Packets Of Thoughts, Full Of Energy

Each thought is a prayer and every prayer is answered. So, watch your thoughts. Each thought creates certain vibrations in and around us thereby reaching the Omnipresent naturally. Each prayer is answered as soon as it is heard and each prayer is heard as soon as it is said. The effort that we do need to make, however, is in ensuring that all our thoughts are positive so that our prayers do not keep cancelling each other’s effects.

Everything that we think about receives energy through our thought. When we accept our power, we also learn to send our power packets to the all that give us happiness. We stop sending them to those that upset us because we don’t want to energise them and increase their role in our lives.

At times, when we are praying, we might be asking the Creator to help us forgive those who have done us wrong while at other times we might be busy condemning the person for doing the same. Brooding over the past in this manner will give rise to anger and possibly, revenge. In our ignorance, we are sending our power packets to the wrong that we experienced, the person we believe wronged us and to the emotions of anger and revenge. These will then easily negate those we sent during our prayer for forgiveness. Later, we might even find it convenient to blame the Creator for not answering our prayers.

Accepting the past and whatever unpleasant may have taken place helps us integrate it in us. Reminding ourselves that the other person in question is entitled to his own way of looking at things and handling his life helps us accept whatever happened between him and us in a neutral manner and move on. Only then we can continue to create positive vibrations to ‘forgive and forget’. It really should be ‘accept and forgive’. Accept them as they are and forgiveness follows naturally. Trying to forget only makes us remember it some other time. Accepting it actually frees us of the burden.

It was about four months since we had moved to Chandigarh when one morning on her way to school, the bus my daughter was travelling in met with an accident. A truck hit the bus and a windowpane broke and fell on my daughter’s hands, leaving her with cuts and scratches. While narrating the incident, she also told me that all the children in the bus were concerned about her. She said despite the blood and the pain, she felt good.

She recollected earlier incidents in other places we had moved to where it was through some sort of suffering that she got to make friends in the new place. She finally said: “I knew something like this will happen and i will make friends here also.” Needless to say, i pointed out to her that it was this belief of hers that was creating this misery for her time and again and that she deserved to make friends wherever she went easily and effortlessly… All you have to do is to believe in your power to create your life afresh and send the right power packets out to the Universe.

One-eyed, You Can Light Up The World

Always, that which we logically understand as “useful” is held up as the highest. This is a huge obstruction, for it will not allow us to flower into the consciousness that is ultimately the only solution for our well-being. This solution will not be achieved if we continue to idealise things we do which only patch up life.

Most of the time, we are caught up in the problems of that moment, trying to fix it for short-term benefit. If we ignore problems they will not go away. But if you get attached to the problem, you become the problem because you will not let it go. Once you start enjoying the problem, you are somehow constantly wishing there were problems; otherwise, what would you do?

If every one of us can light up within, if you can become a solution so that you do not create problems, neither for yourself nor the others who are around, then we do not have to go about solving problems anymore. We have to think how to light up the whole world because that is the ultimate solution.

What does lighting up the world mean? It has been expressed in so many beautiful ways. Jesus said, “If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.” It means if you had only one eye instead of two, your whole body would light up. When we say “two eyes”, we are not just talking about the visual apparatus; we are talking about the discriminatory mind, the right and the left, the ida and the pingala, the masculine and the feminine that are causing duality, leading to confusion.

All polarities in existence are essentially created by your mind. If you transcend the limitations of your logical mind, suddenly there are no polarities – there is one exuberant existence. Transcending the limitations of the discriminatory mind traditionally is referred to as samadhi – that means you have attained to an equanimous state; you have become one-eyed. Once you have become one-eyed, you see everything alike. Suddenly, your body is lit up from inside. If you close your eyes, you are not in darkness anymore; it is bright.

When you are looking at your life only as a survival process, discrimination is a must. If you walk out on the street, you are like any animal in the forest, constantly looking who is okay, who is not okay; where is the danger, where is a friend, where is an enemy. If you live in that condition, survival gets taken care of; but if this discriminatory process exceeds its limits, everything in existence becomes regimented.

The discriminatory mind is useful only for survival, but it can go to extremes. If you want to perceive life for what it really is, you need one eye, not two. The two will help you to survive; that’s all. It’s just that over a period of time, the survival process has gotten extremely complicated. At one time, survival used to be just food in the stomach. Now it has become many, many things. Constantly complicating the survival process will present you with many problems. And of course you could preoccupy yourself with inventing problems and trying to find solutions.

If you are looking for an external light source, you will always remain a beggar. Unless the source of light becomes you, you will always be at somebody else’s mercy. You will always feel inadequate. The idea of walking the spiritual path is to overcome that inadequacy.

The Concept Of Emptiness Is Such A Paradox

Shunyata is a key concept in Buddhist philosophy, more specifically in the ontology of Mahayana Buddhism: ‘‘Form is emptiness, and emptiness is form.’’ This is the paradox of the concept.

Emptiness is not to be confused with nothingness. Emptiness is non-existence but not nothingness. Also, it is not non-reality. Emptiness means that an object, animate or inanimate, does not have its own existence independently. It has its meaning and existence only when all the elements or components it is made of come into play and we can understand and impute its existence clearly.

By way of explanation, we are asked to observe a cup or any other container. Is the cup empty when it does not contain any liquid or solid in it? We say yes, it’s empty. But is it really empty? No, it’s not. It is full of air. Even when the glass is in a state of vacuum, it is not empty. It still contains space, radiation and maybe light.

Therefore the Buddhist point of view differs from convention. The cup is always full of something or the other. To describe it philosophically, the cup is devoid of its inherent existence. It has come into existence because of many other conditions coming into play.

It is because of these intricacies that the Buddhist concept of emptiness is often taken as nihilism. Scholars opine that western philosophy probably had a role in creating this misconception. Nihilism as a concept means that reality is unknown and unknowable, and that nothing exists. Whereas the Buddhist concept of emptiness says that ultimate reality is knowable, and that in no case should the concept of emptiness be taken to mean nothingness.

Plato held the view that there is an ideal essence in everything that we have around us, whether animate or inanimate. After all, ‘‘the essence of the cup ultimately exists in the realm of the mind.’’ The Dalai Lama says that Shunyata is the absence of an absolute essence or independent existence. If a thing exists, it is because of several other factors.

One might as well ask: Is it possible to have a partless phenomenon? According to the Madhyamika school of thought, there can be no phenomenon without constituents. Every phenomenon in the universe has to have parts or constituents to come into being.

The Dalai Lama’s book, Art of Living, makes our understanding of the perception of reality clearer. He says, ‘‘As your insight into the ultimate nature is deepened and enhanced, you will develop a perception of reality from which you will perceive phenomena and events as sort of illusory. And that mode of perceiving reality will permeate all your interactions with reality. Even emptiness itself, which is seen as the ultimate nature of reality, is not absolute, nor does it exist independently. We cannot conceive of emptiness as independent of a basis of phenomenon, because when we examine the nature of reality, we find that emptiness itself is an object. Look for its essence and we will find that it is empty of inherent existence. Therefore, the Buddha taught of the emptiness of emptiness.’’

Give With Humility And Take With Gratitude

On the verge of crying, i could barely express my gratitude. Saying a simple ‘thank you’ did not seem adequate for the effort taken by a friend in trying to get me a job in a vulnerable phase in my life. And so, thereafter, i must have tried to express my thanks many times over till she simply smiled and said: “It is your time to take.”

Taken aback by the reply i perhaps further complimented her on her goodness, not understanding the full import of the words ‘your time to take’. Life got busy and we lost touch. But somewhere inside me the words ‘a time to take’ sat patiently waiting their turn to play a part in my life.

The going was good. I was now in a position to help others. My natural response to all the words of gratitude that were showered on me remained, ‘it is all right, it is just your time to take’.

There is a time to take and there is a time to give. Golden words often quoted, and yet we only want to give, we would rather not take. The puzzled looks i have received when i have gently said ‘it is a time to take’ set me thinking. What is so loaded in the words ‘a time to take’?

Perhaps it is to do with our upbringing. Instilled in us is this value about not taking – it is a favour, about managing alone even in the most difficult of times without seeking support. And yet, taking is one of the most natural acts carried out by each of us since the time we are conceived.

We take life’s sustenance from our mothers, we take love from our siblings, we take knowledge from our teachers, we take companionship from our friends, we take affection from our pets, we take food from the earth, we take warmth from the sun and that is an endless list. And yet we feel no obligation to all these givers, because we are conditioned to view them as normal life situations.

Our minds are full of suspicion, and more so when we are at the receiving end. The mind works at a furious pace on the implications of taking. One of the fears is of having to return the favour immediately or at some point of time in the future, and the guilt of ingratitude if we are not able to do so. But does it always have to work in that manner? Perplexing, as it may seem, there is a far more complicated system at play which is difficult to decode. Seers therefore stress on abiding by the fundamental principle of giving with humility and taking with gratitude – a simple way to resolving confusing moments in this endless cycle of take and give.

Every one of us, in our lifetime, experiences moments when we give on impulse. We are stirred to give to causes, beggars, friends, strangers. Do these people give us something in return? Do we expect them to? No, but in doing so we experience a strange calm. And when we as takers are full of sadness and shame, are we forgetting to recognise the moment of calm being experienced by the giver?

In this endless game of take and give we should just play along, taking and giving as life asks us to, enjoying the gifts we take and give, without grudging our ‘misfortune’ for being takers, not feeling lesser for having taken or superior for having given.

A Way To Deal With Frozen Feelings

Did we ever grow up? Well, yes and no! A part of us did and some parts of us didn’t. Let’s find out how that happens.

