Source of Happiness

Life's Lessons - Joseph Mattappally


            What actually is the reason of happiness in life? Each of you may have some unique or strange answer to share. Believe it or not, Nature has always ready with it a universe full of happiness which it patiently waits to empty into your ‘present’. But our ‘present’ is logically artificial and it does not ever connect to the Nature’s bounty.  

            Recently, a media report on the 17^th longest known married life, published in DeForest Times caught my attention. One Alice, (98) and Ted Rortvedt (100) celebrated their 80^th wedding anniversary. They clearly remember that a loaf of bread cost seven cents and gas was only one dime a gallon, when they got married. But the couple, who are obviously still very much enamoured with each other - can't quite remember the reasons for getting together. 'We just went to the Justice of the Peace and that was it,' said Mr Rortvedt. I then searched for Zelmyra and Herbert Fisher, who presently hold the world record for the longest married life. Zelmyra, 103, scorns the idea that there’s some secret to the longevity of their marriage. According to them, it was only God that kept them together; but, interestingly both belonged to different sects all their life. Accepting things, the way it comes in seems to be the Gospel and the way of life of the happiest people in the world, as I learned from their stories. I also found that the happiest people always look at the brighter side of things.

But, a past decade study on the happiest people in the world, truly disappointed me. I could find India, the abode of stunning philosophies, standing at 115^th rank, behind even Ethiopia (108) and Libya (67). I asked myself, what happened to my dear India? Is it the destiny of all those religious cultures which hide unhappiness in long chants and shrewd mantras? To be honest, I don’t know. 


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Freedom and Creativity

Views and Words - Dr K S Radhakrishnan 

If you want to actualize the potentialities present in an individual, you must ­­­necessarily make him free and if a teacher can make a student free from fear of a subject, quite sure that such a student must be able to produce the maximum in the subject as well as in the society. Because of the fact that there is an element of fear in our students, usually they are not creative in their activities; they are afraid of language, they are afraid of mathematics, they are afraid of science and they are afraid of almost every subject. The duty of an ideal teacher is to remove fear of a subject from the mindset of the students and removal of fear is exactly the work of a teacher. A person who is able to remove fear from the minds of the people is a real leader. But, on the contrary what happens now is that here in the political organizations the supreme leaders are creating more of it. Because of this fear any follower always imitates the leader, and imitation cannot bring out anything creative. So, especially in the case of India, we have to free our youth, free our students free our management and our employees from that fear which has already been created by the so called superiors. The removal of fear is an essential precondition in exploring the potentialities in a human individual. Advaita aims at removal of fear and the moment we admit that ‘I and you’ is identical, we also indirectly admit that there is no difference between ‘I and you. If there are identical elements in ‘I and you’ there is no question of lack of communication. Lack of communication always ends up in creation of fear. 

No society can be progressive without expression of freedom by every member. A developed and progressive society means a society which actualizes the potentialities in every individual. All such actualizations should have the ability to exercise freedom of each person. Freedom is something that is not given; it has to be taken by the person concerned. The one who exercises freedom has to remember that a free person has to regulate himself too. The self-regulated exercise of freedom by every member of a society alone ensures progress and development. The present day market economy believes in unfettered freedom. An unfettered freedom is dangerous to a healthy society.  A society needs regulation and that regulation must be self-regulation. This aspect has been forgotten by the Western philosophical systems of thought. Now-a-days the world moves towards polarization of power, wealth etc. This is highly dangerous. Freedom is dangerous but self-regulated freedom is not.

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Bhaje Govindam 8

Health and Happiness - Dr Dwarakanath

In the sloka attributed to Surendra the disciple of Sankara, he explains the vain clinging of human relationships and he clarifies that it is not unnecessary but the need for us to know its real limitations are. According to him, the distinction of 'You' and 'I' consist only so long as there is the body. Before one's birth, there is no such relationship as 'father' and 'mother', but once the body came into existence, we have relations. Who were we previously? Who were our parents, brothers, sisters, friends, uncles, aunties, grand-parents, cousins, etc., earlier? What are these illusory forms? What is this Maya? One has to wake up from this dream, open one's eyes and try to see the reality. If one succeeds in seeing that one reality behind all the creation, then the problem is solved once and for all. The mirage will disappear and one finds liberation. One has to understand and be aware of oneself vice- versa one's relationship with the other individual and at the same time the Maya that is binding both of them.

It does not mean that one should not have such bonds, but one should understand the fragility and its limitations, as most of such relations related to body rather than soul. Soul mate does not at all refer to wife-and-husband relation, father & daughter relation, mother & child relation but any soul which gets enriched by the experience and relation to the other soul in spirituality is a soul mate. It is, therefore, important to know oneself before forging any relationship with the other individual. While making use of the rational intellect by asking such questions as to whence and whither have we come from and who are our parents, etc., we should root out our misconceptions and reach to the roots of reality. it is definitely a difficult task to overcome this state of mind at the moment, but through consistent Sadhana (Practice) and rational approach, one develops the ability to look within oneself totally to get freedom from these bonds.

