PUTTING CHRIST BACK INTO CHRISTIANITY

My wife asked me about what I was going to write this week. I told her that I was going to write about retrieving Christ from Christianity. He suggested that instead I write about putting Christ back into Christianity. She said that she has known so many good priests, sisters, and other Christians who live a good life according to the teachings of Christ. What she said made good sense to me. Some persons make a distinction between “churchianity”, that is not marked by the spirit of Christ, and Christianity where Christ is actively present and guiding. I recently read a police report about a Word of Life Church congregation in New York state severely beating two teen agers (ages 19 and 17 ) on October 12, 2015 in order to make them confess to their sins and ask forgiveness. This happened during a “counseling session” exploring their spiritual status turning violent. The 19-year old died due to the beating in the church, and the 17-year old is in the hospital in serious condition. Their parents and sister with some other church members were arrested by the police. While I retell this sensational story I am aware that this happened in a very rare church that is reported to have some secretive and cult-like features. But the fact of the matter is that many churches are very coercive and punitive in their ways toward their members who cannot in their conscience conform to their laws that are extremely harsh and unchristian.

Most probably Christ began to exit the Church after the conversion of the powerful Roman emperor Constantine the Great in the fourth century. Constantine, who was considered to be a patron of Christian faith and a saint in the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches, profoundly influenced the history and course of Christianity. The juridical mentality of the Jewish Pharisees combined with the powerful policing structure of the Roman governing system changed the face of the Church forever.  The Roman Pontiffs (Popes) governed the universal Church with the help of clerical canon lawyers. It is interesting that quite a few priests from all over the world still flock to Rome to get specialization in canon law from Universities conducted by Vatican! I think Christ got so suffocated in the Church that he left it on his own, and thus he was automatically excommunicated from the Church. In modern times Pope John XXIII through his humane approach tried to open the door a little bit to let in some fresh air into the suffocating Church through the Second Vatican Council of 1962-1965. The authoritarian Popes, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, instead of building on the Council reforms, piddled precious time on relatively unimportant, sectarian issues, and tried to close the door again. Currently the Catholic Church having a human face in the person of Pope Francis, there is a ray of hope. We have to watch and see as to what he does.

Our concern needs to be how to make Christ’s mission of the Kingdom of God influence every major decision in the Church. As Christ is bigger than the Church, the Church cannot contain Christ. And that’s good news. For Christ’s teaching summing up of all the Law and the Prophets says: “Do to others what you like others to do to you” (Luke 7: 12). This law is for the whole humanity. So either we can put Christ back into Christianity or, better still, Christianity can open up to embrace the whole of humanity, in which case Christianity loses itself and becomes a way of life. Humans can choose what they want to do with Christ and his teachings. When Christians do not exclusively confine Christ to Christianity or the Christian religion, Christ ceases to be a bone of contention. Let all religions as we know them disappear from the face of the earth. Let all humans study all the prophets for who they are and choose for themselves a spiritual way of life marked by love, compassion, freedom, fairness, and human rights. Let all be one in the One.

Swami Snehananda Jyoti 

The Wardrobe Monster

Recently I read this story about a young boy and a monster, which I am narrating to you. I will then connect it to current situation around us. A young boy was always afraid of darkness. He used to feel that as soon as he switches off lights in the room, a monster that lives inside his wardrobe comes out and fills his entire room. One day he collected a lot of inner strength and decided to test his apprehensions. After switching off the light he actually walked to the ward- robe and tried to verify, if the monster is still in the wardrobe or outside in the room. To his utter surprise the monster was still in the wardrobe, who immediately started crying with a deafening sound. The monster cried so much that instead of getting frightened this boy had to ask him why he is crying so much. The monster replied that he is afraid of the boy. Hearing this, the boy became bolder and started talking further with the monster. The boy also shared the secret that he used to fear the monster since many years due his dark colour. After the talking sessions started, the mutual fears were gone and the boy could be seen talking to his wardrobe monster for many hours in the day as well as in the night. The moral of the story was actually related with starting a dialogue so that all fears will ultimately vanish. 