Every child experiences all that happens around him with total awareness. In the first seven years the child’s brain is like a sponge, taking in all sensory inputs and building his idea of his surroundings. As long as the environment is safe, the child learns with incredible speed. However, when the environment is scary or stressful, the child unlearns past learning just as rapidly.

In the early years of every child’s life, whenever there is shock, violence, fear or pain, these intense emotions are imprinted deeply into memory. Whenever the same activity or situation is repeated, the nervous system and body subconsciously re-experience the memory of that trauma. This creates a blind spot in the child’s neurological process and he literally goes blind to any alternative except knee-jerk, repetitive reactions.

As an example, if a toddler is happily playing with a puppy and gets accidentally scratched or bitten he might forget the incident consciously but never be able to like being around dogs and may not know the reason why. All compulsive behaviours begin this way and continue into adulthood, until we are willing to make another choice.

For instance, when a child is learning the alphabets, say ABC, if there is stress around him like people shouting or judgements like, ’You’ll never do it right’, or constant comparisons, this activity gets fused together with other sensory inputs like hearing and seeing and one package of memory is formed. From then on whenever he attempts to learn ABC or write he subconsciously remembers past events and feelings and the same stress comes on line. This interferes with his ability to do it well. Over time, the child may even avoid trying to read or write because he believes it is stressful and undoable.

Any emotional situation that takes us out of the present and into the past means that whenever the same kind of emotion crops up later in our life we return to the past for our reference point. If that point was at age three, we find ourselves behaving like a threeyear-old. We feel childish and we behave childishly. Even worse, we condemn ourselves for being stupid or immature and through our mental selftalk; reinforce the problem while desperately searching for a solution. Whenever we feel deeply stressed our brain and body goes into a fight or flight response. It’s good if we can actually fight or run away, but most times we just freeze emotionally. Our ’frozen feelings’ are the cause of this ’glitch’ in our learning process. We know we should be able to make a positive change, but that doesn’t change anything. With a sense of helplessness we fear the future and self-doubt rules our lives.

The process of change need not be traumatic. We need to understand that whatever pain we experienced in the past because of which we made certain choices, were the only recourse we had at the time. We couldn’t have done any better because we didn’t know how to. But we should realise that was then and this is now! We can get help from trained professionals and learn to unblock the negative emotions fused in our past that affect our positive future. We can choose to choose again. It’s up to us. It’s our movie!

Do You Have A Good Relationship With Yourself?

With consciousness we have created beautiful concepts. One of them is the idea of relationships. Whatever we create, whatever we discover, it is to make this life more comfortable, beautiful, peaceful and happy. The first relationship has to be with oneself. You must have a very clear relationship with yourself, knowing why you feel the way you do, why you think in a particular way. The first step is to be aware of your own self.

Why do we want a relationship? For happiness, for security? We have to establish a relationship with the Divine. And what is Divinity? The soul. You must have a relationship with your psyche; that relationship can give you everything you need, more than a hundred other relationships.

The clarity of these two steps evolves over years of learning. In daily life, how do you find divinity in your partner, for instance? Sincerity and faithfulness are important. Give without expectation.

Mental, vital, physical, spiritual impulses also create relationships. Even hunger can create relationships: you enter into relationships with food for each particular part of your being.

You must grow with relationships, with contacts, and at the same time you must remember that all the possibilities are inside, they are not coming from the outside, what you are looking for outside you is inside you.

You see this box, the human body, is displaying all the time, like a television set. When your channel starts displaying negative things, you can choose to change the channel.

When we meditate we are feeding the soul, and when you feel the hunger of your soul then constant meditation begins, and it becomes effortless. Real meditation begins there, and no one can break that meditation.

It is like when your stomach is empty, all you think of is food, all your being is looking for food, but when you are full you don’t think about food at all. The souls food is the Divine. Right now we are making an effort to remember the Divine, but when we start feeling the hunger, we will not have to make the effort; it will come naturally.

Aurobindo gives this concept of Divine life: he didn’t say that life is an illusion; that we have to run away from life, or go to the Himalayas. He just said that life is beautiful, and the future of life is life divine, sooner or later, when the psyche hunger starts. And life divine means that here, in this world, with these situations we have to awaken to the hunger of our being, listen and find that hunger, when we do that we will start seeing the Divine everywhere. If we feed the psychic, with its influence, the vital, mental, and physical being will transform. There will be no ego.

Relationships sour primarily due to ego. Use your ego. But do not allow your ego to use you. If you know how to use it, it will build you and give many wonderful things. If the ego is using you, you will see ego everywhere, if you are using ego you will not see it. Only ego sees ego.

Ego is not made of any substance or material, ego is without substance: a lack of knowledge, a lack of light. Hate is too much love. You never hate someone you don’t know. We call it hate but hate has also substance of love there. It is too much connection.

Why not give up on the question of God’s will?

I am a 26-year-old banker and have been married one-and-a-half years. My parents-in-law were against our getting married. I suffered a lot and have been left with an inferiority complex. I used to be a creative person, but now I seem to have no zeal. I want to be rich and successful but feel exhausted. How do I overcome this to build stronger relationships and feel happy? — SS Is your sense of inferiority because you aren’t able to get rich? If so, your issues go deeper than feeling exhausted. Success is an inner state and it is satisfying without external rewards. A sense of inner worth tends to be the prerequisite for almost any kind of worldly fulfillment. Please realize how important this is. It cannot be bypassed. You would be helped the most by taking your husband’s family out of the equation. Your sense of inferiority comes from a fear of impending failure and I suspect your exhaustion comes from either worry or letting people attack you when you should be standing up for yourself. The priority should be finding a source of inner worth. After that, much in your life will change.

How do I get to know what is God’s will so that I can understand the purpose of my life? From childhood, I have been losing things — be it education, family or friends. Why me? Could you help me understand the way the Almighty works? — Aniruddha You’ve asked a question so deep that even the greatest sages, gurus, and philosophers have not been able to solve it. Why not give up on the question of God’s will? As soon as you do that, realization will come. By ascribing your losses to God, you have not recovered from them. The hurt is still with you, along with a deep sense of anxiety and hopelessness. These are the issues you need to address. They are psychological and emotional, not spiritual. To the extent that you are searching to read God’s mind, you have lost contact with your own heart. There is where the problem lies – as well as the solution.

I’ve tried to find a job for 10 years, without success. I have not given up and am still trying. I have observed that the first letter of the names of those who interviewed me for a job starts with either the letter ‘A’, ‘R’ or ‘S’. Does this mean anything? — Naidu You must know full well that this is a coincidence and it has no meaning. But I expected you to ask another, more pressing question, along with the one you posed. “Why have I failed to find a job after 10 years?” The fact that you waste your energies thinking up fantastical connections suggests two possibilities: Either you are given to daydreaming and distracting yourself from important realities, or you don’t actually think that holding down a job is attractive. The world can make a place for daydreamers and even for those who don’t want to work. If that’s you, be yourself. Life may have other prospects in view. If you sincerely want employment and haven’t found it in 10 years, I’d advise psychological therapy. Some ingredient you haven’t mentioned is creating a serious personal obstacle.

My husband has cheated on me. My Reiki teacher says I should forgive him, but I find it hard to do so. When I try, my husband does something that makes me curse him. His infidelity has affected my children’s career and is hurting me. Please help. — Anonymous If I may say so, a teacher who says you should forgive someone, doesn’t seem much help. Can you find someone who will say, “Let me help you forgive him?” Forgiveness cannot exist without the following conditions: You must want to get past your wounded feelings; you must sincerely examine why being a victim isn’t right; once your inner pain has been released, you must look at how forgiveness will benefit you; you must take active steps to move on and at some point, you must honestly examine your relationship.

I would suggest writing these points down and putting them in your purse. When you have sudden feelings of pain, regret, anger, anxiety, blame, or shame — the normal but difficult emotions surrounding infidelity — pull out the list and find an item on it that you can work on that very minute. In this way, you will short-circuit the temptation to dwell on the past and the hurt you have sustained. I wish you had said that your cheating husband asked for forgiveness. In many societies, sad to say, the only thing that men regret about cheating is that they got caught. If your husband is that kind of man, you will eventually discover that loyalty is one-sided in your marriage and his infidelity is a secret passion he enjoys.

I am an introvert and generally don’t share my feelings with others, not even with my parents. I feel there is a beautiful world inside me, which I would not like to share with others. Also, I feel people can’t understand and respect my feelings and make fun of me. Because of this attitude, I don’t get along with people. Could you help? — Ajay I wish you had stated your age because your entire situation sounds typically adolescent. If you are not yet 20, my advice is to apply yourself to living around people and developing the social skills that are part of adulthood. It may be painful to acquire these skills and shyness may accentuate the pain, but countless introverts have walked the same path and found a place in the world.

However, if you are over 20, this extended adolescent attitude indicates that you are on your way to being anti-social. That is, of course, your right. There are plenty of solitary people who find a way to exist in the world. Some of them are artists and geniuses; others are natural recluses; an unfortunate percentage have a mental disorder. But whatever choice you make, it should be a conscious one. That is, don’t turn against society because it’s the course of least resistance. Try to grow and overcome your inner weaknesses. Rest assured, if you sat down with the most successful politician or businessman in the country and offered up your complaints against society, they would robustly agree with you. But having seen how dismally short of the ideal, society may fall, all of us must still live with others and improve the ills we perceive.

Thank You Sun, For Being There

‘‘Where does the Sun sleep?’’ the bright-eyed child asks her father. She and her family are celebrating Chhath on the Chowpatty seafront in Mumbai. The winter festival of the setting Sun is so named because it falls on the sixth (chhath) day of Kartik, which comes just a week after the festival of lights.

