Inspiration from the Void

My two-year posting at Calcutta from July 1994 to July 1996 gave me a very good opportunity to go to various places in Bengal and also to meet a large cross-section of people with different backgrounds. Calcutta itself is a culturally rich city where material considerations are lesser than similar other cities in the country. It boasts of very good institutions here and one is likely to come across many great personalities as well as a wealth of information. I could not scan much of the city because of the nature of my job but despite that, I met many wise and learned persons and learnt valuable things from them. One such person was Pratap Chander Chunder who had been the Union Education Minister in the Janata Government of 1977, and was currently the Chairman of Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan, Calcutta Centre. 

Once I visited P.C. Chunder with the Kendra Director, K.V. Gopalakrishnan. He lived in the old part of the city in his ancestral house. The family had been in the legal profession for generations and Shri Chunder himself was a practising lawyer at the Calcutta High Court. When we met him, he was sitting in his office. I found that his office furniture was very old and he himself appeared so simple that I was surprised. We talked on various subjects for about half an hour. During our discussion, some reference was made to the attitude towards life and I said that life was like a glass of water which is half full and half void and we should look at the filled portion of it. To this he gave a very interesting response by saying that the void portion is equally important as one can get a lot of inspiration from it. I could understand the point immediately and we did not discuss it further.

Subsequently, I contemplated over this piece of advice and tried to analyse it further. It is true that in this imperfect world, no life can be full in the true sense. However, making it full is the main objective of life and the imperfections of the world have to be seen as opportunities to do so. Seen from this viewpoint the void of life becomes very important because they set goals for us and make us strive to achieve them. While one should make the best use of what is already achieved, one has to work earnestly for what has yet to be achieved. The determination to do so comes only from the void portion. If one keeps looking at the filled portion only, such inspiration and determination may not come at all. Here we are not talking of the materialistic rat race of common parlance. The reference is to those achievements which help in taking us to the goal of life. Of course, needful material achievements also fall in this category. If we look at the voids of life this way, they can give us a lot of inspiration and gradually it should be possible to lead a totally fulfilled life. Such a life is a really enriched one and will help us reach the goal of life. The voids in the lives of others should also be seen in the same way and they should be inspired to fill them. Thus, we can help each other in making life richer and reduce the imperfection or the voids of the world.

Rakesh Mittal IAS

Guarding Freedom

All want freedom. All talk about freedom. Only a few are willing to pay the price for it. Christ who came to free humans from bondage was killed because the High Priest of the time decided that be killed for the sake of the Jewish nation. Gandhi who worked to liberate India from colonialism was killed by someone who thought Gandhi catered too much to the Muslims at the expense of Hindus. Ninety years ago on March 10, 1925, Gandhiji inaugurated the Satyagraha (truth-force) at a mass meeting in Vikom, Kerala, against one of the most vicious practices  indulged in by high castes against low castes. Now it is difficult to believe such evil, discriminatory practices prevailed in Kerala society not too long ago. It is interesting to note that these practices were devised by Brahmins of the time who were well-versed in sacred Hindu Scriptures, and who as priests were supposed to be closest to God.

Recently I came across a March 13, 1965, file photo where three white nuns and a white priest joined hands with countless African-American (black) demonstrators to sing freedom songs in Selma, Alabama, USA. They all stood mostly in cold rains for two days to protest against unjust voter registration that deprived the blacks of voting rights. This protest and other sustained protests paved the way for civil rights for blacks in 1965. It is also difficult to believe that legitimate human rights were denied to blacks in the USA fifty years ago. And I was in the USA only 9 years after the Civil Rights Bill. It is also interesting to note that some of the worst discriminations were perpetrated by whites who were supposed to be the best educated, and who were well-versed in Christian Holy Scriptures, and who were also supposed to be closest to God. 

