Remaining Unperturbed- 03

Once a guy visited my Guru and said that he was very worried about his addiction to coffee. My Guru told him, “it seems you have divided yourself into 2 parts, one of which is addicted to coffee and the other is addicted to worrying. Otherwise how is it possible that you drink mugs & mugs of coffee and worry together? Either one is possible but not both. Since you do both together, it is obvious there are two ‘You’, two selves in you. One of whom goes on having gallons of coffee and the another who keeps repenting it, condemning it and cursing it. And the problem is, the one that has coffee will continue till the end of life and the other part of you will go on repenting all along the line. The repenting self will go on taking vows and pledges again and again to quit coffee.” So my Guru said to him, “You should do only one thing- either have coffee without repenting or quit coffee. If you try both, you will always be in hell. If you have coffee, be totally involved in having coffee without sparing an iota of your being. Don’t allow even a fragment of your being to stand aloof like a judge condemning coffee or justifying it.”

And then my Guru said, “If you can become integrated and whole in drinking coffee, then a day will come when the whole being in you can quit coffee, and quit it effortlessly and completely. The one who is addicted to coffee totally can quit the coffee as totally. He will never live perpetually in conflict of to be or not to be. And he will enjoy coffee and not having coffee.” A fragmented person is neither here nor there. He is miserable when he is having coffee because his other part condemns him as a sinner. And when he quits coffee, the addict in him asserts, saying that he is missing a great pleasure and luxury. There is no need for this conflict, misery and restlessness. Ne among us who is complete, who is total, who becomes one with any and every situation comes his way, such a person ceases to be witness. That person transcends witnessing. Witnessing is a means not an end. Krishna is not a witness although he exhorts Arjuna to be a witness. In Krishna there is no alienation between the subject and object, between the observer and the observed. Now there is only observing, a process of observation. And this is total.

Let us contemplate in this line of thinking and meet next week with more observation!

Wishing you good health & happiness,

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

Utilize Time

Time is one of the most precious things in this world. Once it is lost, you cannot get it back. Time and tide never wait for anybody. Time is life and money and if you waste it you are wasting your life and money. If we know how to manage time, which is a precious limited resource, we shall be able to lead a happy life.

First of all, you should list all the tasks you need to get done in order of their priority. Set your goals long term and short term to enable you to decide which tasks contribute to your goals and which don’t. Where difficult tasks exist, break them into smaller tasks with smaller goals to make them less cumbersome. Critical and urgent matters should be dealt with immediately. You may delay jobs where immediate fulfillment is not necessary. You may take short breaks during difficult or mundane chores.

Do not waste time as every minute is precious and doing whatever portion you can of your listed tasks brings you closer to the finish line. Review your schedule against what you have achieved to assess your planning and scheduling.

Time slips like sand through your fingers. It always moves forward and does not move backward. If you do not keep up with time, it creates lots of problems. An employee always coming late may lose his job. A student always coming late to school may fail in his exams. If we are late, we may miss our bus, train or plane and be put into a lot of tension and stress. If we get up late and do everything hastily, specially swallowing food, it may lead to indigestion.

The person who wins is the person who properly utilizes his time. Avoid watching excessive T.V., sleeping too much, watching long matches, gossips, junk mails and unnecessary phone calls. Also avoid arguments and unnecessary meetings. Whenever you have free time, relax, have fun or spend it with your loved ones to decompress from a stressful day. Exercise or take a walk to keep fit.

Time management is just a discipline – a way of life. It comes with practice and can be your greatest asset – a strategy that helps you make the best use of your time.

Dr (Mrs) Archana Bharat

Holy Scriptures

(Swami Snehananda Jyoti (officially known as Fr. John Thekkedam) has a Christian Catholic (Syro-Malabar) background. He has degrees in philosophy, education, psychology, and theology from Jnana-Deep Vidyapeeth (JDV), Sardar Patel University, and Delhi University. His doctorate in Clinical Psychology is from St. Louis University (USA). He taught psychology in Lindenwood University (USA) and JDV, Pune (India). He was a Jesuit for 25 years. His ashrams in India and the USA spread the message of East West Awakening (eastwestawakening.org) and Vishwa Shanti Internastional Mission: an integration of the best in the East and the best, and spirituality beyond religions to develop Unity of Humanity rooted in the Kingdom of God. In his headquarters at Shanti Sadan Siddhashram in the outskirts of Munnar, Kerala, India, he models a modified version of Chaturashram life.)