The father, who’s been fasting the previous day, looks askance at the mother. But she just smiles as her daughter continues to clamour for an answer. The father would dearly love to fob off the child with a fanciful story about the Sun’s golden boat that’s supposed to be tethered under the horizon. But this would only open a new round of implacable questions.

Eventually, he decides to let in his daughter on the ‘secret’ of the rotating earth and the ever-awake Sun. But how does one explain that to a five-year-old in simple sound bytes? Then he gets a brainwave: Why not fall back on the age-old rationale of the Chhath festival itself as an explanation? ‘‘Bitiya, do you know why we observe Chhath ka parva – the festival of the sixth day?’’ he asks the child who shakes her head uncertainly.

‘‘On this occasion we thank the Sun for not sleeping ever and for giving us all the bounties of dhaan, dhan aur tan – crops, wealth and body or life itself. The Sun never sleeps. Being such a mighty star he does not need to rest ever,’’ the father explains further.

‘‘If he did, everything on earth would come to an end. Unlike him we do need to rest and sleep. So every evening, he seems to hide behind the Earth, who does a daily pradhakshina, a circumambulation around the star, just as we do out of gratitude and reverence.’’

Chhath is mainly viewed as a Bihari festival, and it is celebrated wherever people from Bihar have migrated to, whether in Mumbai or in Mauritius.

That Chhath is today celebrated across communities only enhances the essentially spiritual, ecological or even egalitarian dimensions of the festival. Chhath stands for thanksgiving to a star that is venerated in the Indian tradition as the only visible (pratyaksha) form of God, one that can be seen every day. Moreover, the Sun illuminates and sustains life not in a petty province or two but on a planetary scale. Hence the ancient rishis held it in high esteem as a manifest form of Brahmn: Asavodityo Brahmah, says the Rig Veda.

That also led them to an immensely popular cult based on the Gayatri Mantra. This is considered to be one of the most sacred universal practices that invoke the creative principle of the Sun in the form named Savitr. The Chhath ceremonies however eschew deification, although there are attempts to overwrite its subaltern origins by connecting the ritual with the legendary Mahabharata hero Karna, the ‘son’ of Surya who was known for his valour and generosity.

Chhath also connects to the folk and rural roots of worshippers. The folk songs sung on the eve of Chhath are mainly in Maithili, Magadhi and Bhojpuri dialects that mirror the culture and social mores of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and the terai regions.

In other respects Chhath is modern and inclusive. It appeals also to those who are uncomfortable with idol worship because it is a celebration of and a thanksgiving to the Sun for just being there, a great blaze in the sky.

Following Dharma Requires Deep Wisdom

Most of the time we grieve for ourselves. Sage Vasishtha consoles Arjuna by saying that since Dashrath Maharaj had led a dharmic life, after his death, he would attain a higher plane and so there is no need to grieve for him. In the second chapter, verse 28, the Gita says that beings were unmanifest before they were born, and will become unmanifest again when they are dead; they are manifest only in the intermediate stage. What occasion, then, for lamentation?

Krishna wants Arjuna to look at the beings around him and become aware of his experiences with them. People like Bhishma Pitamah, Dronacharya and others were unmanifest before they were born. For a short time they appeared in these particular forms but before and after they remained avyakta or unmanifest. We exist for a short time in a particular body, interact with each other, and then the whole thing is over.

When we travel by train, we meet and interact with people in our compartments. We come to know them for a short time, enjoy their company. We may even laugh and share some jokes but when they leave the compartment, we don’t hold them back. We let them go without grief. There is a Sanskrit saying, “Welcome whatever comes and let go of whatever goes.” Kabirdas gives the example of leaves on the tree, that are born together and after falling down drift off in different directions. All of us are moving together in this cosmos, with our own goals to achieve, with our own desires and expectations. We meet with other beings for a short while and then depart.

The right vision enables us to become free. Krishna explains the different ways in which to experience or understand the Truth. He begins with the Truth as it is. First it is important to have the ultimate vision about Supreme Reality. A step below is the holistic understanding about life, the laws of karma, and the paths taken by the jiva, travelling from one body to another. Wisdom helps us overcome grief.

Arjuna asks, “If Atman is eternal, then why are we unaware of it?” Krishna replies in the second chapter, verse 29, that the nature of the Self is wonderful. Despite this, very rare and few are the individuals who understand the importance of knowing themselves, strive sincerely, find the right teacher and recognise themselves. Those who do, see the Self as a great wonder. Their intellects are dumbfounded in the face of its grandeur and magnificence, similar to the reaction evoked by the majesty of the mountains.

It is a great wonder that without any modification or change, by its own power, the Self appears as this world. It is a marvel and beyond rational thought that the Self, which is infinite, appears finite and that which is changeless appears to be changing. Though everything is known by the Self, the Self is not known as an object. Those who come to recognise this know it to be a great wonder.

Knowledge about other subjects like science, mathematics and history is easily available. Even in spirituality we have different types of gurus like mantra guru, tantra guru, upadesh, diksha and shiksha gurus. They give us knowledge of mantras, rituals and moral etiquettes but the sadguru who guides and helps us recognise the Self is very, very rare indeed!

Karmic Law And The Dharma Of Encounters

What is the best way to deal with terrorists, Naxalites, gangsters and other similar anti-social elements and perpetrators of violence and terror? Should we take the path of legal action by submitting the case in courts of law – of protracted justice – that are known for their long and often tedious procedures? Or should we simply confront the perpetrators of injustice on the streets, with bullets of instant justice? These questions are not new. Gurcharan Das in his book The Difficulty Of Being Good – on The Subtle Art of Dharma, discusses the quandary that Yuddhisthra faced in the Mahabharata epic.

‘‘Debate is useless,’’ says the Mahabharata. ‘‘There are many scriptural authorities (or law books) that contradict one another, as do the Brahmins (lawyers). The essence of dharma remains a great secret. We need to learn (dharma) from the conduct of the great Ones.’’ From the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, and looking at the behaviour of divine incarnations like Rama and Krishna, we might get some insight: Are encounters or extrajudicial killings within the boundaries of dharma?

In the Kishkindhakand of the Ramayana, Rama hides behind a tree and shoots an arrow that kills the monkey king Vali as he battles his brother – and Rama’s devotee – Sugriva. While dying, Vali accuses the Lord of transgressing dharma by indulging in murder through concealment rather than by direct confrontation in battle. Rama declares that Vali has himself indulged in adharma by appropriating his brother’s wife. Further, Kshatriya dharma is valid only in battle against another Kshatriya, isn’t it?

In the Mahabharata, when a helpless Karna, left without any weapon, is facing an encounter type of death from Arjuna, he takes the shelter of dharma as protection. Krishna asks Karna if he upheld dharma – when Draupadi was being stripped, when Shakuni played a rigged game of dice with Yuddhisthra, when Arjuna’s young son, Abhimanyu, was encircled in the Chakravyhu and mercilessly slain. As Karna hangs his head in shame, the Lord instructs a hesitant Arjuna to shoot his arrows and kill the defenceless warrior.

Dharma protects those who uphold dharma. Those who violate dharma are not entitled to the protection of dharma. Equality is a spiritual concept, for all of us are truly spiritually equal. But we need to be careful in porting this concept of equality onto the material plane of dispensing justice. If we must follow in the footsteps of the great Ones, it could be arguably stated that ‘‘encounters’’ might have a place – only if dispensed by just and flawless agents – in the big picture of maintaining law and order.

In his book, Beyond Good and Evil, Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future, Nietzsche said, ‘‘When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.’’ If you look into evil long enough, even as you confront it, evil could become a part of you. So maybe it is best to let the wheels of justice grind faster.

In current times, there might not be the equivalent of the great Ones who could unravel through example, the mystery of dharma. Hence those who risk taking the law into their own hands must be prepared to face the karmic consequences of their actions, and like Yuddhisthra at the conclusion of the Mahabharata, be ready to experience Hell – as the Pandava prince had to, in submission to the karmic law of cause and effect.

Receiving Divine Grace With Heartfelt Kirtana

Kirtana is a valuable spiritual aid to bring the seeker closer to the Supreme Consciousness. It is the singing of devotional songs, chanting creatively with heartfelt sincerity and purpose. Kirtana is helpful in all spheres of life; it helps us to overcome physical troubles and tribulations as well.

During kirtana many assemble together, united in purpose, and so all their collective physical energies function in unison. Their collective psychic energies flow in the same channel, inspired by Parama Purusa. At the place of kirtana, not only will there be a huge concentration of physical energies, but also a powerful concentration of psychic energy, which will remove all the collective, accumulated miseries of the material world.

Kirtana is initiation to the Divine to reveal the Supreme Consciousness within. By the inspiration they receive from Parama Purusa, practitioners acquire great power. No worldly obstacles can stand before their tremendous spiritual force. Thus kirtana is helpful not only for spiritual sadhana but also for overcoming worldly difficulties.

Physical afflictions are caused partly by nature, and partly by our own thoughts and actions. Whatever might be the physical miseries – natural or man-made – if people collectively chant kirtana, calamities become easier to deal with. In case of natural calamities like flood, famine, drought and epidemic, or man-made calamities, miseries and tortures, relief is at hand through heartfelt kirtana. Singing together and seeking the grace of the Parama Purusa cannot fail to bring some relief, even enable a certain movement upward towards higher consciousness.

