content, they also want that such content shall be delivered to them in a particular time that can be within the cognitive abilities of common people. 

And if you have not guessed it by now, let me tell you that, I was the next speaker in the above episode. Fortunately, I had a brief and to the point talk and I got the audience attention I needed. Every such small episode gives me the lessons of life which I share with the “Generation Z”. 

Dr. Sunil Ji Garg 

Right Attitude

“They are well off!” said my friend. It was about a family we both knew that he was talking about. Well off according to him simply meant that all those in the family are decently employed, children thriving academically and they have a good sum in custody. They are physically healthy too; no doubt - they are well off! Under somebody paying them, people are generally well off! When shall we find a generation trying to be well off at their own risk? With the right attitude and approach, it is not impossible at all.

Quite recently, when I happened to read the story of a man who had begun preparing his suicide note in 65, this was the thought that stormed inwards. How many of us sell what we have? This story I mentioned is about a man from Kentucky. He lost his father when he was five. He quit the School at 16, married at 18 and got divorced soon. He was a big failure wherever he worked. When he was preparing the suicide note he looked into himself to see what actually he knew in life. He found that he was never cursed for what he did in the kitchen of small restaurant, years back. He remembered that his recipes were appreciated. 

For the little retirement benefit he received from the Government, the same day he bought some chicken, got it fried using his exclusive recipe and went door-to-door selling it. Remember, at 89 Colonel Sanders, founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) Empire was a billionaire. He died happily. Yeah, life is all about identifying what one has, using it appropriately and sharing it with the right attitude. 

Joseph Mattappally

FT69 270616 Windows and Mirrors

A rich miser was asked by a priest for a donation to the local parish and was refused. The priest sighed and said, "Come to the window, Mr. Smith.  Look out and tell me what you see." 

The miser looked and said, "People, what else?" 

"Now come to this mirror, and look in, and tell me what you see." 

"Myself, what else?" 

"There you are.  The window is glass, the mirror is glass, but the mirror has a thin layer of silver on it.  As soon as a little silver is added, you no longer see other people, you see only yourself."

What a little ‘silver’ can do is really shocking. Judas, an efficient administrator who cared so well for the whole group, was transformed into a traitor when a little silver was added. The history of humanity abounds with Judases mislead by a little silver.

‘Indian Thoughts’ Archives

The Guru

‘But how does one come to this Light, oh revered one?’ asked Atma Prakash

The Baba replied: ‘The light and wisdom of God is available to us through ‘gurus’. A ‘guru’ is one who removes darkness from us and brings us to the light of Truth, to the light of God…

‘Gurus in our Indian tradition can be of three kinds: ‘Karanaguru’, ‘Acharyaguru’ and ‘Sadguru’….

‘The ‘Karanaguru’ is one who is instrumental to bring us to the light and love of God. The ‘Acharyaguru’ is the one who not only shows the way, but also practices what he preaches and teaches. He is the one who ‘walks his talk’. The ‘Sadguru’ is the truth embodied. In, with and through him the truth of his teachings are manifested….God is incarnated, divine light is made visible through the Sadguru who is also an incarnation of divine love…. 

‘The Sadguru leads us from falsehood to truth, from darkness to light, and from death to immortality… in answer to our prayer – ‘Asatoma Sadgamaya,… Tamsoma Jyotirgamaya…. Mrityorma Amrutamgamaya’…….The Sadguru is God himself in human form… He is God with us…. Thus, God as light and love becomes a living reality in, with and through the Sadguru…..

‘The Viswasara Tantra has a beautiful sloka that speaks about the ‘Sadguru’ and His attributes. It goes like this:

“Brahmanandam paramasukhadam kevalam jnanamoortim Dwandwadeedam gaganasadrushyam tatwamasyadi lakshyam 

Ekam, nityam, vimalam, achalam, sarvadim sakshibhutam Bhavatitam trigunarahitam Satgurum tamnamamee …”

‘It means : ‘I bow to the true guru who is the embodiment of the bliss of God; Who bestows supreme happiness; The Absolute who is Wisdom Incarnate; Who is beyond duality, Who is like the sky; Whom ‘Though Art That’ and similar scriptural passages have in view; Who is the One, the Eternal, the Pure and the Immovable; the Witness to all thoughts; Who is beyond all states and devoid of the three gunas’… 

