Monday, February 18, 2008
Mumukshu Musings 180208
The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others - Mahatma Gandhi
Indian Wisdom for Management - Book by Sw. Someshwarananda
by Suma Varughese
What if we were to approach work, any work, from the point of view of service, rather than profit? What are the consequences of this approach? And how practical is it? So, for whose sake are you performing service? You are doing service for your own sake… You do not serve others, you serve yourselves; You do not serve the world, you serve your own best interest. —Sathya Sai Baba
Medha Patkar was just another social science student, unknown to the world, when she went to the villages of Madhya Pradesh for a project among the tribal. That was when she came across the Narmada Dam project. Fired by the injustice of a system that sacrificed tribal welfare for the sake of the urban elite, she took up their cause.
In the process, this pretty young woman became the grandee dame of the alternative movement, the symbol of the gritty underdog challenging the powerful and the mighty. Dr Madan Kataria was an anonymous medical practitioner looking for money and fame until the day he decided to put into practice his knowledge that laughter healed.
Through his ‘laughter clubs’, of which there are 1,300 in India and 700 abroad, he unleashed a revolution that brought together people socially, helped them combat ailments, and re-engineered attitudes.
Today, the doctor has jettisoned his practice in favor of spreading his mission, is happy and has forged a spiritual path for himself through laughter therapy. Dr Shilu Srinivasan was an academic working with the prestigious Tata Institute of Social Sciences when she decided to start a magazine for the elderly. Today, Dignity Dialogue is a movement that caters to the needs of senior citizens through a spectrum of services that include help lines, succor for those undergoing harassment, jobs for the active, and security for the helpless, company for the lonely and other special privileges. She is a spokesperson for a constituency that didn’t exist until she gave it a voice and an identity.
Three people whose lives telescoped in breadth and dimension when they aligned themselves to a cause larger than themselves. They catapulted above the common herd to a domain of success, immense inner satisfaction, quantum growth, the realization of precious insights into the nature of life and the unadulterated bliss of crafting their unique contribution to the world. In the process, they also garnered the worldly rewards of money, influence and power. How has this trio contrived to have it all?
Is there a method to their madness, a plan of action we can emulate, an easy, straightforward, three-step strategy to lasting corporate fulfillment? Perhaps. But ‘easy’ would hardly be the operative word. Nor would ‘straightforward’. Here, as anywhere in the spiritual world, paradox rules. The first step to having it all is not to want it. The second step is to step outside the narrow framework of our desires and needs and focus on the needs of others. All three got where they are because of their concern for others.
Swami Someswarananda, a former monk with the Ramakrishna Mission and an advocate of Indian Ethos in Management (IEM) says in his remarkable book, Indian Wisdom for Management: “Caring for others leads you to help them solve their problems, which makes you popular, influential, gives you social prominence and power, makes you more independent, leading to security.” ‘I-centeredness’, as he calls the narrow focus on individual needs, may or may not help us achieve material rewards.
And it will rarely offer the intangible joys of self-expression and job satisfaction. So, should we quit our jobs and trample en masse down the road less taken? Not quite. Not all of us can afford to let go of our jobs. Many of us may not even want to. But we can shift the attitude with which we approach work. Suresh Pandit, who calls himself an organizational transformation coach, says: “When you focus only on your own well-being and that of your family, your vision and approach is small.
But when you move into ‘other-centeredness’, you think big.” He cites the example of Jamshedji Tata who was a trader in steel until he met Swami Vivekananda aboard a ship. Swami Vivekananda asked him why the steel could not be manufactured in India. To which he replied that India did not have a set-up for fundamental research. Why not create one, the Swami suggested.
And thus came into being the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. The service approach gives rich dividends wherever it is tried. Pandit feels: “A manager who only works for his salary, perks and image is bound to fail. On the other hand, one who cares for his company and his employees will get spontaneous co-operation.” Rajiv Nambiar, a senior manager at Opal Consultants and an active sevak (selfless worker) in the Sathya Sai Baba movement, cites an example from his previous stint at Sigma. “As administrative manager, I had to maintain the discipline of the organization and yet be humane.
On one occasion, the management recommended the dismissal of a drunken worker. But I told him to go home and that we would discuss his conduct the following day. The next day he threw himself at my feet and thanked me for saving his job. When you become seva-oriented, you start putting yourself in others’ shoes and understand their problems.” “Caring for others leads you to help them solve their problems, which makes you popular... influential, which gives you social prominence and power, making you more independent”
Pandit cites several examples of dramatic increase in productivity when a company adopts a more people-centric attitude. One such Jalandhar-based company witnessed a great leap in their profits. The owners were encouraged to regard themselves as trustees and to empower their employees through the formation of a network of self-managing teams.
Managers were encouraged to relate to their subordinates from a bhakti mode modelled along the lines of the mother-child relationship, of loving, nurturing, generating self-confidence and letting go. The result was an astonishing 27 per cent increase in productivity. Many spiritual organizations are a testimony to the growth and prosperity that the service spirit generates.
The Vipassana International Academy, founded by S.N. Goenka, whose headquarters is based in Igatpuri, Maharashtra, is a classic example. The organization offers a 10-day Buddhist meditation programme, where participants are housed and fed free of charge. At the end of the course, donations are solicited to finance the next batch of mediators. According to Ajit Parikh, secretary of the academy, 20 per cent give more than expected, 50 per cent give on the basis of the estimated cost, and around 30 per cent do not pay.
And yet the organization has grown prolifically, comprising 50 centers in India and about 55 abroad. How did this miracle happen? Parikh explains: “When pious intentions and hard work go together, the results are wonderful. By not charging fees, Guruji wanted to maintain the pristine purity of the practice as it was in Buddha’s time.
There has, however, never been a shortage of funds. Each centre is an independent trust managed by local mediators, but when construction works for accommodation or meditation halls are required, they can be funded by other centers through repayable loans.” Work done in a spirit of sacrifice, focuses on the needs of othersWhen you give, you get. Apart from the huge amounts Goenka, a former businessman, himself put into the academy, the remarkable results of the course have inspired spectacular donations.
One NRI couple, for instance, gave $ 2 million, and Subhash Chandra, head of the Zee network, gave property worth crores at Gorai, a beach in Mumbai where the academy is constructing a giant pagoda. Ambika Yog Kutir, a yoga institute in Thane, runs on similar lines. The humblest as well as the white-collared avail of its excellent free yoga programmes. And yet the lack of funds has not impeded its vigorous growth.
Founded by Pundalik Ramchandra Nikam, (known as Hathayogi Nikam Guruji), a former police officer, the organization has grown from a room in his house to a spacious three-storey building in Thane, with 45 centers in Mumbai alone. No fee is charged, though participants are free to donate what they wish. Their corps of 1,500 teachers are honorary, drawn from former students.
The organization teaches yoga to hospitals, cancer patients, the police force, the Air Force, the Reserve Bank, the Bombay Port Trust and many others. Ramakant Surve, trustee, says: “We are never short of funds. Guruji had told us, ‘money will come. Don’t run after it. You serve’.” Dhirubhai Mehta, president of several Gandhian organizations and a chartered accountant, says: “It is my experience that no good cause suffers from paucity of funds. Everyone, even the much-maligned government, has a soft corner for a good thing. One must reach out and touch it.”
Swami Someswarananda borrows from Vedanta to define the three guiding principles of service:
1. Ahm Brahmasmi: My potential is infinite.
2. Atmano Moksarthan Jagad Hithaya Ka: Work for personal liberation (or growth) and for the good of society.
3. Yajnarthat Karma: Work in a spirit of sacrifice, focusing on the needs of others.
He suggests that we integrate these principles by becoming aware of our unique skills and potentials, by strengthening them and finally looking at what societal needs they could serve. Mehta did just that when, at the age of 50, he decided to yoke his vast managerial and financial acumen to the needs of the society.
He now heads the Kasturba Health Society which runs a hospital, a nursing home and a medical college in Wardha, Maharashtra. The first step to having it all is not to want it. The second step is to step outside the narrow framework of our desires and needs and focus on the needs of othersHe point out: “My shift from corporate work to social work has made me happy.
Whatever few lakhs of money I generate for my causes gives me far more satisfaction than the hundreds of crores I made for my companies.” He adds: “I often tell my corporate friends that had I spent more time with the corporate elite, I would have lost my faith in humanity and become a cynic. When I go to the villages and meet my sevikas, I get my batteries recharged and regain my faith.”
Indeed, while productivity and success are the key benefits of the principle of seva, no less significant are the personal gains in terms of growth, satisfaction and joy. All these are byproducts of an approach that resolves the conflict that is at the root of our present way of functioning.
If we live in conflict with the environment or our fellow creatures; if our best instincts are at war with our need for survival, much of our potential will remain unlocked. The service motive resolves the conflict by revealing that our welfare is linked to the welfare of mankind and that of the universe.