In addition to helping redress individual challenges, kirtana makes it less difficult to remove collective psychic afflictions as well – those that already exist, and those which have not yet arrived but about which we have premonitions. If we are aware of an impending negative situation, and kirtana is done in advance, those impending troubles seem to disappear. They are dispelled not merely because of the collective mental force of so many people, but also due to the impact of so many minds moving with tremendous speed under the inspiration of Parama Purusa.

At the place of kirtana, not only are the people who are themselves doing kirtana getting benefited, but also those who are not participating – and even those among the nonparticipants who are sceptics and non-believers, who don’t like the idea at all, the ripple effect of kirtana touches their lives as well, bringing positivity and peace, engendering common benefit.

One of the names of Parama Purusa is Ashutosh. Ashu means “quickly, easily”. Therefore, Ashutosh means the one who can be satisfied quickly and easily. That is, the one who is easy to please. If you do kirtana sincerely and wholeheartedly even for five or 10 minutes, Parama Purusa becomes pleased. Parama Purusa does not make any distinction between educated and uneducated, between black and white – all are His loving children.

Do kirtana without any consideration of time, place and person and those who do kirtana should always remember that the Parama Purusa is Grace and benevolence are made accessible.

Holistic Interplay Of Science & Religion

The profound changes now shaping human affairs suggest that new models of life – far-reaching in their capacity to release human potential – are within the grasp of a rapidly evolving global community. Advances in knowledge across an expanding range of disciplines, the emergence of international mechanisms that promote collective decision-making and action, and our increasing ability to articulate our aspirations and needs, portend a great surge forward in the social evolution of the planet. However, it is no longer possible to maintain the belief that the current approach to social and economic progress based on production and consumption – to which the materialistic conception of life has given rise – is capable of leading humanity to the tranquillity and prosperity which it seeks.

Because social advancement springs from the creation and dissemination of knowledge, a salient feature of development strategy has been education. Initially, a focus on physical infrastructure evolved to include matters related to curriculum, administration, pedagogical training, educational technology, and the relationship between schools and their surrounding communities. Yet, despite notable achievements, especially in providing primary education on a universal basis, educational methodologies are, in the main, falling short of releasing and cultivating human potential.

A fragmented approach of cumulative educational experience does not allow students to see the essential relationships between different areas of human inquiry and social reality. This fragmentation is exacerbated by the emphasis placed on the absorption of facts rather than on the understanding of important concepts, processes and trends.

Moreover, issues relating to individual purpose and morality are rarely incorporated. The entire corpus of human knowledge needs to be studied and extended in a holistic manner. Education should strive to develop an integrated set of capabilities – technical, artistic, social, moral and spiritual – so that individuals can experience meaning and become agents of positive social change. Therefore, there is the need for a partnership between science and religion.

In a shrinking world, development activity must be a global enterprise whose purpose is to bring both material and spiritual well being to all. To acknowledge that humanity is a single people with a common destiny is to understand that development must cease to be something one does for others. The task of creating a peaceful and just global society must involve all.

If the capacities of the world’s peoples are to reach the levels needed to address complex requirements, both reason and faith need to be tapped. Development initiatives will not lead to tangible and lasting improvements in physical well being without drawing on those universal spiritual postulates that give direction and meaning to life.

While science can offer the methods and tools for promoting social and economic advancement, it alone cannot set direction; the goal of development cannot come from within the process itself. A vision is needed if our spiritual heritage continues to be regarded as tangential to development policy and programmes.

Evolving From Spiritual Tourist To Seeker

Some people call themselves spiritual, some call themselves materialistic. What’s the difference? What is the hallmark of a spiritual person? Peace is said to be the hallmark of spirituality. Hence there is interest in meditation, seclusion, and spending quiet time in a place of beauty, as these are promoters of peace. But surely spirituality cannot be placedependent. It is far greater than that. A peace that comes and goes at a certain place or in a certain time cannot be stable. Any temporary phenomenon must come under the title of materiality. So mere peace cannot be the yardstick.

Take the contention that spiritual people are those who believe in God. What about those who, though not believing in God, seem to be living more or less ideal lives? Not professing any interest or devotion to God, they go about being a beacon light to society. Surely it is better to live an ideal life than mutter the name of the Lord.

What use is it going to places of worship while being mean or uncaring towards fellow-beings? Maybe spiritual people are those who believe in goodness rather than in God. If you live a noble life you are spiritual, regardless of whether or not you believe in God.

If we were to accept an individual’s goodness as his spirituality, then we seem only to have shifted the question to what is goodness. And badness. An impossible question to answer! We can tell, at a pinch, what is better or worse but not what is good. Who is a good person? What is the absolute measure for good?
Maybe spirituality is about getting better. Being better would mean being more unselfish. Spirituality is the striving to improve oneself. If you are good, but do not conceive better, you stagnate spiritually. Another, not as good, but striving, will no doubt catch up and overtake you. Philosophically, it does not matter so much where you are but where you are heading. The hunter Valmiki became Sage Valmiki. Sinners will be deemed righteous, says the Gita, “for they have rightly resolved”.

Spiritual people are those who have resolved to improve. Where does the desire to improve culminate? What is the end point? Perfection is said to be Enlightenment, Self-realisation, the merger with Self. It is the state of a Buddha, Christ, Rama, Mohammed and all those revered divine personalities. To be spiritual then must mean the desire for Self-realisation, the desire to merge in the Self. That desire, accompanied by a systematic plan or programme to reach there is what is being spiritual.

Having a plan or programme for one’s spiritual evolution is as important as the desire. Anything is achieved only through systematic effort. To say that you wish to become rich and not have any programme is meaningless. No one achieves anything with just a desire. It is only the starting point. Work and effort must follow.

Desire without work is daydreaming. Work without a plan is running round in circles. Hence a person who is spiritual will want to improve. You will know what you mean by ‘improvement’. You will have a plan to achieve that end. And finally you will work in accordance with your plan. Only then can you be called a spiritual seeker. Else you are a spiritual tourist, enjoying a bit of a vacation from normal life! Isn’t that what is materiality?

ACCEPT CHANGE, MOVE ON

When the word ‘creativity’ is used, we generally understand it as the ability to create something physical and unique. Creativity is often taken in the context of art and literature. An artist expresses his creativity through the colours he uses, a writer through words, an architect through his buildings and a musician with his instrument and musical notes. But there is more to creativity than that. It can also mean recreating one’s life.

In any life, the only constant is change. Everyone faces different phases of life. Our ability to deal with those changes dexterously is called creativity. It requires that one be willing to step away from easy answers and quick solutions. It needs one to look beyond the familiar and into uncharted territory. Ultimately, creativity is about risk and courage.

American film director Alan Alda once said, “The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself.”

As a toddler, we find life gloriously free from responsibility. As we grow older, social norms require us to adapt our behavior to the external world. Gradually, we get programmed to behave in a certain way.

Anyone who begins life at a girls’ convent school can attest to its insistence on social etiquette. Not so, in a co-ed public school, where the word etiquette’ hardly seemed to figure in the students’ vocabulary. If a child transfers, as I did, from one to the other, it is a huge change. But one can bounce back with a dramatic change in language and interaction skills.

It is almost a metaphor for life, which forces us to adapt to realtime change. For example, life changes once we get married and have children. The carefree life changes into a life of responsibility. It is possible to feel stifled by the link between one’s behavior and the way others feel.

Every aspect of life requires us to be creative. As circumstances change, we should be able to dance in the moment. Many people find themselves unable to accept changed circumstances, making for great frustration. For instance, a strategy shift in an organization in the form of either a merger or an acquisition will affect many employees. Some get more responsibility and some may lose jobs. Just months ago, recession forced change on reputable organizations, some of which filed for bankruptcy. Many faced management changes, retrenchment and relocation of employees. Many found employees resentful and confused.

These reactions indicate a collective and destructive emotion even though every individual should instead, take ownership of his/her reaction. The downturn was an irreversible process. But how does one handle such a devastating situation? We need to understand that once an event has occurred, it is entirely up to us to choose the way we accept and move forward. When we resist change, we stagnate.

Psychoanalyst Eric Fromm said it all: “Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties. Conditions for creativity are to be puzzled; to concentrate; to accept conflict and tension; to be born everyday; to feel a sense of self.”

Creativity in our interaction with people is one of the most crucial skills a human being can have. It is also the one that people focus on least, choosing instead to concentrate on developing our academic skills or general knowledge.

There are numerous instances of people who successfully ‘re-created’ their lives just when their world had written them off, not least Sunil Mittal, Azim Premji, Steve Jobs, Subroto Bagchi and Amitabh Bachchan.

Mittal’s entrepreneurial journey began in 1976 with a bicycle parts business in Punjab. When telecommunications was opened for private participation, he boldly bid for cellular licences in the metro markets. His successful entrepreneurial journey is an inspiration for many. Premji is credited with transforming Wipro, his family's vegetable oil business, into one of the world's leading software companies. Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computers is a remarkable example of creativity. He left Apple, came back and resurrected the company in a virtually text book example of the creative instinct at work.

So, what is it that prevents us from accepting change? Our fear of failure because we underestimate our capacity to learn new things. It appears unthinkable because the mind says “I am best at what I do”. But how will you ever know if you are good or bad at something else unless you try it. There are also the social pressures of being at a particular level in our job and egotistic anger about being passed over, say, for promotion. The right question for those who wait for the perfect job, perfect boss, perfect organization and perfect colleagues, is: “How perfect am I?”

Change by definition is temporary. The pace at which a person accepts the change and moves on truly shows his creativity. Re-creating one’s own life is the highest form of creativity because “the future doesn’t just happen, it’s shaped by decisions.”