‘The living Spirit of Christ is the Sadguru when seen from the point of view of this insight of India… He is the divine light and love incarnate…’

Excerpts from ‘Integral Revolution’

FIDELITY TO GOD AND HUMANITY

Fidelity to God means faithful following of God’s will after having rigorously and conscientiously discerned it. Faithfulness to humanity with regard to fundamental values of truth, justice, freedom, love, human rights, and acceptance of each person for who one is; in practice there is no discrimination on the basis of religion, race, caste, class, gender, ethnic origin, and nationality. God is a postulate of faith. As we are generally born into a religion, faith is an essential part of our culture.  Judeo-Christian tenets are the foundation of Western civilization; Hindu, Buddhist, and Islamic belief systems are mainly at the basis of Eastern Civilization. I am leaving out other belief systems, important as they are, for the sake of brevity. Basic tenets, whether Eastern or Western, are common to all civilized humanity. Nobody has any monopoly on any virtue, human right, or any moral value. God by God’s very nature understands and accepts us for who we are. So I am more concerned about fidelity to humanity as we serve God only through humanity. To simplify to the bare essential, we superimpose our values on God whom we create through revelation or deduction from what we have in nature. The values we attribute to God come very handy because these are the very values we want to work out of while serving humanity. In reality we come to God through love and service of humanity. I am aware I have over-simplified volumes and volumes of literature on various scriptures that if written in full the whole world would not be able to hold as one of the evangelists, John, said (John, 21:25).

After 25 years of intense living with the Jesuits I left the order to explore freely with loyalties only to God and humanity. However, I still value that great organization highly, and acquaint myself with the decrees of its latest general congregations whereby elected representatives meet periodically to charter its future course. I was really glad to know the repeated emphasis given by these assemblies to a faith related to justice and inculturation whereby the great teachings of Christ are imparted suitably in the soil of each culture. While a culture is a unique development and adjustment of each people over the ages without in any way compromising with common tenets and rights of humanity. Religions also known also as faiths are lived and practiced by humans in the context of human societies.

Humans and faith systems can grow and flourish only in the context of peace. And peace in the world can come only from just societies. More concretely a world order, whereby the basic needs of humans are taken care of by distributive and social justice, is needed. In that world order an economic justice where a minimum wage is guaranteed, and the maximum wealth an individual can accumulate or inherit is fixed. This comes from natural law justice that advocates that all the wealth and resources of the earth belong to all humans. In sum, fidelity to God, who is the Father and Mother of all, is guaranteed by fidelity to humanity, which in reality is a commitment to the well-being and welfare of all.

Swami Snehananda Jyoti 

Advantage First

I know someone, who is a peculiar personality. If anything is told to him for doing, he always asks, “What is the advantage of doing this?”. The answer to this question is always likely to raise a chain of many other questions and advantage of any such queued question becomes rather difficult to explain. So one gets a feeling that why tell him any work at all. I was discussing this problem with my mentor and Guru. He told me that we are living in a age where every action is valued before taking instructions from someone else. Very often this value is in monetary terms. Explaining advantage further complicates the relationship. It is better that let a person is left to understand the advantages himself. Some time we understand as if this problem is a problem of new generation. In my opinion it is a issue related to specific Individuals and is in a way some instinct developed since childhood. It is sometime seen in very experienced persons also. Sometime there is no matured and convincing person around to explain that many actions do not need such elaborate calculation of advantage and disadvantage. Suppose if I ask someone, what is the advantage of Education, answer could be rather long and queued with supplementary questions. So friends, please do not try to find advantage in reading my articles. Just read them and retain whatever is of your liking. 

Dr. Sunil Ji Garg

Shoe box in the Cupboard

This Pastor is rushing around the house looking for his white collar before the service begins. While looking in the linen cupboard he finds this shoebox, when he opens it he finds 3 eggs and $100.

The next day he asks his wife what it was all about. She replies, "I didn't want to tell you before because I didn't want to hurt your feelings."

 The Pastor starts wondering what it can possibly be that would hurt his feelings, and the wife continues, "You see since the day we got married 25 years ago I've been putting an egg in this box for every bad sermon you've given."

 The Pastor thinks 3 eggs in 25 years, that's not so bad, then asks "What's the $100 for?" His wife replies, "Every time I got a dozen eggs I sold them to the neighbours for $1."

