Krishna on Bondage 5

Krishna’s vision of action without attachment to results is clear. He tells us to be totally in the present, in the moment. He tells us not to divide ourselves between present and future. Not even a fraction of our attention should be passed on to the future. Then only we can act wholly and joyously, and then only will our action be total. Desire for results is a distraction from action, so we must try and give up our attachment to results and be totally in action. Leave future to future, to existence. Otherwise our habit of being fragmentary will pursue us through out. And this wholeness, not our desire, will bear fruit. So we can trustfully leave the matter of fruit in the hands of God or existence or whatsoever we like to call it. I would like to explain it in a different way. Unless we make action our joy, unless we love what we do, unless we do something for the love of it, we cannot be free of our attachment to the future, to result. And unless our action flows from our being, our blissfulness, like a stream flows from its source, we cannot be totally into it. We will always tend be pulled by the future.    

Do you think a stream is flowing towards some future? Do you think a river is running to the sea? You are mistaken if you think so. It is another matter that the river reaches the ocean- but is certainly not flowing for the sake of the ocean. A river flows for the love of flowing, and this energy, this force, this strength of a river comes from its source, its original source. Of course the river reaches the sea, but it is just a by product, it is inconsequential. 

Life is a play of energy- like a river it moves with its own energy. Krishna says man should live so that his action stems from his own energy, from its innermost source. The river Ganga dances not only when she reaches the shore of the ocean, she dances on every bank. She dances through hills and valleys, through green forests and dry deserts, through cities and villages, through happiness and misery, through human beings and animals. She dances and rejoices where ever she happens to be. And if she reaches the ocean it is just a consequence which she neither desired nor expected. It is the culmination of her life’s journey. It is existence’s echo, its answer to her. 

In my view there is only one difference between a house holder and a sannyasin: a house holder lives for tomorrow, he is future oriented. A sannyasin lives and flowers now and here. He derives his strength from his today. For his today, now is enough unto itself. And when a sannyasin’s tomorrow comes, it will come in the form of his today, and he will live it the way he lives his today. In the next week I wish to share a significant episode in the life of Mohammed. Mohammed is a rare kind of sannyasin. 

Wishing you good health & happiness,

Dr. Dwarakanath, Director, Mitran foundation- the stress management people

People Honour the Honour

It is perhaps a law of Nature that we all salute to the rising sun and not the setting sun. Similarly, when we get sudden success, fame, recognition or riches, people rush to us irrespective of the fact whether it is well-deserved or not. Many times, even those people hang around us, who have no liking for us. At times, this may annoy us but there is no point in getting annoyed and the whole process should be accepted with equanimity, more so when such an achievement is well-deserved. While it is easy to say so, it may be difficult to follow in actual life. An incident of Rabindra Nath Tagore’s life may be of help in appreciating this point and consequently, in following. 

When Tagore was conferred the Nobel Prize in literature for his work ‘Gitanjali’ in the year 1913, it came as a big surprise to the literary circle of Kolkata. Obviously, it was so for Tagore also, as often is the case with such recognition. But the case of Tagore was somewhat different. He was never given 

the due recognition at home and his contemporaries in the literary circle never thought very highly of him. One reason for this could be their silent jealousy of Tagore on various counts. He also knew this but remained aloof as long as it didn’t affect him. The news of the Nobel Prize to Tagore intensified this jealousy even more. Tagore had shifted to Shantiniketan by that time, near Bolpur. A big group of the literary circle of Kolkata, therefore, decided to proceed to Shantiniketan to honour Tagore and the same was communicated to him. Tagore knew that most of the people who were coming to honour him had no great regard for him and were coming only because he had been conferred the Nobel Prize. So he was not very happy about it and shared his feelings with some close friends of his at Shantiniketan. His words were that the delegation was coming not to honour him but to honour his honour. The friends also knew the fact and understood Tagore’s dilemma. However, one of his friends advised him to remain as gracious as he had always been and receive the delegation. Tagore conceded to this advice and the event was conducted gracefully. Perhaps, Tagore would have done so on his own accord also. 

The message of this small narrative is that one should take ‘success’ and ‘failure’ with equanimity. If one does not feel much elated in the former, the latter also will not have an adverse effect. Tagore experienced several tragedies in life but he remained equally calm in those periods. That is why, in due course, he not only won the true respect of his colleagues but of the whole world. But this does not happen in one day and one has to strive for it all through the life.

Rakesh Mittal IAS

Be A Good Son

There is a deep bond of love between a son and his parents. Parents devote their whole life in bringing up their children in the best possible way. They sacrifice a lot in order to make life easy for you. Although parents do not expect anything in return but you as a son can show them that you care.

Never use bad language or talk back to your mother and father because you may hurt them by doing so. Do your best in school and make them feel proud of you. Try to be honest with your parents and don’t lie to them. Help them feel that you are trustworthy. Remember that you can rely on your parents, so tell them anything that bothers you so that they can help. You can share something interesting or some jokes when you are with them.