Medha Patkar admits that she is a debtor, not a creditor, to her work. “I have learnt a lot from the tribal about developing a simple and down-to-earth approach to life and cultivating a special relationship with nature. A huge advantage of the work I have done is that I have managed to relate at various levels from the harmless advises to World Bank officials.
One needs to use different strategies and skills but operate from the same value framework. This is a challenge.” She adds: “I have grown in perspective by working on the Narmada project. It did not remain an issue, but became a symbol of struggle against a paradigm of development. One may not be able to realize all ideals in a lifetime, but it is enough to keep moving and doing what you can.”
Dr Radhike Khanna, vice principal of the S.P.J. Sadhana School for the developmentally handicapped, is an outstanding example of the power of service to transform and uplift. The school educates children with IQs of less than 50. Khanna has been instrumental in creating a cookery section, an office skills section and an arts section to help the students create livelihood for themselves.
The creative output from these courses is excellent. Who can believe that these polite, virtually normal youngsters, had to be taught everything from scratch? The rewards, Khanna says, have all been hers. “I struggled for six months to make a child hold a brush in her hands. And when she came back later with a canvas full of colors, I had no words to express my joy.” Another time, when she and her team of teachers had taken the students for a camp at Ranthambore, one of them fell into water.
“He was curled up at the bottom of the pool. We were 45 km away from the nearest hospital. I gave him artificial respiration, and Reiki right through the long ride. I kept saying, ‘Devan, come back, come back’. And he did. He suddenly came alive. That’s when you know how much support you get from the universe.”
Another who has plugged into the creative power of service is Abhishek Thakore, a student and founder of a social organization called Blue Ribbon. Members of his group, most of whom are students, help out at orphanages and old-age homes. On home service day, they go house to house, washing dishes, cleaning, and cooking!
He comments: “I’ve changed. I used to consider it below my dignity to do manual work. At a recent Art of Living course, I did what I hated most—clearing the garbage. There is no satisfaction comparable to that which you get in contributing to people’s lives.” Thakore steers clear of the notorious helpers’ ego by asking for help when he needs it. “Being open to receiving is equally important,” he feels.
He also intuited on an important insight when he discovered that giving triggered off receiving. “When I started sharing knowledge, my own increased. At one time, I decided against sharing it and I found that my own learning foundered.” Srinivasan’s Dignity Dialogue grew from a magazine to a movement in less than four months. “People often asked me about loneliness. So, we made a volunteer team of 100 subscribers and trained them in social counseling.”
But requests kept pouring in—for help in cases of abuse, for jobs, for security, at a time when reports of murders of senior citizens were routinely appearing in newspapers. By taking care of the never before addressed needs of her constituency, Srinivasan’s influence and popularity grew. Government gave funds. Pretty soon, she was running a public trust instead of relying on advertisers.
The Bombay Municipal Corporation chipped in by offering her a spacious office. Eventually, the Ambanis took it over. “Making it a national movement is what I am planning,” she says. The bottom-line in this maelstrom of activity is clear—self-fulfillment. “I am doing all this because it gives me happiness. I am realizing my potential.”
The seva motive can transform the way governments and large organizations work, as Suresh Pundit and N.H. Athreya have proved with the Prabhadevi Special Services and Trunk Booking Exchange of MTNL, Mumbai. When the woes of the operator were handled and they were sensitized to the needs of the public, their performance went up dramatically.
The number of ‘acceptable’ conversations, which customers approved of, went up from 42 per cent to 96 per cent. The service motive has the potential to transform the way we work in India, perhaps even make it that superpower the government dreams of. All it needs is the will and determination.
What if we were to approach work, any work, from the point of view of service, rather than profit? What are the consequences of this approach? And how practical is it? So, for whose sake are you performing service? You are doing service for your own sake… You do not serve others, you serve yourselves; You do not serve the world, you serve your own best interest. —Sathya Sai Baba
Medha Patkar was just another social science student, unknown to the world, when she went to the villages of Madhya Pradesh for a project among the tribal. That was when she came across the Narmada Dam project. Fired by the injustice of a system that sacrificed tribal welfare for the sake of the urban elite, she took up their cause.
In the process, this pretty young woman became the grandee dame of the alternative movement, the symbol of the gritty underdog challenging the powerful and the mighty. Dr Madan Kataria was an anonymous medical practitioner looking for money and fame until the day he decided to put into practice his knowledge that laughter healed.
Through his ‘laughter clubs’, of which there are 1,300 in India and 700 abroad, he unleashed a revolution that brought together people socially, helped them combat ailments, and re-engineered attitudes.
Today, the doctor has jettisoned his practice in favor of spreading his mission, is happy and has forged a spiritual path for himself through laughter therapy. Dr Shilu Srinivasan was an academic working with the prestigious Tata Institute of Social Sciences when she decided to start a magazine for the elderly. Today, Dignity Dialogue is a movement that caters to the needs of senior citizens through a spectrum of services that include help lines, succor for those undergoing harassment, jobs for the active, and security for the helpless, company for the lonely and other special privileges. She is a spokesperson for a constituency that didn’t exist until she gave it a voice and an identity.
Three people whose lives telescoped in breadth and dimension when they aligned themselves to a cause larger than themselves. They catapulted above the common herd to a domain of success, immense inner satisfaction, quantum growth, the realization of precious insights into the nature of life and the unadulterated bliss of crafting their unique contribution to the world. In the process, they also garnered the worldly rewards of money, influence and power. How has this trio contrived to have it all?
Is there a method to their madness, a plan of action we can emulate, an easy, straightforward, three-step strategy to lasting corporate fulfillment? Perhaps. But ‘easy’ would hardly be the operative word. Nor would ‘straightforward’. Here, as anywhere in the spiritual world, paradox rules. The first step to having it all is not to want it. The second step is to step outside the narrow framework of our desires and needs and focus on the needs of others. All three got where they are because of their concern for others.
Swami Someswarananda, a former monk with the Ramakrishna Mission and an advocate of Indian Ethos in Management (IEM) says in his remarkable book, Indian Wisdom for Management: “Caring for others leads you to help them solve their problems, which makes you popular, influential, gives you social prominence and power, makes you more independent, leading to security.” ‘I-centeredness’, as he calls the narrow focus on individual needs, may or may not help us achieve material rewards.
And it will rarely offer the intangible joys of self-expression and job satisfaction. So, should we quit our jobs and trample en masse down the road less taken? Not quite. Not all of us can afford to let go of our jobs. Many of us may not even want to. But we can shift the attitude with which we approach work. Suresh Pandit, who calls himself an organizational transformation coach, says: “When you focus only on your own well-being and that of your family, your vision and approach is small.
But when you move into ‘other-centeredness’, you think big.” He cites the example of Jamshedji Tata who was a trader in steel until he met Swami Vivekananda aboard a ship. Swami Vivekananda asked him why the steel could not be manufactured in India. To which he replied that India did not have a set-up for fundamental research. Why not create one, the Swami suggested.
And thus came into being the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. The service approach gives rich dividends wherever it is tried. Pandit feels: “A manager who only works for his salary, perks and image is bound to fail. On the other hand, one who cares for his company and his employees will get spontaneous co-operation.” Rajiv Nambiar, a senior manager at Opal Consultants and an active sevak (selfless worker) in the Sathya Sai Baba movement, cites an example from his previous stint at Sigma. “As administrative manager, I had to maintain the discipline of the organization and yet be humane.
On one occasion, the management recommended the dismissal of a drunken worker. But I told him to go home and that we would discuss his conduct the following day. The next day he threw himself at my feet and thanked me for saving his job. When you become seva-oriented, you start putting yourself in others’ shoes and understand their problems.” “Caring for others leads you to help them solve their problems, which makes you popular... influential, which gives you social prominence and power, making you more independent”
Pandit cites several examples of dramatic increase in productivity when a company adopts a more people-centric attitude. One such Jalandhar-based company witnessed a great leap in their profits. The owners were encouraged to regard themselves as trustees and to empower their employees through the formation of a network of self-managing teams.
Managers were encouraged to relate to their subordinates from a bhakti mode modelled along the lines of the mother-child relationship, of loving, nurturing, generating self-confidence and letting go. The result was an astonishing 27 per cent increase in productivity. Many spiritual organizations are a testimony to the growth and prosperity that the service spirit generates.
The Vipassana International Academy, founded by S.N. Goenka, whose headquarters is based in Igatpuri, Maharashtra, is a classic example. The organization offers a 10-day Buddhist meditation programme, where participants are housed and fed free of charge. At the end of the course, donations are solicited to finance the next batch of mediators. According to Ajit Parikh, secretary of the academy, 20 per cent give more than expected, 50 per cent give on the basis of the estimated cost, and around 30 per cent do not pay.
