The spiritual journey usually begins with this question – Who am I? You have been told that you are a name, a relation, a title, a role, etc from time to time but you know that in essence you are none of those. In moments of introspection, you then enquire with your eyes closed and try to seek the answer.
Answers don’t lie in books or in listening to the Masters, the answer is within you, if only you look for it. you need to silence yourself to hear the answer. The path involves giving up attachments that are the obstacles in your path. Obstacles don’t block the path, they are the path.
Freedom is not fulfilling desires, that actually is the bondage since it requires you to keep fulfilling them to feel satiated. Its a never ending cycle. Learning to live without attachment is true freedom and the path is that of letting go…
Today is Anant Chaturdashi (Anant means infinite/eternal), wherein Ganesh Idols are consigned to water signifying that the form is impermanent and into the elements must it go in the form (idol) of the Lord but the essence is eternal and cannot be consigned to the elements since its beyond it, so the real lord remains within us.
The same analogy goes for our own existence – the body, mind and the entire world as we experience it, is temporal but the essence in us is eternal and is a part of the Divine. If we realise this and identify ourselves with our eternal essence then our lives would be transformed that moment.
Our essence is permanent and eternal we have existed before time and will exist beyond time. But as for our body, mind and other creations as the quote above says- we arrive, we celebrate, we merge into the elements.
So as we bid adieu to the form of Ganesha, let’s celebrate the “Anant” within us and stay connected with our essence instead of the impermanent, temporal world.
Life is full of expectations that are met by controlling people and/or situations. The truth however is that the only person you can control is yourself, that too with great difficulty. You have the right towards your intent, thought, actions but not towards the consequences/results of them. So you can choose your intent, thought, actions for achieving particular results and yet the desired result may not come about. Thats the nature of things, non acceptance of which is futile…
The problem lies with the fact that we make our happiness contingent upon the desired outcomes and ignore the age old wisdom of Karma Yoga – Action without expectations, possibly because we don’t know how to take action without expectations.
Expectations or goals are actually directional in nature, they are not fixed points. If you reach the goal, your goal changes, hence goals could, at best, guide you as to the direction but getting there is a factor of your own effort. If you make your joy contingent upon achieving the goal then you ignore the joy involved in the process of getting there. The journey is your life and if you don’t enjoy precious moments walking towards the goal, what makes you think that you would enjoy even after achieving your goal? and thats exactly what happens, the joy of achieving the goal is very short lived and you immediately start thinking what next? You get into the habit of stressing yourself to achieve something that would give you a joy so short lived but the habit of stressing would remain and would finally convert itself to a psychosomatic disorder.
Now ask yourself, whether you want to enjoy life – if yes, then life is in the journey and the goals are mere milestones created by you to give you a sense of progress. Don’t make your joy contingent on milestones (uncontrollable), instead make it contingent on the process of life which is more under your control…
Who am I? is an enquiry that would lead you to many questions about yourself and the existence around you. Philosophers have tried to present their versions of the answer but instead of resolving questions have actually confused the issue even more.
As Ramana Maharshi says – the answer to the question Who am I? lies within and can be experienced in silence. The problem is our own need for identification that starts with first our name, role in the family, society, etc and this identification is only reinforced over the journey of life so much so that we start believing that we are the roles we play. It is like an actor starting to believe that the role he/she is playing is her true identity. You may laugh at such an actor but that is exactly what we ourselves end up doing – allowing our roles to define us instead of the other way round.
Ask yourself this – If you suddenly find yourself marooned on an island without any roles to play, would you cease to exist? Of course not – you would exist but with survival as your priority but with no identification… Identification is a social need, not an individual one. It is for transacting your affairs smoothly in social situations…
The society has people at various stages of evolution – many people are still in stage of fighting for survival – food clothing, shelter and don’t have the luxury or time to find answers to deeper questions of existence. There are a few lucky ones who have managed to overcome the survival issues and are in a position to seek the answer to the question who am I? But do they want to do that or are they too enamoured with the process of identification and enjoying the sensory pleasures that life has to offer? Only a few out of the fortunate few seek the answer but don’t know where to start. The start and the end point is within and the path is Silence, Meditation, Service…
There is a Guru in each one of us and that Guru is our own awareness which is also called Chaitanya which enables us to decide, act, respond. Aapo Deepo Bhava – be your own light by allowing the Guru within to light the path for you…
The first “Yama” i.e. restraint prescribed by Maharshi Patanjali is Ahimsa – commonly understood as non-violence. This is the first step/principle to be abided by in the path of Yoga.
