New Year: 2015

When my well-wishers and devotees asked for a New Year message I wondered if I had anything relevant that the new generation has time and patience to hear and reflect on. To give a fitting context for the message:  I am only a month and a half short of three quarters of a century. When Gandhiji who influenced my life greatly was assassinated at 78, I was only about 2 weeks away from my 8th birthday. And Gandhiji born in an enslaved country in 1869 is still very relevant for me. Yesterday (December 29, 2014) I was reading a report of an American icon and great comedian, Bill Cosby, in the middle of a widely reported, terribly shocking sexual abuse controversy in the USA, hiring a team of lawyers, one of whom is paid an unearthly sum of  $850 per hour (Rs. 53550 at the exchange rate of Rs. 63 a dollar; $6800 or Rs. 428,000 for an 8-hour working day; and many of these lawyers work many hours more than 8 hours a day) to intimidate, discredit, insult or defame more than two dozen women, who have gone public, charging him with the crime of gross sexual abuse , I also wondered what a legal system wbn e are living in.  And many judges come from the rank of such lawyers. Besides many judges fraternize with such lawyers. 

Interestingly also most people in the legislature and governments, cabinets or ministries in the world are lawyers. If I am asked why I take an example from the USA, the obvious answer is our own high ranking and so-called famous lawyers in India model on the loud, pompous, talking down lawyers of USA, especially with regard to the fees. Their specialty, I dare say from experience, is in brow-beating, intimidating, and demolishing their opponents and cleverness in finding technical loopholes in law and not in searching for truth. Of course, I can only say that the legal systems of the oldest (USA) and the biggest (India) democracies are not far from total paralysis or ruin. If this is the condition of the two greatest democracies, need I say what is the condition of other countries?! If the most powerful persons in the country are rich lawyers and politicians and amoral actors and actresses flaunting their bodies, where is our civilization heading? If these are the models for our youth, are we surprised that they do not have time to imbibe value-oriented themes? What about persons in religions so materialistic and devoid of humanity and spirituality? Gandhiji was a lawyer, but he was a sad old man at the partition of the country whose freedom he fought for putting his own life at risk many times. He was also sad at the impatience of his co-workers jockeying for good positions in government. While the politicians of Gandhiji's time jockeyed for power, they were principled. Now we have a breed of corrupt and greedy politicians with no principles and, I might say, with very little conscience or purity of intention. This in brief is the status quo of the world for my briefest message. Presently we cannot also forget that we are all enveloped by the heavy sadness of Air Asia disaster where 162 lives perished.

After meandering a great distance in connection with the new year message, I would like to focus on an old theme, the purity of intention, as the message during the new year, 2015, that we can all benefit from living in a derailed and decaying civilization that is suffering from a lack of precious life-giving oxygen that is ethical and moral value-system and human rights common to all humans. We do not need to despair.  In spite of everything including the Islamic State and other inhuman groups of jihadist terrorists trying to outdo one another in cruelty in killing innocent humans, with purity of intention in our heart and mind we can put our civilization back on the track. We need to ask ourselves every time we do something why we are doing what we are doing, In other words, what is our intention for doing it? Our conscious intention makes our feelings, thoughts, and actions right or wrong. If our intention in its origin is sound and pure, everything - our plans and programs -  down the line will be fine. Purity of intention as the bed-rock of our spirituality needs to guide our every action for humanity to reach its true destination. Wish you all a God-filled, spirit-filled, love-filled New Year, 2015.

Swami Snehananda Jyoti

The Three Apprentices

A disappointing (?) 2014, in which we had invested a lot is fading off, reminding us that there is nothing called tomorrow. The moment we experience tomorrow, it appears to be today. What the upcoming 2015 might also tell us could be the same message - now is the right time to do what we propose. I remember the story of three apprentices. Three apprentices were one day making swords for their Master, who had commanded them to do so. The Master also had given specific instructions on how they were to be made. As the three apprentices worked, they debated over what were really the proper procedures and the many secrets of making fine steel. 