When I see this story in context of recent incidences of communal violence and uncalled methods of protests, I truly feel that unknown fears resulted in clashes. The unknown monsters are filling our rooms of tolerance. Some people do try to open the wardrobe, but instead of one person crying and other one consoling him, both start crying together. No one talks, no one shares and eventually the monster of intolerance takes over. We are living in a world which has monsters of prejudiced casteism, inequality, poverty, absence of education facilities, uncleanliness still thriving very much around us. Intolerance against religion of someone, eating practices of someone, inhabitance of someone or even attitude of someone will not result in getting over the real monsters. Interestingly social intolerance is a matter of business for a group of people. Intolerance of people is seen as an opportunity by these people to feed their vested interests. It is time now we shake hands with positive monsters inside us and make a stronger team to fight the people who are in the business of taking benefits out of social intolerance. 

Dr. Sunil Ji Garg 

LOVE AND COMPASSION

I was particularly glad to be in the USA during the historic visit of Pope Francis towards the end of September 2015. I followed closely as much of his visit as possible through news media, especially television. For me this was not the case with the visit of Pope John Paul II some years ago. Even though John Paul visited St. Louis where I lived, I went about my life and work of daily routine. The visit of Francis was important for me in many regards. Both of us had joined the Jesuits in 1958 before the Vatican Council II unleashed many long-needed substantial changes in the Catholic Church. Francis went on becoming a bishop, a cardinal, and finally the Pope. I left the Society of Jesus after being a Jesuit for 25 years while being a professor at JDV (Jnana Deep Vidyapeeth: Institute of Philosophy and Religion, Pune) training future priests, got married, and started teaching psychology in a US university as well as practicing clinical psychology in psychiatric hospitals and clinics. Both Francis and I were nourished in our formative years by the same spiritual food and, especially, the spirit of service inculcated by the founder of the Jesuits, St. Ignatius of Loyola. By observing Francis closely, I detected in him love and compassion, that was the hallmark of Christ’s earthly mission. I know that Francis is conservative in certain areas such as married priesthood and women’s ordination. But I also know that he has a very difficult job in holding together a church that is pulled in so many directions by ultra conservatives and ultra liberals. Yet his unwillingness to judge anyone together with his humility, simplicity, and forthrightness is praise worthy as well as a pleasant and welcome whip of fresh air.

Service of humanity with love and compassion is the only goal in life worth having. Service of humanity begins, of course, with one’s own near and dear ones. That is where the saying, charity begins at home, is very relevant. The extreme preoccupation of the overwhelming majority of people to secure scandalous amount of wealth for oneself and one’s close ones makes me believe that their service of humanity ends with their own relatives. The teaching contained in the Parable of the Good Samaritan that everyone is our neighbor, and that everyone is our brother and sister seems to fade into the background, and has become a cry in the wilderness. Every year when I come back to the US I am more and convinced that capitalism is not working. It is a convenient economic arrangement for a few - really a club of a few enormously wealthy persons served and maintained by the society free of cost. A capitalistic system that does not serve the vast majority of people in a society has no reason to survive. The current Republican frontrunner, a billionaire, for the presidency, for instance, boasts about financing his own campaign until nomination. What does that tell us about democracy?

I came to the US in 1974; the death penalty that was abolished was resurrected in 1976. It certainly was a step backward. Yet recently I was happy to hear that the US prison system is considering a mass release of about 6000 prisoners who were languishing in US prisons for years for drug-related offenses that could have better been dealt with means other than incarceration. About nine billion dollars (1 dollar = about 65 rupees) a year are spent in keeping all kinds of criminals in over-crowded prisons. Are there compassionate and less punitive ways other than incarceration for those who can be reformed and rehabilitated? We need to come up with a creative alternative to the current prison and legal system that is out-dated. I started with love and compassion. I assert that life is not worth living without love and compassion for all.