Whilst it is prescribed as a restraint from violence, it has a much deeper import. If practiced literally then you would use it as a means of curbing your expression of violent tendencies – anger, hurt, etc. If practiced proactively by consciously holding the principle of love for all sentient beings in your intent, thoughts, words and actions, it would transform your life and there would be no room for violence.
This is the simple principle that created Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Baba Amte, and many other Bodhisattva’s. The principle is simple, its the execution that could be difficult since it involves acceptance of the situation and people as they are, along with the intent of helping them to the best of your ability, and actually executing the intent without any expectation of reciprocation…
There is no standard for leading your life. Whatever you feel is right – you have a choice as to the action but not the result and you have to face the consequences of your actions, whatever they may be. Nobody tells you whether the life you have led is good or bad (except your well intentioned spouse :)) since no one knows what is right.
Right and wrong is a matter of perspective – it is a fiction that we individually or collectively believe in.
Life is a multiple choice questionnaire and you keep choosing the answers depending on what your innate nature is. Am sharing some wisdom from the scriptures that may possibly help in deciding the direction of your life.
As per the Samkhya Philosophy the entire creation is made of 3 Gunas – Sattva(Clarity), Rajas(Motion), Tamas(Inertia). Everyone/everything is a combination of the 3 Gunas and the dominant Guna determines the nature of the person.
The Patanjali Yoga Sutras states Human beings personalities can be classified into 5 broad types of Chitta (Mind/Personality Complex)
1) the restless (ksipta), – Rajas is the dominant Guna
2) the torpid (mudha), – Tamas is the dominant Guna
3) the distracted (viksipta),- Rajas is dominant Guna with interludes of Sattva
4)the focused (ekagra), – Sattva is the dominant Guna and
5) the restricted (niruddha). – Transcends Gunas
Kshipta, Mudha, Vikshepa, Ekagra and Niruddha are the five Yogic Bhumikas. The Chitta or mind manifests in five different forms. In the Kshipta state, the rays of the mind are scattered on various objects. It is restless and jumps from one object to another. In the Mudha state, the mind is dull and forgetful. Vikshipta is the gathering mind. It is occasionally steady and at other times distracted. By practice of concentration the mind struggles to gather itself. In the Ekagra state, it is one-pointed. There is only one idea present in the mind. The mind is under control in the Niruddha state.
Most people are in the Mudha/Kshipta category and believe that sensual pleasures and pandering to ego is the purpose of life. Spiritual seekers are in the Vikshepa category and need consistent, sustained practice of Yoga to become Ekagra. Very few people are in the Niruddha category. Time is of no consequence on this path, sincerity & faith is…
Again, nothing is right or wrong. Your path is your choice. It depends on what gives you meaning and value in life…
May your choices reflect your hopes, not fears – Nelson Mandela
Independence is a stage prior to Interdependence, it signifies that at least the individual liberty and basic human rights are largely being upheld by the society. Interdependence signifies that the core human values of love, trust, faith, etc are the basis of living harmoniously together. There are a few individuals who live interdependently and we call them “saints”. There is a saint in each one of us but we choose not to allow expression to it since we are born in a world that follows different values where how am I different from others is valued more than how similar are we. This conditioning begins from the day you are born as someones son/daughter, you are conditioned to think in terms of family, society, nation, world. It is always a them v/s us kind of a situation, we as a race are thriving on living on a separatist principle and that seeps into each aspect of our lives. Individual liberty is being taken too far, we know our rights but we don’t know our values any more…
When are we going to graduate from being Independent to Interdependent? Are we even capable of living interdependently without boundaries, religions, etc? Who knows? we’ve never tried it. How to become interdependent? We have to fight the demons of anger, greed, lust, attachments, etc within us and live by the principles of love, sharing, caring. This could be viewed as a utopian concept but thats the truth. The next revolution my friends lies within us and we are busy drawing boundaries outside us. Who is ready to battle the enemy within?
