Experience The Fullness Of The Universe

Upanishad means to sit close. You can sit close to someone on the physical plane but there may remain a huge distance in the mind. The Upanishads talk about mental proximity.

In the Isha Upanishad, Isha represents the “I” or energy and “sha” is the completeness: the full, silent, vast, divine. The invocation begins with an exclamation of fullness, or “That is full”. What is that fullness which is being invoked? It is the state of meditation, a state of being that is neither the state of dreaming, sleeping nor waking. After the experience, the master tells the student: “That is fullness.” The invocation ends thus: “Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.” No happiness or knowledge can happen without peace. The first step to peace is to realise that everything is complete.

The world that we see, of the senses, is but a small part of totality. Completion is like the zero, full and complete. Completeness settles the mind so you can reflect and this turning of the mind inward is spirituality

Isha the divine permeates the whole universe and is addressed as energy, not as a person. Everything is permeated in that one consciousness. Wake up and see that the whole universe is infinite and that your inner space is as complete as this universe. See that the universe is permeating your spirit; nothing is dead. Honour your body and enjoy this world by renouncing it. Just step back. Clinging to it brings you misery. Renunciation is protection for your soul. Pleasant and unpleasant events, though they may appear different, are both made of the same divinity. Unpleasant events make you stronger, while pleasant events expand you. Renunciation is being in the present moment totally. Realise that the universe is permeated with love and abundance and that your needs will always be taken care of.

Cultivate the strength to renounce in misery and be willing to do service when happy. Aspire to live for 100 years doing your work. Life here is to get over your karmas, which you can do only in this body; and the knowledge you get, impart to others. Do your action 100 per cent, but don’t be feverish about it. Whatever you have not given or loved, you will come back to do it. Keep doing your work and keep renouncing. We cannot really know the entire universe and its magnanimity because of our limited ability to perceive. The brain works on a frequency channel; our sense organs have limited capacity but the universe, like the divine, is limitless. In this limited time we call life we keep on doing our work.

Those who do not realise or attend to the self in life live in darkness and when they leave the world they will be in darkness also. When you leave the body in meditation, you achieve a higher plane.

How do you know if you have realised the Self? The atma is motionless; it is the substratum of the universe and everything is in it. It is space that is faster than the speed of light, faster than the mind; you can never comprehend the Self through the senses. The seer, the one who sees, who feels, understands, is the Self. This cannot be comprehended through the senses, yet every action in the universe is run through consciousness. A seed sprouts because there is consciousness in the seed. The entire universe is filled with this prana or life and you are the container of this, not the content.

A less ‘masculine’ justice?

Women are intrinsically compassionate. It is often believed that they have a capacity to forgive acts of violence more easily than men, even if the act has taken a terrible personal toll.

But it now seems that it is not always possible, even for women, to abandon their longing for retributive justice. Three days before the first anniversary of the Mumbai terror attack, Kavita Karkare and Smita Salaskar, wives of slain Mumbai Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare and encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar respectively, met UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi at her residence. After the meeting, the two widows told the media that Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving captured terrorist, should be hanged.

It was difficult to overlook the paradox of that meeting. Here were three widows — wives of the two policemen and Sonia Gandhi herself — and each had been a victim of unbridled violence fuelled by revenge. Each had suffered tragically. Karkare and Salaskar said the conversation was personal and that they reiterated to Gandhi that “families of the victims and those of the martyrs wanted Kasab hanged”.

Few will forget how Sonia Gandhi, after losing her husband in a coldblooded terrorist assassination, granted clemency to Nalini, the assassin. She had Nalini’s death sentence commuted to life imprisonment. Like Kasab, Nalini was also the sole surviving conspirator of the five-member squad responsible for Rajiv Gandhi’s murder. Compassion for Nalini’s five-year-old daughter had clearly taken precedence over Sonia's personal longing for retributive justice.

Priyanka Gandhi was in her teens when her father was blown up. Seventeen years on, treading in her mother’s footsteps, she went to meet Nalini in the prison to “come to terms with the violence haunting the entire family”. Later, she said: “I don’t believe in anger, hatred and violence. And I refuse to allow it to overpower my life.”

Perhaps it is different right now for Karkare and Salaskar. Perhaps images of the violence that took away their loved ones remain vivid and the wounds it inflicted on their lives still bleed. One year, after all, is barely enough time to recover from such irremediable loss. The desire for “an eye for an eye” appears to be stoked by raw grief.

In today’s increasingly brutalized world, we come across many striking examples of women turning inwards to come to terms with personal tragedy, letting go of their desire for vengeance. Forgiveness, while liberating, is also a way of making the transgressor own up to his/her terrible actions. It also does not mean absolving oneself from remembering.

Gladys Staines forgave Dara Singh, the man who torched to death her missionary husband Graham Staines and their two young sons while they were asleep. Was it her religious faith or her gender that made her so brave? “It (forgiveness) opens up the channel of healing in our lives. Instead of bitterness, we have love and healing and peace. It also releases the person to be forgiven,” Staines had said.

At 10, twins Eva and Miriam Mozes were taken to Auschwitz, the Nazi concentration camp where Dr Josef Mengele used them for medical experiments. The sisters providentially survived Auschwitz and the infamous doctor. Separated from their mother at the camp, the twins were sometimes injected with doses of poison, virus or bacteria. Miriam never really recovered from the torture and died in 1993. Eva survived and later forgave her torturer.

In a film Forgiving Dr Mengele, Eva said, “What the victims do does not change what happened. And the best thing about the remedy of forgiveness is that there are no side-effects. And everybody can afford it.”

However, there are many women who have chosen violent redressal methods to avenge injustice done to them. Nalini was just one of the many, ready to play with people's lives for what she believed was the ‘greater good’. The politics of violence and retaliation spawns more ‘soldiers’ to the cause and many of them happen to be women.

But these so-called ‘warriors’ seeking to right historic and systemic wrongs by spilling blood help instead to keep intact the very structures of violence they loathe.

Meanwhile, law-makers and victims alike resolve to meet violence with more violence. The destruction of the twin towers in New York on 9/11 by terrorists and the inhuman treatment meted out to the law-breakers by the state at Gunatanamo Bay are part of the same philosophy of merciless punishment, shutting the door on any alternative discourse which is perceived to be “less masculine”.

Nelson Mandela was brave enough to risk wearing the scoffedat ‘emasculating’ tag. His Truth and Reconciliation Commission, no matter its problems, spoke the language of healing in post-apartheid South Africa. Victims of horrifying acts of discrimination faced their aggressors at the hearings, sometimes breaking down as they spoke.

But the act of forgiveness is undoubtedly fractured by complexities. In no society can there be a unilateral, uniform response to brutality. Coping differently with trauma is just one part of the human psyche. In that sense, there can be no ‘total’ forgiveness or ‘total’ revenge.

Co-existing with the concept of the unforgivable, forgiveness derives its strength from the fact that ‘absolute’ forgiveness is almost impossible in individual human terms. But it is not dissociated from delivering justice.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission got the torturers and murderers to admit their crimes but the process of national cathartic healing could be completed only when forgiveness was lodged in the South African psyche. The act of reconciliation still remains heartbreakingly brave.

Overcome Ego, Be Happy

Who doesn’t wish for happiness? Can money buy happiness? Do great achievements bring true happiness? Riches, success and achievements may bring name, fame and pride, but they do not always bring happiness. If lack of money and success creates sorrow and suffering, their possession does not give happiness either. The question then is how can you be peaceful and happy, irrespective of whether you are a success or failure in life?

Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita: ‘‘There is neither intellect nor bhavna (feeling for God) for the ayukta or the one who is not united, and to one devoid of bhavna, there is no peace. To the one without peace, how can there be happiness?” Krishna says, clearly that unless a person is tuned into God he cannot have peace and without peace, he cannot be happy. Krishna also says that an un-united person does not have intellect.

So if you want happiness, unite with God. For this, you don’t have to abandon the pursuit of riches, success and achievements. God is self-knowledge and wisdom of sameness towards all beings because all are God. An egocentric person remains alienated from wisdom that is God. If you are free from ego, you look at all beings as God and so are united to the wisdom that is God. You will be free of sorrow and will attain peace and happiness.

Krishna says that we do not have right to the fruits of action and, therefore, we should perform actions, leaving the fruits to God. How can you avoid worrying about the fruit while performing actions? When a person regards the fruits of action (success or failure) as ‘mine’ and performs focused on the object, he is automatically worrying about the fruit. Moreover, in doing so, he fails to abide the law of God, which says that one does not have right to the fruits.

What you have to really do is to steady your intellect with the thought that the fruits of actions are of God. And when the fruit accrue in the form of success or failure, joy or sorrow, you have to mentally renounce the fruit to God. Since you do not contemplate the objects, you will not be attached to them. You will break the chain that starts with attachment and gives rise to desire, anger, delusion, confusion of memory, loss of intellect and death. Your intellect will become steady.

Krishna calls the wisdom of steadying your intellect by renouncing the fruits of action to God as Buddhiyog or discipline of intellect. In this state you can be freed from constant births in different bodies. If you don’t, you are bound by actions. You lose your intellect due to attachment, desire and anger and perish, only to take another birth in a new body.

To steady our intellect we have to bring change in our thoughts. We have to remain engaged in usual actions and enjoyments as earlier but with a steady intellect fixed on the thought that all fruits of action are of God. This will free us from desire and ego, and gain eternal peace and happiness.

The same wisdom that will give peace and happiness to us will also give us Selfrealisation and make us immortal. It will lead our world to a new age where we will live in peace, happiness and oneness, realising that we are in union with God.