Swami Snehananda Jyoti 

Knowing a Christ

Baba continued, “Once you have tuned on your spirit to the Christ-Spirit, you will be able to forgive people of all their offences committed against you.. Recollect the faces of such people and forgive them and bless them in your mind one by one…… Repeat this process with regard to people who may be carrying negative feelings towards you for what you have done to them…. 

‘You also need to forgive yourself. Many a time we are angry with ourselves for what we have said or for what we have done… We need to forgive ourselves… 

‘Finally, we need to seek forgiveness from God for all our sins and offences that have alienated us from divine grace.….. This is the second stage of Shanti Yagna Meditation…. This second stage is referred to as ‘Kshamamaya khand’ or stage of forgiveness...

‘During the third stage of Shanti Yagna Meditation, we thank and praise God for all blessings that we have received from His abundant grace. In fact, once our hearts and minds are purified from negativities, we will be surprised to see the abundant divine grace that has been ever active in our lives…

‘Many people, beginning with our parents, have helped us to become what we are today. It is God Himself who has been working through them in our lives. Many opportunities have been given to us, and we are blessed with many gifts and talents by God from time to time and from stage to stage in our lives. Our hearts will be filled with an attitude of gratitude once we understand how blessed we have been in our lives… This third stage is termed ‘Kripamaya khand’ or the stage of grace…..

‘After this third stage comes the fourth and final stage of Shanti Yagna Meditation that is termed ‘Shantimaya khand’ or stage of abiding peace. This is a stage of total self-surrender to God in, with and through the living Spirit of Christ. …

‘We surrender first the unconscious, subconscious and conscious levels of our mind to God through the Christ-Spirit. The Christ-Spirit is also a healing spirit. It will heal us of all inner wounds.. Then our bodies, our relationship, all that we are, and all that we have are surrendered to God through the Christ-Spirit one after the other….. 

‘In this total self-surrender shall we find the true and abiding love, peace and joy that God offers to humanity in, with and through the Christ-Spirit…. This experience is termed ‘Sat-Chit-Ananda experience’ by the enlightened rishis and sages of India…. This is the deepest experience of God ever reached by humankind. 

‘This Sat-Chit-Ananda experience is the true basis of the unitive divine consciousness…… This was what Sadguru Jesus Christ himself experienced. From that experience only that he was able to say,.. ‘I and the Father are one.’ This is the communion of love and peace that we are called to establish and experience with God as His beloved children….

‘We will practice the Shanti Yagna Meditation together so that you can understand it well and experience the fruits yourself. Meditation needs to be practiced regularly to draw its true benefits… Mere reading, talking or hearing about it will not help much’. The Baba stopped and looked at Atma Prakash who was all attention.

Excerpts from ‘Integral Revoution’

Need For Religion

Faith, Values, Duties, Beliefs, Morals and many such words, I needed to write on a scratch pad when I thought of penning this article. I am often required to set up this argument against many people of generation Z, with whom I interact on day-to-day basis. Incidentally new innovative thoughts come out, every time I churn this thought around. I have met many people particularly of young age who are against any kind of visits to temples, churches or mosques. Many surveys conducted amongst youth of our country have given erratic results regarding whether the people of this country are becoming atheist, or they are getting bent towards a traditional system of religious belief. The results are erratic probably because a large materialistic chunk of today understands the religion of convenience the most. 