Had he known what others thought of his sermons, he would have been more careful. When we are aware that someone is observing us, we try to perform better.

Indian Thoughts Archives

E = MC2

‘Guruji,… please speak to me more about God, the Ultimate Reality…. I read in the Bible as Sadguru Jesus Christ telling his disciples that ‘eternal life is knowing the one true God and the Christ’….You also said so. You had also said that the message of every great and powerful sovereign spiritual person will always be related to the Supreme Spirit in whom we live, move and have our being….’ Atma Prakash requested his guruji.

The Baba looked at disciple with great love…. 

He was silent for few minutes. Then he said:

‘God is Spirit ….. God is Light ….. God is Love…. These are how great spiritual masters and scriptures of religions speak of God at deeper mystical and experiential levels…..

‘God is Spirit’ implies that God is the source of the primordial energy, the creative power…. Everything has its source in God. Everything exists in God. Everything exists for God. Everything comes from God and returns to God……

‘The sum total of energy in the universe remains same…. The scientist say that energy can neither be created nor be destroyed.. It can only be transformed from one form to another… It only assumes different forms… Matter is also nothing but energy in solid form…Albert Einstein’s famous equation E = MC2 gives the unimaginable quantity of energy contained in matter. In this equation, ‘E’ is the energy. ‘M’ is the mass and ‘C’ is the speed of light ….. as you may know…

‘The tremendous energy generated by splitting the atom is another example…. 

‘Mind is also a form of energy… It can interact with and influence matter… Uri Geller, an Israeli illusionist, could bend a spoon by concentrating his mind and focusing his sight on it….

‘Discoveries of Quantum Physics have shown that the consciousness of the observer influences the outcome of the observed….. 

‘A ‘spiritual person’ is a spirited person, a person filled with spiritual energy… He is conscious of his existence in God. All of us exist in God and because of God. But most of us are not conscious of this truth. We exist on the periphery…. At the sensual and sensational levels… 

‘We humans are actually spiritual entities in physical bodies… When we are conscious of this our true spiritual nature, we become divine. We will be one with God. When we have God with us, everything is possible for us… We will be energetic, …healthy, ….powerful… We will become invincible and irresistible….We will be in harmony with the whole creation… The Universe will be on our side… the Universal Energy will be available to us… We will be connected to the Cosmic Consciousness…We will be able to go beyond the limitations of time and space…We become children of eternity…We inherit ‘eternal life’….

‘Light is a visible form of energy… It is the relational aspect of God. Perceptible,.. understandable, …visible. It also implies wisdom…. An ‘enlightened’ person, a person who has light within, is a very wise person... He will be an embodiment of wisdom…. That is why many great saints and religions speak of God as light…

‘Allah is the light of the world’ says the Quran… ‘God is the Light of lights’ says the Guru Grandh Sahib… ‘God is light’ says the Bible.. In Hinduism the words deva, devi, daivom… etc. comes from the Sanskrit root ‘dei’ meaning light. The Upanishads speak about the ‘Supreme Person of sun-like luster shining beyond all darkness’ through whom alone we can go beyond death…..The term ‘Buddha’ means the enlightened one……Thus, God as light is a common insight shared by most religions…..This a ‘meeting point’ of religions.’

The Baba stopped for a while and looked at his disciple.

Excerpts from ‘Integral Revolution’

HOW DID IT ALL BEGIN?

In my more mature years when I started the process of deconditioning myself and started questioning many things that were unquestioned givens and accepted as such coming from long-standing traditions, I began to wonder as to how things evolved to be what they are. Now I do not take anything without careful scrutiny. Soon I learned that life is difficult. But I do not want it to be any less difficult knowing that level of difficulty brings with it its own satisfaction. With new discoveries in science and technology, we are learning new things about the universe. Even though we have made some new discoveries and explorations in social sciences in the last century, we have not made marked progress in spirit life that makes this world a better, safer, and more trustworthy and loving place. I do not think that humanity has failed, but it is going through a hedonistic phase with a good measure of adolescent rebellion. We are all familiar with the “my way is better than your way” and “my way or high way” of the “me generation” of the 1990’s. As I was in the midst of the drastic social changes let loose by human rights and women’s rights movements and struggles that were taking place, I did not have the time to distance myself sufficiently and do the needed processing that was vital for wholesome and healthy living. I was too busy earning a living for myself and my family. Knowing that religions and the so-called God’s will interpreted by their leaders were the ramparts that defended societies that housed racism, casteism, colonialism, and extreme and scandalous disparity and inequality in wealth and resources, religions lost their credibility for me; the interpretations of religious leaders lost meaning for me. The whole humanity should be ashamed, for instance, knowing that according to the latest statistics one per cent of humanity controls 99% of the world’s wealth. We are so pathetically desensitized that such statistics do not shock us anymore.