Lighting The Lamp Of Love

For an oil lamp to burn, the wick has to be in the oil, yet out of the oil. If the wick is drowned in oil, it cannot bring light. Life is like the wick of the lamp; you have to be in the world yet remaining untouched by it. If you are drowned in the materialism of the world, you cannot bring joy and knowledge in your life. By being in the world, yet not drowning in the worldly aspect of it, we can be the light of joy and knowledge. Lamps are lit on this day not just to decorate homes, but also to communicate this profound truth.

Every human being has some good qualities. Every lamp that you light is symbolic of this. By lighting the lamp of wisdom in you, you light up latent values and by acquiring knowledge; you awaken all the facets of your being. When they are lit and awakened, it is Deepawali. Don’t be satisfied with lighting just one lamp; light a thousand, for you need to light many lights to dispel the darkness of ignorance.

Another profound symbolism is in the firecrackers. In life, you often become like a firecracker, waiting to explode with your pent-up emotions, frustration and anger. When you suppress your emotions, cravings, aversions, hatred, you reach a bursting point. Bursting crackers is a psychological exercise to release bottled-up emotions. When you see an explosion outside, you feel similar sensations within you as well. Along with the explosion, there is so much light. Let go of these emotions, so serenity dawns. You can experience newness when you discard these pent-up emotions. Deepawali means to be in the present, so drop the regrets of the past and the worries of the future and live in the moment.

Sweets and gifts symbolise the dispelling of the bitterness and renewal of friendship. Deepawali is a time to throw light on the wisdom you have gained and welcome a new beginning. When true wisdom dawns, it gives rise to celebration. But don’t let celebration make you lose your focus and awareness. To maintain awareness in the midst of celebrations, the ancients created rituals: puja brings sacredness. For the same reason, Deepawali is also the time for pujas that add depth to the festivities by infusing the spiritual aspect.

Celebration includes the spirit of seva or service. Share. In giving, we receive. Celebration also means dissolving all differences and basking in the glory of the atman. Happiness and wisdom have to be spread and that can happen when all come together and celebrate in knowledge.
Deepawali is the celebration of the wisdom thus born. For the one who is not in knowledge, Deepawali comes only once a year, but for the wise, Deepawali is every moment and every day. This Deepawali, celebrate with knowledge and take a sankalpa (intention) to serve humanity.

Light the lamp of love in your heart; the lamp of abundance in your home; the lamp of compassion to serve others; the lamp of knowledge to dispel the darkness of ignorance and the lamp of gratitude for the abundance that the Divine has bestowed on us. Light dispels darkness and when the darkness of ignorance within you is dispelled through the light of wisdom, goodness prevails.

Don’t Look Too Far For Solutions

Change is the inevitability of life. Our interpretation of change determines our attitude and approach to life. What is apparently beneficial is accepted without any fuss. When it comes to accepting the inconvenient and the unpleasant, there begins conflict and resentment. However, the seemingly hopeless situations that are very painful to deal with are also instruments of change. ‘‘What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly,’’ wrote Richard Bach.

Every seemingly hopeless situation is pregnant with the potential to effect improvement. It’s just that one usually looks at the problem in a way that’s too upfront. That creates a myopic perspective in dealing with the problem.

Like Godel’s theorem, which states that no part of a system can comprehend the system as long as it is an integral part of the system. As we distance ourselves from the problem, and have a bird’s-eye perspective, we can begin to see the issue in another light. Anticipation of the problem always tends to magnify the event and imagine it to be much more frightful. Anticipation should prepare, not scare.

A rigid approach that expects things to happen in a specific way only makes matters worse. The ability to adapt is what can make things better. Rigidity limits available options. It severely handicaps creativity, which is considered the mother of solutions. Serendipity happens only because the mind is open and willing to look at the same thing differently.

An alternative viewpoint is critical to make the most of any given situation. The severest of problems have more often than not brought out the best from many individuals. Isn’t it also said: “Necessity is the mother of invention”?

The process of strategising while solving a problem throws up many facets of ourselves that we never knew existed. Adversity has been a blessing often enough and ought to be respected rather than feared. Complications arise most often because we take things personally and too seriously. Surrender only destroys selfesteem. Fighting enhances it. The difference between the two is just a matter of attitude.

Helplessness is a state of the mind. Fixing the blame is not what absolves one of failure.

Fixing the problem is the only redemption.

Anger, fear, resentment and frustration only muddle neural networks. They are mere manifestations of the fight, flight or fright response. What is actually needed is a right, bright and trite response. This response can only be attained with a calm and controlled thought process. Knee-jerk responses are just reflexes without any form of cerebration. They are most often fruitless. A deliberate, conscious effort needs to be inculcated to programme a conditioned response.

A positive approach is a big help, as it tends to activate the right brain, the one that has great intuitive abilities. The most appropriate response to any problem would be whole-brained. That is with both the right and left hemispheres giving their inputs. The dominant half – the left brain in right-handed persons and right brain in left-handed persons – enables analysis, logic and assessment. It tends to be a fragmentary approach. The right has a more intuitive, subtle and holistic approach. A combined two-pronged approach is much more likely to bring out the best in adversity – and make it easier for the butterfly in you to take wing.

The Unstruck Sound, The Anahata Naad

The initial creative impulses arose as spandan or thought-vibration of the Pure Being. The sound that emanated from the vibration was AUM. In its transcendental aspect, it is difficult to establish contact with the Supreme Being. The nearest approach is Sound, also referred to as Aparam Brahmn.

Supercharged with transcendent soul-force, sound is, in all Creation, the one, powerful principle that widely influences and controls all other manifestations. Self-realised beings, the siddhas, discovered a definite relationship between sound and mind. The mind, in the process of being attracted towards sound, loses awareness of the external world altogether.

Through meditation, seekers following the path of Siddha Yoga endeavour to establish contact with the divine sound, the Anahata Naad that helps in subduing the turbulent mind – that keeps roving in the pleasure garden of sensual objects – and giving it a new, inward direction.

As the seeker delves deep within, he realises that his physical and astral bodies, his senses and the mind, all have sound as their basis. An analysis of one’s individual existence takes one to sound before one reaches the Eternal Self.

Anahata Naad also forms the basis in all the six chakras or plexuses located within the sushumna that extends from the base of the spine to the crown of the head – the brahmarandhra or the tenth door. Since the lower three chakras – muladhara, swadhishthana and manipura – are dominated by the tattvas earth, water and fire respectively, Naad is not clearly heard in these.

Anahata chakra, which corresponds to the cardiac plexus in the physical body, is the centre of Vayu Tattva. Anahata Sound, the sound of the Shabda Brahmn, emanates from here. Anahata Naad is the unstruck, mystic sound that occurs spontaneously and is not the result of striking or beating things. Depending upon the intensity of a seeker’s concentration and the level of his mental purity, Anahata Naad can be distinctly heard in deep meditation, paving the way for the seeker’s evolution to the highest level of consciousness.

Anahata Naad manifests itself in different ways ranging from the sound that is similar to the beating of the waves of the sea to the deafening peals of huge bells and the holy sound of the conch. When the seeker hears the flute, his entire being is permeated with Divine bliss and he loses body-consciousness; the sound of the kettledrum bestows the seeker with powers of clairvoyance and the ability to see distant objects. But the naad that leads the seeker to the ultimate goal of yoga, Nirvikalpa Samadhi, is the meghanaad, the sound of thunder.

Siddha Yoga masters say that constant hearing of meghanaad for some days in deep meditation enables the seeker to enter the abode of Chiti, Pure Consciousness, where he experiences the tranquility of the supra-causal state of consciousness. He now knows that there are two dimensions to Chiti: one is the supremely pure transcendent aspect, which transcends the world, and the other is the immanent aspect, in which by free will, there is differentiation, attribution and the projection of the wondrous universe on the canvas of the Supreme Being.

Despite appearing as the universe with myriad diversities and impurities, Chiti retains her immaculate purity and remains absolutely untainted.

Why The Anvil Does Not Strike Back

Look at the anvil. It gets struck repeatedly but not once does it strike back. Could any one of us hold up the anvil as a role model? Even socalled spiritual leaders are ready to get into a fierce argument to uphold their version of the truth, claiming it to be the only truth, the absolute truth.

Is it possible that truth can be two or three different things? I don’t believe so, because truth is so simple. My definition of the truth which will coincide with what every great master or prophet has revealed and simplified, is not to tell a lie for any reason, not to use abusive language of any kind, not to hurt or harm any of God’s creation mentally or physically.

To help whenever given the opportunity, never discriminate on the basis of colour, caste, creed or position. To receive whatever is our lot – that falls to us whether good or bad as our just reward for the moment, understanding that we can change the bad to good, by thinking and doing good deeds.

Each of us has the potential to follow these simple rules, but it takes a lot of courage to implement them, because most of us are already bound in chains created by our upbringing, culture, rituals and customs, and this simple knowledge that can set us free, is scary.

This is what a great Master said: The weak are burdens to the weak, but to the strong they are a pleasant charge. Seek out the weak; their weakness is your strength.

The hungry are but hunger to the hungry, but to the ones who are full, they are an opportunity for service. Seek out the hungry; your fullness is their want.

The blind are stumbling blocks to the blind, but they are mileposts to the seeing. Seek out the blind; their darkness is your light.

I personally don’t see anything complicated in these statements. It simply says, step out of your chains and inhibitions and start helping others with whatever you possess in abundance. This is a step towards the truth, because every person – rich or poor, bad or good – has some good in them that can be used.

This step in knowledge also leads to a love that doesn’t discriminate. God loves everything He has created equally, so why do we choose a particular being or item, to shower our love on, ignoring everything else which needs the same love. Love is the Law of God.