The facts and stories above tell us that the freedom that we enjoy has been won by others who paid for it with their lives. The soldiers who protect our borders also put their life at risk and get killed for us. All this happens for the physical freedom. What about the most precious emotional and spiritual freedom? The consumer society slowly but surely and imperceptibly diminishes the emotional freedom of most persons through clever advertisements. History again and again showed in unmistakable terms that religions with their dogmas, doctrines, harsh disciplines, and hell-fire or re-births have kept their members in constant fear and bondage. Human rights that are good indicators of human freedom have not been won by religions. Religions that are so focused on the other world that they do not have any time for mundane human rights. Most politicians, who are mostly shrewd manipulators, opportunists, and utilitarians, are less concerned about freedom than their own material gain and survival in politics.

The picture I have presented here is pretty bleak. But that is pretty much the reality. However, we do not need to despair if we are willing to take responsibility for our life, and to come out of our deeply entrenched programming and conditioning of long years, and celebrate our life while surrendering to God and the good of humanity. Only we can safeguard our freedom while we live our life according to the will of God manifested in our conscience.

Swami Snehananda Jyoti

Incomplete Festival

I do not why, but this situation happens with me on the occasion of most festivals. This time it was the festival of Holi. Like many other people in our region, family members go to the place where lot of woods are placed to be lit in a particular mahurat of ‘Holika Dahan’. Our family has an additional tradition of visiting this place twice on the same day. Once in the morning to make some special offerings as a part of ‘Thandi Pooja’ or ‘Cold form Worship’ in front of wooden logs, that are just placed as a heap, and then in the evening when the heap is burned. This time we could not go in the morning, as my wife was not well. We went to the place of ‘Holika Dahan’ in the evening only, to perform both the parts of worship together. Somewhere, deep inside my mind the guilt of breaking a long established family tradition kept rolling. I kept telling to me, that it is ok, the situation is due to a genuine reason, but my other part kept pressing me to think otherwise.

I become this kind of split personality especially on the festivals. I start carrying the guilt that if I miss a ritual, God will punish me. I also have another part of me, which has been recently developed, that is a complete atheist. This part tells me to stop all this nonsense and be a sensible person and tells me to stop dramatizing things like this. Don’t know if it is the habit of repeating same things for years that brings this kind of internal conflict or these traditions do have some meaning. 

I think that many of you may have experienced this kind of conflict, especially while following the religious customs. Sometimes you convince yourself, by saying that it is a matter of personal beliefs and individual feelings. Some other times, some attempts are made by some people to explain the rituals giving some strange type of logic. Anyway, the point I want to make is, if we are ready to debate the strange rituals. In the name of symbolism of remembering an ancient story, we keep doing things year after year that may not be relevant now. Burning huge amount of crucial resource of wood on the day of ‘Holi’ is beyond any explanation in current days. Similar things we do on other festivals also. In my opinion the best way of enjoying a festival is to share resources between different classes of people rather than wasting them. Today, I complete my ‘Holi’ celebrations, by sharing these feelings with you. Let us expand the word ‘HOLI’ as (H)appiness (O)f (LI)fe.

Dr. Sunil Ji Garg

The Great Recycling

The Universe we live in is truly a mystery, full of unresolved riddles. It has been running smooth from the beginning of time; it also has been under constant repair from the beginning. I know that it is not the word repair that fits here because repairing generally implies to mending what is torn or broken. However, this activity also falls under repairing. What is happening in this universe is continuous restoration by continuous replacements or some sort of recycling. The self-repairing of the universe is continuous, changing everything every time. Within a span of seven to ten years all the fifty to seventy trillion cells in the human body are replaced. Each body has different types of cells in it. Depending upon the type, its life span also varies. 

On a close analysis we understand that it is the principles of recycling that the universe follows. Recycling is a process in which waste/unwanted materials are converted into potentially useful materials. We know that the same polluted air in the evening is recycled into refreshing life breath in the morning, at much higher a standard fixed by ISO. According to human norms if there are things that can’t be recycled, the mysterious universe has no such categorization there. Energy at all levels is being recycled, our thoughts too. 