Pilgrimage To Mecca Is A Divine Experience

Apilgrimage undertaken with sincerity and devotion could be a life-transforming, spiritually invigorating experience. This is what happened to me when i went for Umra a few years ago. Umra can be taken up during any part of the year and it involves most of the rituals of Haj, but it is not a Haj. My experience with two important rituals that are also a part of Haj – tawaf or circumambulating the Kaaba and running between the two small hills of Safah and Marwah – was spiritually satisfying.

Wearing the Ihram – the two unstitched pieces of white cloth, one wrapped around the waist, the other worn over one shoulder – at Jeddah, made me feel i was entering a new world, far removed from the lifestyle familiar to me. I entered Baitul Mukaram, the Grand Mosque, on reaching Mecca. I began reciting Labiak at the Kaaba: “O my God, i am present, i am at your disposal…” and started doing tawaf, circling the Kaaba seven times. There was a huge crowd of devotees doing the same while chanting Labiak.

It was rather impossible to kiss Hajar Aswad, the holy black stone, because of the huge crowds going around the Kaaba at great speed. It crossed my mind suddenly that at Kaaba, you are so close to God that if you pray sincerely, it is immediately accepted. I thought this was the time to see whether my prayers were accepted.

I prayed to God to facilitate me to kiss the Hajar Aswad. Even if it were for only a few seconds, my wish was indeed granted. A tall, well-built man in the front row near Hajar Aswad held back the surging crowd with his arms while i did the needful.

I began to feel empowered. I remembered the words of Rumi in the Mathnawi: “God has made the Qibla – now that the House has come to view. If you forget this Qibla for one moment, you will be overcome by the Qibla of desires.”

After the completion of this ritual, a pilgrim is expected to run between the two small hills called Safah and Marwah that are described in Quran as signs of God. The pilgrims walk at different speeds coinciding with a rite performed in the memory of Abraham’s wife who helplessly ran between these two hills in search of water for her son, Ishmael. Again it was difficult for me to run and as an alternative i got a wheel chair after depositing my passport to perform this ritual. Believe it or not, i never did have to use the wheelchair. I was able to run between Safah and Marwah, unencumbered by my physical limitations. As i completed the ritual, i wondered from where i got the energy and willpower to do it. Was it faith that propelled me to do what i had thought was impossible for me to accomplish?

The Haj is not intended as an accomplishment to boast about nor undertaken to acquire the title of ‘Haji’. The pilgrimage is expected to make a person Godaware and sincere. My hope and wish is that every pilgrim who returns from Haj retains in himself the spirit of Haj without succumbing completely to worldly deeds and thereby lose all the benefits of a significant spiritual experience that reduces the distance between the seeker and the God.

Cherish Good Memories, See What Happens

The older we get, the larger our memory banks become. Our memories, like everything else in life, are a medley of the good and bad, the positive and negative. Memory is more than just a receptacle of past experiences. We can review the contents of our memory bank and either energise ourselves and live a full life, or put ourselves down and feel blue.

Memories are also made up of our attitudes and behaviour. That is why it is important to watch what we feed into our memory banks. If we continue to focus on the negative, we will look back to situations that have not been helpful for our growth. If we strengthen positive memories, we will remember all that challenges us to maturity.

Memories need not only be those of bountiful nature. Blue skies, birds, trees, flowers in full bloom, quiet lakes and waves thundering against the seashore – all these memories seem to put us in a happy mood. Memories can also be of crowded streets, overflowing bridges, hectic flip-flops and the anonymity of daily commuting. These memories might leave us cold and indifferent to others and to life.

The memories that ought to stay longest with us are those that resonate with experiences of love, giving and compassion. We have keen memories of our life-supporting systems and people we have interacted with and continue to interact with who have been instrumental in our growth.

Our daily interactions with people might expose us to those who have destructive traits. There are those who are violent, others insist that only their view is right. They might ridicule us or be aggressive towards us. It is these memories that we should try to overcome. If we do not give them too much importance, they will not overpower us. On the contrary they could contribute to our growth.

Spiritually mature people are usually brimming with good memories. For them every challenge or difficulty has been a chance to learn. They have stored in their memory banks useful lessons from a variety of experiences. If a rose can bloom in the midst of so many thorns, why can’t we too prosper wherever we bloom?

No one can be expected to be euphoric in all situations in life. We probably cannot escape the ups and downs of life. But, our memory banks can help us to remain balanced with a quiet contentment, which is only possible for discerning minds.

Our experience of God is coloured by memories. He takes away the pain of the past and the uncertainty of the present and future. Like a true artist He paints in black and white, shade and shadow, darkness and light. That is why memories can be interesting, inspiring and enabling.

The memory slate cannot be wiped absolutely clean. However, every negative memory can also bring us to a point where we begin to see ourselves in a new light. All experiences, negative and positive, can lead us to live life more abundantly.

If we let memories of good experiences, of faith, love, hope, empathy, compassion and beneficial relationships predominate, our ship will not end up on the rocks. Our memory banks could help us to steer ourselves towards safe waters, and maybe help anchor us in tranquillity. Let’s ask ourselves: What are we feeding into our memory banks and what are we making of our lives?

The Agony And Ecstasy Of True Creativity

French painter Paul Gaugin lived the last few years of his life on an island in the South Pacific. Shortly before his death, he finished his last masterpiece, entitled Whoarewe? Wheredo we come from? Where are we going? He wrote: ‘I have put all my energies into this work before dying – a passion so painful, a vision so clear.’ Osho, is there any more you can say about the role of creativity?

Paul Gaugin had to suffer just the way every creator suffers. Creativity is almost like pregnancy. The mother goes for nine months into deep troubled waters, and even after the birth of the child she is not free of responsibility. All creativity is a deep suffering, unless your creativity does not come out of the mind, but out of meditation. When it comes out of meditation, creativity is sharing the joy, sharing the blissfulness that you have.

Mind has no joy – it is really a wound, very painful.

Gaugin had no idea of any meditation, but he had a tremendous passion, almost a madness to create. And just to create, he dropped out of society, forgot all about his wife and children and responsibilities. He was possessed by the idea of creating. The possession was so total that he could brook no distraction. But when you are possessed by something, you are working almost as a slave, and slavery cannot bring blissfulness.

All the creators in the West have passed through long years of suffering. Many of them have been forced to live in madhouses, and many of them have committed suicide. But still the western creator, either of meditation or of music, of painting or of dance, has not become aware of why he has to suffer.

In the East, the situation is totally different – not a single creator has suffered. In fact only the creators have enjoyed life to its fullest. Not a single creator has been put into a madhouse, not a single creator has committed suicide; but creators have moved deeper into meditation, and many of them have become mystics. From painting, from music, from dance, they have moved deeper into their own being.

So learn to be more meditative, and let your creativity be secondary to your meditativeness. Then you will have a totally different state of being – that of ecstasy; and out of ecstasy, whatever is created has also some flavour of it. In the West, perhaps Gurdjieff is the only man who has divided art into two sections: objective and subjective art. Subjective art is from the mind, and is out of anguish. Objective art – the Taj Mahal, the caves of Ellora and Ajanta, the temples of Khajuraho – has come from meditative people. Out of their love, out of their silence, they wanted to share; it is their contribution to the world.

The western artist has lived under a heavy burden. It is time to be aware that there is something more beyond mind. First reach that beyond, and then you can create stars; and they will not only be a great joy to you, they will also be a great joy for those who see them.

An objective piece of art like the Taj Mahal is not just to be seen, but to be lived – and then you will be in a certain way connected with the creators of that beautiful architecture. It may be that thousands of years have passed between the creator of that piece and you. Suddenly that distance disappears; you become part of that creative joy, of that creative dance.

Voice That Transcends Your Vocal Chords

Your voice could help you establish a direct connection with the Divine. In Hindustani music, this is called sakshatkar. It is the development of a voice that sings using the halak or full breath rather than the vocal chords alone.

This is easier said than done. Singing aa-wise, mouth opened in the aakaar is to be replaced by singing haa-wise, mouth opened to the haakaar, so as to open the voice channel and make space for the breath to flow without constriction or congestion. For the sound must travel from the umbilicus, and through the entire thoracic sound box, before the vocal chords and the mouth will articulate it. In gharana language, this is the cultivation of the halak awaaz, the voice of egolessness, or the true voice.

In the Indore gharana, voice culture begins with a unique preliminary exercise. The student is asked to sing the Haa, not the Saa, after inserting, between the front teeth, the bone between the two knuckles of any finger of the hand. This is done to measure how wide the mouth has to be opened throughout.

Care is taken to make sure that the voice moves through the tract without hitting the sides of the thoracic cage, so as not to pick up any kind of materiality. With long hours of practice the voice unites with the naada, the sound of timelessness that lies at the innermost recesses of each human being, and runs through all of God’s creation. An easy way to hear naada externally is to put your ear to the heart of any large seashell – the strong sound of the ocean running through it is this sound of the naada.

In earlier days when there were no tanpuras, ustads would have four to six disciples around them singing the Haa- Saa, to provide the pitch or drone for their singing, which later came to develop into the four- or sixstringed tanpura, now commonly used in the singing of classical music. Though it has a material body, the tanpura is actually an abstract instrument, the symbolic sound of your own naada that helps you tune in with yourself when you sing.

Indian voice culture includes vocalism known as the gamak, developed by using the breath rather than just the vocal chords, which is also developed through the halak. In Living Idioms in Hindustani Music, Pandit Amarnath says gamak comes from the root gama, meaning to acquire pace.

Referring to a movement in which each note begins from the note preceding it, this vocalism fills out each note with a heavy, rich and rounded quality of tone. The word comes from garmana, i.e., to heat up – when the note gains momentum by the energy of the naada, and comes to life. The swaras or notes themselves are the stirrings of the naada.