We have all heard this saying “Love is blind”, meaning it sees no fault in the beloved. This kind of blindness is the height of seeing. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if everybody had this kind of blindness, then they would never see any fault in anybody or anything, ever?

This kind of love neither lends or borrows, neither buys nor sells and when it gives, it gives its all, and when it takes, it takes its all. Its very taking is a giving and its very giving is a taking making it the same today, tomorrow and forever.

This kind of love is like the anvil, absorbing vibrations of all kinds all the time, yet remaining calm and steady, giving and taking constantly. Love is an active force which we should use to guide our every move and step, every wish and thought. And the byproduct of this love is peace, within and without.

I wish this love on every living being on this Earth, because a love that singles out a fraction of the whole has already doomed itself to grief.

The Symbolism Of The Thai Spirit House

On a visit to Thailand, the first thing that caught my attention was the ornamental structure that looked like a birdhouse-cum-oriental temple, situated at the corner of every residential and commercial complex. The sacred corner was washed and cleaned every day, and was lit by candles and fragrant with burning incense. The sacred corner was rich with offerings of chocolates, canned and cooked food and fresh flowers, placed there by visitors and residents.

I got talking to the receptionist at the place where i was staying, and she answered my questions: “It’s a Spirit House,” she explained. “It’s a Thai concept. We believe that if the spirits are provided with such shelters and appeased with daily offerings, they will protect the house or building, and shield its inhabitants from harm.”

The overcast sky was saturated with rain clouds. I could not see the occupant of the beautiful Spirit House clearly. When the clouds parted suddenly, the dazzling sun shone on the Spirit House, revealing a beautiful figurine of what must have been the representation of a divine deity.

The symbolism was interesting. Are not our bodies spirit houses too? In each and every one of us, deep inside, there resides a part of the universal spirit. I was reminded of this line from the Bible: “Our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit whom we receive from God. We do not belong to our self.” Appearances are not more important than how we are inside. Our aura, the energy field that surrounds our physical body, is a reflection of what we are within. Our own perspective, the way we lead our lives and how we connect to each other –these are the offerings we can make to the spirit house in us.

Like the presiding deity of the Spirit House that looks after the well-being of those in the area, our mind directs the way we channelise the energy available to us. The physical body that houses the spirit is dense and the mind that is meant to create the energy channel is most often restless and self-centred. It stops us from seeking out our divine nature and natural wisdom.

The lives we lead are mindbased, nay, mind-biased, for our actions and reactions is the outcome of what we think and feel. Therefore, when we learn to direct the mind with purity and love, we appease our inner spirit, which is the pure energy and true essence of our being.

Like the darkness that made Spirit of the Spirit House obscure, the materialistic mind, clouded by self-indulgence and ignorance obscures our view of the Supreme Spirit. For lack of communication, the inner spirit remains dormant. For lack of energy, it remains out of reach. What does it take to go about cleaning and accessing our own little spirit house tucked away inside? How to let in the brightness, banishing forever the dark clouds of ignorance?

Surya yoga is one way. Taking in the Sun’s energy could vitalise both body and spirit. The Sun’s energy could infuse us with the strength and perception to be able to listen to the soothing strains of Sakha, the Harmonious One, and the Universal One that resides in our own private spirit house. Making offerings of silence and meditation, with a love that transcends all barriers, could lead us to experience divine reality. To integrate harmoniously with the Universal Spirit is to experience Divine Bliss.

Education Should Liberate You From The Past

Education is a process of liberation, but it has not been actualised anywhere in the world. Liberation means liberating the mind from the past, from theologies and political ideologies, liberating the mind in such a way that when a student comes out of education he is just a clean pure seeker with no prejudice.

That beautiful sentence at the gates of the universities in India, ‘ya vidya sa vimuktaye’ – ‘education is that which liberates’ –, shows how man can be unaware. Liberation becomes impossible when the university itself has a certain prejudice, a certain programme to put into the minds of the students. So first dissolve Hindu, Muslim, Jaina, Catholic – these names, from the universities. Secondly: India… has more than one hundred universities, which is meaningless… The result is that the standard of education goes on falling. When you have so many universities you cannot get the best as professors...

Just because somebody has a university degree does not mean that he becomes automatically capable of teaching. Teaching is a totally different art. Passing an examination is one thing; to teach, you need to be articulate, you need to have a vast range of knowledge. I mean not only the textbooks that you have read in the university, you have to be constantly in touch with the growing knowledge.

Thirty years ago somebody passed his master’s degree or became a PhD and for 30 years he has not bothered about what has happened in his subject. In 30 years human knowledge has increased more than has been possible in the past even 3,000 years. Now a professor who is unaware of these 30 years of development is absolutely incapable.

Should politicians become vice-chancellors? Retired politicians, those who have been defeated in the elections, need some place of respect. The vice-chancellorship has become a refuge. So make it a law that no politician can become a vice-chancellor.

Universities should also be teaching the latest discoveries, the latest literature, the latest poetry, and the latest in everything. Universities should be sensitive enough: each year there are new novels, new music, new dances that should become part of the curriculum. Universities have to remain always up to date.
Speaking is an art, and a professor should be an artist. His words should not be simply words; they should carry some poetry in them, some music in them. Each professor and each student should learn a simple meditation method. He can choose one. There are 112 meditation methods; the simplest is vipassana. Make vipassana part of the curriculum; unless a person passes in vipassana he cannot get his degree. Then it will be real education. Then it will be a liberating factor, because vipassana will liberate you totally from your religions, from your races, from your countries. It will make you an individual.

Meditation is an absolute necessity for humanity to survive. All other subjects should be taught, but no other subject is so important as meditation. But no university is teaching it. If all the graduates from the university come out with a meditative mind, they will change the whole structure and fabric of society.

These are my simple suggestions, absolutely practical; there is nothing utopian about them.

Anger, a New Age ailment?

Not long ago, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was asked at one of his yoga workshops, “When do you get angry?” He thought for while and finally responded, “It’s been ten years since it happened last!”

The great and the good, including Maulana Azad, Arun Gandhi, Osho, Khwaja Hasan Sani Nizami, Swami Ram Devji and Robert Prechter have long taught – by parable and often times by example – the need to control one’s anger. Mahatma Gandhi's fifth grandson, Arun, says that terrorism too can be controlled using techniques of anger management and community building. Gandhi, who recently resigned from the MK Gandhi Institute for Peace in Rochester in the US, said that most wars and acts of terror occur because of uncontrolled and mismanaged anger.

Terrorism may be a larger issue but even in our daily lives, it is clear that people are increasingly angry. Why is that? Anger can be caused by external or internal events. You could be angry with a specific person, such as a co-worker or supervisor. You could be furious about an event, say, a traffic jam or a cancelled flight. Or your anger could be caused by worrying about and brooding on your personal problems. Traumatic memories can also trigger angry feelings.

But the sad truth is that fury and intolerance bear away a man’s good reason. It is true that intolerance is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one. In fact, intolerance is the fret, fury and frenzy of the soul. Intolerance is hard to combat because it is willing to buy revenge with a whole life. But controlling the intolerance of one angry moment may mean avoiding a lifetime’s remorse. Shakespeare was entirely accurate when he wrote in Coriolanus: "Anger's my meat; I sup upon myself !" To be angry is to take revenge upon ourselves for the faults of others.

Anger can surface without warning in the most loving and long-standing relationships. When a childhood friend suddenly flares up over something totally innocuous, it is better to ignore the angry present and focus instead on the harmonious past. Anger makes people insensible, be it a good friend or a sibling.
Psychologist Charles Spielberger, who specializes in the study of anger, says it is "an emotional state that varies in intensity from mild irritation to intense fury and rage." As with other emotions, anger is accompanied by physiological and biological changes. When we get angry, our heart rate goes up and the blood pressure rises, as do energy hormone levels, pumping adrenaline and noradrenaline into the system.

Is anger becoming a 21st-century affliction? Some say these changing times make people workaholic and egotistic. Modern life may see many more expressions of anger than before, but could it be that we simply know about them now because the world’s information flow has multiplied to enormous levels? Or could there have been lots of unexpressed anger in earlier times?

Medically speaking, people who remain intolerant and angry most of the time are most susceptible to hypertension and related heart/brain diseases. Re-living unsuccessful or humiliating situations over and over can prove bad for one’s health. Simply remembering an incident that once made you angry can be stressful for the heart.

Often, terrible hurt owing to intolerance takes just minutes to inflict but forgiving the perpetrator requires time. Initially, we experience negative feelings such as anger, sadness and shame. Then we try to make sense of what happened. Ultimately we learn to see the person who hurt us through new eyes.

So what is to be done to face angry people? The best way to feel better is the very opposite of revenge. It is saying the words, "I forgive you.'' That could be the most powerful thing we will ever do. Forgiving doesn't mean giving in. It means letting go.

Once we forgive, we are no longer emotionally handcuffed to the person who hurt us. When we forgive, we reclaim our power to choose.

One can express one’s anger, disappointment or intolerance with a trusted friend or counselor, giving us the strengthening experience of being heard. That is a way to let go of one’s feelings without the danger of saying or doing any thing we will later regret. It is the equivalent of punching a pillow. Keeping a journal could help.

Could There Be Thought Without Thinker?

Anxieties, hurts and negative patterns of thought arise from clinging to a fixed self or identity, which, by its very nature, is fluid and impermanent. Strong attachment to a sense of ego and identity has to be diminished, even overcome completely, because there is no cohesive self and this attachment itself leads to psychological problems.