The theory is that everything, except ‘change’, changes. But, how many among us accept this truth? We are worried about everything around. We want to see everything changed, be it our parents or siblings. What most of us generally experience is a change in another’s favour, and not us. Why is it so? The answer is that we do not ever trust that the whole universe is just for us or we don’t have that infinite patience to wait until it discloses in full. We never want to be that old fool who waited to see the sky falling down. Neither we do allow the universe to recycle our attitudes and understandings nor do we do it for ourselves. That is the disaster of the times.

Joseph Mattappally

Gandhiji’s Monkey !

I was posted as the Managing Director of the UP Spinning Company at Kanpur in September 1989. Soon after I took charge, I had a very interesting visitor from an eastern district of UP — Ghazipur. He was completely blind and reached my office with great difficulty. He was a stranger to me and, therefore, I received him with some surprise. I could not guess what the purpose of his visit was. After he settled down on a chair, I politely asked him what he wanted. He said he had no purpose except to meet me. He had heard of me when I was the Collector of his neighbouring district about five years back and had developed a wish to see me. He was very happy to have fulfilled his wish that day, though it had been quite difficult for him to travel from Ghazipur and then to reach my office.

Accepting what he said, I switched on to a general discussion and asked about the cause of his blindness. He told me that he had lost his eyesight in his early childhood during an attack of smallpox. The way he narrated his story gave an indication that he had accepted the reality gracefully and had no bitterness in his mind. This encouraged me to ask a few more personal questions. When I asked whether he missed seeing the world around, he gave a very philosophical reply, saying that there was not much to see in this transitory world which was full of evil. By not being able to see, he was saved from this evil. As a result he always contemplated on God, to see Whom no physical eyes were required. I was touched by his answer and respected his philosophy. After sometime, he left my office and we never met again.

This visitor left a great mark on my mind and I usually reflect on what he said. This also remind me of Gandhiji’s three monkeys, one of whom keeps his eyes shut, the other his ears closed and the third his mouth. The significance of this is that one should avoid seeing evil, listening to evil and speaking evil. This is a necessary condition for inner growth which is the main objective of life. After all, a child is born with a pure mind but as he grows and has interaction with the outer world, his mind entertains evil thoughts which ultimately cause disharmony in society in addition to his own downfall. If, therefore, by some act of God or by controlling the mind, the influence of evil can be kept away, inner growth is accelerated. By this, the inference should not be drawn that in order to grow internally, one has to be physically blind, deaf or dumb. 

This state is only symbolic. The ultimate requirement is to remain uninfluenced by evil either physically or mentally. The gentleman who met me had seen his disability in this light and made use of it for his inner growth. He was almost an illiterate person but had grown into a wise person by constant contemplation. To me he appeared to be a monkey of Gandhiji who kept his eyes closed in order to avert them from evil.

¯

Laughter is the jam on the toast of life. It adds flavour, keeps it from being too dry, and makes it easier to swallow ! Diane Johnson

Rakesh Mittal IAS

Beyond Dogmas and Doctrines

We have only one life that we know about for sure, and that life is lived in this world. If that life is lived well, the after-life will be well taken care of. According to Joseph Campbell, the well-known researcher and writer of myths, all major religions have some sort of creation story. These   stories are similar in origin. They all have basic principles or values essentially similar to the ten commandments of Judeo-Christian religions. Lest persons wonder where I come from, I believe in moral and ethical laws and rules made in societies to govern their members, and to regulate their behaviors and transactions. There is no sphere where regulations do not affect. I also believe there comes a time when all humans who are capable of (at least have average intelligence), should be able to be guided by their own inner light. In other words, they should be able to go beyond dogmas and doctrines, and “god-persons” and personalities who claim to have special prerogatives to represent God or God’s will.