It is only when the student is established in the Haa-Saa, that he is guided into singing the notes with gamak, for this is how all classical music will be sung.

When naada speaks through the voice, it endows it with a spiritual character. Ordinarily the speaking voice is both congested and constricted, but even so, all voices have it in them. Some realise the naada, others don’t. The voice that does, acquires an eternal beauty, a honey-like intonation, a deep layer of peace, and the hush of eternal silence. This is the saintly voice, deeply consoling, the voice of a realised soul.

Break Free Of Rituals And Abstractions

The Srimad Bhagavatam lit a new path to the Divine, free from binding ritual and esoteric abstractions. On the one hand, it portrayed the majesty and might, the mahatmya of the Supreme Being. On the other, it revealed the tantalising possibility of blissful communion with Him in a loving relationship. In doing so, the Bhagavatam introduced the liberating and transcendental gospel of bhakti yoga.

Nothing pleases God as much as devotion. How dear bhaktas or devotees and their bhakti or devotion are to the Lord can be gleaned from the declaration in the Srimad Bhagavatam, that it is for the love of devotees that God takes form from time to time. Sathya Sai Baba says: “The Avatar or Form Incarnate on earth is only the concretisation of the yearning of seekers. They are the prime cause. The cow secretes milk for the sustenance of the calf. It is the chief beneficiary. But others too benefit from that milk. So along with the sustenance of the bhaktas, other incidental benefits also accrue, such as fostering of dharma.”

Srimad Bhagavatam belongs to the class of Hindu scriptures known as the Puranas, and enlightens humanity on the sacred mystery of incarnations. The mystical life of the divine enchanter Krishna is finely detailed in the Bhagavatam, inspiring devotion in human hearts. Though the concept of devotion is as old as the Vedas, the Bhagavatam introduced the concept of a personal god with countless attributes who could be adored and worshipped as ‘one’s own’, in the form of child, parent, master, friend, or beloved.

The word ‘bhakti’ is derived from the root ‘bhaj’, which has several meanings – to serve, to honour, to love, to adore. According to Narada, the great theoretician of bhakti, it is the wholehearted and supreme love of God, obtaining which the devotee feels he has gained the highest attainment in life, as also unalloyed bliss. Sandilya has expressed bhakti as ‘unabated and unslackening attachment to God.’

The Bhagavatam expands the frontiers of bhakti and states, ‘‘When all energies of mind, organs of knowledge and of action become concentrated as a unified mental mode, directed to the Supreme Being, spontaneous like an instinct and devoid of any extraneous motives, the resulting state of mind is bhakti. It is superior even to mukti. Like fire it burns away the soul’s sheath of ignorance.’’ Bhakti is divine engagement with the Supreme; it draws upon the highest energies of the soul. It calls for incessant yearning from a purified heart, soaked in devotion. Krishna said of the gopis, blessed souls who attained to this state and whose total devotion for Krishna is at the centre of the Bhagavatam: “They never learnt the Vedas, they never served any teacher, they practised no austerity, but by association with holiness and love alone they attained to Me.’’

Sathya Sai Baba says, “Devotion is the supreme state that man can attain. It is bhakti that proves the eternal truth, Tat Twam Asi – Thou Art That – that the devotee and God are one.” The Bhagavatam too declares bhakti to be the highest gift of God, bestowed on aspirants more rarely than mukti itself. No wonder then that the bhakta is ready to forego even the pleasures of Vaikuntha and the goal of mukti itself, for the ineffable delight of loving his Lord.

To move on, pardon the 26/11 murderers

Every day, the news bulletin reminds us of everything that is evil in the world — bombings, murders, war. But with each act of violence comes a great opportunity — to forgive. Can we manage this, even when we suffer acutely from horrific acts? Difficult as it may sound, not doing so may be worse. As Robert Assaglioli observed: “Without forgiveness, life is governed...by an endless cycle of resentment and retaliation.”

It may be time to return to the subject as the world approaches the first anniversary of yet another act of terror, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. From visits to India and media reports overseas, three victims’ stories force one to think deeply about the difficulty of forgiveness.

There was the young woman who lost her partner on 26/11. She had been a prostitute and homeless till she found a man who protected her on the strength of the egg sandwiches he sold outside one of Mumbai’s train stations. For the first time in her adult life, she was able to leave the mean streets and rent a small room with her family. When her partner died, she lost her home and would have to return to prostitution to feed her children. Could she ever forgive those who caused her so much pain and hardship?

Then there was the man who had come to India with his teenage daughter on a spiritual quest. They were killed while dining together at the Taj Hotel. Would their family and friends ever be able to forgive those who took their lives?

Never mind family and friends, those who are in some way connected with us by bonds of blood or emotion. Even I, part of the wider world and a stranger to these three victims, am saddened and outraged. Whenever I turn inwards, the sadness takes me beyond myself. But the outrage causes a physical tightening inside my solar plexus as I if am preparing to fight something. It makes me aggressive and shuts me off from the people around me. The longer I dwell on my desire for vengeance, the more alienated I become. In comparing these two states, it is clear which is healthier. But while the choice is clear, it is not easy to make.

The desire for vengeance is seductive. It makes you feel self-righteous because you are demanding something that is just, and demanding it for others. But the feeling of self-righteousness consumes you, fuelling a false sense of power, ultimately destroying the humanity of the one who’s demanding vengeance. As Sufi Hazrat Inayat Khan said: “The longing for vengeance is like a craving for poison.”

Forgiveness is more difficult but more rewarding. But how can one forgive the killings of innocent people in New York, Madrid, Mumbai, Israel or the Palestinian territories? How can I forgive the murder of men and women in Texas by a doctor who was trained to save lives?

The first step is to recognize that I will never understand the reason why someone could do these things. So forgiveness requires me to accept that which I don’t understand.

To forgive is also paradoxical. It starts with accepting the limitations of our understanding, and also helps us overcome those limits. As Gerald Jamppolsky wrote, “I can have peace of mind only when I forgive rather than judge.”

So how can I practice forgiveness? One way is by asking for forgiveness. To acknowledge that I have done things that require someone to pardon me, reminds me of my shortcomings. It makes it easier to forgive others. Also, once we are forgiven by someone we have harmed, it is easier to be forgiving.

What if you can’t ask the person you’ve offended for forgiveness because you’ve lost touch with them? What if he has passed away or refuses to forgive you? In such a situation, it’s best to forgive yourself. This is often the first step towards being forgiving. To forgive oneself requires accepting responsibility. Accept the need to do whatever can be done to repair the damage, and then let it go.

None of this is easy. But one can take inspiration from the speech of American president Abraham Lincoln, who towards the end of a war, called upon his countrymen to forgo vengeance. “With malice toward none, with charity for all… to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations,” he had said. Forgiveness is the only way this could ever be accomplished.

Cosmic Rays Of Healing Light

Rainbow healing is an ancient method that heals the body and improves emotional and mental health. Gradually, through practice and meditation, visualisation and conscious imagination, the body of the practitioner soaks and breathes the seven components of light in the right proportion.

In rainbow healing meditation, the practitioner delves into the subconscious and higher-conscious minds to blast and transmute disease and pain with powerful cosmic rays of light. This removes memories of disease from the body and restores radiant health and balance.

Rainbow healing draws on a variety of alternative healing therapies so that one is healed at all levels – physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. It is a journey of selfhealing and transformation by exploring one’s energy centres, chakras, and auric fields.

Your body is surrounded by a coloured envelope of light known as aura, which is normally invisible. The aura is connected with spirally rotating energy centres called chakras. The aura’s colours undergo continuous change in accordance with changes in chakras that are determined by our physical health, attitudes and emotions.

Most of the time, our chakras are imbalanced because of negative thoughts, attitudes and emotions. The best way to regain balance is to clean the aura by energising the chakras through meditation and auto-suggestion techniques. We can purify the aura by purifying our attitudes and emotions.

The chakras can be balanced, cleansed and energised using the colours of the rainbow. To do this, you visualise a particular colour at a particular chakra. Then visualise that colour spreading around your body, entering your aura and engulfing you. At the end, use auto-suggestion to bring about changes in your thinking, attitudes and emotional patterns.

The sun’s rays penetrate the body and all impurities are removed. So far the known aspects of light rays include gamma rays, X-rays, infrared and ultraviolet rays. The visible spectrum of light has seven colours, which are collectively called ‘Vibgyor’.

The light that is distributed by Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh – the Trinity of Hinduism – spreads out in a circle and divides into 120 rays, which eventually become 360 major rays. Because these rays emanated from the power of the Trinity, they have three primary qualities. They are the cause of creation, sustenance and dissolution. The sun distributes these rays.
There is a special mudra, called the lopa mudra, which aids in the practice of rainbow healing. There are approximately hundred billion nerve cells in the brain, and each of these communicates with the other through connection called synapses. Only through a coordination of meditation and prayers can there be an effective synergy between the nerve cells, as well as the left and right hemispheres of the brain.

Balanced energy is distributed in the body through the nadi or the meridian. Cosmic light travelling inside the nadi is called amrita nadi in the Puranas. Through meditation and auto-suggestion, we can fill our nadis with cosmic light that distributes all colours equally in our bodies and minds to help us live long and remain healthy.

What We Really Need Is Lots of Love

We sometimes think: why are we so greedy for land and property, why are we motivated by political desires? Sometimes it’s hard to love like this. We should not detest the diseased. We should try to rid the disease because all living creatures are connected with one another. If we cannot love the violent, cruel-hearted, hateful and the envious, then we cannot love anyone.