In the background of what I said above, I started more specifically scrutinizing the gradual evolution of belief systems, dogmas, and doctrines and how incredibly naïve I was in believing what I did believe. This examining for me was very essential as I wholeheartedly devoted the most important years (17 – 42) of my adult life to religion and the God that religion proclaimed. I now strongly believe that everyone’s life is an experiment with truth and holistic living, that everything in life – both good and bad events – has something to teach us, and that everything, purifying and strengthening us, helps us face our life meaningfully. Coming back to belief systems, dogmas, doctrines, rituals, and traditions, they may be good for others, but for me I would like to go behind them and the time before they were formulated, trying to get to the root of things where it all began. I would like to know how persons lived before these dogmas, doctrines, and rituals were formulated. For instance, with regard to Christian religion I would like to learn deeply about the teachings of Christ, the person of Christ, and how he and how his early followers lived so I can live and love as they lived and loved. I do not need to persuade others to a particular way of being as they can avail themselves of the same data I have and see for themselves if my life is also worthwhile. As I am fully capable and responsible for my life, I do not want anyone to be responsible for mine. I am fully aware that we need everyone in this vast universe, that I am not an island, and that I do not need to re-invent the wheel. I have the total heritage of humanity where humanity triumphed over evil and humanity unleashed evil on fellow human beings. We have within ourselves what it takes to make the very best or the worst of ourselves. This makes life at once challenging as well as exciting. This way, while one can be frustrated with the way things are, there is not a boring moment in life, and there is also no need to look for thrill outside of oneself.  One can learn even from one’s frustration.

Swami Snehananda Jyoti 

Tool Called Spirituality

GZ 135 150616 Tool Called Spirituality

This understanding just came when I was co-working with a yoga teacher to create an online course on his request. Actually my yoga friend is too religious and some time he pushes so much religious thoughts into his yoga practice that whether the course we are designing will appeal to international audience or not, becomes my concern. One such discussion day he mentioned to me about the choices he had after retirement. He could have either become a spiritual person or could have taken some work assignments in his field. By the way he is a retired engineer from IIT. He told that he opted for spiritual field and started working for yoga. He also established a full-fledged religious ashram with inspiration from his long time religious Guru. Suddenly a sentence came out of my lips, “But I thought spirituality is just a tool to help us do our work better, the way computer is a tool to do my work little more efficiently”. To my surprise, he immediately agreed. My perception of spirituality is to have strong belief in doing welfare of spirits all around us. These spirits could be people, animals, plants or even the so called non-living world. A carpenter shaping a wood piece is spirituality. I see it in a software programmer, a doctor, a lawyer, a politician, a teacher, a farmer on their regular assignments. I smell it in flowers, I taste it in food, I watch it in the rising or setting sun, I sense it on anything I touch, I can hear it all around me. I know it is there even in those things, which I can’t sense. Spirituality is definitely there in the places where I go with my demands, my places of worship. It is as much there where I leave all my demands, the funeral places. Do I need to learn it to practice it? Probably yes, the way any other tool is required to be learnt to use it correctly, spirituality do require some training. The teacher is our intention to do things upright for the welfare of spirits and not for the destruction of other things around thinking that we will win, if others loose. You are intelligent enough to find examples of situations where spiritual winning is possible, without others spirits being on the losing side. Let us learn this tool together. 

Dr. Sunil Ji Garg

The Blind Boy

A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said: 'I am blind, please help.' There were only a few coins in the hat.

A man who was walking by, took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by could see the new words. 

Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were going. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, 'Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?'

The man said, 'I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way.' What he had written was: 'Today is a beautiful day but I cannot see it.'

Both signs told people that the boy was blind. But the first sign simply said the boy was blind. The second sign told people that they were so lucky that they were not blind. Should we be surprised that the second sign was more effective?

