Religion Politics

Mixing Our society is passing through a phase of dilemma when it comes to mixing religion with politics. When a religious preacher reaches one of the state assemblies to preach his school of thoughts, no law abiding biggies speak a word about it. When an ordinary citizen shows his anger, he is dipped into the pool of guilt. Not only guilt, even the sword of IPC streams are put over him. We as a society are keeping our thought powers aside and are becoming a combination of thoughts that evolve on some social media channels or TV debates. If a person dares to derecognize icons of religion, but is an upright and righteous man, he is still driven away as somebody who is out of this planet. I carefully studied many preachers of our times and I found that at some point in time each one of them have spoken bad words about people who are atheists. Even the most respectable ones have done so. With this trend, politicians have definitely taken a message that since believers are large in numbers, group dynamics of votes works better if religion is used as a hidden agenda while making their strategies. Interestingly the believers also seem to be double minded. On the face of it no body agrees that religion should be mixed with politics, but when it is mixed they are carried away and do not even notice. 

The concept of secularism which is often re-debated many times talks about keeping state to be free of any bias which is based on religious rules and teachings. Is it bad to be biased by religious thoughts if they are good? Some people feel that it is bad because this bias can lead to insecurity amongst those who believe in a different school of thoughts. If we go back in times most religions as they exist today are by-products of rules as framed by a certain group of people who were living together or who expanded their zone of living. Since today we have well defined countries and their geographical, social and economic boundaries, we can safely say that rules today are related to these boundaries. For e.g. if people in India follow the only religion called “Indian”, it can be a sufficient condition to be a believer. Some people will say that, when 8-10 religions in this world are creating such a mess, what will happen if we talk of a concept of more than 200 religions. Just have a re-look at it. Things will be simpler as people will associate to their country only and reasons to fight for different customs within a country will be gone. Customs of a country can be followed by a person with much more ease. With this kind of concept mixing religion and politics will always be fair and acceptable. 

 

Dr. Sunil Ji Garg

All time prayer

A cobbler came to Rabbi Isaac of Ger and said. “Tell me what to do about my morning prayer. My customers are poor men who have only one pair of shoes. I pick up their shoes late in the evening and work on them most of the night; at dawn there is still work to be done if the men are to have their shoes ready before they go to work. Now my question is: What should I do about my morning prayer?”

“What have you been doing till now?” the Rabbi asked. 

“Sometimes I rush through the prayer quickly and get back to my work-but then I feel bad about it. At other times I let the hour of prayer go by. Then too I feel a sense of loss and every now and then, as I raise my hammer from the shoes, I can almost hear my heart sigh. “What an unlucky man I am that I am not able to make my morning prayer.” 

Said the Rabbi. “If I were God I would value that more than the prayer.”

Antony de Mello - Prayer of the Frog

Indian Thoughts Archives

The third spiritual law of peace.

‘The third spiritual law of peace is that ‘all religions, scriptures and saints are recipients and reservoirs of divine grace and hence, by sincerely adhering to the eternal values taught by them any one can come to a deeper experience and understanding of the grace of God’…

The Baba began their third session without much introduction. He was very happy with the efforts being put in by his disciple and the progress he has been making.

‘Please let me hear you repeating it’ the guru told his disciple.

Atma Prakash repeated the third spiritual law.

The Baba looked at him with great love. 

He then continued: ‘Religions are concrete social and historical expressions of humanity’s quest after Truth, the Ultimate Reality, the one true God. They can help us to understand the true purpose and meaning of life in this world and thereafter. Scriptures of religions are divinely inspired. But they are written in human languages by human beings and hence, are subject to human errors and limitations. They are also subject to linguistic and cultural limitations….

‘There are contextual and eternal elements and teachings embedded in all scriptures. The contextual are to be ignored after that particular context is no more prevalent. The eternal are to be preserved and cherished……. 

‘The eternal unites, the contextual divides. Many of these eternal principles are common to religions. The common eternal principles of religions embody in them common moral and spiritual values like truth, righteousness, non-violence, justice, love, purity, patience, compassion and respect for parents. Living one’s life according to these eternal principles and values alone can lead one to ‘eternal life’….