Just as iron is naturally attracted to a magnet, the soul of every living being is naturally attracted to God, who is like a supreme magnet. Then why do so many engage in ungodly activities?

Just as a piece of iron covered by dust or rust is not attracted to a magnet, the soul covered by lust, greed, envy, pride, anger and illusion is not attracted to God.

So, people are diseased, but we should love the one who is suffering from this disease. People are ruining their lives because their pure consciousness is obscured by illusion and ignorance.

When it is night, it is difficult to see what is what, who is who, where we are. Ignorance means you do not know. Ignorance is due to darkness, but as soon as the sun rises, everything is revealed as it is. Similarly, when the light within us is allowed to shine, all ignorance is dispelled.

The sun of knowledge, God, is within all of us. Then why are we in darkness? Simply because we cannot perceive His presence. When there are dark clouds, you cannot see the sun. So the cloud of ignorance, which is the root disease which creates all the symptoms in the form of unwanted activities and thoughts, is covering the pure light of the Divine within us.

Yoga is a means to dissipate this cloud and allow the sun of love, the sun of peace, the pure light of the divine presence of the Lord within our hearts to shine and give light to everyone. The supreme occupation of all humanity is to give light to the world, not to contribute to the darkness. If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.

It is the duty of each one of us – it is the highest expression of love – to purify our own hearts. If you do not have something, how can you give it to others? You can only give what you have.
What we need is not more technology, not more scientific research. This world doesn’t need more food. There’s plenty of food, but it’s being dumped in the ocean or buried under the ground. What we need is love. If we do not have love, what can we give? We will simply remain a part of the problem.

Therefore, purification of the heart is the divine responsibility of each one of us. When our hearts are pure like the sun, love will emanate in all directions for everyone. Does the sun discriminate that this is a dragonfly, this is a dog, this is a Native American, this is an Indian, this is a businessman, and this is the president of the United States? No.

The pure heart shines love all around in the same way as the sun. When we purify our hearts, we transcend all boundaries of sectarianism, all boundaries of selfishness, and we can be the true servant, well-wisher and friend of every living being.

Use Your Desires To Evolve Consciously

What is the difference between Yoga and Tantra?
Tantra says you have to accept yourself as you are – do not restrain, just accept, but be aware and you will transcend.’ Yoga promotes restraint. Both ways are acceptable. Tantra and Yoga may be two different manifestations but their genesis is the same.

How is that?
In Tantra you accept yourself because that is the expression of your life, of your consciousness, in its natural course of evolution.

Within us we have both ‘good’ and ‘bad’, creative and destructive. Usually, religions tell us to accept ‘good’ and reject ‘bad’ or negative aspects of our personality, but we, with our limited understanding, tend to mess things up. We try to change the pattern of our behaviour and thinking. This enforced change within the personality is suppression of the normal expression which applies to all levels of our consciousness.

Tantra talks of the union of Shiva and Shakti. Shakti has nearly always been defined as kundalini, and Shiva, the male aspect, has been defined as chetana or consciousness. Tantra is not really referring to a physical relationship. It says that in order to experience internal union you first experience external union; to experience internal bliss, experience external bliss. The difference is external bliss is momentary; internal bliss is continuous.

In Tantra there are initiations which are awakening of Shakti. The practice of asana is an initiation for the body. Pranayama is initiation of the pranas. The only difference between Tantra and Yoga is that Yoga is outgoing; it deals more with the world, body, mind, personality, emotions, actions and environment, whereas Tantra is more meditative.

You require desire because, for the evolution of consciousness, conflict is necessary. It is a means for awakening part of the consciousness. If there were no conflicts, there would be no evolution. There would be a stagnant state of consciousness.

How should we deal with desires?
We must accept them. If i desire to slap you, i should think of the repercussions it can have, positive or negative. If i simply follow my emotions there will be a big fight between us. This is where you have to learn to detach yourself. Both processes happen together. You allow emotions to flourish, observe them, and learn how to control them. You come to know when it is the right time for action and let that energy manifest. Then this manifestation will be positive and creative, rather than haphazard.

Do men and women have different spiritual attributes?
Tantra believes that feminine energy is more refined and of a higher quality than masculine energy. In Tantra the female principle has the position of guru, and the male principle that of a disciple.

Why is this so?
Because of a woman’s ability to flow without any kind of intellectual barrier which binds one to the material level. Women have intuitive ability because theirs is a psychically active energy. Male energy is passive and seems to tend towards tunnel-vision. Women are able to perceive things which the male energy cannot. One must learn to flow with sensitivity; one must learn to flow with higher awareness.

Unlock Your Energies Through Yoga

When we say ‘yoga’, for many of you it might mean some impossible physical postures. Yoga means to be in perfect tune. When you are in yoga, your body, mind and spirit, and existence, are in absolute harmony. When you finetune yourself to a point where everything functions beautifully within you, the best of your abilities will just flow out of you. When you are happy, your energies function better. Have you noticed that when you are happy you have endless energy? Even if you don’t eat or sleep, you can go on and on. So, just a little happiness liberates you from your normal limitations of energy and capability.

Yoga is the science of activating your inner energies in such a way that your body, mind and emotions function at their highest peak. When your body and mind function in a completely different state of relaxation and a certain level of blissfulness, you can be released from so much suffering. Right now, you come and sit in your office, and you have a nagging headache. Your headache is not a major disease, but it takes away your capability for the day. With the practice of yoga, your body and mind will be at their highest possible peak.

There are other dimensions to yoga. When you activate your energies, you can function in a different way. As you are sitting here right now, you consider yourself to be a person. You are identified with many things, but what you call ‘myself’ is actually just a certain amount of energy.

Modern science says that the whole of existence is energy manifesting itself in different ways. If this is so, then you are also a little bit of energy functioning in a particular way. As far as science is concerned, this same energy which you call ‘myself’ can be a rock, mud, tree, dog, or you. Everything is the same energy, functioning at different levels of capability.

Similarly, among human beings, though we are all made of the same energy, we still do not function at the same level of capability. What you call capability or talent, your creativity, is a certain way your energy functions. This energy, in one plant it functions to create roses, in another it functions to create jasmine, but it is the same energy manifesting itself. If you gain some mastery over your own energies, things that you never imagined possible you will do simply and naturally. This is the experience of people who have started doing these yogic practices. It is the inner technology of creating situations the way you want them.

With the same materials that we build huge buildings today, people used to build little huts. We thought we could only dig mud and make pots or bricks. Now we dig the same earth and make computers, cars, and even spacecrafts.

It is the same energy; we have just started using it for higher possibilities. Our inner energies are like that. There is a technology as to how to use this energy for higher possibilities. Every human being must explore and know this. Otherwise, life becomes limited and accidental. Once you activate your inner energies, your capabilities happen in a different sphere altogether. Yoga is a tool to find ultimate expression to life.

The Healing Touch Of True Spirituality

The message of the Bible is – be virtuous and you will attain the kingdom of heaven. But can being good alone help us live happily when we step into the ever-demanding world of today with its numerous stresses and strains? Despite our best efforts when we do not get a congenial environment, such as the right job to prove our worth, or people in whose company we feel good, we become unhappy. This calls for an ability to be positive from within, even when our surroundings might be negative.

It is easy to float through life when everything is going according to our wishes. It is tough to remain positive in a negative environment where lawlessness seems to have taken the place of law, and honest citizens have to constantly deal with crooks. To be positive at such times needs great effort and a strong will. How can this be achieved? By making spirituality an integral part of our daily lives.

Spirituality helps clear away negativity as we struggle with adverse circumstances. Spirituality means converting negative thoughts to positive ones. It calms the mind and heart and connects us with the Almighty – the supreme power – who charges us with love and blessings. This can only happen if we realise we are all part of Brahmn. It becomes easier to deal with the world if we realise this truth, as it helps us deal with everything from a spiritual perspective.

When we suffer a setback, a spiritually awakened outlook can be of great help in getting us back on our feet. It can help us release our emotional suffering by building a positive attitude, buffering our self-esteem, and by inspiring us to explore and use our abilities to the fullest. The practice of spirituality entails constantly turning our minds towards that which is true and pure. We realise that we are all going to face negative circumstances and we will be able to overcome hindrances only if we have built our inner reserves of positivity. Being spiritual helps us recognise our limitations while simultaneously focusing on our strengths.

The best way to root out negativity is to focus on positivity. One way of doing this is to stop the poison of worldly afflictions from seeping into our hearts and minds, like Lord Shiva who stores the poison he has imbibed in his throat and does not let it enter his bloodstream. An attitude of acceptance, that whatever is happening is with the will of God, helps restore our equilibrium. Only complete surrender to God can foster inner strength. If we could detach our consciousness from maya and focus it upon God, the Divine will bestow His grace on us. Maya’s attraction is an illusion that keeps us from knowing the truth.

Meditation is one way in which we can cultivate spirituality in our lives. True meditation means correcting our thoughts. Good thoughts are like a treasure that never allows us to feel drained and can provide valuable solace in trying times. Listening to spiritual discourses, meditating, turning our gaze inwards should be accompanied by being a positive influence in the world by helping others and rendering service with humility.

As the veil of clouds lifts, the moon appears bright and luminous in a dark night sky. Our lives, too, can become serene and joyful when the healing touch of true spirituality clears away the clouds of ignorance from our hearts and minds.

Matter Is Myth In Divine Oneness

Almost all religions refer to the oneness of God. Prophets and gurus stress this trait of God in their scriptures where oneness appears as the precursor of all other traits of the Divine, such as omnipresence, omnipotence and omniscience. Upon close scrutiny and analysis you will find that all the other traits attributed to God boil down to this trait of oneness.