And yet the organization has grown prolifically, comprising 50 centers in India and about 55 abroad. How did this miracle happen? Parikh explains: “When pious intentions and hard work go together, the results are wonderful. By not charging fees, Guruji wanted to maintain the pristine purity of the practice as it was in Buddha’s time.
There has, however, never been a shortage of funds. Each centre is an independent trust managed by local mediators, but when construction works for accommodation or meditation halls are required, they can be funded by other centers through repayable loans.” Work done in a spirit of sacrifice, focuses on the needs of othersWhen you give, you get. Apart from the huge amounts Goenka, a former businessman, himself put into the academy, the remarkable results of the course have inspired spectacular donations.
One NRI couple, for instance, gave $ 2 million, and Subhash Chandra, head of the Zee network, gave property worth crores at Gorai, a beach in Mumbai where the academy is constructing a giant pagoda. Ambika Yog Kutir, a yoga institute in Thane, runs on similar lines. The humblest as well as the white-collared avail of its excellent free yoga programmes. And yet the lack of funds has not impeded its vigorous growth.
Founded by Pundalik Ramchandra Nikam, (known as Hathayogi Nikam Guruji), a former police officer, the organization has grown from a room in his house to a spacious three-storey building in Thane, with 45 centers in Mumbai alone. No fee is charged, though participants are free to donate what they wish. Their corps of 1,500 teachers are honorary, drawn from former students.
The organization teaches yoga to hospitals, cancer patients, the police force, the Air Force, the Reserve Bank, the Bombay Port Trust and many others. Ramakant Surve, trustee, says: “We are never short of funds. Guruji had told us, ‘money will come. Don’t run after it. You serve’.” Dhirubhai Mehta, president of several Gandhian organizations and a chartered accountant, says: “It is my experience that no good cause suffers from paucity of funds. Everyone, even the much-maligned government, has a soft corner for a good thing. One must reach out and touch it.”
Swami Someswarananda borrows from Vedanta to define the three guiding principles of service:
1. Ahm Brahmasmi: My potential is infinite.
2. Atmano Moksarthan Jagad Hithaya Ka: Work for personal liberation (or growth) and for the good of society.
3. Yajnarthat Karma: Work in a spirit of sacrifice, focusing on the needs of others.
He suggests that we integrate these principles by becoming aware of our unique skills and potentials, by strengthening them and finally looking at what societal needs they could serve. Mehta did just that when, at the age of 50, he decided to yoke his vast managerial and financial acumen to the needs of the society.
He now heads the Kasturba Health Society which runs a hospital, a nursing home and a medical college in Wardha, Maharashtra. The first step to having it all is not to want it. The second step is to step outside the narrow framework of our desires and needs and focus on the needs of othersHe point out: “My shift from corporate work to social work has made me happy.
Whatever few lakhs of money I generate for my causes gives me far more satisfaction than the hundreds of crores I made for my companies.” He adds: “I often tell my corporate friends that had I spent more time with the corporate elite, I would have lost my faith in humanity and become a cynic. When I go to the villages and meet my sevikas, I get my batteries recharged and regain my faith.”
Indeed, while productivity and success are the key benefits of the principle of seva, no less significant are the personal gains in terms of growth, satisfaction and joy. All these are byproducts of an approach that resolves the conflict that is at the root of our present way of functioning.
If we live in conflict with the environment or our fellow creatures; if our best instincts are at war with our need for survival, much of our potential will remain unlocked. The service motive resolves the conflict by revealing that our welfare is linked to the welfare of mankind and that of the universe.
Medha Patkar admits that she is a debtor, not a creditor, to her work. “I have learnt a lot from the tribal about developing a simple and down-to-earth approach to life and cultivating a special relationship with nature. A huge advantage of the work I have done is that I have managed to relate at various levels from the harmless advises to World Bank officials.
One needs to use different strategies and skills but operate from the same value framework. This is a challenge.” She adds: “I have grown in perspective by working on the Narmada project. It did not remain an issue, but became a symbol of struggle against a paradigm of development. One may not be able to realize all ideals in a lifetime, but it is enough to keep moving and doing what you can.”
Dr Radhike Khanna, vice principal of the S.P.J. Sadhana School for the developmentally handicapped, is an outstanding example of the power of service to transform and uplift. The school educates children with IQs of less than 50. Khanna has been instrumental in creating a cookery section, an office skills section and an arts section to help the students create livelihood for themselves.
The creative output from these courses is excellent. Who can believe that these polite, virtually normal youngsters, had to be taught everything from scratch? The rewards, Khanna says, have all been hers. “I struggled for six months to make a child hold a brush in her hands. And when she came back later with a canvas full of colors, I had no words to express my joy.” Another time, when she and her team of teachers had taken the students for a camp at Ranthambore, one of them fell into water.
“He was curled up at the bottom of the pool. We were 45 km away from the nearest hospital. I gave him artificial respiration, and Reiki right through the long ride. I kept saying, ‘Devan, come back, come back’. And he did. He suddenly came alive. That’s when you know how much support you get from the universe.”
Another who has plugged into the creative power of service is Abhishek Thakore, a student and founder of a social organization called Blue Ribbon. Members of his group, most of whom are students, help out at orphanages and old-age homes. On home service day, they go house to house, washing dishes, cleaning, and cooking!
He comments: “I’ve changed. I used to consider it below my dignity to do manual work. At a recent Art of Living course, I did what I hated most—clearing the garbage. There is no satisfaction comparable to that which you get in contributing to people’s lives.” Thakore steers clear of the notorious helpers’ ego by asking for help when he needs it. “Being open to receiving is equally important,” he feels.
He also intuited on an important insight when he discovered that giving triggered off receiving. “When I started sharing knowledge, my own increased. At one time, I decided against sharing it and I found that my own learning foundered.” Srinivasan’s Dignity Dialogue grew from a magazine to a movement in less than four months. “People often asked me about loneliness. So, we made a volunteer team of 100 subscribers and trained them in social counseling.”
But requests kept pouring in—for help in cases of abuse, for jobs, for security, at a time when reports of murders of senior citizens were routinely appearing in newspapers. By taking care of the never before addressed needs of her constituency, Srinivasan’s influence and popularity grew. Government gave funds. Pretty soon, she was running a public trust instead of relying on advertisers.
The Bombay Municipal Corporation chipped in by offering her a spacious office. Eventually, the Ambanis took it over. “Making it a national movement is what I am planning,” she says. The bottom-line in this maelstrom of activity is clear—self-fulfillment. “I am doing all this because it gives me happiness. I am realizing my potential.”
The seva motive can transform the way governments and large organizations work, as Suresh Pundit and N.H. Athreya have proved with the Prabhadevi Special Services and Trunk Booking Exchange of MTNL, Mumbai. When the woes of the operator were handled and they were sensitized to the needs of the public, their performance went up dramatically.
The number of ‘acceptable’ conversations, which customers approved of, went up from 42 per cent to 96 per cent. The service motive has the potential to transform the way we work in India, perhaps even make it that superpower the government dreams of. All it needs is the will and determination.
The Principles of the Bhagavadgita
by Swami Krishnananda
The Divine Life Society - Sivananda Ashram, Rishikesh, India
(An interview with a group of Christians and Pune-Ashram Nuns)
Consciousness cannot be externalised because consciousness is indivisible. If you imagine that consciousness is divisible, you have also to imagine that there is a gap between the two parts thereof. Who is conscious of this gap? Consciousness alone is conscious of this gap between the two parts. That means, consciousness is present even in the gap in between. This is another way of saying that consciousness is universal.
Everyone in this world refers to 'himself' or 'herself'. This 'self hood' is applicable not only to organic, but inorganic bodies and objects also. If 'selfhood' is applicable to the whole world, it means the whole world is filled with selfhood alone, and since selfhood is inseparable from consciousness, it means that the whole world is filled with consciousness.
But on account of ignorance, we imagine that objects are outside the self. This idea of object outside is itself a misconception. There is no object external to the self. What you call the object is self itself. Let us take the example of a dream in which a tiger chases a man. He runs in fear and finally climbs up a tree.
The tree, the tiger, the chase, etc. are all a projection of his own mind and his dream-personality also is a process of his mind. So the one mind becomes every one of these in the dream. It is subjective as well as objective. This is what is happening in the waking condition also; and, even as the one single mind became all objects in the dream, the universal mind has become all these external objects around here even in waking life. They are nothing but the universal mind ultimately.
You would not know that the tiger in the dream is unreal till you wake up. Even so, there is another waking up from the present waking consciousness. That higher awakening is called God-consciousness. In that condition, you will see that all the objects of the world are your own universal self.
The efforts of man for material prosperity, and the like, are an indication of his deeper urge to reach up to the universal consciousness. From social consciousness, you go to individual consciousness and from the individual consciousness to the universal consciousness, and from there, again, to the Absolute.