I am aware that we are in a dangerous territory here. Most humans have not come of age. They are immature or dependent in that they look outside of themselves for some guidance or assistance to direct their lives. I am not including here forms of peer consultation that can help in problem-solving, and can certainly enhance one’s life. The modern life engenders dependence on so many specialists. If we dare to go against them, we would be labeled stubborn or non-conforming or even outright rebellious. Many professions are based on what is called medical model that advocates a doctor-patient relationship. The general mode is consultee-consultant or helpee-helper relationship. In a highly technological and consumer world, one is at a loss without some technical assistance. In a technological, scientific world, there are no dogmas or doctrines but specialized knowledge. When I am talking of dogmas and doctrines, I have especially in mind religions and political parties. In religions, for instance, one’s life is guided by a belief system, rites, rituals, and practices (superstitious or otherwise) and is chiefly guided by fear due to what is going to happen in after-life. Fear, perhaps more than love, is the greatest human motivator. Christ in his time challenged many of the sacrosanct religious laws and practices for which he was most cruelly put to death. Socrates before him underwent death for going against societal conventions of his time. Gandhi not too long ago was assassinated by fanatics of his own religion as they thought he was not favoring his religion enough. History is replete with examples of great men and women who are revered now but had to pay the ultimate price for what they stood for in their own life-time.

Dogmas and doctrines evolved in peculiar situations of the past. One is expected to conform and follow them unquestioningly. To do otherwise would be highly imprudent and terribly inconvenient. But religions have a messy history wherein they fought important human discoveries or were too slow in acknowledging and advocating human rights. It is also important to note that they often had the support of immoral but powerful rulers if they themselves did not have the required power to get persons to conform to their dictates. Focusing unduly on an after-life drawn from faith, they often neglected the only sure life that is in this world. Now they are busy canonizing some of their members for heroic virtues in this life or even some members who protected their status quo as they in their misguided zeal even violated others’ rights or at least condoned the violation of these rights. As these dogmas and doctrines eat into the fabric of the glorious freedom of God’s children, it is wise to examine each one of them thoroughly before accepting them.

It is undoubtedly of paramount importance to guide one’s life by one’s inner light, and to fully appropriate one’s God-given freedom. When would one be ready to take this all-important responsibility? As this is uncharted waters, a great deal of dialogue, discussion, and debate is certainly called for. My own thinking is that an individual who has taken the trouble to acquaint himself or herself with the various wisdom streams of religions and great moral philosophers of integrity, and who has thoroughly trained in and live a moral and ethical value system, that benefits the entire humanity, could be ready for it. This person, about 25 to 30 years of age (it takes at least that long to reach the desired level of training and maturity), after rigorous character and conscious formation may be entitled to the task. This person, guided by an on-going discernment of God’s will and common good of humanity, lives by the law of love in a state of complete surrender.

Swami (Dr) Snehananda Jyoti  

Income Tax

I know, the title of this article will immediately push you in the world of finances and budgets. These are surely the buzzwords these days. But here is something, which is definitely related to money, but on a different note.

Around forty years back, when I brought my first earnings home, I was immediately asked by my parents to take out the “share of Bhagwan Ji”. This meant the share I must take out in the name of God. My first earnings was just rupees five. It was a scholarship I earned in a junior class, because of my academic performance. I abided with the instructions and took out rupee one, which was twenty percent of my earnings. When I started being a salaried professional, I gave some portion of my earnings to my mother to lend it to God’s share. On a lighter side I always used to call it the Income Tax, God is charging me for his services. Recently I was watching a TV show, where a noted ‘Tax Guru’ was also recommending to take out some percent in the name of God. He advised that, even when you are earning too low, a minimum of one percent of your annual earnings can easily be put to social welfare. I just worked it out on an entire country basis.

If I consider the per capita income published by UN for India to be true and take that value as one thousand five hundred seventy dollar/annum, a simple working gives that average saving per person for God’s share can easily be rupees one thousand per year. This is assuming if everyone saves just one percent of his income. To arrive what percent is this amount I just divided the total value saved by everyone with the total planned expenditure announced this year. This turns out to be a figure near seven percent of total expenditure. This could be a huge some if all this is put in social welfare. One may actually wonder the wisdom of our elders. A simple self imposed tax in the name of God’s share, can lead to quite a bit of chunk for social welfare purposes. I hope many of our readers are already saving something for helping others. Remember, in return of this Income tax, God also gives us good universal governance.

Dr. Sunil Ji Garg