Oneness of the Divine is not like the oneness of a mathematical digit. In the case of the digit, we do not have ‘one’ alone. It is followed by two, three, four, and so on. In the case of God, oneness means God is one and one alone. He is one without a second. It also implies that there is no other substance or entity except the Divine in the cosmos.

God’s oneness is all inclusive; it does not leave space for any other substance to exist. God being all-pervasive, the coexistence of God and matter at the same place is a contradiction. It also implies that matter does not exist in the form that we perceive with our senses. This concept of matter as a myth is now no longer restricted to eastern spirituality. The latest research in physics interprets matter as if it were a myth.

John Eccles, a renowned physicist, said, “I want you to realise that there is no colour in the natural world and no sound, nothing of this kind; no textures, no patterns, no beauty, no scent.” This means that our senses interpret raw data and create a world of forms, colours and structures. The observer bestows meaning and traits on the cosmos. Otherwise the universe would be pure potential. This view of the universe is in a way linked with the oneness of God. Since it is the senses that create the universe, the universe as we see it does not exist. Only God exists.

All matter is energy, according to physics. If we deconstruct matter into molecules, atoms and subatomic phenomena, we reach the level where subatomic particles turn into ghosts of energy that dissolve into an empty void. This void is not really empty. It is actually full of that element which is dynamic, and being one, pervades the whole of the void.

It is this basic underlying substance that manifests material phenomena at the time of their creation, and absorbs them back at the time of their dissolution. Nothing is really created or destroyed in the cosmos. One primordial substance pervades the entire universe. This is the Divine, who is the original substance of the cosmos. It is who we variously call Brahmn, God, Allah, Akalpurakh, Jehovah, Ishwar. This is the Ultimate Reality of science, logic and philosophy.

Most of us have heard of Ultimate Reality from others, or have read about it in scriptures. This understanding is at an intellectual level. The oneness of God is not an abstraction evolved by the human mind. It is a fact. Its realisation can occur when some knower of God blesses direct perception.

Since the cosmos is an integral whole, its Ultimate Reality is common to all, irrespective of religion, region, caste, creed, race and nationality. Humanity is one too, an organic whole. The oneness of God and the oneness of humanity are interrelated. It is on the foundation of this understanding that prophets have built the edifice of humanism.

Take charge of your life

Everyone constantly faces challenges — at home with our spouse, children or other family members; at work with our peers and bosses. Sometimes life itself seems a challenge because it throws up so many relationship-based and situational challenges.

But the biggest challenge of them all is one’s mind. Often, it is possible to control everything else but one’s mind. Being master of the mind is no less than mastery of the world. Chapter 6 of the Bhagavad Gita says “our mind is our best friend and our worst enemy. If we know how to manage our mind, we can manage our time, our relationships, our life, everything.”

This is where spirituality comes in. Swami Chinmayanand said, “spirituality is not a way to look at certain things, it is a certain way to look at all things.” It is the path to a mentally decluttered value-based life. It is also about managing relationships in different sorts of challenging situations. Spirituality teaches us control of our thoughts, emotions and desires. It is actually the science of managing one’s mind.

The result: A sense of well being, tranquillity and inner peace. It also creates the feeling that one is on top of the situation and in control of it, rather than the other way round. Spirituality is not bound by the confines of religion because it’s not about chanting prayers, undertaking pilgrimages or charitable work. It’s about much more than that. Contrary to what we all believe, spirituality is not just for mystics or old people. It is meant for everyone.

Life is beautiful but only if you really want it to be that way. This needs you to make a conscious decision to achieve your full potential and give your life greater meaning. Many of us are not aware of our potential. One must never let life slide by. Inspiration, curiosity, love, knowledge and enthusiasm give life its true meaning. We are said to be “living” life only when we experience happiness, love and fearlessness, not stress, anxiety, boredom and a sense of aimlessness.

It is possible to illustrate this from personal experience. Nearly 10 years ago, our family started to perform satsang. I was increasingly drawn to it after my interest was kindled by self-help books. The knowledge we acquire from scripture helps us grow as individuals. The beauty of scripture is that it imparts universal knowledge, which is relevant to each of us and possible to apply to our daily lives. The truth is we need sincerely to try to enjoy every step of this journey called life. One is always waiting for something to happen to be happy. Alternatively, we wait to complete the job at hand and then enjoy the fruits of it. But that means we are always postponing happiness. Happiness is in the journey, not the destination.

It is important to do things we value because only then can we give 100% of ourselves to it. Chapter Three of the Bhagavad Gita explains that this is about the concept of swadharma, or finding one’s true calling and following it sincerely. Once we value what we do, we start feeling good about ourselves. The self-esteem goes up. It also gives a sense of purpose and meaning to our lives.

Once we start to have some control over our actions and become more positive in our outlook, we may also find the law of attraction coming into play. Inexplicable events occur and we find things falling into place for us. They seem to be coincidence but that’s the law of attraction working for you. You attract what you think. We can align our inner world with the strong belief that whatever we wish for will happen. When you think positive, you get positive results. Let the power of positive affirmation take over. It was well said that what you visualize is that you realize.

That brings me to another interesting thought. The capacity to sacrifice is something we must all reckon with. It is sacrifice that enables one to appreciate the real worth of what one does because it takes a great deal of effort, introspection and prioritization to give away something. Sacrifice always brings joy and growth. An important aspect of sacrifice is that it requires you to go beyond your comfort zone, which creates a physical, emotional and intellectual blanket around us and prevents us thinking new thoughts.

We become prisoners of our selfcreated comfort zones. We don’t open up to new people and become averse to criticism. We cling to the emotional crutches we have created.

At the intellectual level also, we become stubborn. “It’s either my way or no way” is the constantly nagging feeling.

On the other hand, when we sacrifice something, seek something else and transcend our comfort zone, we are no longer scared of change and grow as individuals.

In real terms, most of us are averse to change and resist it. We fail to realize that everything is changing anyway, whatever comes has to go and it is pointless to cling to it. That’s when one can start to come to terms with life’s ultimate truth, ie that change is the only constant.

The Bhagavad Gita says “when we live in this world, we experience the pairs of opposites — hot and cold, joy and sorrow, success and failure. They come and they go. And even while they are here, they are temporary.”

Most of the times, it is resistance to a changing situation, rather than the situation itself that creates conflict. Instead, one should face a situation as it is and refrain from colouring it with biases. Lapsing into “why me” or “why did it have to happen” makes for mental turmoil.

Through acceptance of a situation as it is, one automatically starts focusing on finding a solution rather than on the problem itself. And sure enough, one does come up with a sensible solution.

As Harivansh Rai Bachchan said, “Apne man ka ho to achha. Na ho to aur bhi achha. (If we get what we want, it’s good. If we don’t get it, it’s even better).”

Enhancing Spiritual Memory

Random Access Memory, RAM in short, is a feature that makes computers meaningful. It is hard to imagine a PC functioning minus RAM. Computers without RAM are like people with dysfunctional memory, who live a life divorced from reality. On coming across such people, we realise how blessed we are to have our memory alive and in order.

Sages, however, might beg to differ. In Indian spiritual lexicon, memory (smriti) is more than just remembering telephone numbers and bank balances. Memory connotes an evolved state of being. Success and failure in life, in the ultimate sense, depend upon how active and functional one’s memory is. An illustration from the Bhagavad Gita might help clarify this point.

The forces are positioned on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, ready for war. Arjuna, a key player in the Pandava team, finds his brethren and revered seniors before him. His emotions suddenly get the better of him. He realises the futility of war. He sees before his mind’s eye death and disaster on a large scale. He turns ‘spiritual’ and resolves to renounce the contest. His mentor, Krishna, pities Arjuna and gives the message of the Gita, ending it with, ‘‘Reflect upon it and act as you choose.’’ What is the effect of the Gita, coming straight from Krishna’s mouth, on Arjuna, the ardent disciple? He says, ‘‘My delusion is destroyed. I have regained my memory – smritilabdha – through Your grace!’’

Tracing the sequence of self-ruin, the Gita states, ‘‘Brooding over the objects of sense, man develops attachment to them; from attachment comes desire; from desire anger sprouts forth. From anger proceeds delusion; from delusion, confused memory or smritibhransh, from confused memory the ruin of reason, due to ruin of reason he perishes.’’ Recovery of memory motivates Arjuna to engage in battle, but he fights in the dispassionate mode of action, the mode of Karma Yoga. He fights in Krishna’s shadow of grace, acting solely as a blessed instrument of God to reset a disturbed cosmic order, dharmasansthapanarthaya.

What is that ultimate memory that Krishna quickened in Arjuna to inspire him towards right action? In the typical paradox of cosmic truth, ultimate memory is the same as original memory which, in turn, is the same as eternal memory. This relates to the truth of the essential unity of creation, non-duality, advaita. Sustenance, guidance and positive energy flow from the renewal of the memory of oneness and unity. All belong to the One, not as its parts, but rather as the One. Each of us, jointly and severally, is the One. The prelude to the Upanishads enunciates the ‘absurd’ equation of Vedanta: One minus one equals one. ‘‘That is a whole, this is a whole, from that whole has this issued. When this whole issues from that, what remains is a whole.’’

Maya blurs the memory of oneness; it inspires notions of difference, self-interest and rival interest. The spiritual journey consists of constantly renewing this memory until it firmly lodges in the mind. This is called sumiran, a corruption of the term ‘smaran’, or remembrance. Sages across religions have hailed its value. Steeped in sumiran one gets established in bhakti or devotion, because the point of bhakti is ananyata, ‘non-another-ness’.