Thus, having successfully dismissed all the sense-passions from one's mind, turn the mind inwards for a close and critical observation of oneself to find out answers to the above questions, one would understand the hollowness of the world of names and forms and the enchantments of the objects and their vanities around us. This is to realize the strong clutches of the Maya upon the human at large. The influence of which is the root of all these vicious cycle of happiness and sorrow in all human life, which in turn prevents human from its ultimate goal, Realization. In our next part of analysis, we shall continue the search, on the finding of oneness in us from the clues Sankara left in his Advaita philosophy!

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When Tears Turn the Life

Smart Plus - Rakesh Mittal I A S 

My spiritual master, Swami Bhoomanandji, comes to Delhi every year in the month of October/November. After public discourses for about two weeks, he pays house visits to his close devotees. Normally these visits exceed the originally planned number due to last minute requests.  Devotees consider his visits a privilege and invite their friends and relatives to attend them. Swamiji undertakes such visits with great fondness and usually speaks on subjects which are highly relevant to day-to-day life. This generates a lot of interest and he receives requests for more visits. Of course, he tries to accept them to the extent possible.

During one such visit in 1992 held at a posh colony of New Delhi, I was also present with many others. Swamiji gave a short talk and thereafter invited devotees to ask questions. Among the devotees present, there was an elderly lady whose husband had died recently. The husband had been a diplomat and had held several important posts. He had lived a full life. It appeared that there had been a deep bond between the husband and the wife. Naturally, this death came as a great shock to her, which she was unable to bear. She was not able to accept the reality and sought Swamiji’s guidance in the matter. She told Swamiji that she felt like weeping all the time and memories of her husband occupied her mind constantly.

Swamiji could understand the grief of the lady. He tried to console by telling her that death was a natural phenomenon, more so when one is in an advanced age. One of the spouses has to go first and in her case it happened to be the husband. He saw no cause for undue grief in such a natural happening. He did not go into the philosophical aspects of death and dealt with her problem in a humane manner. He also told her that if she felt like weeping, there was nothing wrong with it. After all, nature has provided us with tear glands for a purpose and we must make use of them whenever necessary. There should be no feeling of guilt in weeping. In fact, he advised her to weep regularly till she overcame her grief. However, he added that more important than weeping was her attitude and tears should help in making it positive. Fortunately, this had an impact on the lady and after about a week she invited Swamiji to her home. I happened to be there also and found the lady greatly changed. This set me thinking about the role of tears in life, including my own. Normally, I am against weeping but I distinctly remember to have wept bitterly on a few occasions in my life and every time I emerged a stronger person. In fact, such occasions turned the course of my life and, needless to say, it was for the better.

Here, I would like to classify weeping into two kinds. One is negative weeping and the other positive. If the process of weeping leads to depression, fear and frustration, I would call it negative weeping. It changes life for the worse. On the other hand, if the process of weeping leads to introspection, courage and determination, it can be called positive weeping. It turns the life for the better. Thus tears are the turning points in life. It is up to us how we use them for our elevation or depression.

Coming to the attitude towards weeping, it can be said that a wise person, having understood the fundamentals of life will see no occasion to weep. For him good or bad events of life are alike.  However, this kind of attitude is not expected from ordinary mortals. For them there is a clear distinction between good and bad events. It is for them that weeping helps. In fact, it is healthier to weep than to camouflage grief. Weeping helps in overcoming grief and if such a person gets the company of the wise, tears turn the life for the better. This is what happened to the lady who came in contact with Swamiji in New Delhi.

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The Biggest Arabian Storming

Message of Peace - Justice P K Shamsuddin


         The humiliation by Muslims burned within almost all the tribes and clans in the peninsula. The continued effort of the Tribes men finally paid off. The attitude of these tribes however could satisfy the Meccans and finally they were able to fix a definite date to attack Medina. The same leaders went to Ghatafan clan of Ghylan and the tribes of Banu Murrah and some others also. It seemed that they were not happy with the practically big force they could so far mobilize. All these who joined hands with them had fought against the Muslims some day. It was their wish that Mohammed and his companions be completely swept out of the Arabian Peninsula. They worked upon a common plan and strategy. They wanted to make double sure that the final victory be on their side. All the parties marched towards Medina. The expedition consisted of 4000 infantry men cavalry of 300 and a camel force of 1000. This huge army was led by Abu Sufian
The flag of Meccans and the leadership of the battle was given to Uthman Ibn Talhah whose father was killed for carrying the same flag in the battle of Uhd. The tribes of Banu Fazarrah had sent a large number of infantry and enough camels under the leadership of Qyayyah. The tribes of Ashja and Murrah had sent 400 soldiers each under the leadership of Harith Ibn Awf and Miaar Ibn Rukhyah. The tribes of Banu Zaad had more soldiers and more cavalry. With the spirit of revenge filled all over, this huge army marched towards Medina under the general leadership of Abu Sufian.
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Chathurashram for a New Age – 4