The day finally came when the Master arrived to check on their work and to collect their swords.  The three apprentices stood side by side anxious to see which sword the Master would choose to be his sword.  The Master stood in front of the first apprentice and took the sword from his hand.  He then drew it from its sheath. The Master looked up and said: "You thought you could fool me, but you have only fooled yourself.  It is plain to see that you did not apply enough heat to the metal and therefore you failed to burn off the impurities in the metal and it will not hold its’ shine for long. Leave me." said the Master.  "You have not heeded my words nor did you have the patience to even test my wisdom and see if it was true." 

The Master held the sword for a moment and then again did as he had done before by chopping the blade into a tree.  The Master looked up as the second apprentice in an inquisitive manner and said: "You too have deceived yourself.  You have done well in heating and folding the metal, but because you thought your wisdom was greater than mine you cooled the metal while it was still much too hot. "Leave me also," said the Master to the second apprentice, "for if a man were to use either of these first two swords in battle, they would have surely perished." The Master then stood before the third apprentice and took his sword also.  He then drew it from its sheath. The blade was smooth, brightly shined and there were also many characters and symbols beautifully engraved into the bottom. The Master then struck the tree with the flat of the blade not once, but five times, each time harder than the others.  The sword rang out loudly, but it did not break, bend or blemish in any way. Humbled by what he had just seen, the Master held the sword out for all to see and said to the third apprentice: "Come with me. For you have heeded my council and have endured the long hours of heat, pain and tempering and have produced a blade worthy of praise and because you have done this, I will show you even greater things. For you have now learned that through much time, heat, tempering and patience comes the finest metal and then it is ready to be used by the Master's hand."

I need not tell you the moral of this story; it is a known fact that the more we sharpen the axe the sooner is the wood cut. The more patiently we listen to our masters the stronger and exemplary our life becomes. What that is going to blossom are the roses that we cared yesterday.  Happy New year!

Joseph Mattappally

PK Silent

A man from the stars came here as a silent person. He transferred a language and started asking some basic questions. We felt disturbed and started asking him to keep silent. Man-made religions and many of their preachers only know how to talk, they can’t listen. Asking questions in front of these self-made preachers is a form of ridiculing their beliefs. Tolerance is something they can preach, but they are not supposed to practice. 

We have heard the ‘Blue Jackal’ story from ‘Panchtantra’ many times. For some of you who have never read this masterpiece, I recall this here. A hungry Jackal went in search of food to a village close to his jungle. While the village dogs chased him, he fell into a drum filled with blue dye. He turned completely blue and looked like a different breed. When he returned to the jungle, the lion asked him who he was and in response he declared himself as Chandru - protector of all the animals in the jungle. Chandru told the lion that he would only continue to protect the jungle if all the animals would give him food. Soon Chandru was sought after for advice by animals from other jungles. Animals sat at his feet and brought him the best of food. But as happens every year, the rains came, and slowly the blue dye vanished. He was just a normal jackal again. The animals soon realised this and then punished the jackal to death.

The story comes from our own land that alerts us against the ‘fear psychosis techniques’ used by some self labeled protectors. The movie PK tells us this simple story in a quite harmless and humorous way. Are we such an intolerant society that we want to make an expansion of PK as “Please Keep silent”.

Dr. Sunil Ji Garg

False Ceiling

I served as Managing Director of the UP Handloom Corporation during the year 1987-88. At that time, this job was considered to be important as well as glamorous. The turnover of the organisation was almost one hundred crores and it had a large number of showrooms all over the country. It was quite a challenging and interesting job to run them efficiently. Every year, a good number of showrooms were renovated and it involved a huge expenditure. One of the expensive items in the renovation was the ‘False Ceiling’. This term always amused me and I often wondered why such a beautiful piece of work was called ‘False’. Once I inspected a showroom during its renovation when the work on the false ceiling was in progress. I could, therefore, see the inside of the false ceiling and I found it in bad shape. The wiring, pipe-fittings, ducting, etc., were done badly, probably in the knowledge that they would not be visible after the false ceiling was fitted. The quality of wiring was also poor, which I leamt, was done deliberately in order to increase the frequency of repairs.