Holy Cow, De-stressing Is So Simple

Iwas a student of a village madrassa in Uttar Pradesh in the 1930s. We studied a poem by the renowned poet Ismail Meerathi in the Urdu reader. It was titled ‘Hamari Gaay’ – Our Cow. One of the verses went like this: ‘‘Kal jo ghas chari thi ban mein,/ Doodh bani woh gaay ke than mein.’’

It means that the cow is a special kind of animal. It takes (eats) grass and in return gives us milk. In other words, the cow is divine; it is able to convert non-milk into milk.

This poem became a part of my memory. It taught me a great lesson. God, the Creator, has made the cow a model for human behaviour in that it gives us a lesson in high morality. We must develop this quality of conversion in our personality, and this should enable us to transform negative thought into positive thought.

It is said that man is a social animal. But what is society? Society is full of differences. Every day we experience provocative situations; every day we face the disagreeable behaviour of others and every day we suffer anger and tension because of conflicts arising out of differences.

Then what should we do? The cow could show us the answer. God has created a model in the form of the cow. We have to adopt cow culture, we have to develop in our personality what may be called the capacity for transformation; we have to turn negative experiences into positive thinking.

The fact is that everyone enjoys freedom. But everyone also has the choice to misuse freedom. It is this misuse of freedom that creates problems. Hence we need to learn the art of problem management.

According to Islam, the present world is a testing ground. Every man and woman here is being tested. If we have freedom, it is because without freedom, there can be no test. This freedom is God-given, and as such, no one has the licence to abolish it. We have no option but to follow the cow pattern, that is, to turn negativity into positivity.

Once a man came to the Prophet of Islam, and said: ‘‘O Prophet, give me a piece of advice by which i may be able to manage all the affairs of my life.’’ The Prophet replied: ‘‘Don’t be angry.’’

‘‘Don’t be angry’’ means learning the art of anger management, learning the art of converting anger into forgiveness, of converting anger into peaceability. This is the highest form of spirituality.

Leaving society and going into the jungle or the mountains is a lower form of spirituality. The higher form is that which the cow demonstrates. We live with people, experience all kinds of behaviour, but try not to react negatively. You have to imitate the cow. Just as the cow converts grass into milk, you have to convert negative thought into positive thought. This is the highest form of spirituality.

Most are battling stress daily. They ask about ways to de-stress. I would suggest that they learn a lesson from the cow. They should adopt the cow habit in their affairs and they will be able to de-stress quite successfully. The cow represents an elevated form of lifestyle. Adopt this lifestyle, and you will be able to enjoy a tension-free life.

Life Is Beautiful Inside And Outside

How should you live? With joy and exuberance. Joy should come not only from serving society but also from enjoying the best things in life. Just live with them, enjoy them. You do not have to possess something to enjoy it.

Look at the butterfly. Its lifespan is so short, yet it enjoys itself thoroughly. It goes from flower to flower, the most beautiful creation of nature. It sucks nectar – the sweetest thing in nature. Give it anything else to eat or drink, but it chooses only the best, honey. Similarly, we should speak only sweetly, think and live beautifully and enjoy life.

Sweetness is the secret of a beautiful life. Once we speak sweetly the whole world will speak sweetly to us. This should become our nature. Only bhakti can ensure this, because bhakti means love.

What do we do in temples? We put a stone there and offer archana, which means we lavish praise on the stone for all the qualities we value. We say you are our father, our mother. We invoke agni and offer praise, not one or two but one crore prayers each time. By doing this, we invest power in that stone.

One day a priest, adept as he was in offering worship, came home and heaped praise on his wife. You can imagine what a happy home she made for him. We have to develop the ability to appreciate the good in everyone.

If we are happy and so are others, our speech will become sweet. Life then becomes easy, weightless. Otherwise the mind is full of problems and we are always ready to fight. If we develop sattvik qualities, wherever we go we will be happy.

We are also quick to point out different things that have disturbed our equanimity. If you think deeply you will find the fault always lies with others, never do you find yourself at fault! Actually it is the other way round.

One day a man felt he needed to see and talk to God. He went to a forest where he saw a sage sitting in meditation. He placed his request. The sage told him to collect rainwater in a pot and look into it till the mud settled. ‘‘When you see your face in the water, you will know you have got gyana.’’

The man did as instructed. Just as the water was becoming clear and he was beginning to see his face, the sage disturbed the pot. He did this repeatedly. Finally the seeker got upset. ‘‘Oh! I am not disturbing it. I just shook it,’’ said the sage. It is in the nature of worldly things that people keep ‘‘disturbing’’ or interfering with your life and time.

So if you find that someone has put you in a bad mood and so you cannot say nice words, or that when you see a person you remember his bad qualities and find nothing to praise, you know that the external world has disturbed the pot in your mind. Do not let it do so.

God and everything divine is within you and in everyone around you. If there is happiness within you, you would not quarrel. And to find that happiness you have to find the divine in everyone.

Pranayama Of Ragas Brought To Life

There are two kinds of Indian oral-aural art traditions: the concrete and the fluid. Although both their form and content are tangible, their purpose has been mystical.

The concrete, like the statues of the 64 yoginis in Jabalpur and Bhubaneswar, are long-lasting and evidence of specific art traditions which went into firming up a culture. They represent cultural and scientific heritage. They often say much more than we can interpret and are repositories of untapped information about the knowledge of their times.

There is no need to do a pran pratishtha or infuse life into these art objects, as we do for Ganesh or Durga clay idols, because they are meant to communicate static information which, when apprehended by us, leads to a semeiosis, a term formulated by American philosopher and scientist Charles Sanders Pierce, which means any form of activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, including the production of meaning. Traditionally these works of art are not immersed in flowing water unless they are damaged, unlike clay idols.

Clay idols are short-lived and created for a different purpose – to awaken spiritual powers. Their veneration is to promote peace and prosperity. Once their prescribed function is complete, they must return to Prithvi from where they came. This is why they are called parthiv or lifeless, unless prana is infused into them.

Fluid arts cannot be seen; they can be heard through invocation, like a musical raga. It is in one way like a clay sculpture, given structure by taal, and energy by the singer’s own panchaprana or five vital energies and the sounds of svaras. This process is akin to pran pratishtha of clay idols; mere singing of aroha and avaroha cannot bring them to life.

Ragas are acoustic. They remain inaudible unless we recall them from memory and listen to the body of svaras. Musicians talk of raga roop or swaroop, the form with its content or raga as a being. If ragas were not living and life-giving, how could they make plants grow faster and better, as J C Bose showed in early 1900?

Matang Muni defined svara as sva+rajari = self-illuminating. Nada, the essence of svara, is also known as Nada-Brahmn and is taken as the cause of the universe. Both point at life potential, waiting to be tapped.

Hatha Yoga includes pranayama which is the regulation of the panchaprana. Is it a coincidence that rules do not normally allow raga with less than five svaras? Do the five mandatory svaras of a raga form its panchaprana? Vocal music is essentially pranayama andregulation of the panchaprana into the form of raga. When the raga becomes fully alive, it spreads its own light and modifies space and time to provide a rejuvenating experience to the listeners.

The substance of a raga communicates its character and the performer and listeners rejoice in it. It is more like a live play than a film that has been shot earlier. It is listening to what a raga has to say about itself. It is collective experience of rasa emanating from a concrete but a fluid being just brought to life.

The next stage, the moment of visarjan (dissolution), has to arrive. Once its acoustic body ceases to be, the raga itself dissolves into vayu or wind, the most powerful of the panchamahabhoota.

Ch’i Kung Makes You Feel Good

Ch’i Kung, pronounced chee gung, literally means ’energy work’. Ch’i Kung is about cultivating an expanded awareness. It helps your mind gain control over the movement of the life force. It is the practice of learning how to concentrate, circulate and focus ch’i. It is considered to be the granddaddy of many internal and mindful arts, including T’ai Chi.

Many have at least heard of T’ai Chi but not Ch’i Kung, which is an older form of exercise. Taoist Ch’i Kung, believed to be the progenitor of all the different forms of Ch’i Kung and T’ai Chi, was created by meditation adepts 3,000 years ago. It was created through deep insight about how the body’s energy flows. Through inner awareness, they gained an understanding of energy channels, points, and the intricate relationship between internal energy systems of the body and its tissues.

Feng Shui - literally ’windwater’ - takes ch’i into account as it explores how the energies of the earth, sun, sky, landscape, colour, and time affect people, animals, and possible events. This promotes harmony and helps overcome, or at times prevent, natural and manmade disasters.

Ch’i Kung incorporates many ancient Chinese techniques for escalating the flow of life-energy in a series of dynamic postures or forms that flow from one into the other.

The practice includes standing meditations, self-massage from standing or seated positions, and breathing exercises. Although physical movements may be utilised, Ch’i Kung practice can also be still.

In Ch’i Kung, there are three basics: smooth, even, silent breathing, total utilisation of effort but without creating internal strain, and performing soft, fluid, circular movements with a sense of ease and comfort.

Its peaceful and ch’i-stimulating nature complements any T’ai Chi practice. The effects you experience from the practice of Ch’i Kung are very different from those of T’ai Chi, but both are interconnected. Some say that T’ai Chi itself is a complex form of Ch’i Kung. However, others believe that they are distinct mindful arts.

From improved physical health to greater mental clarity and spiritual awakening, increased life-energy can be felt in a wide variety of ways. Regular practice of these exercises will lead to a body and mind that are functionally younger, so that life becomes a joy.

The best way to cultivate ch’i for health is to put the mind inside the body and make it conscious of the way the ch’i naturally flows and then change your internal environment to maximise that flow. For example, while practising either T’ai Chi or Ch’i Kung, become conscious of the gross and subtle movements of energy and also blockages if there are any. Then, let go, and the softness and relaxation frees up the energy hose.