‘Different religions use different terms to represent this state of ‘eternal life’. The Hindu friends may like to use the term ‘moksha’. The Christian friends may prefer ‘heaven’ whereas the Muslim friends may like the term ‘paradise’. Our Buddhist friends may like to refer to this state as ‘nirvana’…..

‘Teaching and promoting the eternal principles and values common to all religions constitute the most important spiritual task ahead of us in this millennium….

‘The eternal values constitute the common meeting ground of religions. Scriptures and sacraments, cults and rituals, codes and creeds… all are for uniting people and for helping them find peace and happiness. Words often tend to divide. Spirit alone can unite. Hence, more than the words written in scriptures, the spirit behind them is to be understood and cherished...

‘Let us not forget that much of the conflicts among religions today come from the fact that the followers of different religious traditions do not understand well their own scriptures and the eternal spiritual and moral values contained in them. As a result, they lack the very values of the religion which they try to impose on others. They also do not respect the scriptures of other religions’ the Baba paused to look at his disciple. 

‘Are you fully with me so far?’ He asked Atma Prakash.

‘Yes guruji. Your words are very inspiring’ the disciple replied.

Excerpts from Integral Revolution

ALL WILL BE SAVED

In God’s infinite wisdom and inscrutable ways all will be saved. In a world that abounds in self-righteousness, needless judgments, and condemnations, speculations of salvation for all are seen in Christian and Hindu scriptures or traditions. In Christian tradition there is purgatory or a center for purification with a view to salvation. But then what about the unforgivable sin of blasphemy about the Holy Spirit that Christ spoke about (Matthew 12: 31)? Some writers think that this sin applied only to the time of Christ’s ministry when his enemies stated that he drove out demon by the power of demon. In Hindu tradition there is a chain of rebirths through which one can achieve final liberation. Nobody knows how our all-merciful and compassionate God works. All those who proclaim otherwise can only be compared to the of sophists of Socrates’ time when they pretended to know everything while wise Socrates said he knew that he did know. Our knowledge of God comes from our belief systems and our close experience of nature.

In the middle of every week I spend one day in silence and solitude close to nature spending my time mostly in landscaping and planting fruit trees and flower plants. I try to be aware of the intense presence of God in me and Nature around me, while surrendering to God totally. On such a day this week, I was overwhelmed by a feeling of God taking care of everything and saving every one. My experience of God also supports this strong feeling. Whether this is true or not I can only leave to God. 

Speaking about sin: not surrendering to God’s will is the worst sin. Every possible evil follows when one does not surrender to God. The greatest evil is to use another person for one’s own benefit and enjoyment. Humanity has gone through intensely evil periods of institutionalized slavery in racism, casteism, and colonialism. Religions are preoccupied with the protection of their own turfs while neglecting the exploitation of human beings through sexism and other violations of human rights. While we do have a sure and mighty task of working for the welfare of all humans on this earth, who is going to be saved can be left to God whose sole task it is.

Swami Snehananda Jyoti 

Alien Women

Our country could spot only two Alien Women who brought laurels for us in the recently finished olympics at Rio. You may be little surprised or some of you may be annoyed, when you hear this expression ‘Alien’ for these women. I just called them Aliens as we knew a very little about these women when the Olympics started. When none of the celebrity athletes clicked, they performed much beyond their past known skills. Being a married man, I must admit, that women have always been like Aliens to me. Please do not take this on a humorous note or a cut pasted matter from WhatsApp. Earlier also I wrote about a particular school of thought, which believe that life on earth is of Alien origin. 

I believe that women are similar kind of creators. They are not only creators, they are operators as well. After creating us they also live along with us to ensure that their creation keeps ticking. Actually we are no one to protect them, educate them or feed them. They do all this for us in various forms. Sometime back I also used to think that I have studied a lot about human behaviour and I started analysing every person I came across. Later I realised that I very often failed when I did this analysis on the fairer breed. Further analysis yielded me the answer. The creators should never be questioned. Believe me, my intentions are not to flatter a group of my readers. It is the way I have started thinking, when I see the power quotient of Alien Women. 

Dr. Sunil Ji Garg

All the sermons gone?