Blooming Stars - Swami (Dr) Snehananda Jyoti

             In paramarthashram, both husband and wife turn toward each other and become one, and as one they turn toward God. It is the ideal partnership. Of course God comes first even in this triangular relationship. Each spouse has to give preference to God over the other spouse. There is joy in all this knowing God designed it this way. Our God is a God of marvelous completion and building rather than a God of incomplete design and tearing down. In creation God wanted man and woman to gloriously complete each other. According to Judeo-Christian reckoning, God made humankind in his image and likeness, male and female ….. God saw everything he had made, and indeed, it was very good (Genesis 1: 26-27; 1: 31). God brought man and woman together. He intended that “a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh (Genesis, 2: 23-24). Jesus said:  “…The one who made them at the beginning made them male and female, for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate” (Matthew 19: 4-6). 
In no uncertain terms the Bible states that God wanted man and woman to start and end life together. Somehow the Hindu and Christian tradition evolved erroneously giving woman an inferior and subordinate role, denigrating sexual intimacy between a husband and a wife, giving primary place to celibacy, and glorifying celibacy in one’s striving for holiness and perfection. This tradition and the persons behind it screwed human psyche up royally, and burdened humans with unnecessary guilt. It is high time that the most beautiful human relationship – the one obtaining between a man and a woman in marriage - should be rescued and put in its God-given perspective as we strive for perfection and maturity in holiness. In the Hindu tradition especially a woman does not have a fair chance as a young girl is ruled by her father, as an adult by her husband, and as a mother and an older woman still by her husband or her son. In this Ashram a husband and a wife in equality have an excellent opportunity and time to explore each other in a fresh commitment, to make up for the lost opportunities in the hustle and bustle of married life, rearing up  and settling their children, dispensing of due obligations to their parents and siblings and to greater society. This ashram is also ideal for married couples who can be introduced to Brahma Tantra Yoga where their complementary sexual energy channeled into a blissful and unitive relationship with God in utter surrender and selfless abandonment.
 (To be continued)

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Miracles on Sale

Life's Lessons - Joseph Mattappally

What’s the price of a miracle? Believe it or not, it is a simple truth that miracles are sold in distinct shapes. We have religious institutions, personality experts, corporate schools and isolated God men, all simultaneously handling wholesale deals of miracles too. Prices vary as to the size and magnitude of the requirement.

Sometimes back, I happened to go through a strange story of a little girl, who went to a drug store to buy a miracle for her sick brother. She was hardly eight years when she happened to hear her parents talk about her sick brother. They had decided to sell their house and move to an apartment, just to raise some money for a major operation, which the boy badly needed. She heard her Daddy say to her tearful Mother with desperation, "Only a miracle can save him now." Little Tess immediately withdrew to her bedroom and took out a jelly jar from its hiding place and began counting all the coins in it. It was her long time saving chest. Three times she counted the collection and then slipped out through the back door of the house and rushed to the drugs store six Blocks away.

It took some time for her to get the attention of the Pharmacist, who was seriously talking to a middle aged man. She waited patiently. Neither her scuffing noise nor her throat clearing sound could catch his attention. Finally she took a coin from the jar and banged it on the glass. That did it!

"And what do you want?" the pharmacist asked in an annoyed tone of voice. "I'm talking to my brother from Chicago, whom I haven't seen in ages," he said without waiting for a reply to his question.

"Well, I want to talk to you about my brother," Tess answered back in the same annoyed tone.  "He's really, really sick …… and I want to buy a miracle."

"I beg your pardon?" said the pharmacist.

"His name is Andrew and he has something bad growing inside his head and my Daddy says that only a miracle can save him now.  So, how much does a miracle cost?"

"We don't sell miracles here, little girl.  I'm sorry, I can't help you," the pharmacist said, softening a little.

"Listen, I have the money to pay for it.  If it isn't enough, I will get the rest.  Just tell me how much it costs."

The pharmacist's brother was a well dressed man. He stooped down and asked the little girl, "What kind of a miracle does your brother need?"

"I don't know," Tess replied with her eyes welling up. "I just know he's really sick and Mommy says he needs an operation.  But, my Daddy can't pay for it, so I want to use my money.

"How much do you have?" asked the man.

"One dollar and eleven cents," Tess answered. "And it's all the money I have, but I can get some more if I need to."

"Well, what a coincidence," smiled the man, "A dollar and eleven cents - the exact price of a miracle for little brothers."

He took her money in one hand and with the other hand he grasped her and said, "Take me to where you live. I want to see your brother and meet your parents. Let's see if I have the kind of miracle you need."

That well dressed man was Dr. Carlton Armstrong, a neuro-surgeon from Chicago. The boy’s operation was completed in his hospital without any charge and her brother went back home quite fine. Only little Tess and the surgeon knew how much it costs for a miracle for brothers. Everybody learned how coincidences transform into miracles, but……but only a few could see the miracle as blooming out of a jelly jar of pure trust.  

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