Love, help and be good to your brothers and sisters rather than hit them, even though they may be bothering you. Help with the housework as much as you can. Your parents will be grateful if you help them with house repairs or car maintenance or shopping. Be independent and mature and try not to have them worry about you all the time.

Don’t be shy to show your love to your parents. Do it by saying some sweet words, giving gifts, hugging them when they come back from office. Remember to wish them on their birthdays and anniversaries. If you stay away from them, call them regularly and visit whenever you can. Take them to the doctor when they are sick. 

Most parents dream of their child going out into the world with an education that can help him start a career. Show your parents that you can support yourself. Let them see that the time and effort they spent raising you helped create a good person who can live independently.

Stay away from liquor, drugs, bad company and rash driving and thank them for all they have done for you. Tell them how you feel and how much they mean to you. Always respect them and know their likes and dislikes to build a strong bond. 

Dr(Mrs) Archana Bharat

Theology Of Spirituality

The other day I was going down the ashram road when two devout women were coming up the road after attending Qurbana (Holy Mass) in the nearby church. I commented saying that they were holier now than before since they are coming after Qurbana.  Their response was: “Oh, we are sinners”. I asked them if they did anything against their conscience. They said: “No”. In that case I told them they are holy. I reminded them that there was a time when early Christians addressed each other reverentially as saints. I asked them if God created sinners or humans in the image of God. I further asked them if Christ revealed God as our father thus making us all children of God. They had no answer. That we are worthless and sinners is the deeply entrenched foundation of our medieval, negative theology of spirituality that is all-pervasive, and that has a strangle-hold on the image of Christians as followers of Christ. It is not a positive view of humans who in their freedom can do good as well as evil. 

Hinduism is not any different in that humans by their very birth come into this world by the accumulated burden of inter-birth sins and therefore in need of liberation from the bondage of sin. It looks like God took pleasure in creating humans in the bondage of sin, and sent them into this world merely for the sake of salvation or liberation. That we define humans in their essence by their sin does no credit to God. It gives the impression of a God who indulges in sadism. The convoluted theology of original sin to make God look great and humans worthless and sinners forebodes ill.  That is where we need to extricate theology from the dark medievalism, and redefine it positively as every human being is created in grace as children of God. Everyone has the needed grace to do the right thing in freedom and grace. This is what needs to be instilled in every human being. If God has predestined everybody to a determined afterlife, why bother at all? All the gymnastics about balancing freedom, grace, and predestination is sheer theological jargon. It is of no more interest than the old theological riddle related to the number of angels dancing on the point of a needle! Psychologically the negative self-image of Christians as sinners has done untold harm to humanity. Humans sin when they do not sin.

The recent canonizations of two popes are also relevant in the context of spirituality and sanctity. I strongly think that canonizations are exercises in sheer futility. From reports I understand that about one million Christians at St. Peters Square in Rome where two popes declared two popes saints had a unique experience. I can only think of these canonizations as glorious distractions from concentrating on real and substantive reformation in the Catholic Church where all are called to be saints by incessantly doing God’s will. Yet by canonizing Pope John 23rd, a vision of the Church of the future that started the Second Vatican Council was canonized. By canonizing Pope John Paul II, the official church canonized a conservative, reactionary, and authoritarian past that stopped in many ways the reforms of the Second Vatican Council dead in its tracks. 

All are called to holiness, sanctity, and sainthood. It is not the preserve of a chosen few who then can mediate for others. No miracles need to be validated by science or testimonies for one to be declared a saint. Faith and science do not mix. Faith relates to the sphere of realities beyond this world. There is a sensus fidelium (sense of the faithful) related to holiness. Currently a growing consensus is emerging that the church needs to change and reform to make the standard of Christ real. It looks like in many things the governing authority (the magisterium) of the church, perhaps unwittingly, led by power and control, plays the same role that the Great Sanhedrin (The Jewish Council) played in the trial of Christ. All the medieval structures around Church governance need to be dismantled with a view to thorough reformation guided by democracy, transparency, compassion, and humble authority of service. For that, of course, primacy and infallibility need to vanish; central control concentrated in Vatican needs to give way to central guidance and consultation. The class system of laity and clergy also needs to go. A selected body of clergy and laity can coordinate the service of governance in the Church. Selected spiritual leaders can provide guidance. No doctrine can replace conscience and love for the believers. Theology of spirituality, then, while keeping the good and humane practices of the past (tradition) will foster brotherly and sisterly love among all humans with a view to creatively projecting to the outside world the Kingdom of God lived within. It is love lived and shared with the entire creation in evolving balance and harmony. Spirituality (spirit-led life) is in tune with the entire creation, and blooms into sanctity spreading its odor everywhere. This true sanctity does not require any canonization or extra-ordinary feat or miracles for validation. 