When an old priest died, it was discovered that he had collected all his sermons in to a nice bundle, tied with a cord. On top of the bundle was a card that read: “Where has gone the influence of all these sermons I preached?”

 Underneath, he had scribbled in large letters, “OVER”

On the other side was found: “Where are last year’s sunrays? They have gone into fruits and grain and vegetables to feed people. Where are last year’s rain drops? Forgotten by most people, of course, they did their refreshing work, and their influence still abides. So too, I believe, have gone into people’s lives and made them more human, more noble, and more Christ-like.”

There is the story of a skeptic visiting an interior village in Africa. He was shocked by the poverty and misery he saw all around and remarked to the village chief;  “Missionaries have converted you and made you Christians. But look at your people, what good has all that done to your people?” And the chief responded pointing to a huge terracotta pot under a huge tree in the center of the village, “15 or 20 years ago you would have been a nice meal for us; that is the difference it has made.” Words are not wasted. May be we should ask, “what or how would I have been without them?”

Indian Thoughts Archives

Jesus and Christianity

‘Sri Paramahamsa Yogananda, a great Hindu saint who was sent by his guru to America to serve as a ‘spiritual link’ between Christianity and Hinduism, had a deep insight into this distinction between the Christ-Consciousness and Jesus the Christ….

‘He wrote in his book ‘Man’s Eternal Quest’: “I am glad that Christianity was not called ‘Jesusism’ because ‘Christianity’ is a much broader word. There is a difference between Jesus and Christ. Jesus is the name of the little human body in which the vast Christ Consciousness was born. Although the Christ Consciousness manifested in the body of Jesus, it cannot be limited to one human form. It would be a metaphysical error to say that the omnipresent Christ Consciousness is circumscribed by the body of one human being.”…. This beautiful book is also there in our library… 

‘You can also read the book ‘One Christ and Many Religions’ by Dr. S J Samartha so that you can understand well this difference between Jesus of Nazareth and Christ, the eternal Word of God…..

‘Christ-Consciousness enables one to forgive one’s offenders and bless them just as Jesus the Christ was able to do from the cross, rising above the agony of his own suffering death. India needs this Christ-Consciousness, not Christianity, to be healed of her inner and historical wounds and to be made whole and healthy. What India needs is not the western Christian religion, but the eastern Jesus the Christ, and the Christ-Consciousness embodied by him…..

‘Forgiveness is the key to health, happiness and peace. For India, this is very important. We need to forgive and forget what happened in the past and look ahead with hope and confidence. History does not march backward, but forward… No individual, no religion and no nation can ever achieve greatness by fighting over the wrongs committed in the past. This is where India’s spiritual hospitality and heritage have to play an important role. A spirituality of peace is also a spirituality of love and forgiveness. Mother India has to draw strength and vitality from her deep spiritual resources and treasures in this historic task.….

‘This is the second spiritual law of peace. Let us recollect it once again. It says that repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation are preconditions for grace to take roots and bear fruits in our lives. Have you understood this well, my son?’ the Baba asked Atma Prakash.

‘Yes guruji, I have understood this very well’ Atma Prakash replied. 

Excerpts from Integral Revolution

Ego Worship

We are all great idol worshippers of the first order. And the great idol we worship is physically our own body, and mentally our own ego. The time, energy, and money we spend and the pain we endure in shaping, grooming, and beautifying our body is beyond any description. There is no length to which persons will not go, and no effort they will spare to achieve their narcissistic goals. Look at the fashion designers who design clothes to cover as well us to reveal and high-light our natural endowments that were called not long ago pudenda (those things that one needs to be ashamed of). There was a wedding to which I was invited where a prayer was to be said at home before the bride was to be sent to the church for the ceremony. I was asked to say the prayer before the great gathering. It was supposed to be at first five minutes; at the last minute to save time it was shortened to two minutes to say a few words and then a short prayer. Bride’s father asked me to do this.  During the prayer the bride’s father who stood close to me looked twice at his watch. I took the liberty to comment on this.  I will not be called to such functions in the future, I know. So what? I need to remind you that there was time for over an hour of photography before the prayer. What does it say about us as a society? The keepers of religious rituals accommodate very well the wants of the consumer society lest their own standard of living will be imperiled. Yet we worship Christ who whipped and drove away the vendors and moneychangers who turned the temple – his father’s house of worship – into a place of commercial enterprise.  The chief priests were enraged at what he did. Similar actions of Christ tolled his death knell. 