In my ashram located at St. Louis, USA, near the idyllic confluence of Missouri and Mississippi rivers, I retreat and muse these days on the Holy Scriptures of world religions.  In my long life span I have studied and seen how various religions representing God destroyed and still destroy humans made in the image and likeness of God. Fights and killings among religions have taken place all over the world. Currently, for instance, the war between Israel and Hamas (Palestinians) taking place in the Holy Land makes that place a very unholy land indeed. God wants a healthy, loving, and sacred relationship with people. Such a relationship cannot be had in a place where injustice, hostility, hatred, war, and bloodshed prevail. No relationship can thrive without understanding, trust, peace, and, above all, compassionate love.

All religions  made their scriptures at some point in history canonical, dogmatic,  and unalterable as they insist that they contain the very words of God. That scriptures contain holy and wholesome inspiration for faith and moral living is not disputed here. But that they cannot be adapted, interpreted, and, therefore, changed to meet the challenging demands of modern living is not accepted. It is absurd to think that a living God does not continue to send inspiring messages through his prophets and special spoke-persons to correct, when needed, the course of humanity. Christians believe that God spoke to the world through prophets at various times before God finally spoke through God’s son, Jesus the Christ (the Anointed).  Jews believe that they are a people specially chosen by God, and that they are expecting a future Messiah (anointed savior) who will save them. Muslims believe that Mohammed is the last prophet through whom God’s definitive message is revealed. Hinduism believes in a Supreme Being that is Consciousness-Bliss. Every human is also that Consciousness-Bliss in some degree. Hinduism also believes its scriptures to be revealed.  Buddha did not believe in God. He did not think God is necessary for human liberation. As the one who showed the path to liberation, only his teachings are enshrined in Buddhist scriptures.

My purpose here is not to examine the various claims of religions except to state that I do not believe in a God who discriminates by having a specially chosen people at any time in human history. I believe that everyone who wants to surrender one’s life in utter humility and selflessness to God, and discern God’s will in order to live one’s life for others as well as for oneself, and therefore for God, is capable of being a prophet, a messenger of God. After having said this, I do not want to take anything away from or diminish the special position or role accorded to certain guru or teacher in a particular religion. I strongly believe that God is as active in history now as God was before, and God communicates needed messages through fine-tuned human consciences. As the Christian, Hindu, and Buddhist scriptures influenced me the most, my reflections in the coming weeks will be on them. As I offer a critique or share my thoughts on them, I do not intend to diminish their perennial worth.

Swami Snehananda Jyoti

Teacher’s Preparation

Few days back, I happen to attend a reunion of my school alumni. I met many old friends and old teachers. As usual, there was an introduction session of everyone present. The introduction session of my old Hindi teacher was quite unusual for me. He remembered my name and declared in front of a large audience that due to this particular student in my class, I used to do special preparations before coming to the class. After hearing this I was a little embarrassed. He further clarified, that I used to ask so many questions that time that He always felt it challenging to answer all of them. In a way this was one of the great compliments I was getting from an old teacher of mine. But, I can also tell you definitely, that after hearing this, my regard for my Hindi teacher also grew a lot. Great teachers, always prepare well.

Today while taking classes, I feel the same about some pupil of mine. I do extra preparations before every class, to find out what could be possible questions of learners listening to me.

Recently, I met one renowned motivational trainer at his residence in Mumbai. He gave me a “Guru Mantra”. He said that if he has to deliver a one hour lecture on a topic he has been delivering since long, he prepares for at least eight hours. If the topic is new, this preparation time would be at least sixteen to twenty times the duration of delivery. I was truly impressed. He further said that he doesn’t want his learners to know about this preparation time, but the definite success formula for a teacher is certainly his preparations. He explained to me that every learner wants his teacher to be an embodiment of “Google” search. In fact the real life requirements go way beyond the goggle search, as a learner needs only the intelligently filtered relevant links with easily understandable results. Knowledge is vast, so keep preparing and keep sharing.

Dr. Sunil Ji Garg

Locked from All Sides

This is an old story. A scientist wanted to cook a frog alive. He first put the frog in a pot of cool cozy water, in which the frog remained happy. He then took the pot to the stove and began heating the water very gently. The temperature of the water increased slowly and it came to a point at which the frog was unable to escape. This frog story came to my mind as I was going through a facebook post on the ongoing absurdity of the media, which hesitate to give what we need and focus on what we would not resist. If what we have now are disoriented communities of sub-standard values, medias are the first to be blamed.  