While I took the necessary steps to correct the situation in the process, I also understood the significance of the word ‘false’. Subsequently, I held many important posts which took me around the country and abroad frequently. I like meeting people and have had an interaction with a large cross-section with widely varying backgrounds. I can modestly claim that I have been able to understand human nature to a great extent and do not get upset easily when someone hurts me or behaves in an unexpected manner. I have found a large number of people who are apparently very well-behaved and project themselves as our well-wishers, while the reality is different. Initially, such a situation used to upset me, but now it is no more so. The incident about the false ceiling also helped me greatly to understand this aspect of human nature. Most people try to hide their faults with false behaviour and a disguised appearance. The reality is known only when we see them closely. Unfortunately, in today’s fast world, such opportunities are rare and whenever one tries to do so, the result is a clash or conflict. The only option, therefore, is to watch oneself closely and remove those faults, which we dislike in others.

There is a need to behave well and decently, a desirable quality of a good human being. Good behaviour becomes undesirable only when it is false, but sincerity and genuine goodness will reap rich dividends not only for oneself but for others too. Unfortunately, most of us feel that it is more important to appear nice than to be really nice. It may be true for a short while but it is not so when life is seen in totality. Sooner or later, the false appearance and poor contents inside are exposed and there is no option left but to discard the object in totality. Someone has rightly said, ‘It is good to be important but it is more important to be good’. If we believe in this, there would be no need for any

‘False Ceiling. The shortest and surest way to live with honour in this world is*to be in reality what we would appear to be. l You can cheat some people all the time, all people for sometime but not all the people all the time.

Rakesh Mittal IAS

Have Faith in God

Finding faith in God is one of the strongest desired desire for most people. They want to believe in God, but don’t want their belief to be based on blind faith. They sometimes wonder that if God is real, then why is it difficult to have faith in Him? Many wonder how to believe in God if He does not reveal Himself to them? They feel they do not have enough information or evidence to justify a decision to trust that God is real and then to commit themselves to a relationship with God.

The overwhelming view of modern science is that the universe began to exist roughly 14-15 billion years ago. Given the fact that the universe began to exist, it must have had a ‘cause’ that originated it. Skeptics and atheists counter that the universe may be on some space-time circular pattern, but the bottom line is that there must have been a ‘creator’ of this eternal universe. Only an independent, infinite, eternal and omnipresent cause is sufficient to account for the universe. Therefore such a being must exist. Life’s journey teaches us many things, but one of the major things we learn is that nothing stays the same and everything changes. Seasons change, day changes into night, people change from childhood to old age and time never stands still. Change happens every moment of each day but God never changes and remains the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. 

Learn to trust God, especially in areas you have never dared to trust him before and spend some time of solitude in remembering Him. You will feel the wonderful and miraculous things God will do for you. Meditate on His unchanging nature and pray, honour, revere and thank Him for everything. Run to Him for protection and safety through prayer and he will shower love and blessings on you, until you are filled with peace, rest and strength to live the life he has purposed for you.

God is omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient. Let Him take charge of your life, direct your path and order your steps.

If you have faith in God and His creation, you will not do anything to harm anyone. In fact you will do your best to help your fellow human beings. You will also try to follow the right path which leads you to God and away from sin. God lives in each one of us and if we truly believe in Him and follow our conscience, we will know right from wrong. If all of us love and appreciate the beauty of nature that surrounds us and respect the will of God, this world will become a much more beautiful place. 

Dr (Mrs) Archana Bharat

Formula for Life

Salvation for humanity consists in unity of humanity. Humanity's destination then is unity of humanity collectively, and self-realization coming out of exhausting all potentials one is endowed with to become what can be individually. How can we all live in a multicultural, pluralistic society and achieve unity of humanity? It is difficult all the more as differences like color, creed, race, ethnic origin, and class are more focused on than unifying forces like character, value system, human rights, equality, equity, and fairness. In a world where quality of life is measured by the extent and intensity of pleasure rather than by purposeful behavior, where material acquisitions and attributes are praised and publicized extravagantly rather than spiritual pursuits, materialism thrives. When a great deal of energy is spent on looks and appearances, and on manipulation by phony and deceptive advertisements, truth and other values are systematically eroded. In day-to-day life of increasing distractions from our real goal,  a righteous life common to all humanity becomes increasingly difficult. In spite of all problems and difficulties, there is a winning formula for living.