When we stop struggling with attachment and its consequent wounds and realise the futility of securing and solidifying a sense of permanence, we awaken to a healthy lightness and spaciousness that liberates us from clinging. The reversal of suffering is achieved by cleansing of perception, by meditation, by ethical conduct, practice of compassion, discipline, self-restraint and above all, by changing of perspective. The wider and more expansive the perspective is, the less the suffering.

The Buddhist teaching of ‘Paticca Samuppda’ means mutual causality, dependent arising or interconnectedness. We are all part of a whole web of interrelated social and ecological relationships that are not linear but are mutually reinforcing. The desirable focus should not be attachment to different elements; it should be the process of interrelationships.

Buddhism explains that experience is made up of aggregates or what are called khandhas which consist of five interconnections: rupa or form, vedna or feeling, sanna or perception, sankhara or predisposition, vinnana or consciousness. Sankhara, as habits and impulses, tend to modify our cognition, burdening it with the weight of past experience and association.

With feelings of attraction or aversion the ego consciousness arises. There is a sense of something to defend, represent or enhance. Buddhism says that the so-called needs of the ego proceed to impose fabrications of the external world. But the self is nothing by itself; it is actually interplay of aggregated elements or khandhas. We need to deconstruct the imagined, secure and constructed self into its parts. Their interplay is really what is real and what matters. It is believed that there is thought but no thinker and there is movement without a mover.

The art of non-attached observation of arising of experience and its corresponding ebb and flow in the consciousness is important part of Buddhist psychotherapy. We learn to let go and not hold on to experiences and their constructions as they are transient and in a way, not real. Yet it is also true that the experiences and their consciousness are not random or chaotic but signify patterns including patterns of behaviour which define our personality.

These patterns arising right from the moment of birth through the story of our life and personal history create a strong imprint on our body and mind, and in our beliefs and behaviour. We represent ourselves through these fixed embodied patterns by defending and advancing them. Often, this leads to suffering. Being aware of the process rather than being tied to the form liberates us from the fetish of attachment.

As the western philosopher Schopenhauer concluded, life fluctuates between the pain of desire on the one hand, and the boredom caused by the satisfaction of desire on the other. The challenge for Buddhist style psychotherapy is to break this vicious cycle of painful desire and boredom by going beyond and arriving at another, higher level of changed perspective.

The Journey Of Life, A Flowing River

Human life can be likened to a flowing river. What is a river? A river is a unique phenomenon of nature. In the river fresh water is being added to the existing water at every moment. This everyday phenomenon is responsible for the freshness of the river water. In the absence of this continuous flow of newly added water, the river will lose its freshness: it will not be able to maintain its healthgiving, even life-giving, properties.

The same method is adopted by nature with regard to human beings. As we know, human beings continue to be born, generation after generation. Within a period of a hundred years, the previous generation is replaced by a fresh set of people. If the old water is replaced with fresh water, in human beings this same occurrence takes place in the form of previous generations yielding place to new generations.

A great wisdom lies behind this system set up in human life by nature. Its aim is that the coming generation should learn its lesson from the experiences of the previous generation. By benefiting in this way, we may continue our life journey in a far better way. This is the precious gift of the previous generation to the new generation. This is why the phrase ‘old is gold’ is often used with reference to the older generation.

For instance, a father sees that his son is intelligent but finds that there is one thing wrong with his temperament, and that is his overconfidence. Due to this he suffers losses in life. On seeing this, the father, in the light of his own experiences advises him thus:
“My son, confidence is good, but overconfidence is bad.”
This advice is very useful to him.

Similarly, another parent, a mother, sees that her son is impatient.
He cannot wait for anything to take place in the ordinary course of events, so she gives him advice, with reference to her own experiences:
“My son, life is 1 per cent action, and 99 per cent restraint.”
This advice proves very useful to the son.

Similarly, another parent finds that his daughter does not have the quality of perseverance. She is not able to work unflaggingly with others, therefore, in the light of his experiences he advises his daughter:
“My child, maturity is the ability to live with things you cannot change.”
This advice of the father gives the daughter right guidance. She reviews her actions, and replans her life and then achieves great success in life.

These examples show how important the previous generation is for the new generation. The previous generation bequeaths its wisdom to the new generation. It passes on such formulae as have proved right in the light of practical experiences. In this way the older generation enables the coming generation to refrain from committing the mistakes which people made earlier that led to great losses. The truth is the previous generation is a valuable gift of nature to the present generation.

If our life is like flowing water, in which fresh water continues to be added at every moment, then it will always remain fresh and will never become stale. On the contrary, water that is confined to a closed space, stagnating in the absence of replenishment, will eventually lose its freshness. It will become stale, even harmful. The flowing river is a healthy message given by nature and the experience of many generations of people across continents and cultures would support this analogy.

Worry Is A Voluntary Form Of Suffering

What is it to be a witness, to just be?
The Buddha was once meditating. His mind started creating problems and distracted him from the path of enlightenment. It was as though hundreds of horses were galloping through his mind. But the monk remained a witness and did not identify with fear. His mind turned into thousands of elephants tempting him to identify with them, but again Buddha was just a witness … he saw through the mind’s game. His mind became a loving deer but still Buddha remained a witness. He did not get tempted.

Finally, his mind turned into a loving child drowning in the ocean, seeking his attention. Buddha, out of compassion, merged with his thoughts and stretched out his hands to save the drowning child. At once, the child turned into a monster and started pulling Buddha to the ocean. Buddha realised his folly and left the monster and continued being a witness. The monster turned again into a child and started pleading for help.

Buddha continued his meditation of being – not participating but being a witness. The child drowned in the ocean and emerged as an enlightened mind, reflecting Buddha’s mind. This is a play narrating Buddha’s effort towards enlightenment.

Is the shunning of identification an important aspect of meditation?
Learn to be a witness to your thoughts and feelings. In the witnessing consciousness, there is no identification with anything. Identification leads to misery. Worry is a form of identification. Literally, worry means twisting and tearing.

Have you observed that when you worry, your moving centre gets twisted? Negative state of worry – depression or fear… shows up strongly in the form of twisting one’s bodymoving centre.
Just be a witness and do not get identified. Relax your body, your mind and then finally just be a witness. Let not your ’I’ get identified with your body and mind. This deidentification is meditation.

What about emotions in a state of worry?
Firstly, negative emotional states like that of worry and jealousy must be observed and recognised. Generally, we do not see them. Instead, we become them. While a negative emotion is happening, be an onlooker. Then the emotion will be like a cloud that comes and goes.
To stop a negative emotion that comes out, create a new will through the intellectual centre. This is not suppression as you are doing it with an understanding that if negative emotion is let loose, it will create a hurt body. In turn this hurt body will take control of you.

Worry is a form of identification. It is useless. Unfortunately, many of us think it is right to worry about someone we love. Give up this voluntary form of suffering. By worrying you exhaust yourself. Your energy gets depleted.

In a depleted state, one cannot perform to the optimum level. Learn to take small steps, stop worrying. Weed out the worry as it emerges. Do not allow the other centres to support and nourish it.

What do you mean when you say we live in two worlds?
One is visible and outer while the other is invisible and inner. The outer is your body that is visible. The inner is your psychology. The object of spiritual teaching is to lead a person from unconscious being to conscious being.

The Divine Aspect Of An Ideal Relationship

Everything in the universe is in its place because of balance. A harmonious balance between two complementary forces is an integral part of nature. As the half-female, halfmale Ardhanareshwar, Shiva represents the union of Parvati as Prakriti, the energy force, and Shiva as Purusha, the two manifest aspects of the Cosmic Consciousness, Brahmn.

Both Prakriti and Purusha are two different aspects of nature and they come together to form a perfect, harmonious balance between two complementary forces. This is the concept of marriage in Vedic philosophy.

The marriage of two individuals is intended to create a harmonious balance very similar to that of the Ardhanareshwar. They come together to form a union, becoming an inseparable part of each other’s lives. The partners take care of each other’s needs for the rest of their lives with mutual devotion, dignity and respect.

Woman is considered as the force or Shakti in a man’s life. How long a marital relationship lasts would depend upon the evolution of that relationship – the higher the purpose, the longer the union would be. The bonds are established between two individuals at the level of chakras or energy centres. There are certain characteristics pertaining to each chakra, and the union happens at the level of these characteristics.

The lowest level is that of basic earthly desires, characteristics of the mooladhar chakra, pertaining to the satisfaction of grosser needs like sharing of wealth and belongings. There’s no higher purpose of the two partners coming together. A little above this is the connection based on sexual desires at the level of the swadhishthan chakra, at the level of physical Creation. Above this is the connection established on the plane of power, be it social, political, or economic, at the manipoorak chakra.

Most marriages exist at the level of attachment, when the partners feel that one cannot exist without the other. When this is misunderstood to be love, there are chances of a weakening of the relationship. The basic concept behind the marriage is that of ‘togetherness and oneness’, and this is found to be lacking in these relationships. People tend to get tied up, blinded by their own selfishness that they come to value individual needs more than the equitable give and take harmonious balance represented by the Ardhanareshwar symbol.

A connection formed on the basis of love is much higher and has no ties. It is established at the anahat chakra, the seat of selfless love. Love can never hold you back. It will not tie you down with emotions and conditions. It is selfless. Love sets you free because you are happy in the happiness of the person you love, unconditionally.

Even rarer are the connections established at the level of vishudhi chakra that are based on higher forms of creativity, where people come together when they have risen above their own selfish needs and can now think beyond themselves.