The consumer society has a seductively clever way of packaging stuff that we become willing prey to its trickery and deception. But then who is the consumer society? It is us. The society that we create seduces us. And we become a one big happy community of hypocrites because we do not want to lose our own share of goodies. If you talk against it be sure you will be ostracized and crucified. Talk only at your own peril of being an outcaste. The consumer society that militates against the Kingdom of God has the power to make us helpless and losers in worldly pursuits and choice ecclesiastical positions of power. I can assure you that no bishop who openly talks like Christ did will get to the centers of ecclesiastical power that rules the Church that was supposed to be founded by the humble carpenter of Nazareth. It is also our ego who does not want to forgive and get reconciled, who wants to nurse our hurts and take revenge, and who wants to settle the score for every mistreatment or slight. Shall we then continue to worship our own bodies and massage our own egos? This is a choice that we all need to make. This is a choice not to be left for the trepid old age crippled by fear and physical infirmities intent on getting to heaven through endless pious rituals and devotions.

Swami Snehananda Jyoti 

Priorities

We struggle with priorities on day-to-day basis. People have devised various techniques to set priorities to achieve time management, but here I would like to talk about priorities we take to keep us happy and satisfied. Few years back when I was sitting in a meeting of top company executives, discussing about company’s objective, a gentleman from accounts background clearly spelled out that the primary objective of any business organization should be maximizing profits. Obviously the type of meeting it was, almost everyone agreed. People who did not agree kept silent. 

Many years have passed and this sentence, spelling out the primary objectives still reverberates in my mind. The reason is that I often see people, organizations, governments all seem to be running behind this primary objective only. I see government focusing on making larger roads, then inside road of towns. I see local level establishments putting their energies on decorating buildings, rather than finding right garbage disposal mechanisms. At personal levels people keep spending on clothes and electronic gadgets, than taking up a self-development course. People have lot of time on mobile than to talk to their parents. I know that old father of a rich person kept filling his eye drop bottles with water as this person always forgot to bring a fresh eye drop bottle in time. That is how we set priorities. We try to maximize financial gains and end up gaining stress and all sorts of complexities. Setting the right priorities can simplify our life. Let us detoxify our needs. 

Dr. Sunil Ji Garg

The second spiritual law

‘The second spiritual law of peace, my son, is that ‘repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation are preconditions for grace to take roots and bear fruits in our lives’…..Please repeat’ the Baba told his disciple

‘Repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation are preconditions for grace to take roots and bear fruits in our lives’ Atma Prakash repeated. 

“Good” the Baba said and continued: ‘The light of sun and the grace of God are freely available to all. But if the windows and doors are closed, the light of the sun cannot enter the room. Similarly, if our hearts and minds are closed, the grace of God cannot enter into our lives. Repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation are the keys to open the doors of our hearts and minds to divine grace…. 

‘Through repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation we also humble ourselves. Humility opens our hearts and minds to the grace of God. ‘Repent, the Kingdom of God is at hand.’ This was the call of Sadguru Jesus Christ to humanity…

‘Repentance is turning away from sins and turning towards God. It is an essential prerequisite for the light of grace to shine forth in one’s heart and life. We have already seen that without divine grace there can be no lasting peace and happiness in one’s life…

‘An unforgiving mind is the breeding ground of many human problems. Much of our ailments today are psychosomatic in their origins…. 

‘An unforgiving person is prone to psychosomatic sicknesses. The World Health Organization, WHO, estimates that more than 60% of sicknesses in the present world are psychosomatic in their origins……. 

‘The term ‘Kingdom of God’ implies a grace-filled existence. It is within us and among us. It begins within one’s own self, here and now. ‘Begin with self and begin within self’ has to be the methodology of anyone who seeks the Kingdom of God. This is a truth upheld by almost all religions and their enlightened saints and sages….