Indian Thoughts Archives

What Christ Taught

‘There is the call of Sadguru Jesus Christ to go and baptize people in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit and convert them to Christianity. How do you explain this guruji?’ Atma Prakash asked the Baba in their next Guruvar Satsangh.

‘First of all, Jesus Christ did not ask his disciples to convert people to Christianity. Chrsitianity itself was born much after the death of Jesus Christ…. So if any one says that Jesus Christ commanded them to convert people to Christianity, it only shows his ignorance about Jesus Christ and his teachings….

‘Also, ‘baptism’ here implies initiation into the knowledge of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In the early Christian theological formulation we can see this referred to as God, the Christ of God and the Spirit of God…. There is only one God, the ‘Father in Heaven’. This God revealed Himself in human history in, with and through Jesus the Christ, His beloved Son. Through his life, his suffering death on the cross and his resurrection from death, Jesus Christ has brought the Spirit of God into the world to be ever present and active in human history. This is the Holy Spirit…

‘Hence, ‘baptise in the name of Father, Son and the Holy Spirit’ actually implied giving people this knowledge of God and His self revelation in human history. ‘Eternal life is knowing the one true God and His Christ’ taught Sadguru Jesus the Christ…. 

‘But following the Jewish tradition of ‘baptism’ with water, the followers of Jesus, who were themselves Jews, continued the Jewish tradition, misunderstanding and misinterpreting the command of their Divine Master…. John the Baptist who had come to ‘prepare the way’ for Jesus Christ, himself had said, ‘I baptize you with water.... But the one coming after me will baptize you with spirit’….. Does this satisfy you, my son?’ asked the Baba.

Atma Prakash nodded and drifted into a deep meditation…

Excerpts from Integral Revolution

PSYCHO-SPIRITUAL GROWTH

Of all creation, only humans are endowed with freedom. Choice involves freedom. Sin or evil and virtue or good deed presuppose choice. Psycho-spiritual growth involves choice. It affects all: theists, agnostics, and atheists. God of theists is considered as Force or Organizing Energy that is beyond oneself. And if one does not want to consider anything beyond oneself, that is alright too. Everyone by the mere fact of one’s existence has a unique place in this universe. Humans right from the beginning had and have all that was required for physical, mental, and spiritual growth before the coming of prophets, special messengers, and incarnations. They lived a life that could be purposeful and full for their time

In the beginning humans could not understand various forces of nature. They started believing in these forces as superhuman; categorized them as good or evil on the basis of their useful or destructive nature. They started believing in gods, demons, and good and evil spirits. They started believing in immortality and immortal souls that have life after death. They started believing in heaven and hell, re-births or re-incarnations. . All revelations, speculations, and theologizations about God can be useful, and may be used beneficially according to each one’s belief system.

Where are we now in 2016? Christians believe in a Trinitarian God: one God with one nature or substance has three divine persons – Father (generates the Son), Son (is begotten from the Father), and the Holy Spirit (proceeds from the Father and the Son). The divine persons are distinct from one another in their relations of origin only; in all other respects they are the same; they are co-equal and co-eternal. Christ through his incarnation reveals this God and the Kingdom of God. There is judgment after death, and one goes to heaven or hell according to one’s life. Muslims believes in a God revealed by Prophet Mohammed as Allah, and goes to heaven/paradise or hell-fire according to one’s life. The Hindus and Buddhists believe in re-births until liberation (mukti or nirvana) through right living.

Psycho-spiritual growth coming from knowledge dawns through integration into consciousness or awareness or insight. It may be actualization or realization where the human through catharsis or purification achieves full potential or becomes fully what he or she is capable of as determine by nature or Energy beyond/God. For this certain basic factors common to all humans may be considered:

1. There is order and harmony in nature or the universe at large that is the macrocosm.

2. Similarly there is order or harmony needed in the microcosm that is the human. The universe is determined and ordered by the Organizing Intelligence. By the mere fact a human has the all-important attribute of freedom that makes a human distinct from animals and everything else in one’s environment, the human person directs one’s life in freedom from the acquired philosophy of life, world-view, and/or religious belief system. 