I for one, am for it, would love to see a world where we as a world have removed anger, greed, attachments, etc from within us. That would be the day we would be able to say Happy Interdependence Day. It’s possible if we make it possible. As John Lennon says – ” You may say Im a dreamer, but Im not the only one…”
We are currently witnessing the devastating effects of the imbalance in nature created by us over the years. Our human race is multiplying at geometric proportions literally consuming other sentient life forms whether they be trees, animals, fishes, birds… This is borne out by the fact that many life forms are getting extinct since they are unable to cope up with the “development” brought in by the human race.
We have to pause and take a moment to ask ourselves whether mindlessly consuming the planet is “development”. Whether perpetuating the geometric increase in our race at the cost of all other life forms is “evolution”?
This mindless way of living needs to stop and we need to have a cohesive plan of saving nature & all life forms as we know it since its the only way our race would survive, else we are heading for a self destruct.
It is every persons Personal Social Responsibility to protect and preserve nature for the generations to come. For this we must be prepared to make whatever sacrifices are necessary today. Conscious Human Population control, afforestation, preserving all life forms and consuming what is necessary for survival…
But I guess everyone knows this, but who is willing to wake up and smell the coffee???
We have been given faculties for experiencing the world around us. These faculties or dimensions of our existence are called as Pancha Kosha’s (5 koshas)
Annamaya – relating to our physical existence (body)
Pranamaya – relating to the energy body (Prana)
Manomaya – relating to the controller of emotions and senses (Manas/instinctive)
Vignanamaya – relating to intellect (Buddhi/Conscious cognition)
Anandamaya – relating to the bliss body (Soul/Purusha)
We create a fiction called Ahamkara(Ego/Personality) which is not a faculty provided but a fiction created by our own mind through which we perceive the world. This ego or personality is nothing but an accumulation of all our habits that are based on what we like and avoidance of what we dislike. Most of us lead our lives out of this instinctive mind, we rarely use the cognitive faculty of Buddhi and instead rely upon the comfort zone of habits. It is good if you have formed good habits that sustain a healthy lifestyle, if not then you are headed for disaster. The sooner you realise that you are living your life through a self created fiction of habits, the sooner you would start living consciously by using the faculty of Buddhi.
Even beyond Buddhi is the Bliss Body or Soul which is a part of the Absolute. This bliss is a part of our existence, it’s only that we have forgotten it exists within us and thats where we don’t look. To experience this you have to silence all the faculties through the process of Meditation/Dhyana…
We have been born into a world where accumulation is the norm and hence it seems perfectly normal for us to keep accumulating. However, if you observe, this accumulation process never stops for us since we simply don’t know when to stop. Whether it be wealth, fame, knowledge, power… we simply want to keep having more. This is the accumulation mindset that we currently have. If you analyse why do we accumulate, you may see that at the root of accumulation is either an insecurity that we should have enough for not only ourselves but who we consider to be our own and for the generations to come as well or it could also be to prove our superiority over our fellow human beings that we keep on accumulating. Whatever be the intent, the accumulation mindset, in my view, is a response to a deep rooted insecurity that we have been nurturing. Well, the world seems to be following this code, so whats wrong?
What is wrong is this accumulation has taken us away from joyful modes of living which involve sharing, caring, trusting, having faith, etc. Consequently, we live under a constant stress of judging ourselves whether we have enough and we will have enough in future. Who defines what is enough? Ask yourself what is enough for you in terms of whatever it is that you are accumulating, you may not be able to answer and even if you do have an answer, it would change once you get there.
Do we have a choice? Yes. The choice is of adopting a “letting go” mindset. Letting go doesn’t mean that you start living like a hermit. It simply means that you have stopped accumulating and instead have started living by the values of sharing, trusting, etc that bring you joy.
As St.Francis of Assisi put it – it is in giving that we receive.
Bodhisattva 