‘One of the major tragedies of India and of the modern world is lack of forgiveness and reconciliation. India is a deeply wounded country; wounded by her own caste and class prejudices and exploitations, wounded by communal conflicts and violence, and wounded by external aggression and foreign subjugation. India needs forgiveness and reconciliation to be healed from within…

‘Without forgiveness there can be no reconciliation, and without reconciliation there can be no inner healing, and without inner healing, there can be no peace. Without peace there will be no development, growth and happiness. The nation will continue to suffer from poverty, illiteracy and sickness and other evils, even if it has the best of political leaders to rule…. 

‘Religions and religious communities in India have to learn and promote the art and science of forgiveness and reconciliation…

‘Forgiveness needs repentance. One needs to be really sorry about one’s wrong deeds, about the falsehood one was party in spreading, and about the damages one has done to others knowingly or unknowingly…

‘Love is the source of forgiveness. It is also the inspiration for forgiveness…. We have seen that true love is always forgiving. It does not keep an account of the wrongs done by others. Without love, forgiveness is impossible…..

‘Our ability for love comes from the divine love that we receive from God, the source of love. We need the grace of God even to forgive ourselves and others. It is here one can experience the importance of God’s universal ‘atonement’ in, with and through the Christ-Spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation…. 

‘As we have seen earlier, this Christ-Spirit and Christ-Consciousness has its ‘divine standard’ in Jesus of Nazareth. But this Christ-Consciousness is neither confined to Jesus of Nazareth the Christ nor is it limited to Christian Churches. It is available to anyone anywhere anytime who seeks, knocks and asks for it, irrespective of his or her religious affiliations…

‘I myself am a living witness to this truth. I was never a ‘Christian’. I do not belong to any ‘Church’. Yet, I could experience this Christ-Consciousness in my life. God’s free gift of His Christ is often misappropriated and made a saleable commodity by Christian Churches….. Liberating Christ from these narrow sectarian Christian Churches is an urgent need of the era. The world need Christ not Churchianity….

Excerpts from Integral Revolution

Old Friends

When you meet your old school friends after a long time, your body and mind systems react in an all together different way. Old memories bring a different kind of nostalgia and even the wrong doings and stressed relationships of the past can bring positive energy in the current days. A man was caught by tribals in a jungle. It was the day of sacrifice. The tribals decided to give sacrifice of this man to please their Idol. When the sacrifice ceremonies started, this man requested the tribal king to give him some time so that he can say a final good bye to his relatives in a nearby village. The king refused, as he could not trust this man. Another man within the tribals came out of the crowd and requested the king to grant him some time and offered himself for the sacrifice if the visitor doesn’t turn up. The visitor returned, met his relatives and started his return journey, during which he fell from the horse. Meanwhile the scheduled time was getting over and the king ordered sacrifice of the man of his tribe. Some how in just nick of the time visitor also returned. Now both these men started offering themselves for the sacrifice and started fighting. When the king tried to get into the details of this fight, he found that they were actually childhood friends who were now ready to give their lives for the other friend. Seeing this the King’s heart also melted and he forgave both the friends. He also announced to stop the tradition of human sacrifice. True friendship like this may not be so easy to find these days, but I can definitely say that a feeling to do something for your good old friends still exists in our society. Let us share it openly if we also have this feeling for our friends. 

Dr. Sunil Ji Garg

Spiritual Laws of Peace

After their short meditation the Baba began with the first spiritual law of peace.

‘The first spiritual law of peace is that ‘the source of true and lasting peace and happiness in the world is the grace of God that is available to all who surrender themselves willingly and consciously to Divine Providence’….. Please repeat it.’

‘We must remember always, as we have already seen earlier, that our understanding of God and the true attributes of God are evolving realities. It varies according to the level of consciousness,especially of those who are given the grace to have an insight into the nature of the one true God. As we very well know, human beings are very much limited in their capacity to grasp the Ultimate Reality. Only divine grace alone can give us an insight into the true nature and attributes of God. Here too, one has to be very humble….

‘Pride is the biggest block in the path of truth and grace. Humility is the key to spiritual growth and enlightenment….