From social aspect you go to the mind and from the mind to the intellect and from there to the universal consciousness. This is the process of universal history as well as natural evolution. Thus the whole universe is struggling to attain the self-realisation of itself. Socially, it goes through the historical process, personally through the psychological process, and naturally through evolution.
The society, the individual and nature are simultaneously moving towards the Absolute. As a matter of fact, the society, the individual and the world are not three different things; they are three aspects of a single universal whole; there is only one world having only one single purpose in life. When your activities are directed to this ultimate purpose, your activities become what is called Karma-Yoga.
The main gospel of the Bhagavadgita is Karma-Yoga, because it converts every activity into a meditation on the Absolute. The Bhagavadgita teaches that worldly activity is itself a spiritual activity in the end, because any activity is finally inseparable from the movement of the Absolute, and, therefore, it is, in truth, spiritual activity. For the Yogi, there is no difference between worldly and spiritual activity.
Everything is spiritual for him. The highest insight does not make any difference between the temporal and the spiritual, ultimately. Established religion does. So there is an apparent conflict between the sacred and the secular, the holy and the profane, the Church and the Government, each wanting to control the other.
Even today, due to these misconceptions, religions are failing us. The religious teachers insist that God is above the world and blessedness is a promise of the hereafter. But God is not merely transcendent to the world; He is in the world. So everything in the world has to be considered spiritual in its ultimate essence. God is not only in the world, but is the world. He is both immanent and transcendent.
Arjuna was not yet fit for Yoga. So, Lord Krishna takes him step by step until he is qualified for Karma-Yoga. Notions have to be analysed. The senses have their own notions about things; one is, that things are outside and the other that the things are localised in time and space. That a thing can be at one place only and not at two is an inveterate notion that the senses have.
They do not know that things are interconnected among themselves. If they did, they would not go for certain things only. They, thus, have a notion that things are physical, external as well as localised. But this is a misconception of the senses. In the ultimate analysis, we find that things are not diversified, but have a deeper underlying connection between them. Reality will always assert itself.
It is difficult to define reality. Reality is not diversity, but coordination and unity. In the beginning, it appears that things are different, later that they are interconnected and later still, finally, that they are compounded of one and the same substance.
The Bhagavadgita has 18 chapters and they are grouped into 6 each. The first part of the first six chapters solves the problem of the conflict of the division within the individual. The second deals with the coordination of the individual with the universal, and the third the unity of the universe with the Absolute.
The solutions of the conflict of the individual, the universal and the absolute are given in these various chapters, stage by stage. The subject is very vast and a bare outline alone is given. The entire gospel will take a long time to learn.
As long as the conflict between God and man is not solved, no other conflict can be solved. The root of the trouble is the separation of the individual from the Supreme Being. The aspiration for the coordination of the individual, the social and the universal is only an indication of the individual's need to reach the Absolute.
We are trying to achieve external unity through institutions like the United Nations Organization, for instance. But broken pieces of glass cannot be put together by the use of even the best gum. You have to melt the pieces and recast them to make the glass whole once again, and this is what has to be done by these organizations.
We do not, however, know the secret and hope to succeed merely by conferences, etc. The individuals have to be melted into the Absolute, and only then can there be real unity. The Bhagavadgita tells you how this can be achieved. In the beginning, you have a hasty aspiration for the Supreme, the Absolute.
But this cannot materialise so easily as it requires a long period of training and discipline to mature into experience. It seems almost impossible. This is what is described in the first chapter of the Gita. You feel like doing something, but you cannot really do it. The majority of the people in the world are in this condition only. They want truth, but cannot get it because the subconscious mind revolts against the higher aspirations.
In the second chapter, the Gita tells us that this fear can be conquered through a guide or a spiritual teacher. The spiritual path is very difficult to tread without a proper guide, and this proper guide cannot be had by study of books either, because you need the guidance of a person who has already walked the path.
This chapter introduces us to the great Yoga which the Master of Yoga, Sri Krisna, imparts. Here the Master tells us that all our efforts should be based on knowledge. Action without knowledge will not succeed, for what succeeds is not the activity, but the knowledge that directs the activity. As a matter of fact, the whole gospel of the Gita is nothing but the blending of knowledge and activity.
We have wrong notions about both these; we assume that knowledge means no activity, while activity is divorced from knowledge. Sri Krishna tells us that neither notion is correct. It is very difficult to understand what knowledge and activity are. Action is the outward expression of knowledge and knowledge is the inner reality of action. This may be said to be the central theme of the Gita. Action is rooted in knowledge. Then you gain the requisite inner trend to conduct yourself rightly in the outer world.
In Chapters II to VI, we are told how the individual personality can be disciplined in the process of blending knowledge and action. In the blend of knowledge and action, one can enter into the state of meditation. Chapter V explains at the end what meditation is in a short aphorism. It does not mean that in your ardour for meditation, in life, you can ignore the activities of the world.
Many think that meditation is an individual and private activity which has nothing to do with the world outside. But it is not so. The two go and work together, like the wings of a bird.
Chapter VII tells us that meditation is a coordination of the individual with the universe. So meditation is not a private act, but a universal process.
Chapters VII to XI give the technique of gradual unification of the individual with the universal. As a matter of fact, when the individual unites itself with the universal, the spiritual manifests itself, automatically. So, in this sense, the individual, the universal and the spiritual mean one and the same thing.
Chapter XII provides the technique of the various spiritual practices to bring about this unification, the four Yogas proper. Chapters XIII to XVIII give a beautiful exposition of how you can live in the world after acquiring this universal knowledge. It is only with this knowledge that one can redeem the world and do social work for the welfare of people: Sarvabhutahita.
All this means that one cannot do real good to the world unless one is a truly spiritual person. You need the necessary qualifications even to get a job; and to do social work worth the while you need training in the field of the spiritual, in order to succeed in the sphere of human solidarity and material prosperity. The Gita gospel, therefore, prepares you for leading a universal life in this world.
The Yoga of the Gita is inclusive of social work, humanitarian service, individual peace, as well as God-realization. This is the most complete exposition of Yoga available anywhere in the world. It is a veritable ocean placed before you. Drown yourself in it; save yourself with this vitamin tablet of the Gita.
The difficulty in practice arises because of old habits persisting which can be cured by everyday meditation without a break. Satya, Ahimsa, Brahmacarya, in their larger sense of freedom from tension and conservation of energy, are the pre-requisites for meditation.
Whatever you do in this world is equal to an adoration of God. God is to be seen in everything visible in the world. Truth is everything, and the knowledge of the nature of Truth is at once harmony with all creations.
It is an instantaneous communion of meditation and action, grace and effort, the divine and the earthly, the relative and the absolute - Krisha and Arjuna driving forward, seated in a single chariot which is this body, and this universe evolving towards perfection.
Courtesy: Divine Life Society, Rishikesh
The Divine Life Society - Sivananda Ashram, Rishikesh, India
(An interview with a group of Christians and Pune-Ashram Nuns)
Consciousness cannot be externalised because consciousness is indivisible. If you imagine that consciousness is divisible, you have also to imagine that there is a gap between the two parts thereof. Who is conscious of this gap? Consciousness alone is conscious of this gap between the two parts. That means, consciousness is present even in the gap in between. This is another way of saying that consciousness is universal.
Everyone in this world refers to 'himself' or 'herself'. This 'self hood' is applicable not only to organic, but inorganic bodies and objects also. If 'selfhood' is applicable to the whole world, it means the whole world is filled with selfhood alone, and since selfhood is inseparable from consciousness, it means that the whole world is filled with consciousness.
But on account of ignorance, we imagine that objects are outside the self. This idea of object outside is itself a misconception. There is no object external to the self. What you call the object is self itself. Let us take the example of a dream in which a tiger chases a man. He runs in fear and finally climbs up a tree.
The tree, the tiger, the chase, etc. are all a projection of his own mind and his dream-personality also is a process of his mind. So the one mind becomes every one of these in the dream. It is subjective as well as objective. This is what is happening in the waking condition also; and, even as the one single mind became all objects in the dream, the universal mind has become all these external objects around here even in waking life. They are nothing but the universal mind ultimately.
You would not know that the tiger in the dream is unreal till you wake up. Even so, there is another waking up from the present waking consciousness. That higher awakening is called God-consciousness. In that condition, you will see that all the objects of the world are your own universal self.
The efforts of man for material prosperity, and the like, are an indication of his deeper urge to reach up to the universal consciousness. From social consciousness, you go to individual consciousness and from the individual consciousness to the universal consciousness, and from there, again, to the Absolute.
From social aspect you go to the mind and from the mind to the intellect and from there to the universal consciousness. This is the process of universal history as well as natural evolution. Thus the whole universe is struggling to attain the self-realisation of itself. Socially, it goes through the historical process, personally through the psychological process, and naturally through evolution.