While writing this piece of article, I was reminded of a story I heard in my childhood. A Hindu priest and a professional killer had an opportunity to stay in an inn, while they were returning from a village after performing their respective duties. When the priest came to know about this killer, he was really horrified and wanted to leave right away. The killer explained him that he would be much safer in the inn, rather than moving in the jungle during the night. Later they both had a discussion regarding the religion, duties and morals. The killer had better logical skills to prove to this priest that he is also a duty bound professional similar to the priest. He also raised the point of comparing the fear of astrological position of constellations that the priest uses to get business from his client versus the fear of knife. Actually, I had a perception of religion, which related it to a system of providing security from different kinds of fears. While explaining to my students or my friends, I used to explain this purpose of Religion. The same has been comically told in the most popular movie of our times “PK”. This perception prevailed till I read an article by a person who is very much there in my list of most admired personalities of history. He is none other than Professor Albert Einstein. In 1930 he wrote an article titled “Religion and Science”. As per this article, the first reason why the religion evolved was definitely the “need for security”. Later he explains that religion evolved itself to set morals and values. This evolution he terms as one of biggest evolutions of the civilized world. 

The third type he explains in a bit more detail is regarding a “Cosmic Religious Feeling”. With this third explanation he also quotes examples of some saints, prophets and writers who talked about cosmic religious feelings. He also talks about Buddhism, where religious beliefs are based on cosmic energies. Then he relates science and art as a technique to communicate this cosmic religious feeling from people to people. After reading Einstein’s article I could understand the need for religion as serving three purposes; providing security against fears, providing a system of values and principles for social co-existence and the third one is to attend to the power pumped into us by some cosmic energies. This third one we all sense as our creative skills, which we all have and without which we would be a dumb society. Now there is enough scope for this argument to continue in various ways, like whether it is right to worship imaginary idols or real messengers of God, but I hope I have given enough food for thought for “Generation Z”. Readers, who are interested in reading the original article, may search Google with the text “Religion and Science Albert Einstein 1930” 

Dr. Sunil Ji Garg

A strange Foreword

(This foreword to Spiritual Learning from Life written by Shri RK Mittal, which we had been sharing since a few months, was written by Shri. T. P. Tewary, Former Chief Secretary, Uttar Pradesh and later Lt. Governor, Pondicherry. The copy of the second edition of this book is available at Kabir Peace Mission, Lucknow. Contact: Tel: 0522-2309147, E-mail: kabirpeacemission@yahoo.co.in)

Someone has said that it is not great sorrow, disease or death which clouds over the sunshine of life but the little daily dyings. Therefore, if we properly handle our seemingly ordinary activities we would not only be winning the battle of this life but also that of the hereafter.

The narratives contained in the present collection of Shri R.K. Mittal relate to the everyday occurrences. He possesses the enviable faculties of keen observation, dispassionate analysis and clear expression. He has understood the mathematics of life and is able to cull the fundamental truths and lessons from the unfolding events and human behaviour.

The present achievement is not the first of its kind. He cultivated the quality of positive thinking as a basic ingredient of his sadhana and, as a result, was able to compile the Dictionary of Positive Thoughts. An optimist endeavours while a pessimist loses a battle before it begins. Shri Mittal has equipped himself well to derive positive lessons from life and has been able to place some of them before the seekers through his Positive Learning from Life. These two brilliant collections are now supplemented by the present one. It is note worthy that Shri Mittal’s observations are not only replete with practical wisdom but also bear the imprint of the Indian philosophy and way of life.

Fearlessness is a great virtue, but it can cause injury to oneself or injustice to others if it is not tempered with equipoise, kindness, forgiveness and humility. In chapter XVI of the Bhagavad Gita, divine virtues have been enumerated in the first three shlokas. Fearlessness comes first and humility comes at the other end. In between there are 24 other virtues. Shri Mittal has rightly come to the conclusion that fearlessness has to be cultivated along with compassion, justice, kindness, forgiveness, etc. In another chapter, he sees a silver lining in poverty also. It reminds me of a saint’s wish: ‘Once we know ourselves — the mathematics of life — its alpha and omega — will reveal itself’. When Shri Mittal says that one should live like an asymptote, he is in fact reminding us that we should live in this world in a dispassionate manner, following Anaskta Karmayoga and all the time remember the ultimate destination of the Self meeting the Universal Self. In the essay on the dialing code of God he again tells us that it is by overcoming ego, greed, passion and anger that one qualifies oneself for liberation and the realization of the Supreme Being.