‘We need to learn to be humble. We also need to learn to let go. Renunciation and transcendence are essential for spiritual growth. But the most important virtue needed for our spiritual growth is humility. Humility is learnt often through humiliations.… We have already learnt some of these spiritual principles…

‘Self-surrender, Saranagathi, is the sure way to gain an insight into the nature of the one true God. This is also the path taught by all religions….

‘Self-surrender brings divine grace into one’s life. This divine grace is available to all alike. It is the source of true and lasting peace in one’s life and in the world. ‘Know God, know peace. No God, no peace’ is a dictum that contains within it the wisdom and experience of saints and sages from all religious traditions….

‘Thus, sooner or later all sincere seekers of truth and peace will come to realize and experience the reality that the source of true and lasting peace and happiness is the grace of God that is available to all who surrender themselves willingly and consciously to Divine Providence, that is, to the grace of God’ the Baba said and closed his eyes. He remained silent for few minutes.

*     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *

‘I had gone through an encounter with death at the prime of my life. I was an atheist at that time. But, experiences thereafter have taught me that life is a gift and grace of an ever loving God, given to us free..’ the Baba said. 

He continued: ‘Getting up in the morning everyday in itself is a miracle… The heart beats, the lungs breathe and millions of cells in our body function without our knowledge or permission…..

‘An awareness of this mystery of life in itself will lead us to an act of ‘self-surrender’ to this ever compassionate love-force, God. We are here because of divine grace, we live because of divine grace, everything in the world exists because of divine grace, yes my son, because of divine grace....….

‘The source of true peace and happiness is also this divine grace. This is the first spiritual law of peace…Have you understood this well?’The Baba asked Atma Prakash.

‘Guruji, you mentioned that humility is often developed through humiliations. Can you please explain this to me?’ Atma Prakash requested his guruji.

‘Humiliations are painful experiences, my son. It affects our ego directly.Ego has a tendency to react first and fast negatively. The result will be anger, resentment, hatred or revenge towards those who humiliate us….

‘But instead, if we consciously control our tendency to react negatively, and send out some positive vibrations to the offender, we will find that the ego gets humbled and purified in the process’ the Baba replied.

‘Thank you, guruji.’ Atma Prakash prostrated before his guruji and got up.

He went for a long walk into the forest. At any time he has something serious to reflect on, he went to the forest for a long walk.

He was reflecting on what he learnt today, especially on what was said by his guruji about developing humility through humiliations. This was indeed a new insight for him.

Excerpts from Integral Revolution

MORE THAN KINGS AND QUEENS

As sharers of this immense and great universe, we are kings and queens, and more. We, that is, those of us who live in the realm of the Spirit. We are aware of who we are.  We revere everyone. But we do not revere anyone specially on the basis of his or her birth status. Besides kings and queens came about as a perversion of God’s creation. Think about it. God did not create anyone as lord over anyone. The perversion results when anyone thinks that someone is nobler or higher, and needs to be specially revered or honored just because of his or her birth in a certain lineage. The media goes after them because that is what keeps them in existence among the overwhelming majority of the unenlightened. Many kings historically were thugs and evil men who because of their muscle power and craftiness subjugated others and began to rule over them. Their so-called subjects owed fealty to them because of their fear. They would have been in our times tried in courts and put away in maximum security prisons for their heinous crimes. Let us take one famous example: Henry VIII of England, whose six wives had to fear execution, and from whom descended the present royal family of UK. He wanted to divorce his first wife so he could remarry and get a male heir for his throne. He had already gotten dispensation from the Pope to marry the widow of his older brother. He unleashed his own brand of lustful reformation breaking away from the Roman Catholic Church, and established his own church and appointed an archbishop who gave him the divorce he wanted.  He had also slept with one of his wives’ mother. He murdered four of his wives.  His sixth wife survived him. Because of fear he did not kill his first wife as her uncle was the powerful king Spain. He clutched on to power by letting his vassals and henchmen loot the enormous wealth of the Roman Catholic Church and its monasteries. He murdered even his powerful minister, St. Thomas More, for following his conscience. In India what about emperor Aurangzeb who killed his own brother, the legal heir to the throne, and presented his head on a platter, after stamping it on ground, piercing it with a sword, and spitting on it, to his father, Shah Jahan, at supper time, whom he had imprisoned in the palace on the Yamuna river on the opposite side of Taj Mahal. In our own kingdom of Travancore Marthanda Varma , king of Travancore killed bot the sons of his uncle, the king, after succeeding him to consolidate his power. Tipu Sultan of Mysore, besides plundering and devastating crops, the livelihood of people, made burger out of the foreskins of the British soldiers whom he captured, and forced them to eat it. 