The society, the individual and nature are simultaneously moving towards the Absolute. As a matter of fact, the society, the individual and the world are not three different things; they are three aspects of a single universal whole; there is only one world having only one single purpose in life. When your activities are directed to this ultimate purpose, your activities become what is called Karma-Yoga.
The main gospel of the Bhagavadgita is Karma-Yoga, because it converts every activity into a meditation on the Absolute. The Bhagavadgita teaches that worldly activity is itself a spiritual activity in the end, because any activity is finally inseparable from the movement of the Absolute, and, therefore, it is, in truth, spiritual activity. For the Yogi, there is no difference between worldly and spiritual activity.
Everything is spiritual for him. The highest insight does not make any difference between the temporal and the spiritual, ultimately. Established religion does. So there is an apparent conflict between the sacred and the secular, the holy and the profane, the Church and the Government, each wanting to control the other.
Even today, due to these misconceptions, religions are failing us. The religious teachers insist that God is above the world and blessedness is a promise of the hereafter. But God is not merely transcendent to the world; He is in the world. So everything in the world has to be considered spiritual in its ultimate essence. God is not only in the world, but is the world. He is both immanent and transcendent.
Arjuna was not yet fit for Yoga. So, Lord Krishna takes him step by step until he is qualified for Karma-Yoga. Notions have to be analysed. The senses have their own notions about things; one is, that things are outside and the other that the things are localised in time and space. That a thing can be at one place only and not at two is an inveterate notion that the senses have.
They do not know that things are interconnected among themselves. If they did, they would not go for certain things only. They, thus, have a notion that things are physical, external as well as localised. But this is a misconception of the senses. In the ultimate analysis, we find that things are not diversified, but have a deeper underlying connection between them. Reality will always assert itself.
It is difficult to define reality. Reality is not diversity, but coordination and unity. In the beginning, it appears that things are different, later that they are interconnected and later still, finally, that they are compounded of one and the same substance.
The Bhagavadgita has 18 chapters and they are grouped into 6 each. The first part of the first six chapters solves the problem of the conflict of the division within the individual. The second deals with the coordination of the individual with the universal, and the third the unity of the universe with the Absolute.
The solutions of the conflict of the individual, the universal and the absolute are given in these various chapters, stage by stage. The subject is very vast and a bare outline alone is given. The entire gospel will take a long time to learn.
As long as the conflict between God and man is not solved, no other conflict can be solved. The root of the trouble is the separation of the individual from the Supreme Being. The aspiration for the coordination of the individual, the social and the universal is only an indication of the individual's need to reach the Absolute.
We are trying to achieve external unity through institutions like the United Nations Organization, for instance. But broken pieces of glass cannot be put together by the use of even the best gum. You have to melt the pieces and recast them to make the glass whole once again, and this is what has to be done by these organizations.
We do not, however, know the secret and hope to succeed merely by conferences, etc. The individuals have to be melted into the Absolute, and only then can there be real unity. The Bhagavadgita tells you how this can be achieved. In the beginning, you have a hasty aspiration for the Supreme, the Absolute.
But this cannot materialise so easily as it requires a long period of training and discipline to mature into experience. It seems almost impossible. This is what is described in the first chapter of the Gita. You feel like doing something, but you cannot really do it. The majority of the people in the world are in this condition only. They want truth, but cannot get it because the subconscious mind revolts against the higher aspirations.
In the second chapter, the Gita tells us that this fear can be conquered through a guide or a spiritual teacher. The spiritual path is very difficult to tread without a proper guide, and this proper guide cannot be had by study of books either, because you need the guidance of a person who has already walked the path.
This chapter introduces us to the great Yoga which the Master of Yoga, Sri Krisna, imparts. Here the Master tells us that all our efforts should be based on knowledge. Action without knowledge will not succeed, for what succeeds is not the activity, but the knowledge that directs the activity. As a matter of fact, the whole gospel of the Gita is nothing but the blending of knowledge and activity.
We have wrong notions about both these; we assume that knowledge means no activity, while activity is divorced from knowledge. Sri Krishna tells us that neither notion is correct. It is very difficult to understand what knowledge and activity are. Action is the outward expression of knowledge and knowledge is the inner reality of action. This may be said to be the central theme of the Gita. Action is rooted in knowledge. Then you gain the requisite inner trend to conduct yourself rightly in the outer world.
In Chapters II to VI, we are told how the individual personality can be disciplined in the process of blending knowledge and action. In the blend of knowledge and action, one can enter into the state of meditation. Chapter V explains at the end what meditation is in a short aphorism. It does not mean that in your ardour for meditation, in life, you can ignore the activities of the world.
Many think that meditation is an individual and private activity which has nothing to do with the world outside. But it is not so. The two go and work together, like the wings of a bird.
Chapter VII tells us that meditation is a coordination of the individual with the universe. So meditation is not a private act, but a universal process.
Chapters VII to XI give the technique of gradual unification of the individual with the universal. As a matter of fact, when the individual unites itself with the universal, the spiritual manifests itself, automatically. So, in this sense, the individual, the universal and the spiritual mean one and the same thing.
Chapter XII provides the technique of the various spiritual practices to bring about this unification, the four Yogas proper. Chapters XIII to XVIII give a beautiful exposition of how you can live in the world after acquiring this universal knowledge. It is only with this knowledge that one can redeem the world and do social work for the welfare of people: Sarvabhutahita.
All this means that one cannot do real good to the world unless one is a truly spiritual person. You need the necessary qualifications even to get a job; and to do social work worth the while you need training in the field of the spiritual, in order to succeed in the sphere of human solidarity and material prosperity. The Gita gospel, therefore, prepares you for leading a universal life in this world.
The Yoga of the Gita is inclusive of social work, humanitarian service, individual peace, as well as God-realization. This is the most complete exposition of Yoga available anywhere in the world. It is a veritable ocean placed before you. Drown yourself in it; save yourself with this vitamin tablet of the Gita.
The difficulty in practice arises because of old habits persisting which can be cured by everyday meditation without a break. Satya, Ahimsa, Brahmacarya, in their larger sense of freedom from tension and conservation of energy, are the pre-requisites for meditation.
Whatever you do in this world is equal to an adoration of God. God is to be seen in everything visible in the world. Truth is everything, and the knowledge of the nature of Truth is at once harmony with all creations.
It is an instantaneous communion of meditation and action, grace and effort, the divine and the earthly, the relative and the absolute - Krisha and Arjuna driving forward, seated in a single chariot which is this body, and this universe evolving towards perfection.
Courtesy: Divine Life Society, Rishikesh
Vision of life -Swami Tejomayananda
At a satsang in one place, someone asked me: “How to have fun in life?”
“Be serious”, I said, and I said it rather seriously because really speaking the pursuit of happiness is a serious matter.
A superficial approach to anything lands one in trouble. So, “Eat, drink and make merry” is a very shallow view of life. Deeper enquiry takes us to deeper truths. Let us see how Vedanta views the issue of happiness.
To put it in a simple way, life is constituted of perception and response. Whether we like it or not, we cannot help responding to people, to situations, to events, in general to the world around. Now, response depends on individual perception.
Everybody see the same object but how each sees it makes all the difference. Perception therefore can be called as a vision of life and response as an action or reaction that depends on this vision. Superficially whatever we see or experience with our gross sense organs is alone considered as real.
No wonder, one finds the world very enchanting with its infinite variety and matchless beauty. But when we try to understand the same world a little deeply, it becomes very mind-boggling. Normally what happens is we get enchanted by the world of names and forms.
But again we feel horrified or dejected by what happiness sometimes in this very world. All this proves that what is visible is immaterial, what is invisible is much more significant. What is visible is only an appearance and we all know that appearances are deceptive.
The one truth that is not visible is subtle and it is this Truth that will solve all the problems. To see this Truth, we need a purse mind and subtle intellect. This is where Bhagavad Gita talks of a sattvika vision.
A sattvika vision is one that helps us perceive the one Truth that pervades the multiple and diverse world of names and forms. Such a vision can make all the difference. It can help us see oneness in the midst of variety; it can protect us in the face of temptation, frustration and fear.
The Lord explains such a vision in the Gita:
sarvabhuteshu yenaikam bhavamavyayamikshate
avibhaktam vibhakteshu tajjnanam viddhi sattvikam
All the Upanishads exhort one to develop this indivisible, immutable, immaculate vision. The very first verse of Ishavasya Upanishad asks us to develop such a vision. “Pervade the world with the vision of the one Truth that is the Lord.”
Om ishavasyamidgam sarvam yat kinca jagatyam jagat
tena tyaktena bhunjitha ma grdhah kasyasvid dhanam
Great souls who have attained this vision will work for unity, integration and happiness of all.
Therefore, this answers the question of what fun or happiness is. It is not in merely gratifying our senses. The happiness experienced as a result of such a noble vision alone can be called as true and lasting happiness.