Swami(Dr) Snehananda Jyoti

Raju Vs Raju

I picked up the phone, dialed a number and asked, “Hey! Are you Raju.” “Yes! I am Raju speaking”, came a thick voiced reply. “Are you really Raju?”, I tried to confirm back. “Yes, for sure I am Raju”, again comes the same thick voice. “But your voice seems to be different this time”, I tried to confirm in a different way now. “Yes! I am Raju, what do you want from me Sir!.” I was still trying to place and connect mentally. “I am looking for Raju, The Electrician”, this was the first time I tried to relate my objective with the name of the person whom I wanted to locate. I further made a reference to the ceiling fan I had given for repairs. “Oh! Now I understand, you are looking for the other Raju. I am also Raju, but I repair only refrigerators”. Meanwhile my wife, who was listening to this conversation, came to me and gave me the phone number of another Raju whom I was actually looking for. I called up this Raju and got my work done. 

After this quite usual looking episode, I tried to search my mobile address book for names like Raju. I was surprised to see many Rajus. My wife told me that most repair and maintenance service professionals are named as Raju, Guddu or some similar short names. These people have kept short nick names which are very common. Then I connected the same reasoning to the names of voices that we hear when we connect to call centers. These are short names are like Pooja, Priya, Sapna, Rashi etc. Like always, my mind turned philosophical regarding this Raju Vs. Raju episode. I think people are becoming IDs or codes rather than real persons. Very soon we would be short of real names and will keep alphanumeric names like Raju-1, Raju23.com etc. We might land up in a situation in which we call a person with his ID like UP-23421 etc. It may sound funny, but it does have a thoughtful aspect. Are we working anymore to make our language richer? When we cannot retain even our names, how can we talk of all other words in our language? Alarm is ringing. Hear it and wake-up, or tap it down for another long duration of sweet sleep. Choice is ours. 

Dr. Sunil Ji Garg

Awareness

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures. (Thornton Wilder)

Learn the art of being aware, our success depends upon our power to perceive, to observe, and to know. Keen observation is a chief factor in the success of all great businessmen, executives, artists and military leaders. Men and women go about the world unaware of the beauty, the goodness, and the glories in it. A greater poverty than that caused by lack of money is the poverty of unawareness.

Helen Keller said, hear the music of voices, the song of a bird, the mighty strains of an orchestra, as if you would be stricken deaf tomorrow. Touch each object you want to touch as if tomorrow your tactile sense would fail. Smell the perfume of flowers, taste with relish each morsel, as if tomorrow you could never smell and taste again. Make the most of every sense; glory in all the facets of pleasure and beauty which the world reveals to you through the several means of contact which nature provides. But of all the senses, sight must be the most delightful. As you open your awareness, life will improve of itself, you won’t even have to try. 

Seven men went through a field, one after another. One was a  farmer, he saw only the grass; the next was an astronomer, he saw the horizon and the stars; the physician noticed  the standing water and suspected malaria; he was followed by a soldier, who glanced over the ground, found it easy to  hold, and saw in a moment how the troops could be disposed; then came the geologist, who noticed the boulders and the sandy soil; after him came the real-estate broker, who pondered how the  line of the house lots should run, where would be the drive-way, and the  stables. The poet admired the shadows cast by some trees, and still more the music of some thrushes and meadow lark.

Sr(Dr)Lilly Thokkanattu SJL

Krishna on Bondage 4

Krishna says a wise man gives up attachment to the fruits of action and attains to freedom from bondage of birth and death. The whole thing needs to be understood in depth. Firstly, Krishna does not talk about our release from action itself. He emphasizes release from attachment to the fruits of action. He does not ask us to give up action and become inactive. Krishna urges us not to do something with a motive, with an eye on results of the action. There is a meaningful difference between action and the fruit of action. I would like to go deeply into the important matter of action without attachment to its fruits, because it is really arduous. If someone tells us to do something, but not to expect any result from it, we will say,” It is sheer madness to suggest such a thing. If there is no motive to work, why should one work at all?”

This phrase, “Freedom from attachment to the fruits of action” has put many interpreters of Krishna in difficulty. So many found a clever way to circumvent the real meaning of Krishna’s teaching and bring in “Fruit of action” by the back door. They said one who relinquishes attachment to the result of one’s labour attains moksha, liberation. So the fruit of action is in the form of liberation. It is the same if we say that one attains to liberation if he gives up his attachment to fruit of action. Krishna is not providing an incentive to desire less action. An action with an incentive can never be desire less, because what is incentive but a desire for result? Krishna’s “release from bondage” is a consequence which follows desire less action as its shadow. 

Krishna does not say that those who want to be free from the bondage of birth should give up attachment to the fruit of their action. If he says so, he is providing a motive, he is contradicting himself. No, he only says that freedom or liberation is a consequence of desire less action, not its motive. One who desires liberation or freedom can find it very difficult to come to it, because desiring is the barrier. So the question is: How to work without attachment to result?  

Let us contemplate over this and later we shall analyze about two kinds of action in our life!

Wishing you good health & happiness,

Dr. Dwarakanath, Director, Mitran foundation- the stress management people