Then comes the highest energy centre in a being, the ajna chakra that is the seat of Shiva in the human body. The connection formed here is so subtle that in the current flow of circumstances, it might be very difficult indeed to find it. Such a union would be similar to that of Shiva and Shakti, complete in every respect.

A Spectacular Vision Of The Universal Form

Arjuna has heard of Krishna’s divine glories. He now wants to see for himself the One Universal Form. He asks Krishna to reveal his splendour and his wish is granted. However, He tells Arjuna that he would not be able to see this Form with normal eyes and gives him divine eyes with which the universal Form would be visible.

This is no ordinary perception. It is a visualisation. Thus, only two people – Arjuna and Sanjaya – see this vision in the battlefield of Kurukshetra that had thousands of warriors; this was possible because of their extraordinary powers of vision, granted to them by Krishna and Vyasa respectively.

This is one of the rare moments a sincere seeker is blessed with when the veil lifts, revealing the beauty and grandeur that lies beyond. It inspires devotion and renews one’s conviction. But these flashes cannot be sustained. You need to go back to your level and work yourself up to find this magnificence in your everyday life, always.

Krishna shows Arjuna a synoptic view of the entire universe. Arjuna sees countless wonderful forms in divine robes, adorned with divine ornaments, with the effulgence and radiance of a thousand suns, all resting in the body of the God of gods. Filled with amazement, Arjuna bows with folded hands and goes on to describe this spectacular vision.

Arjuna now understands Krishna as the embodiment of the Divine Force. He is not just the dear friend he had mistaken Him for. He remembers the times he spent with Krishna as friends, unaware of His greatness. He begs forgiveness for inadvertently disrespecting Him.

Krishna comes up with a display of raw power, all-devouring and fearful. Arjuna sees the worlds getting pulverised. Flames blazing from his mouths consume the universe. Arjuna sees Dhritarashtra and all his allies including Bhisma, Drona and Karna as well as his own heroes getting destroyed.

He asks Krishna: ‘‘Who are you? Why are you so fierce?’’ Krishna answers: ‘‘I am the destroyer of the worlds. I have already killed these warriors. You are merely an instrument. Rise therefore, kill the enemies, win fame and enjoy this vast kingdom.’’ In other words, the law of karma prevails. The Kaurava forces have asked for destruction. They have to meet their end. Arjuna is not the one who kills them. He is only the instrument of law. Overcome with fear at the sight of this terrible form Arjuna asks Krishna to go back to His gentle form. In his enthusiasm he has asked for more than he can assimilate. He now wants to see the benevolent form of Vishnu.

Sanjaya sees the same vision but is not afraid. He has the strength to understand the fearful form of the Lord. He is exhilarated, inspired and speaks with reverence and adoration.

Krishna now shows His fourarmed form of Vishnu, His gentle and gorgeous nature. The chapter ends with Krishna underscoring the rare privilege earned by Arjuna. Even the gods long to see this form that cannot be seen by mere spiritual practice. Krishna says He can be seen with single-pointed devotion; His essence can be known and entered. ‘‘One who acts for Me, is devoted to Me and regards Me as Supreme obtains Me.’’

Simply Elevate And See The Big Difference

“It’s human nature after all!” Hearing this, we rarely stop to wonder “What does that really mean?” It is most often used in a negative sense about a spectrum of behaviour from the harmlessly quirky to the downright evil. But ‘human nature’ also embraces a wholesome capacity for love, compassion, service and interdependence.

What makes us, as a species, veer from time to time towards the ‘dark’ side of our nature? Ecologist and research psychologist John Calhoun tells of the Ik, a Ugandan mountain people forcibly relocated from their ancestral homeland to a desolate area. Cut off from their cultural roots, brought to near starvation, they slowly developed a numbing insensitivity to the suffering of others.

One day, Lo’ono, an old blind woman, fell into a deep ravine. Badly injured, her pleas for help were ignored; instead, many crowded around the edge, laughing and jeering, even throwing sticks and pebbles at her as she lay dying. What happened to these people, Calhoun warned, can happen to any of us. His research revealed this was not an inherently violent tribe. Prior to relocation, they lived in relative harmony, extending the usual hospitality to each other and to strangers. But with a steady diet of neglect, hunger, despair and little else, they ‘descended’ into acting from the lowest side of their nature.

This works for individuals as well as for groups. Societies and governments today use and abuse power to subjugate or humiliate people and countries perceived in any way as being lower or less powerful. Then, as the less powerful now become more powerful, we witness increasingly inhuman instances of retaliation born from this contagious, toxic contamination. And oddly, we continue to be surprised! There is an opposite and equally contagious ‘ascending’ tendency within us that some refer to as elevation – that uplifting, inspiring feeling on reading, hearing of or experiencing acts of human goodness, courage, sacrifice and compassion.

What is significant here is that elevation results in making one want to also help others and to become a better person. When we encounter people behaving in a petty, selfish or vicious way, we tend to feel that we do not live in a morally inspiring world. When we see too much of this, it’s easy to get to a stage when one says: “What’s the use”, and further to a stage when one feels: “If you can’t beat them, join them.” On the other hand, when we learn of someone, especially a stranger, performing an act of kindness or generosity for another, we do feel we live in a fair and just world, and want to make it fairer and even more just.

The effects of these feelings have potentially life-altering effects. A young woman i know was so surprised and moved at the prayerful and generous material support extended towards her brother going through a serious illness that she has vowed to work to reach out and help others in the same way. If frequent bad deeds, small or large, trigger social hostility, cynicism, even violence towards others, frequent good deeds have a kind of ‘undoing’ effect on all this, raising the level of love, compassion and harmony around us.

What we call society is simply a manifestation of the choices we make. How our life turns out depends on the choices that individuals and groups make on a daily basis.

THE TRUTH IS, WE ALL LIE

A child, when I lost a milk-tooth, my mother told me to place it under my pillow at night. I was told that the next morning, the tooth would be gone and in its place, I would find some money. I had no reason not to believe in such an obliging Tooth Fairy.

A few decades later, on a Christmas morning in New York, I saw my little nephew run to his Christmas stocking bulging with goodies. It was a huge, decorated stocking – almost three-feet-tall. I had picked it up for him in London. My sister always found it difficult to fill it and sometimes just stuffed the big foot with oranges, which always made the little one grumble about Father Christmas’s notion of presents. Father Christmas, Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny - these are only some of the tall tales we grow up with.

As we grow up, social lies become so common we can no longer identify them. It is familiar enough — to say or hear — something like, “I rang you but couldn’t get through”. Often, you might ring someone only to have them tell you, “I was just thinking of calling you!”

Once upon a time, when teenagers were still expected to obey their parents, they would tell an awful amount of lies. As a teenager, I fibbed to my parents when bunking class for matinee shows with my best friend (she’s now a responsible cog in the Foreign Service). I am sure today’s teenagers don’t fib because nobody dare say anything to them anymore.

Then, there is the lies couples tell each other, especially when they are courting. Men and women often woo each other for reasons that have nothing to do with love. Ever tried to caution your friend against a gold digger? Your advice will not only fall on deaf ears, it may even turn your friend against you. Instead, the lies, half-truths and excuses dished out by the alluring siren / stud will be gospel for the smitten lover.

After the wedding, the cards will fall where they may. If it comes to divorce, one party will try to cheat the other by lying about cash and assets. Perhaps, only fairy tales end with the words “and they lived happily ever after”.

There are many social climbers but fewer social mountaineers. I know two women who have successfully scaled Everest, socially speaking. Jane Austen's novel opened with the famous lines: “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” Novels are the great lie. Great stacks of them exist and are cherished by us. Some of the greatest characters of our times never existed – Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot and now Harry Potter. We love them all!

History books are often a mix of outright lies, embroidered facts and distorted perspectives. Flesh-andblood figures who might have led a rollicking and roistering life when not fighting wars or writing great poetry are sanitized and converted into two-dimensional heroes. Revisionist history is the worst offender because it is manipulated to suit the agenda of a few.

And the lies they tell about God! If one had to compile a list of all the nasty habits attributed to God, it would be enough to frighten everyone away. They talk about the wrath of God; the avenging God; the punishment that will be meted out if you don’t do exactly what ‘they’ say. There are so many myths in each faith that one might well wonder how much does religion have to do with God? The fabrication allows ‘them’ to grab power. Unlike in a corporation, no one can question this. What have they done to God? Where’s the sheer joy of living with God?

There are so many words to describe lies in this world, from euphemisms to grave ones such as mendacity, deception, dishonesty, swindling, perjury. As in the difference between “first degree murder”, “manslaughter”, “accidental death” and “self defence”, there is a hierarchy in lies.

One of the most crucial acts of deception in history, which still reverberates 2,000 years later, must be the kiss of Judas. After the Last Supper, Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane when Judas approached him, accompanied by soldiers and officials of the chief priests and Pharisees. In the ultimate act of betrayal, Judas kissed Jesus to identify him to the soldiers.

Public and political lies affect our lives. The 19th century British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli cried: Lies, damned lies and statistics. Mark Twain popularized this phrase still further. Statistics can be used to support any argument a government wants its people to believe. Statistics depend on how a sample is taken, what questions are asked and the conclusions arrived at by asking leading questions. The public rarely gets to know the truth of what’s going on. In India, rumour and counter-rumour is all we have to show for many great political and financial scandals. There is no closure because we’ll never know the truth. Recent high-profile criminal cases demonstrate people’s readiness to lie under oath.

The inference must be that the volume of lies circulating in the world outweighs the truth. We’ve all heard that a lie repeated often enough becomes the truth. Today’s socially-networked generation ensures that a lie can go round the world in no time at all, provided it can be summed up in 140 characters.