Right Thinking: Cognitively it involves correct understanding of realities as they unfold in day-to-day life. Concretely it involves acceptance of the entire creation as it is. Acceptance of all human beings and loving them, not necessarily liking them, for who they are is essential. Loving may lead to liking. It is very important that we do not make other persons' problems our problems. We need to look at every one from an empathic attitude that involves looking at life from the other person's view point. This can generate understanding and good will. We do not need to agree with the other person but we need to spend energy to understand things as he/she understands. The other person understands that we understand him/her. Sometimes we may need to let the other person know where we are. The important thing is that we have a genuine interest, and we care to understand. We are patient, transparent, and humble. While conveying our reality, we need to make sure that we respect other person  for where he or she is. We need to be willing to grant the other person the benefit of out where we are not sure while we rely on the solid data that we have when we are sure. Our effort to work toward a win-win situation for all never ceases. I am reminded of a situation in mid-1970s when I was undergoing a year of resident training in the department of Psychiatry of Louisiana State University Medical Center in New Orleans, as part of my Clinical Psychology program in the USA. A pastor with a doctorate in Pastoral Care came to my office for some emotional problem. He knew that I was a priest. From the outset he informed me that he was a homosexual and that he was not seeking help in that area. In those days homosexuality was a very controversial issue. He wanted to know what my view on homosexuality was. I told him I would like to treat him for his target problem in what was called sector therapy, and that I would tell him my view in our last session.  He remembered in the last session what I told him in our first meeting and wanted to know what I thought on homosexuality. I merely told him that I understood his sexual orientation, and that it was not my cup of tea. The important thing here is how to share our perspective without putting down the other person's.

Right Feeling: Affectively it involves feeling any feeling without acting out. We need to feel the whole spectrum of feelings. All feelings are valid and appropriate for the situations called for. In themselves, feelings are neither good nor bad, neither correct nor incorrect. Inappropriate affect can distinguish a normal person from an abnormal person. While we feel our feelings we need to manage them and channel them in appropriate and constructive ways. Inability to control our feelings leads to disastrous consequences. Herein comes impulse control. Poor impulse control is the bane of our civilization. Civilization is advanced by appropriate impulse control. Thus appropriate emotions can become a boon for humanity. Emotions truly are the motors that drive us to get what we want. Motors need to be guided by the steering wheel in the right direction. And that steering wheel is the reason. So we need to subject our emotions to reason. The greatest impediment that comes in the way of our growth and development is the expression of uncontrolled emotions. Uncontrolled emotions can create only enormous heat. Light for guidance can come only from reason. A mature person expresses his or her feelings appropriately with the right kind of intensity.

In sum, a truly mature and effective person is recognized by his/her correct thinking with the right modulation of feelings. This person is a lover of humanity, accepts all for who they are, is empathic, compassionate, honest, genuine, tolerant, forgiving, ready always to reconcile with others, unafraid, lives in the present, and enjoys and celebrates life with an attitude of gratitude. This is a person on the way to realization.

Swami Snehananda Jyoti

Kite in the Office

Some people do have strong belief in symbols. I had visited this office few years ago where a Kite was placed just outside the wall of the corporate office. It was a real kite. When I enquired about the reason, my friend in that office told me that his Managing director always believes in symbols and this time the symbol of company’s growth has been chosen as the kite. The vision is, the way the kite soars high up in the sky, the company’s financial results too will. This was quite interesting for me, as I knew that my friend’s company was actually not doing well. Few days later, I came to know that the company closed down. When I met my friend again, he used the same symbol to explain that the company’s kite was cut by the competitors and the market situation. He also told me that people in the company had used many other frills to save the company, but nothing succeeded.

I and my friend both had a lesson to learn. Symbols can motivate, but they cannot replace the actions required to get the work going. I know many people around me who strongly believe in symbols, but the success came to only those who really did hard work on the ground. Let us introspect, are we too obsessed with symbols.

Dr. Sunil Ji Garg