Shri Mittal’s background of science, particularly Mathematics, and Engineering, lends greater authority to his spiritual observations. I am confident that their study will prove most rewarding and beneficial. 

Rakesh Mittal IAS

How to grow?

Atma Prakash felt deeply grateful to his guruji for opening up his mind to such higher dimensions of life and reality. He decided within himself to develop a unitive divine consciousness and an integrated personality. ‘I will make them integral parts of my very life and being’ he thought to himself. 

He also decided to make the ‘unitive divine consciousness’ and ‘integrated personality’ the basic goals of his life and mission. But he wanted to have a deeper understanding of the unitive divine consciousness. How to acquire it? How to grow in it?

‘Guruji, can you please explain to me,… how does one acquire the unitive divine consciousness?’ Atma Prakash asked the Baba during the next session.

‘Unitive divine consciousness is not acquired by us, it is given to us. It is like the light of the sun. We do not acquire it, we only receive it. But we need to keep our doors and windows open for the sunlight to come in. We also need to clean up the window panes…. We need to be receptive… This is our part in the process of growing into a unitive divine consciousness.

‘A guru can help us in this process. The ‘guru’ is the one who has received the light of this unitive divine consciousness, who lives in this divine consciousness. He or she can help us remove the ‘darkness’ in the path and show us the light. The guru will enable us to receive the divine consciousness by giving us a ‘rule of life’ following which you can develop this receptivity’, the Baba stopped and looked at his disciple.

‘Guruji, can you give me a ‘rule of life’ to make myself a befitting recipient of this unitive divine consciousness?’ Atma Prakash requested the Baba.

‘My guruji had given me a five-point ‘rule of life’ in the beginning of my spiritual life which has enabled me to receive and grow in the unitive divine consciousness. It is termed ‘Pancha nishta’. It consists of Dhyana nishta, Satya nishta, Karma nishta, Sudhi nishta and Samaya nishta. 

‘The term ‘nishta’ means rule of life. The first ‘nishta’, rule of life, is ‘Dhyana nishta’. It means meditation. One is called to practise regular meditation. My guruji had also initiated me into an Inner Peace Meditation that enabled me to clean up my heart and mind from negative emotions and thoughts, and keep them pure and open for the untive divine consciousness to dawn upon me, and also to abide in me. He taught me a unique kind of medtiation for this purpose. It is termed ‘Shanti Yagna Meditation’. ‘Shanti Yagna’ here imples a prayerful offering of one’s own self made to God with devotion. We offer our lives to God to be used as an instrument of His peace in the world through forgiveness and reconciliation…. Here we draw strength and inspiration from the Christ-Spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation. This is the eternally living Spirit of Sadguru Jesus Christ that is same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Anyone anywhere anytime can ‘tune on’ to this Christ-Spirit by practicing the ‘Sadguru Namajapa’ that is your own ‘mantra’ sadhana…. 

‘One can also receive this Christ-Spirit by surrendering one’s will to the Will of God through the living spirit of Sadguru Jesus Christ. This is what we do during the first stage of Shanti Yagna Meditation. We begin with breathing in deeply and breathing out gently. While breathing in we repeat silently in our minds the name ‘Yesoo’ and while breathing out we repeat silently in our minds the word ‘Shanti’. ‘Yesoo’ is a short form for Jesus Christ. ‘Shanti’ means peace. We are sending out peace to the world... 

‘Do not open your mouth to repeat these words ‘Yesoo’ and ‘Shanti’. …. But say them silently in your mind… This will tune our spirit to the Christ-Spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation… This first stage of Shanti Yagna Meditation is referred to as ‘Sharanamaya khand’ or stage of self-surrender.

Excerpts from Integral Revolution