3. Intra-psychic or intra-personal harmony or getting oneself together is necessary before  inter-personal harmony.

4. Interpersonal harmony in the process of psycho-spiritual growth involves elements needed for unity of humanity and brotherhood/sisterhood of humans as the one God of humans is a Unifying and loving Super Energy. Elements such as equality, reverence for life, respect for others’ rights, and accepting others for who they are irrespective of caste, race, religion, class,  ethnic origin, and nationality are essential for unity of humanity. 

5. One’s approach to the environment or ecological systems and the use of world’s resources are of paramount importance especially in this age of very fragile ecological balance in the context of mindless consumerism and uncontrolled exploitation of nature due to human greed.

6. One needs to relentlessly search for truth, have a sincere attitude, purity of intention in everything one does, and be faithful to one’s conscience.

7. The above basic points are common to all humans received from nature right from the beginning. Growing in consciousness or awareness of these points comes with time and beneficial circumstances. One’s belief system coming from one’s faith (religion) needs to be integrated with these basis points for harmonious living for all that is the destiny of the universe.

Swami Snehananda Jyoti  

Better Alternative

Our film industry legend Mr. Amitabh Bachchan had narrated this incidence many times. Whenever he had any problems and wanted advice from his revered father Dr Harivansh Rai Bachchan, He always got the advice that, “If it happens according to your wish it is good and if it doesn’t happen the way you wanted, it is even better”. It took Amitabh some time to understand the magic behind this unusual advice. When things don’t go your way, then they are probably going the way things are destined to be happening. It is a good way of consoling oneself that destiny judges and controls the event of things better than we are able to control such things. Some people will say that continuous efforts and being passionate about certain actions can also change the course of destiny. I do agree, but with an over rider, that if prolonged efforts are filling us with negative thoughts, leaving things to destiny might give us a temporary relief. This relief helps us to recollect ourselves, change our strategies and then make new, much more vigorous efforts. Legends do fail. For a small period things are left for someone else to decide and then destiny itself provides a better pathways and alternatives to action takers. Alternatives do come in front of lazy people as well but most of the time they ignore alternatives and drop down their guns. So friends! Keep your guns filled, you will surely get more chances. 

Dr. Sunil Ji Garg

Unsolicited Compassion

Father Delany was walking home after his sermon late one night when he came upon an intoxicated tramp on the sidewalk.  Wanting to help, he asked the man, "Do you live here?" "Yes," the man slowly replied.

"Would you like me to help you upstairs?" the father asked. 

"Yes," the man slowly sputtered.  When they got up to the second floor, the father asked, "Is this your floor?" "Yes," the man again replied.

Then Father Delany got to thinking that may be he didn't want to face man's irate wife because she might think he was the one who got the man drunk.  So he opened the first door he came to and shoved him through it, then went back downstairs. 

Lo and behold, when the father went back outside, there was a tramp lying on the sidewalk.  So he asked this man, "Do you live here?"  "Yes."

"Would you like me to help you upstairs?"  "Yes."

So he did and pushed him in the same door with the first tramp. Then the father went back downstairs, where, to his surprise, there was yet ANOTHER tramp! 

Before the priest got to this one, though, the tramp staggered over to a policeman and cried, "For God's sake offisher, protect me from this man.  He'sh been doing nothing all night long but taking' me upstairsh and throwing me down the elevator shaft!"

Our over-enthusiasm to be of help can sometimes cause untold difficulties for others, as in the case of the boy scout forcefully helping the unwilling old lady to cross the street; worse still, it can even cause positive harm as in this case.

Indian Thoughts Archives

Quite Unevolved

The Country of Israel has got two seas in it – Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. Galilee is rich in life and the Dead Sea is hell for life. The Dead Sea is famous for its hyper saline water, which makes floating easy. Interestingly, both these are fed by the same river of Jordan. The sea of Galilee, through which river Jordan flows, has a lot of springs in it but the dead sea has got no other inlets or outlets other than the river Jordan which ends in it. The same water demonstrates two distinct features. Nature is so mysterious; so is human mind too, which also is part of Nature. 

From North India we hear a lot of cry and clamor against cow slaughter. As I understood it, basically it was not the idea of any political party but the outcome of an empathetic attitude of the religious Indians in India. Truly, most upper cast Indian communities in India are vegetarians who are broadly against killing of animals of any kind. In North Indian cities, stray dogs fed with biscuits and bathed in milk are common scenes. These people do not like anybody neither killing dogs nor hurting it, though dogs usually create a mess in the crowds. In the cast sensitive and arson popular city of Ahmedabad, tubs filled with water for the birds are common. The city has a million of pigeons in it. Still, a wounded pigeon is taken care of by its inhabitants and the animal helpline agency alike. Amdavadis also are a kind sect of people, just like other citizens of India. But who can forget that it was in the same city that many people were brutally burned or cruelly murdered recently? 