But sadly, many of us do not have this kind of a vision. We are stuck either with rajasika vision (extroverted outlook) or a tamasika vision (dull approach). Lord Krishna in the Gita explains the pitfalls inherent in these approaches.
For example, a person with rajasika vision sees differences while perceiving the work and he considers those differences alone as real. He forms mental division such as “I – my”, “you - yours”, “good - bad” and so on. The actions performed by him therefore are born of either attachment or aversion. He is happy only as long as everything runs according to his tastes and preferences. The moment something goes awry, he becomes agitated and troublesome.
A person with a tamasika vision is even worse. He is deeply, fanatically and exclusively attached to a particular object, ideology or cause, with the result that even the happiness he experiences reflects his conflict. His happiness is got by unhealthy means as fights, addiction, sleep and indolence.
Therefore, it becomes clear that the sattvika kind of happiness alone deserves to be pursued. All other ways to attain happiness are illusory, both at individual and the collective level.
In life, we get mixed results because our vision is sattvika, in that all of us desire happiness, peace and harmony.
But, our conviction is not ripe and so we are not very clear when it comes to actions and results. For example, if we are informed of a crime immediately cry for justice but the moment we are further made aware that our own family member is the culprit, then we change our response saying: “No one is perfect”. We can see the same happening at the international level too.
The Upanishads praise a person with a sattvika vision as someone with a balanced view of life as he has eliminated sorrow, delusion and hatred once and for all (tatra ko mohah, kah shokah). All of us are seeking this kind of happiness. But we end up with something else because there is a wide gap between what we seek, what we do and what we get.
That is why I said that the pursuit of happiness is a serious matter. How wonderful it would be if we all looked at the vast world as having human beings rather than dividing them on the basis of nations, regions, religions, races and sects.
Remember, a narrow vision is divisive. A broad vision is expansive. But the Supreme vision is all-inclusive. It alone helps us to transform and transcend. Lets us hope to get it by studying the Gita and the Upanishads.
“Be serious”, I said, and I said it rather seriously because really speaking the pursuit of happiness is a serious matter.
A superficial approach to anything lands one in trouble. So, “Eat, drink and make merry” is a very shallow view of life. Deeper enquiry takes us to deeper truths. Let us see how Vedanta views the issue of happiness.
To put it in a simple way, life is constituted of perception and response. Whether we like it or not, we cannot help responding to people, to situations, to events, in general to the world around. Now, response depends on individual perception.
Everybody see the same object but how each sees it makes all the difference. Perception therefore can be called as a vision of life and response as an action or reaction that depends on this vision. Superficially whatever we see or experience with our gross sense organs is alone considered as real.
No wonder, one finds the world very enchanting with its infinite variety and matchless beauty. But when we try to understand the same world a little deeply, it becomes very mind-boggling. Normally what happens is we get enchanted by the world of names and forms.
But again we feel horrified or dejected by what happiness sometimes in this very world. All this proves that what is visible is immaterial, what is invisible is much more significant. What is visible is only an appearance and we all know that appearances are deceptive.
The one truth that is not visible is subtle and it is this Truth that will solve all the problems. To see this Truth, we need a purse mind and subtle intellect. This is where Bhagavad Gita talks of a sattvika vision.
A sattvika vision is one that helps us perceive the one Truth that pervades the multiple and diverse world of names and forms. Such a vision can make all the difference. It can help us see oneness in the midst of variety; it can protect us in the face of temptation, frustration and fear.
The Lord explains such a vision in the Gita:
sarvabhuteshu yenaikam bhavamavyayamikshate
avibhaktam vibhakteshu tajjnanam viddhi sattvikam
All the Upanishads exhort one to develop this indivisible, immutable, immaculate vision. The very first verse of Ishavasya Upanishad asks us to develop such a vision. “Pervade the world with the vision of the one Truth that is the Lord.”
Om ishavasyamidgam sarvam yat kinca jagatyam jagat
tena tyaktena bhunjitha ma grdhah kasyasvid dhanam
Great souls who have attained this vision will work for unity, integration and happiness of all.
Therefore, this answers the question of what fun or happiness is. It is not in merely gratifying our senses. The happiness experienced as a result of such a noble vision alone can be called as true and lasting happiness.
But sadly, many of us do not have this kind of a vision. We are stuck either with rajasika vision (extroverted outlook) or a tamasika vision (dull approach). Lord Krishna in the Gita explains the pitfalls inherent in these approaches.
For example, a person with rajasika vision sees differences while perceiving the work and he considers those differences alone as real. He forms mental division such as “I – my”, “you - yours”, “good - bad” and so on. The actions performed by him therefore are born of either attachment or aversion. He is happy only as long as everything runs according to his tastes and preferences. The moment something goes awry, he becomes agitated and troublesome.
A person with a tamasika vision is even worse. He is deeply, fanatically and exclusively attached to a particular object, ideology or cause, with the result that even the happiness he experiences reflects his conflict. His happiness is got by unhealthy means as fights, addiction, sleep and indolence.
Therefore, it becomes clear that the sattvika kind of happiness alone deserves to be pursued. All other ways to attain happiness are illusory, both at individual and the collective level.
In life, we get mixed results because our vision is sattvika, in that all of us desire happiness, peace and harmony.
But, our conviction is not ripe and so we are not very clear when it comes to actions and results. For example, if we are informed of a crime immediately cry for justice but the moment we are further made aware that our own family member is the culprit, then we change our response saying: “No one is perfect”. We can see the same happening at the international level too.
The Upanishads praise a person with a sattvika vision as someone with a balanced view of life as he has eliminated sorrow, delusion and hatred once and for all (tatra ko mohah, kah shokah). All of us are seeking this kind of happiness. But we end up with something else because there is a wide gap between what we seek, what we do and what we get.
That is why I said that the pursuit of happiness is a serious matter. How wonderful it would be if we all looked at the vast world as having human beings rather than dividing them on the basis of nations, regions, religions, races and sects.
Remember, a narrow vision is divisive. A broad vision is expansive. But the Supreme vision is all-inclusive. It alone helps us to transform and transcend. Lets us hope to get it by studying the Gita and the Upanishads.
Process of Meditation - Swami Chinmayananda
Meditation is the final gateway which leads to the discovery of the supreme Self within. Before the Self, the core of the human personality, could be reached, one’s attention must first be withdrawn from the world of sensual activities and then from the five layers of matter enveloping it.
The mind of man attracted by the sense organs constantly dwells in the sense objects around him. His attention being extrovert, the world of beings and things creates desires and agitations in his bosom thereby rendering him unfit for any concentrated activity. To subdue these activities the first step in the process of meditation would necessarily be to disengage his attention from the world.
This is achieved, as seen earlier, by practicing selfless service, by cultivating devotion for the Lord or by studying and reflecting upon the scriptural truths. Having thus achieved a certain amount of withdrawal from the world, the meditator chooses a quiet place for his meditation so as to be physically away from the disturbances of the external world.
It has been the common experience of seekers particularly in larger cities not to be able to procure a quiet place for the purpose amidst the noises both outside and inside the house. Whenever such a situation arises the solution would be to choose a quiet time, say, an early hour of the morning when everything is silent and One should bear in mind that an absolute quietude is not found even in the serene atmosphere of the Himalayas, and what we are seeking for is a relatively peaceful place. In fact, real tranquility is found within one’s self and not in the environment.
In the place chosen for meditation, the idol worshiped by the seeker is fixed in front of his meditation seat with the feet of the Lord in level with the vision of his eyes. In case where no particular idol is worshipped and the meditator wishes to have one, an Om sign may be prepared and placed likewise. Flowers, incense sticks and other decoration help to suggest to the sense organs that the mind has withdrawn from the world and is seeking the Truth.
After having thus detached from the gross external world the next step in the process of meditation is to withdraw one’s attention from the physical body. The mind which has been pulled back from the world may still think of the body and continue to dissipate itself. To avoid this, the sadhaka is advised to maintain proper health and take precautions to ensure that the body does not cause any disturbance during the practice of meditation. Again, at the seat of meditation the strain in the limbs or the tension in the muscles may disturb one’s concentration.
To get over these disturbances the meditator is asked to sit in the correct posture using a thin flat cushion (not too soft—a bed sheet folded twice may serve the purpose). The correct posture for meditation is to sit with legs folded, having a maximum base, vertebral column erect (slightly bending forward in the pelvic region) with the left hand placed on the left thigh and the right hand with the mala on the right calf muscle.
The eyes are kept gently closed and looking nowhere in particular as in sleep. With posture thus fixed, the mind is made to tap slowly the various muscles of the body starting from the neck and descending to the toes with a view to inspect and release their stiffness and tension, if any. This process is called ‘Thought-Massage’. With the completion of the Thought-Massage, the withdrawal of one’s attention from the disturbances of the physical body is complete.