Whether providing robust physical health, emotional wellbeing or peace of mind, Ch’i Kung enriches your life in surprising ways. The result? You feel healthier and happier.

To help us endure the strain of living up to a number of commitments, the need for something energising and revitalising such as Ch’i Kung exercises is felt today even more acutely than before.

Liberation Is Freedom From The Finite

Form is a wave perceived by the ocean of consciousness in an attempt to understand its own formlessness. This duality is imagined and the sense of am-ness crystallises as a discrete entity that thrives on other forms or cognising entities to assert its own form. It seeks cognisance from other forms to recognise its own transient form. What is eternal is the formlessness that is the precursor of form.

Form is obsessed with tangibility. The sense organs are mere instruments to reinforce this belief in form as the true self. The form continues to believe it is a discrete independent entity. It has total conviction in these deceptive sensory modalities of perception.

Relativity is based on the fact that perception changes as the observer’s state changes. Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle also underlines the shortcomings of our sensory perceptive modalities, where the senses cannot determine the precise position and velocity of a particle simultaneously.

Sensory modalities can never fathom formlessness. Formlessness transcends the senses. When form has to decipher the formless it must first abandon the conviction of its own form. The brain has various centres which serve as destinations for perceptive inputs. It therefore has a strong discriminatory ability to separate the subject from the object. This discrimination is mediated via the sense organs and is the most powerful tool for effecting duality. Comprehension is totally a derivative of the sense organs.

There are many ‘silent areas’ in the brain whose exact function is not known. These areas could be mediating supra-sensory cognition, cognition that is not based on a subject-object dichotomy, cognition that uses itself to recognise itself. Awareness of the true self is beyond the mediation of conventional sensory modalities and the dichotomy of knower and knowledge. There is nothing like ignorance because ignorance also is a manifestation of awareness. Awareness itself manifests as knowledge or ignorance.

Consciousness exists as both personalised and impersonalised states. Impersonalised consciousness is supra-sensory. It just exists and does not need a cognitive entity as a medium to be aware of itself. It does not have any time space definitions because these are for the finite. The Infinite Unmanifest has the privilege of manifesting as the finite. But the finite has severe limitations in perceiving the Infinite. Its identity as a finite entity is based on amnesia of its infiniteness.

Creation is the dream of consciousness. There is no logic to this dream. Realisation is when consciousness awakes from its own dream. Till consciousness is in a dream state, illusion persists. The brain is a programme for effecting the dream of consciousness. Myriad forms of creation exist merely as functions of this cognitive programme.

Matter or form owes its existence to this programme of deception. This programme also has software that ensures total belief in the illusion that it creates. Any attempt to understand the self – as just a manifestation of the formless – is futile in the dream state. The entity that endeavours to do so is also part of that dream. Therefore, liberation is not of a person but from the person. Liberation is deliverance from the finite and its futile attempts to comprehend the infinite. It is when the infinite wakes up from the dream of being finite – cognition that can recognise itself as absolute and not resort to duality to assert itself.

Life is a journey from destiny to free will

As we go down the path of self-awareness, one question that comes up is how much of our actions are dictated by destiny? How much of life is a result of our conscious choice? Are we the masters of our destiny? Or are we mere puppets in the larger scheme of things? Different philosophical schools of thought believe different things. The two prominent — and diametrically opposite — views are:

• Determinism — everything is pre-determined, and;

• Free Will — we have complete freedom of choice.

Ancient Eastern philosophies have tended to lay greater emphasis on determinism, while there’s been bigger support for free will among modern libertarians.

The rise of individualism in modern society has furthered the notion that we create our own reality, shoring up the concept of free will. Determinism represents the view that every event is causally determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences. In its extreme version, it suggests that human beings have no way of changing the course of events. This sounds paralyzing but it may be grounded in truth. Using a biological approach, there’s the role of the genetic code – the DNA carries the individual’s entire history. The philosophy of karma decrees that human beings primarily act out the effects of past karma.

Meanwhile, free will espouses the existence of our rational agency through which we can exercise control over our decisions. It also implies that nature’s universal laws do not exert any power over individual will.

How to reconcile this with our intuitive belief that we are able to make independent decisions to create our own destiny through vision, talent and commitment?

Personal experience often supports the view that we always have a choice. We choose the career we want to pursue, decide on the food we want to eat, determine the extent of hard work we put in, have the freedom to choose our leisure activities, and so on.

The debate between determinism and free will has to examine whether the laws of nature are causally deterministic of our actions. The universe is governed by laws of nature, such as the cycle of birth and death, and karma. Destiny is nothing but these laws of nature unfolding — scientific and spiritual progress merely helps us understand these laws a bit better.

The law of karma also says our experiences are dictated by our cumulative stored karma.That’s why some people instinctively get angry in a situation that leaves others calm; why some are predisposed to be ambitious and others not. It is pre-arranged in our karmic psyche. We are born with this karmic psyche and every interaction with our environment means we generate and store additional karma.To that extent, all our decisions come from a pre-programmed disposition even though we may confuse them with free choice. In fact, they are at best an outcome of our conditioned will (not free will) and constrained by our hereditary and environmental limitations.

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Swami Vivekananda’s teacher, explained it thus: “Man is like a cow tied to a pole with a rope, bound by the karmic debts and human nature, and the amount of free will he has is analogous only to the amount of freedom the rope allows.” The argument strengthens the case for laws of nature to be causally deterministic of our lives. So does free will exist at all? Yes, but it comes into play only when we make a conscious choice that we won’t be governed by conditioned responses.

Our ability to make meaningful choices is determined by our level of mindfulness at that moment – how aware we are of our true identity and how connected we are with our inner consciousness. This universal consciousness, alive inside each of us, can be a path to examining every situation with new awareness. But for this, we need to let go of conditioned responses and let our inner wisdom guide us.

Swami Ramakrishna completed his explanation of free will saying that “as one progresses on the journey of spirituality, the rope of freedom becomes longer”, allowing for greater access to authentic free will.

All Energy Is Consciousness

Truth can be likened to a pyramid – from its pinnacle, the highest expression of truth radiates, while its broad base gives strength and stability. In a society like that of India, which for thousands of years has had a broad-based acceptance of spirituality, atheists too know a great deal more about spiritual truth than most westerners. I’ve been amazed by the number of people in India who tell me they don’t believe in God, and then go on to demonstrate that they do. They don’t necessarily define God in terms of a flute-playing, blue Krishna. But the thought of an infinite consciousness is so ingrained in them that it’s impossible for them to reject it.

Because the highest expression of spiritual teachings throughout the ages has usually been found only at the pinnacle of the pyramid, very few people reached it. Spiritual teachings were often esoteric, and the few who received them would seek solitude in the mountains or monasteries.

When Paramhansa Yogananda brought Kriya Yoga to the West, he understood the need to create a broad-based pyramid that was accessible to many. In fact, Kriya Yoga is the core of that pyramid because it helps magnetise the inner spiritual spine, and thus bring everything into alignment with a higher reality.

This universe seems solid but the truth is that it’s just energy. Scientists are beginning to accept the truth that Indian sages taught thousands of years ago – that all matter is energy and that energy is really consciousness. The Infinite Consciousness brought out of itself ideas and clothed them with will power and energy. Then it vibrated that energy more grossly to become this physical universe.

Today, our senses are so constantly stimulated that the average person has an attention span of only one or two seconds. The deeper aspect is that we are always dissatisfied with that kind of restlessness. We think that by skating on the surface of life we’ll have more experiences, and therefore more wisdom. We simply become more and more superficial. The more you live at the surface, the further and faster you may be able to skate, but the less you will absorb and understand.

The way to experience that expansion of awareness that all human beings seek is to rise above body consciousness. This is only done through deep meditation. The more you meditate, the more your senses become refined. Everything becomes a part of you. When you can really rise out of body consciousness, suddenly you discover that all is you. You are not this little ego – you are in all.

When Yogananda came to America, his purpose was to help all sincere seekers understand that if we approach life with this philosophy, and with the practice of Kriya Yoga, we will find God. When we do this, and bring all our energy into our inner Self, everything falls into place.

Usually sages tell you, ‘‘The world is all delusion. Meditate and leave it all behind.’’ Yogananda showed that by using Kriya Yoga, you can change yourself, and from your spiritual centre you can help transform this world.

It takes your awareness from your own centre into attunement with that Divine Consciousness which is ‘‘centre everywhere, circumference nowhere’’.

Charity Is The Theme Of Haj Pilgrimage

Having climbed Mount Arafat on the main day of Haj one is overwhelmed with the feeling of an intense communion with God. I asked, ‘‘O Lord, among the thousands of devotees present in the holy precincts of Mina today, who has received your full acceptance of his Haj pilgrimage?’’ My conscience reverberated, ‘‘Ali Hajveri.’’ I travelled home and visited Hajver. I was told that in the entire town there is only one Ali, an unknown cobbler. I greeted Ali for performing the noblest Haj. Sobbing, he revealed that he was prepared to perform Haj that year but couldn’t. He had, instead, given his life’s savings to a starving family. Because of his great sacrifice, God had accepted his Haj in absentia.

The Quran says that Haj is an obligation for those who can afford it after taking care of family and fulfilling basic obligations. Personal health should not be a constraint. Haj is an obligation only once in a lifetime. Funds intended for performing Haj more than once are better diverted to help the poor and the needy. That’s true faith.