There are Niagaras of love in everybody, so are springs of hatred too. Unlike most other living species on earth, it is strange to see the self hating attitude of human beings. Unlimited love to another being of the same kind is very limited in our realm. There is nothing strange in it; this is what keeps us unevolved.

Joseph Mattappally

Steps of Consciousness

Jesus said ‘I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’ This is one of the most misunderstood claims of Jesus Christ by many Christian missionaries.’

‘How will you explain such a claim, guruji?’ asked Atma Prakash.

The Baba answered: ‘Let us have a look at this statement ourselves. What could be its true significance for humanity?

‘Here, the ‘way’ implies the way of love. Jesus was an embodiment of love. ‘From this shall be known as my disciples, from the love you have for one another’, he told his disciples. The perfection of this love, he taught, was ‘laying down one’s own life for others’. He wanted us to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecuted us. All what he said and taught were practiced by him in totality.

‘While dying on the cross, he rose above the agony of his own painful death and prayed for those who crucified him. ‘Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing’, he had prayed. So he is the ‘truth’ of all that he taught….

‘When we follow his way and become the truth of what we believe, teach and preach, we will become sovereign spiritual persons and will experience the ‘abundant life’ of God within us, as it was experienced and manifested by Jesus Christ himself.’ The Baba said and looked at his disciple.

Atma Prakash appeared to be in deep meditation. 

But his guruji knew that he was absorbing every word spoken to him. There was a radiance on the face of his disciple. 

‘We can also look at this claim of Jesus in another way’ the Baba said:

‘In Jesus’ own life, he had gone through four levels of consciousness. The first was the human consciousness, the primary consciousness that he was a human being. Upon his circumcision in the temple, he started developing a sectarian and communal consciousness as a Jew. From this level, he rose to a universal consciousness whereby he was able to see all human beings as members of the family of God. ‘Love of God and love of neighbors’ was the theme of his teachings at this level. Finally he rose to the level of divine consciousness whereby he identified himself with God the Father. ‘I and the Father are one’ was his proclamation at this level…

‘Following this example of Jesus, all of us human beings are called to grow from our primary human consciousness to our final unitive divine consciousness through the sectarian religious consciousness and the all-embracing universal consciousness…’ The Baba concluded the day’s session with these words.

Excerpts from Integral Revolution

GOD OR MAMMON

Whether we like it or not we have to choose our loyalty. The choice by de fault currently appears to be mammon, that is, material wealth. Christ talks about the ruler of this world (John, 12: 31; 14: 30, 16:11) who to me is the mammon, more specifically the money of the consumer society. Christ also said that we cannot have two maters or two mistresses. Either we serve God or we serve mammon (Matthew 6:24). It is also mentioned that the ruler of this world is being judged, and the ruler of this world cannot have power over us unless we freely choose it. The question then is: Are we freely allowing mammon to exert its charming and tempting power over us?

  

After having made enough money to live for the remaining years of my life I returned to India in 2006 from the US to live my dream (mission) by serving God and humanity in the state of Kerala where I was born. One of my close relatives was not happy about my giving up such a well-paying job in order to return. I did not understand. Gradually I figured out that my money was more important than my presence in their midst for the reason they thought that I would not be spending as much money now on them as I used to before when I was employed. Some relatives were not also happy that I would financially help people irrespective of religion and blood relationship. It looks like some of them felt that they were entitled to the hard-earned money.  What is more interesting was that they were comparing the amounts of money that I was giving to different relatives. It also looked like they knew better than I as to who deserved what. When I did not fall for their control of my life and affairs, and when I consciously chose a lifestyle that did not include liquor and non-vegetarian diet, gradual estrangement began.  My estrangement is almost complete now with some powerful institutions and vested interests on account of also my advocating spirituality beyond religions, relationships beyond blood, and a civic life without contributing money to political parties. Going against corruption as a way of life, and taking life into my own hands not caring for meaningless rites and dead rituals, and questioning doctrines and dogmas handed down from generations after generations do not also make my life easy. 