What about the Popes who is supposed to represent Christ, born in the poorest of circumstances in a manger? They thought they had divine right and power to rule the temporal and the spiritual world? In clinical psychology and psychiatry this would be considered to be delusions of grandeur. But they were serious and had the wherewithal to enforce their whims. Theologically no Pope, no Sankaracharya, no God-man or God-woman is holier than any one of us whether we are more than kings/queens or not. The world that is opposed to the spirit of Christ will say that the claim of being more than kings or queens is like the “grapes are sour” rationalization of the tired and frustrated wolf in the fable. What about me? If I said what I am saying now at a different time, say 70 years ago, my head could have been chopped off. I do not like to pass through places ruled by kings and queens if I can help it. Let the world win this argument as I am satisfied with my sweet rationalization that they may attribute to me. The world’s spiritual leaders also need to let go off false titles coming from obscurantist theological claims of the dark Middle Ages.

Let me explain why I consider myself to be and all others to be as kings and queens if not more. “All human beings are born free and equal in rights and dignity,” states the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) of the United Nations. No human being who believes in this declaration can be a king or a queen. Now I have all that I need by God’s grace. I do not control anybody. I live in the moderate climate of Munnar endowed with sumptuous natural beauty rarely seen in other parts of the world. I live in an ashram run by dedicated, loyal, loving, and caring helpers/workers whose service cannot be bought by money alone as love responds to love. Our cows - Ponni, Malini, Ramani, Manjula  - and their calves Meera, Maya, and Bert Lalaji (this is a compromise, because Mataji wanted an American name; he is generally known as Lalaji though). I live a simple holistic life close to the land.  I can live a worldly, luxurious life if I want to, but my conscience does not permit that. I swim in a cool pool/reservoir filled by gravitation with water coming from the mountain springs. Tantran, our dog, is full of love, but does not know how to express it without jumping on you! I can move around freely without a bodyguard.

Swami Snehananda Jyoti 

Thought Virus

While suffering from viral fever last week, I did get some extra time to think and study about viruses. Being a Naturopath and Aromatherapist myself, I usually prepare my own medications. This article is a post viral product when I started comparing the nature of viruses with many real life entities. You may have heard that the virus is lifeless until it is attached to some living entity. For this reason most antibiotics are not able to directly confront the viral diseases. Virus shields itself in the outside world as it is able to pretend that it is a harmless, lifeless cell. There are many people in real life also who pretend to be harmless, but they become devastating when they get the opportunity to find a base. Our political people often provide this base in the urge of getting and holding the power. In the International scenario we can see that fire-arms were supplied consciously to many rebellion groups by the nations which are now most vulnerable against terrorism. Many such viruses take a shelter behind the religious masks to empower themselves and then do all sorts of devastations later on. It is true that without such masks and substrates these viruses are lifeless. An ice-cream distributor finds such a substrate in the instructions of some terror group and he kills hundreds of people on the roads of Nice in France. Some group of viruses found the base in speeches of some self labeled preacher, and they selectively kill many in a restaurant in Bangladesh. Antidote for all kinds of viruses needs to be found. Before the biological virus, we need to do some serious research on this “Thought Virus”. How come some people are able to implant thought viruses so easily? Something in our social systems must have failed in past few years. Governments, legal systems, military forces are not powerful enough to fight this menace. Society need to provide some solutions. History has many examples of social reformers who could make impact in such situations earlier. We know about Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Mandela, Mother Teresa and the Great Jesus himself. I am getting an intuition as if such a reformer is already born. He will give us light to get rid of all such viruses. But this time he will not embody into one individual. Each one of you will get his powers and will be able to rise against the thought viruses. Are you ready? The power will soon be inside you. 

Dr. Sunil Ji Garg