This year, a quarter million Indian Haj applicants did not succeed in the draw of lots conducted by the Central Haj Committee. Jointly they now possess two and a half billion rupees that would remain unutilised for one year or more. Not making such funds available year after year to the needy contravenes God’s scheme of equitable circulation of wealth in the world.

The Sachar committee has documented how Muslims are mostly lagging behind other socio-religious communities. By way of remedy, besides the government, people too have to discharge their obligation towards the poor and the ailing. Through zakat (charity), one-fortieth of one’s net value is to be spent annually to help the needy. But in the heavenly computer, to enhance one’s ranking among the righteous, zakat needs to be frequently augmented by sadaqa – optional charity.

The scriptures say that for every Prophet’s community, God fixed an object of test. For Mohammedan ummah it is material possession. A wealthy person is only a temporary custodian of funds. He has to meet God’s expectations for their proper utilisation. The proof of a genuine spirit of benevolence and altruism is giving away something that you personally value and cherish. In addition to material support, you can give from your energy, time, knowledge, skill, moral support or personal position. The scripture warns those who perform religious rites but deny assistance to their less privileged fellows, jeopardising socio-economic balance and integration.

Let not those who covetously withhold the gifts which God has given them out of His Grace, think that it is good for them. On the Day of Judgement the things which they covetously withheld would be tied to their necks like a twisted collar. To God belongs the heritage of the heavens and the earth. He is well acquainted with all that we do, says the Quran.

Haj is training for God consciousness which should resonate throughout the pilgrim’s life. The annual universal spiritual gathering, the community’s focal point, reflects the equality of human beings regardless of geographic, ethnic, political, educational or socio-economic differences. It’s a refresher course in living together and mutual accommodation to be extrapolated and applied for the benefit of all.

Empirical And Metaphysical Aspects Of Dharma

Dharma is a complex Immutable Principle of avyaya yoga which was first communicated to the Sun. Having become obscure in the process of transmission over generations, Krishna, conscious of his incarnation of the Supreme, communicates it to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita. Since dharma is difficult to understand, it has been explained in the Dharmashastras in a manner that is both comprehensible and timeless.

Two recent contributions to this column dealt with dharma. The first talked of those who defy the rule of law and suggested that the temporal should be dealt with temporal accountability. The second dealt with dharma on metaphysical grounds, observing events not as facts but as effects that follow causes where you reap what you have sown, as in karmic law.

When Yudhishthira is disinclined to kill his cousins lest it should land him in hell, Vyasa admonishes him that desiring dharma, one should not contribute to adharma – unrighteous acts – and advises that killing his cousins is similar to the killing of asuras by the gods, though both were sired by Prajapati. For often, dharma appears in unrighteous garb even as adharma appears in righteous garb. Dharma is that which promotes common well being.

Unlike Duryodhana who justifies his unrighteous action saying that though he knows dharma, he is not inclined to perform righteous acts and though he knows adharma, he is not disinclined from performing unrighteous acts, Yudhishthira tells Draupadi that he performs righteous acts not for gaining benefit but because he is inclined towards dharma as an example set by men of wisdom and being conscious that calumny falls on one who acts with unrighteous intention.

Vali’s death by Rama’s action and Karna’s death instigated by Krishna, though they appear unrighteous and vindictive creating disquiet among the faithful and cynicism among sceptics, were in response to temporal events needing temporal response as what was expected from one entirely on an empirical level. Valmiki and Vyasa have primarily dealt with Rama and Krishna on the empirical level, raising their actions in many cases to the metaphysical level.

Rama, considering himself a human being, tells Sita that Ravana was killed to vindicate his honour and remove the stigma on his illustrious family, and not for her release. What was worth doing has been done by him, fulfilling his vow, and wiping out ignominy from his character. It was given to Prajapati to reveal his identity as the Supreme, born to destroy negative forces. Though Krishna was recognised as Narayana in human form, he reacts more as a human than as God. He assures Kunti of his help to the Pandavas during the Kurukshetra war though everything is up to Divine Will. When Arjuna requests Krishna to narrate the Gita again, since he has forgotten what was spoken, Krishna expresses his inability to do so since earlier, he was in an exalted state of yoga. At the same time he does not hesitate to show his divine form to the Kauravas to frighten them.

There is not much to be said about those who doubt Rama’s or Krishna’s spiritual potency. But surely the faithful are free to inquire into that which is concealed as metaphysical intent manifesting in human forms as instruments for Divine Dispensation. Therefore on some occasions, Rama and Krishna respond on a human, empirical level, and on others, as karmadhyaksha, presiding over the Immutable Principle of Dharma – avyaya yoga.

A Fish That Wants To Explore The World

Is spiritual practice a must for everyone?
You have to insulate yourself from the effects of worldly living. The environment has its strong impact. The external world is in a rat race for greed, glamour and respectability. It does not bother about real joy and purity. Naturally, external influence affects an individual. In this rat race even if one wins one continues to be a rat. Glamour gives you an illusory joy but your soul needs to grow.

‘Why does a fish in an ocean try to jump out?’ asked a Zen student.

‘The fish is trying to explore a world beyond the ocean,’ answered the Master.

Consciousness in each one of us is like a fish that wants to explore the unknown, to evolve and grow. If you do not insulate yourself from negative forces, there will be a leakage of energies and that would hamper your growth. So it is necessary not to struggle in life and not allow negativity to control your life. One has to learn to float in life, to let go, let in the essentials and negate unessential feelings.

How can i insulate myself from negative influences?
People live life in fear. It is out of fear that they worship; out of fear they get married; out of fear of insecurity they beget children. Whenever fear emerges, there is a leakage of energy. Fear creates a hurt body and it then tries to survive by quoting philosophy and logic.

We try to protect ourselves from fear through the influences of worldly life…by acquiring more money and more power. But spiritually we can insulate ourselves from fear, only if we have trust.

We were secure in our mother’s womb. At term when we were pushed out into the world, it was as though we were facing death. We experienced tremendous fear.

After being born, is it death or birth that marks our lives?
Trust that when one door closes, another door opens. Such trust insulates us from fear. The spiritual way of seeing is, if there is an impression or a negative impression of fear in the mind, one has to de-identify with it. This detachment or de-identification is the insulation that i am talking of. In yoga, it is called atma smaranam, self-remembrance.

What happens when we insulate ourselves from negative impressions?
Worldly influences do not touch us. Instead, we would be in touch with higher vibrations and open ourselves for higher influences. The higher centres in us are constantly communicating
something profound to us, but we close ourselves to them. It is like a cup turned upside down. No amount of rainwater can fill the cup. The moment we are available for higher vibrations, we attract nobler aspects of life. Lower states attract lower aspects of life while the higher states attract higher aspects of life. This is the law of attraction.

Why is devotion necessary?
Devotion activates our higher centres. Devotion purifies our emotions. Devotion allows the finer vibrations to flow into our lives. With devotion, your third eye or intuitive eye opens, and you would see many meaningful coincidences occurring in your life. You will see the mysterious hand of God blessing you.

Beware Of Lurking ‘Near Enemies’

In Buddhist teachings, the four Brahmaviharas, translated as the Immeasurables, Divine Abodes, or Divine Abidings are: metta or loving-kindness, karuna or compassion, mudita or sympathetic joy, and upeksha or equanimity. These are not just emotions we may or may not feel; they are states that we cultivate on our journey to being truly awakened.

The Buddha taught his son: ‘‘Rahula, practise loving-kindness to overcome anger. Lovingkindness has the capacity to bring happiness to others without demanding anything in return. Practise compassion to overcome cruelty. Compassion has the capacity to remove the suffering of others without expecting anything in return. Practise sympathetic joy to overcome hatred. Sympathetic joy arises when one rejoices over the happiness of others and wishes others well-being and success.

“Practise equanimity to overcome prejudice. Equanimity is looking at all things openly and equally… Do not reject one thing only to chase after another. I call these the Four Immeasurables. Practise them and you will become a refreshing source of vitality and happiness for others.’’

Although each of these states is a mark of wakefulness and evolving, each can be confused with a condition that mimics the true state, but actually arises out of fear, and is aptly referred to as a ‘near enemy’.

When we strive to follow a path like the Brahmaviharas, we may not find it too difficult to identify and perhaps steer away from their absolute opposites – sometimes referred to as ‘far enemies’ – which are anger, cruelty, envy and bias.

Much less easy to notice are the near enemies, as they cunningly masquerade as a spiritual quality, being subtle, disguised versions of what we might ordinarily see as pure and wholesome. One thing that makes these distinct from The Four Divine Abodes is that this path is essentially about connecting – to the deepest parts of ourselves as well as to other beings. The near enemies end up being about compartmentalisation or separation, and moral arrogance.

The near enemy of loving-kindness is attachment. Attachment may feel like love, but as it grows is revealed as insecure clinging, fear and the desire to control.

The near enemy of compassion is pity; a superior attitude, setting us above or apart from suffering around us, turning it to a kind of unhealthy spectator-sport. The near enemy of sympathetic joy is comparison, checking whether we have or are more, the same, or less than another. Manifestations range from hypocritical humility to even overidentifying with success of others, especially those near to us.

The near enemy of equanimity is indifference. True equanimity is about balance and acceptance in any situation; indifference is withdrawal and not caring, often numbing us to the need to stand and act for justice.

Without examining these near enemies that create separations, our spiritual life stagnates and our awareness cannot continue to grow.

Wise teachers suggest that we need to work on near enemies not as something to ignore, or roughly discard, but to first know as ‘intimates’ – after all they are termed ‘near’ ones – by drawing on our inherent gifts of self-reflection and self-awareness. This we do mainly by applying loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity to ourselves first and then to others, enabling us to become those “refreshing sources of vitality and happiness for others” that the Buddha taught of.