That mammon is the goal and source of power came very strongly to me the other day when I read the shocking news in the media on, May 30, 2016, about the gruesome murder of a father by his son that took place after a bitter dispute related to property in Chengannoor, Kerala. The 68-year old father made his money in Texas (US) for his three sons. The son living in India felt he was not given the financial consideration he deserved. The father in anger trained a US-made gun on his son who in the scuffle got the gun from his father, shot him, killed him, and cut his body into four pieces and disposed them in four places to destroy evidence. I know how hard the Indians work in Texas (or elsewhere) to make their money as I stop at that place and spend a few days there to visit some relatives before I move on to Missouri. I knew bitter disputes were common over money and property that ended close relationships all over the world. But for hatred to get so much out of hand was extremely unusual. I have come to the conclusion with clear personal evidence that money is behind most of the disputes, betrayals of trust, quarrels, and estrangement. It used to be said that money can buy almost anything except a father and a mother. Now with frozen sperms and eggs that scenario is also changing!

Where am I currently? I am moving along in search of new insights into human behavior and the Force (God) beyond humanity. What do I have going for me? The courage of my convictions and silence and solitude to mull over and deepen my awareness of who I am and what I am about. The questions before me always are: Am I faithful to my conscience? Am I faithful to my God-given mission as I discern it to be? Am I using my resources for the welfare of humanity? I am aware that my life is not as pleasurable to the senses as I would like it to be. But then I am aware that this is a result of the choices I continue to make. I must also say that I am beginning to sense a pleasure and satisfaction beyond senses. Alone with God and the good of humans in mind, anything is bearable and satisfactory beyond all fleeting sensual pleasures. When a close young relative of mine in a high position told me the other day that she periodically calls me so I would not feel lonely, I told her that I am beyond loneliness or I prefer to choose loneliness to other less appealing choices. In fact I do not have time to feel lonely. And as I do not cherish others pitying me, I told her that she should not waste her and my time calling me unless mutually beneficial. I am also aware that it is beneficial to say what needs to be said when things are happening, of course with due circumspection and taking the prevailing circumstances into account. I am also analyzing things less and less, unless specifically asked for, as I know persons seem to feel better without analysis.

As Christ said our heart is where our treasure is. Is our heart then with God or mammon?

Swami Snehananda Jyoti 

Worship Decibels

Some Tuesdays in summers are considered very very auspicious and special in our town, Lucknow. People call them “Bara Mangal”. Incidentally today also when I am keying in this article, it happens to be one of such Tuesday. On previous Tuesday, when our family was strolling around in the nearby market area, we decided to enter a temple to pay respect to the Tuesday idol “Lord Hanuman”. Suddenly the priest and his allies started sounding the temple bells with full force. It was the time of the evening prayer. It was a small temple and the temple bells were rather large. The thumping sound of the bells made me feel uncomfortable and we came out of the temple room. I did remember the famous couplet from Saint Kabir, who objected to sounds from religious places, arguing if the God has become deaf or what? I narrated the same couplet to my son and he also remembered that he read it in his school days. 

That day itself, I decided to share this episode with my readers. Later, I searched the net for knowing the related facts. With the kind of experience I had, I can tell you that the sound we were forced to listen inside the small temple room must have been in the order of 130 to 140 decibels. It was deafening and made all of us feel giddy. More than 90 db we start feeling discomfort and with every 10 db increase the intensity of sound actually doubles. Sometimes I feel that the custom of making high volume sounds along with religious prayers might have been by design a method to hallucinate the people standing there, so that they give more donations and offerings. The minds become so blank after hearing such sounds, that whatever the priests says appears to be true. When I dig deeper into the ancient history, the custom of making sounds might actually be a way to keep jungle animals away from the place of dwellings. Along with evening food that people cooked on fire, they used to sing and dance around the fire, which was a form of God for them. Then they created clay or stone idols and placed it nearby and started worshipping them. A system that was created due to a need actually carried through centuries and today also we are making unreasonably high decibels of noise on daily basis in the name of worship. We have laws, but implementation is definitely challenging. Even few steps like making smaller bell size, controlling PA system volumes and following strict time guidelines can help a lot. God is already listening to us; we don’t have to awake him by our more than 100 db efforts. 

Dr. Sunil Ji Garg