The next source of disturbance is the mind where the predominant thoughts and desires of the day rise and cause agitations. Such of them which arise spontaneously are allowed to come up and exhaust themselves. The meditator is however cautioned not to initiate any fresh thoughts and thus create further agitations instead of quietening those that are already in his mind.
All the while, the intellect stands firm and detachedly observes the thoughts coming up and passing away just as a military officer taking the salute watches a march past without identifying with anyone of the soldiers marching before him. By this practice all the agitations in the mind settle down, at least temporarily, and the mind is available for the chant. The process is known as ‘Thought-Parade’.
After the Thought-Parade is over the individual is fully prepared and he starts his japa or chanting. As long as the chanting continues, the mind and intellect exist, since the mind is thought-flow and the intellect, the discriminating faculty which distinguishes one thought from another.
In a concentrated spell of chanting, the meditator stops the chanting suddenly and in the silence, created by the absence of thoughts, there is neither the mind nor the intellect. That moment of dynamic silence is the state of God-Realization when the meditator, the meditated and the meditation merge into one eternal blissful Experience.
The mind of man attracted by the sense organs constantly dwells in the sense objects around him. His attention being extrovert, the world of beings and things creates desires and agitations in his bosom thereby rendering him unfit for any concentrated activity. To subdue these activities the first step in the process of meditation would necessarily be to disengage his attention from the world.
This is achieved, as seen earlier, by practicing selfless service, by cultivating devotion for the Lord or by studying and reflecting upon the scriptural truths. Having thus achieved a certain amount of withdrawal from the world, the meditator chooses a quiet place for his meditation so as to be physically away from the disturbances of the external world.
It has been the common experience of seekers particularly in larger cities not to be able to procure a quiet place for the purpose amidst the noises both outside and inside the house. Whenever such a situation arises the solution would be to choose a quiet time, say, an early hour of the morning when everything is silent and One should bear in mind that an absolute quietude is not found even in the serene atmosphere of the Himalayas, and what we are seeking for is a relatively peaceful place. In fact, real tranquility is found within one’s self and not in the environment.
In the place chosen for meditation, the idol worshiped by the seeker is fixed in front of his meditation seat with the feet of the Lord in level with the vision of his eyes. In case where no particular idol is worshipped and the meditator wishes to have one, an Om sign may be prepared and placed likewise. Flowers, incense sticks and other decoration help to suggest to the sense organs that the mind has withdrawn from the world and is seeking the Truth.
After having thus detached from the gross external world the next step in the process of meditation is to withdraw one’s attention from the physical body. The mind which has been pulled back from the world may still think of the body and continue to dissipate itself. To avoid this, the sadhaka is advised to maintain proper health and take precautions to ensure that the body does not cause any disturbance during the practice of meditation. Again, at the seat of meditation the strain in the limbs or the tension in the muscles may disturb one’s concentration.
To get over these disturbances the meditator is asked to sit in the correct posture using a thin flat cushion (not too soft—a bed sheet folded twice may serve the purpose). The correct posture for meditation is to sit with legs folded, having a maximum base, vertebral column erect (slightly bending forward in the pelvic region) with the left hand placed on the left thigh and the right hand with the mala on the right calf muscle.
The eyes are kept gently closed and looking nowhere in particular as in sleep. With posture thus fixed, the mind is made to tap slowly the various muscles of the body starting from the neck and descending to the toes with a view to inspect and release their stiffness and tension, if any. This process is called ‘Thought-Massage’. With the completion of the Thought-Massage, the withdrawal of one’s attention from the disturbances of the physical body is complete.
The next source of disturbance is the mind where the predominant thoughts and desires of the day rise and cause agitations. Such of them which arise spontaneously are allowed to come up and exhaust themselves. The meditator is however cautioned not to initiate any fresh thoughts and thus create further agitations instead of quietening those that are already in his mind.
All the while, the intellect stands firm and detachedly observes the thoughts coming up and passing away just as a military officer taking the salute watches a march past without identifying with anyone of the soldiers marching before him. By this practice all the agitations in the mind settle down, at least temporarily, and the mind is available for the chant. The process is known as ‘Thought-Parade’.
After the Thought-Parade is over the individual is fully prepared and he starts his japa or chanting. As long as the chanting continues, the mind and intellect exist, since the mind is thought-flow and the intellect, the discriminating faculty which distinguishes one thought from another.
In a concentrated spell of chanting, the meditator stops the chanting suddenly and in the silence, created by the absence of thoughts, there is neither the mind nor the intellect. That moment of dynamic silence is the state of God-Realization when the meditator, the meditated and the meditation merge into one eternal blissful Experience.
Faith -Swami Tejomayananda
Faith is to Believe what you do not see, the reward of which is you see what you believed.
Faith plays a very vital role in our lives. It is so powerful that it can make impossible targets possible. It has the power to move mountains. Everything in the world revolves around faith.
The entire human race evolved from cavemen to the modern thinking and achieving men of today, solely through the power of faith! The long strides being made in the field of science, economics and religion are all possible due to faith. In fact, we cannot even put one step forward without having faith.
Walking would be a constant falling forward. However, we walk because we have faith that we will not fall. The first step we took as a small child was entirely on faith. Man progressed from the time he was dwelling in the caves to the modern era of computers because of his faith in the observation of the world and in the laws governing it. This faith in his own sense organs and intelligence made him experiment with nature and discover her various secrets.
Though faith is an important aspect of our lives, its full meaning and its profound implications are rarely understood and appreciated. Generally, people take it to be a negative quality, implying lack of intellectual maturity. Pujya Gurudev has well defined it as follows, "Faith is to believe what you do not see, the reward of which is you see what you believed."
In the beginning, it may appear like a blind belief but it culminates in the verification of what was believed. Blind belief is a belief in something that cannot be verified, neither through experience nor through logic. Blind belief leads to superstitions.
Faith, however, is verifiable; hence it is unique. In the initial stages, faith acts as a motivation for action, called kriti hetah. The first time we perform an action, we do so with faith alone. Many inventions in science were done thus. The scientists never knew how they would turn out but they went ahead and tried them on faith.
The first time man flew an airplane or medicine was tried on a human was all performed on faith. Our travel, education, etc. all depends on faith. The so called Rationalists believe that Faith is opposed to reason. They take great pride in negating the importance of faith in our 'rational' world. The truth, however, is far from it. Our reasoning itself is based on the faith in the power of our intellect.
We have to have faith in the power of the senses to show us the right picture of the world based on which we formulate our logical thinking. The whole scientific process is a journey in our faith in the apparatus used for various experiments.
Most apparatuses are an extension and enhancement of our sense organs. Further, it is faith in the documented formula, such as E = mc2 and Newton's law of gravity, that scientists have been able to make progress in various fields.
Faith plays an important role in our personal life, relationships, business, politics, etc. All relationships, whether of the family or of business, are based on trust, which is another form of faith. In the business world, unless there is an underlying trust among all parties, no amount of legal contracts can help.
We interact with the outside world having faith in human nature and the nobler values. For example, when we board a plane, we are putting our trust in the pilot's hands. One has to trust the world in order to make one's life more peaceful and harmonious.
Faith plays a vital role in the field of religion as well, or the so called world of the unseen. Here, there is faith in the existence of the One Reality, which is not directly visible to us. It is the one underlying principle behind the variety of names and forms. It is that Truth which binds the seeming differences together in one cord.
This Reality is the very Self in all. Though the Self is not visible to the naked eye, the existence of the Self is declared in the scriptures and is the direct experience of many masters. The scriptures are the declarations of these masters' experiences. To believe what the scriptures and the masters say as true is the initial step in striving and realizing our own Self.
Here, faith is the virtue of the intellect that is subtle enough to appreciate and comprehend the Truth. The journey begins with faith and culminates in the realization of the Truth.
Faith is a very important virtue in various aspects of our lives. Faith brings us closer to the secret which makes the whole world move in a wonderful clockwise precision.
Have faith in Faith - for it is the real wealth of man.
Courtesy: Chinmaya Mission, Saket
Faith plays a very vital role in our lives. It is so powerful that it can make impossible targets possible. It has the power to move mountains. Everything in the world revolves around faith.
The entire human race evolved from cavemen to the modern thinking and achieving men of today, solely through the power of faith! The long strides being made in the field of science, economics and religion are all possible due to faith. In fact, we cannot even put one step forward without having faith.
Walking would be a constant falling forward. However, we walk because we have faith that we will not fall. The first step we took as a small child was entirely on faith. Man progressed from the time he was dwelling in the caves to the modern era of computers because of his faith in the observation of the world and in the laws governing it. This faith in his own sense organs and intelligence made him experiment with nature and discover her various secrets.
Though faith is an important aspect of our lives, its full meaning and its profound implications are rarely understood and appreciated. Generally, people take it to be a negative quality, implying lack of intellectual maturity. Pujya Gurudev has well defined it as follows, "Faith is to believe what you do not see, the reward of which is you see what you believed."