We know that two coins, one we were gifted and the next we have earned through our hard work are not the same in value. What we have earned is more precious for us. Freedom in India was not gifted; it was earned after more than a century of fights and supreme sacrifices. But today, what we see around is freedom limited to corporate, religious and political mafias whose lineage never claim any share in this holy struggle.  The general public is looted by all measures; they are tortured and locked from all sides. The machinery of democracy seems to be quite committed to feed the bureaucrat; the law makers, we know, are the best fed. Justice from the judiciary is tinted with scratches of suspicion. According to Swami Sachidananda Bharati (Dharma Bharati Mission), who is set for another Freedom Struggle in India, the poor in India grows into more poverty; the racially discriminated continues to be ridiculed with gifts like reservations and clauses of special privileges and corruption has become the byword for success. What we need is not a suicide squad, ready to ambush on the red bulls but squads of citizens courageous enough to live in the freedom for which our ancestors fought for.

Joseph Mattappally 

Sthitaprajna – Remaining Unperturbed- 02

Krishna is not asking us to kill our sensitivity. On the contrarily, he wants us to heighten our sensitivity to its utmost, so it becomes total. Krishna stands for sensitivity, and total sensitivity at that.  Let us understand it in another way. What is meant by total sensitivity? This needs to be understood in depth. We divide everything in our life, and this is not the right thing to do. Life is really indivisible. When we say to someone “I love you,” the statement is linguistically correct, but existentially it is all wrong. When we are in love with someone we really become the love itself in respect to that person. Then we are wholly love, that means no part of our being remains outside of love. Even if there is a fragment in us that knows or says I am in love, it means we are not totally in love. And if we are partially in love we are not in love at all. 

Love cannot be fragmentary, partial at all. Either we love or we don’t. Fragmented is incomplete. Since we fragment everything, it is our problem and is our misery. When someone says he is happy, know well that his happiness is not complete. Happiness might have visited him with or without his knowledge and he might have been really happy in that split second. But the moment he comes to know he is happy, is the moment when his happiness has left him. Who is the one who knows he is happy? It is certainly the unhappy part of his being which knows and recognizes happiness. If a person is integrated and total in himself, then there will be no one to know or say that he is happy or unhappy. Then he will not be happy, he will be happiness itself. Then and only then his sensitivity will be at its highest, at its peak. 

In such a state of total sensitivity, every fiber of my being, my total being will be happy or unhappy, loving or hating, quiet or restless. Then there will be no one disturbed about it, or even to know it. If I am totally in happiness or unhappiness, if I am happiness or unhappiness itself, then I don’t evaluate it or compare it. I don’t identify myself with it or condemn it. I don’t cling to it or resist it. Then I don’t even name it. When sensitivity is total, the question of being agitated or disturbed does not arise. Let us contemplate on this … 

Wishing you good health & happiness,

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

Most Worthy Son

I came in contact with my spiritual master in the year 1991 in Delhi. With him were two young disciples who were married to each other. Both of them were highly qualified and were in the process of taking full sanyasa. The husband was an Assistant Professor at IIT Kharagpur while the lady used to teach at the Kolkata University. In fact, their association with Swamiji was a great assurance for me which reinforced my faith in him. In due course, both of them took full sanyasa and devoted themselves to spiritual service of the society. The younger Swami was named Swami Nirvisheshananda, nicknamed as Naya Swamiji. His parents lived in the steel town of Jamshedpur where his father was an engineer. After retirement he had settled down there only. A few years later, I got posted at Kolkata as Development Commissioner, and in that capacity, I visited Jamshedpur a few times. 

On one of these visits, I was keen to meet Swamiji. My curiosity was to know the impact of Naya Swamiji’s sanyasa on his father. Normally it is believed or assumed that if a young son turns to sanyasa and that too after marriage, it must be a kind of shock for the parents. With this background, I visited Naya Swamiji’s home at Jamshedpur. His father had a very pleasing personality and received me very affectionately. Naya Swamiji’s mother was also there. After initial pleasantries and some professional discussions, I came to the question I had in mind. When I asked as to how he responded to the sanyasa of one of his sons, who had settled so well in life, he had no hesitation in saying that he was proud of him. He also added that he considered him to be the most worthy son. While his other sons had brought only money and fame to him, this son of his brought him true glory and salvation. I was highly influenced by his feelings and realised the true impact of spiritual life. 

India is a country which has countless spiritual seekers. In them lies the true greatness and glory of this country. Science has to rediscover this dimension of human personality if its gains are to be deployed for human welfare in the true sense. The ultimate goal of human life, which is peace and happiness, is possible only when science and spirituality play a complementary role in our life. 

Rakesh Mittal IAS