In the beginning, it may appear like a blind belief but it culminates in the verification of what was believed. Blind belief is a belief in something that cannot be verified, neither through experience nor through logic. Blind belief leads to superstitions.
Faith, however, is verifiable; hence it is unique. In the initial stages, faith acts as a motivation for action, called kriti hetah. The first time we perform an action, we do so with faith alone. Many inventions in science were done thus. The scientists never knew how they would turn out but they went ahead and tried them on faith.
The first time man flew an airplane or medicine was tried on a human was all performed on faith. Our travel, education, etc. all depends on faith. The so called Rationalists believe that Faith is opposed to reason. They take great pride in negating the importance of faith in our 'rational' world. The truth, however, is far from it. Our reasoning itself is based on the faith in the power of our intellect.
We have to have faith in the power of the senses to show us the right picture of the world based on which we formulate our logical thinking. The whole scientific process is a journey in our faith in the apparatus used for various experiments.
Most apparatuses are an extension and enhancement of our sense organs. Further, it is faith in the documented formula, such as E = mc2 and Newton's law of gravity, that scientists have been able to make progress in various fields.
Faith plays an important role in our personal life, relationships, business, politics, etc. All relationships, whether of the family or of business, are based on trust, which is another form of faith. In the business world, unless there is an underlying trust among all parties, no amount of legal contracts can help.
We interact with the outside world having faith in human nature and the nobler values. For example, when we board a plane, we are putting our trust in the pilot's hands. One has to trust the world in order to make one's life more peaceful and harmonious.
Faith plays a vital role in the field of religion as well, or the so called world of the unseen. Here, there is faith in the existence of the One Reality, which is not directly visible to us. It is the one underlying principle behind the variety of names and forms. It is that Truth which binds the seeming differences together in one cord.
This Reality is the very Self in all. Though the Self is not visible to the naked eye, the existence of the Self is declared in the scriptures and is the direct experience of many masters. The scriptures are the declarations of these masters' experiences. To believe what the scriptures and the masters say as true is the initial step in striving and realizing our own Self.
Here, faith is the virtue of the intellect that is subtle enough to appreciate and comprehend the Truth. The journey begins with faith and culminates in the realization of the Truth.
Faith is a very important virtue in various aspects of our lives. Faith brings us closer to the secret which makes the whole world move in a wonderful clockwise precision.
Have faith in Faith - for it is the real wealth of man.
Courtesy: Chinmaya Mission, Saket
Brahman and Maya!
Swami Tejomayananda
Brahman And Maya is a free translation in English of
Brahma Ani Maya, a hilarious piece written in Marathi by Pujya Swami Tejomayanandaji (in his early twenties) on 9 March 1972. In this piece Swamiji humorously probes into the Vedantic Truths that underlie our day to day experiences.Scene 1
In an extremely wondrous garden roses of different hues are swaying in ecstacy.
The light of the early dawn has speckled them with its dewdrops which shine as pearls lending an additional grace to the beauty of the garden Just then, a group of young girls giggled and gaggled their way there.
One of the girls cried out in sheer delight, "Aha ! Just look at all these beautiful flowers that have blossomed here. I'd love to put one of them in my hair."
And she ran to fetch it But one of her friends cautioned her about the gardener but who cared?
She touched a flower and was about to pluck it when, suddenly, a voice boomed loudly, "Who is it? STOP ! THIEF !"
The girl's hands shook and shuddererd. No flower came her way, rather, an over -protective thorn, pricked her finger.
But the gardener devilishly gleamed and curled his huge moustache, content with the fact that he had at least caught someone today.
His attention was ever fixed on the flowers waiting for an opprtunity for someone to touch even a single one of them so that he could let out his roar. The beauty of the flowers never really bothered him.
Scene 2
After some time, a Krishna bhakta came along chanting, "Shri Krishna Giovind Hare Murare, Shri
Krishna Govind..............."
"Ah ! What beautiful flowers !" he remarked, " O Krishna, You have Yourself created these flowers
so that they may be offered in worship unto You. I will make a garland of these lovely roses and
decorate them around Your neck, O Krishna."
Singing Krishna, Krishna, the Krishna bhakta ventured closer to pluck, and once again the voice
boomed, "Who is it ? STOP ! THIEF !"
The elderly gardener was a stern disciplinarian of sorts. No sooner did anyone touch the flowers
than he would bellow out loud, suddenly appear out of nowhere and swoop down on his prey.
Otherwise, he was simply invisible to the naked eye.
As soon as the boomimg bellow descended on his ears the devotee lost all sense of devotion and
landed on the other side of the road cowering from sheer fright.
Pleased with the wondrous effect that his voice had, the elderly gardener went back to his hidden
lair waiting for his next prey. God also seemed to be pretty pleased with him. Soon, a young
cajoling couple chanced to come there..
Scene 3
Love is blind, or blinds one. So they say, and here is ample proof.
So lost were the couple in each other's love that they were not aware of others around them.
Slowly but surely, both reached the predestined spot. Now, let's listen to their sweet nothings.
"Oh ! This garden is so cute !" said the girl.
"Ah yes, just like you, my love." said the boy.
"What ? Like me? What a comparison ! ! ! I am not so long and large, am I? And there is no green
grass growing all over my body................What are you talking about ? Had I known earlier that
you were so devoid of poetry, I'd..........................Anyway, let that be. Say, have you seen these
pretty roses? You must get them for me. You had promised that, if need be, you would pluck
flowers from Heaven just for me. Remember? Let the Heavens be as they are. But, for the
moment, get these flowers for me "
Hearing these words, the loverboy's heartbeats beat even faster. He realised what a big mistake
he had committed.
The devilish visage of the gardener and his fierce moustache flashed in front of his eyes. From
his fallen face one could easily infer that he had encountered the gardener earlier too. But, on the
surface, he laughed and said, "You yourself are my most precious rose. Why do you need this
flower then?"
"Nothing doing. I just want that rose."
"Okay, I;'ll get it." Left with no choice the youth threw furtive glances hither and thither and
reached the vantage point and .................then, .......................
The moment the blind lovers had even the faintest suspicion of the presence of a third entity other
than their twin - blessed one, they walked away from the scene of disaster and didn't stop till they
reached home.
Scene 4
"What did you say? This garden is for sale? Good, consider it sold. I'll take it." So saying a trader
went in search of the owner of the garden and returned after some time accompanied with a few
labourers. The labourers immediately started plucking all the rose flowers.The trader stood there
watching it all and so was the gardener. But now he couldn't even let out a whimper of protest.
Mustering up enough courage, he softly asked of the trader, "Sir, why are you plucking all the
flowers?"
"WHAT ?" the trader screamed back at him. Then taking pity on the poor fellow he winked at him
and laughed out, "I'll make Gulkand (a herb made of rose petals) out of it.
Now, let's see - how many of the above 4 or 5 people actually saw the flowers. What a question?
Of course, everyone saw the flowers. But Vedanta asserts, "No. None of them saw the flowers."
"Well then, you mean to say, they saw donkeys? Your Vedanta says anything. Nothing is clear."
"Wait...........Listen carefully.
The first girl saw the beauty of her flower - bedecked hair. The bhakta saw the beauty of
Krishna's idol. The lover saw the blossoming of his beloved's face. And the trader had set his
eyes on the Gulkand.. The gardener never even had time to notice them. In short, everyone saw
merely their own vasanas or desires. Failing to notice the flowers all of them established their
own personal relationships with them. And this alone is Maya !
We never really see any object or person in totality. We see only our own preconceived notions
about them, in them. And this is Maya. For example, we don't see a radio or a cycle as a radio or
a cycle, rather, we see it as my radio or my cycle. And were some one to just mention to us that
our radio is not functioning properly, we would feel so offended as though he had said that we
ourselves had some defects in us. Why is this? Because of Maya. Since, in essence, this
relationship is itself delusory, Maya has ensnared everyone in its spell of delusion and make
believe. So much so that even the spell of delusion is itself a delusion.
Vedanta teaches that whatever we see, hear, feel................. is all, in reality, a delusion, but being
within the web of Maya, we have ouselves superimposed names and forms upon various objects
and deluded ourselves completely. Just as a rose is not the beauty of any bedecked hair, nor is it
any trader's Gulkand, but is actually, merely a rose. In the same way, what we consider to be the
jiva or the jagat is, in essence, Brahman itself. And what we are lost in is Maya. And thus,
Vedanta emphatically asserts,
Brahma satyam jagat mithya,
jivo brahmaiva naparaha
Brahman is the reality. This world, a mere transitory phase.
The jiva is not seperate from Brahman.
Indeed, it is difficult to understand and assimilate this Truth but he who has searched for the Truth
has verily found it. The rest are drowning themselves in the ocean of Maya.
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