Contained body in a conditioned world

The wise of the East saw suffering in everything in a worldly life and dreaded the cycle of birth, life and death. Imagine a baby who is just born from the womb of a mother. Suddenly the baby is delivered into this world from the safe and secure shelter of a womb, accompanied by shrilling cry and shivering body with mucous covered with blood and water. The baby enters the world environment which is contaminated with germs, viruses and diseases. The baby is hungry, cold and insecure. The first expression of a baby is a loud and clear cry. A cry for food, shelter and warmth. The life begins with great vulnerability and insecurity. It may be a joyous occasion for the parents but certainly not for the baby because parents have been living in this ‘conditioned world’ for so many years. But the environment is certainly alien to the baby. The baby is entering a ‘conditioned world’ where everything is already set by human beings; the environment, food, climate, language, culture, tradition and beliefs. The infant has no choice but follow the conditioned world. Survival to live is the top priority. The baby needs food, shelter and cloth in order to survive. Once the basic needs are met, then there are emotions. These emotions vary from happiness, anger, jealous, attachment, aversion and disappointment at various hours of a day, sometmes with reason and sometimes without any reasons. These emotions are the result of human interaction with environment and fellow human beings and sometimes in the absence of both. The life becomes complex as the baby grows and survives. The necessity of life grows as the baby grows into childhood and adulthood and so on. It is not just the food ,shelter and cloth but emotions multiply into manifolds in various stages of life and along with these emotions there are suffereings. Nothing lasts forever and we ponder why this impermanence? Why we are brought into this world of sufferings and impermenance? Many of us take miseries of life for granted and conclude that life is full of sufferings and we accept them as a natural process. Only few people in this vast humanity don’t accept ‘suffering’ as a natural process and start questioning them. Why? Prince Siddhartha could not accept suffering as a ‘natural process’ and he wanted to know why this suffering, and what is the purpose of this life on earth? He has to leave his luxurious life in a palace and wander the world as a monk to seek the truth. Why should we live this ‘conditioned life’ where aging, suffering, disease and death become a natural process? Does it make any sense that a human beings are born into this world only to suffer? What is the purpose of this suffering? In this scientific world of men searching for a ‘God particle’, why men don’t look reasons for human suffering? Why we take suffering and misery for granted and waste our time and energy on issues that only compound our problems? Human spirit is free and joyful and it is only our ‘thoughts and actions’ that contain our spirit in a ‘physical body ‘ (like air is trapped in a jar) and bring into this ‘conditioned world’ of sufferings and struggle. Realization of this truth will set the man free. Only our ‘thoughts and actions’ called “past karma” bring us into this constant cycle of birth, life of misery and death. Prince Siddhartha became ‘Buddha’ after this realization. Yet, we continue our path of ‘karma’ and enslave ourselves to this world of ‘Maya’.

A discriminative awareness

The most profound concept in Vedanta is about cultivating ‘a discriminative awareness’ in our life time. Some people are born with this awareness and some people cultivate this as they grow and some people can understand only after many years of experience and some people never learn in their life time. This is based on the gift of grace and our past ‘karma’. We face challenges in our every minute and every hour of our life and we are forced to make decisions on way or other, on each and ever issue of our life and act accordingly. This decision making process is critical; and it varies from person to person. Such decisions can vary from one extreme to another extreme, differentiating each individual, in their steps of ascending the path of evolution, culminating in salvation. Each and every decision we make in these steps of our ascent in the ladder of evolution, leaves a residual impression in our conscience we call ‘karma’. These decisions are not simple because they are not just black and white decisions, but every shade of color between black and white and often difficult. The word ‘discriminative awareness’ is a unique word, and it is the most fundamental to our understanding of our ‘shelf’. It is the core concept of ‘Swadiyaya’ (self-study) which make up ‘Kriya yoga’ according to Patanjali.To understand who we are, where we came from, and where we will be going and what is the purpose of this life, all these questions will be answered, as we study our ‘self’. Discriminative awareness is the tool by which one can master ‘swadyaya’. One should be able to discriminate between ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ as a basic step. Sometimes right decision at this moment may be proven wrong in the long run, at a different point of our life. If these decisions are based on yogic principles, then decisions we make are always right. Such decisions my affect somebody known or unknown to us but that should not hinder our decision making and we should go ahead and do it. Such decisions are based on moral values and they create good karma. Personally I am often confronted with such decision making in my profession. Supposing a company is planning to invest on a large mining project to extract some valuable minerals from earth and I have to offer my opinion, I will unequivocally deny my support to such a project. It may create thousands of jobs directly and indirectly, support local communities, generate tax revenue for the country. But how long? It may be for few generations and after that what happens? Such mining activity may leave permanent scars on the earth, sometimes several hundred kilometers area; it may pump out millions of gallons of saline water, which may not be suitable for drinking or to irrigate plants. It may pose a serious health hazard to the people living around that area and waste water storage may create many diseases. We cannot support such projects for short term gains. We cannot scar the earth, the gift of Nature to mankind. We have to preserve Nature and we have to pass them on to our future generations. These decisions are based on ethics and morals and we have no right to scar the earth in the name of science and prosperity.They are short sighted decisions and unethical and we will create a ‘bad karma’ that will haunt us in many births. The highest aspiration of a ‘yogi’ is to discriminate between the good and evil and create always a good karma so that he can escape from the eternal cycle of birth, life and death. We have to use ‘discriminative awareness in everyday life on matters of trifling importance or great importance.Everytime you make a decision you create a karma, either good or bad based on the outcome of your decision.

Monotheism and convergence of all religions

When a follower asked Jesus Christ: ‘What is the single most important commandment one should follow because there are too many?’ Jesus replied, “Love your neighbor, like you love yourself”. This single most important teaching of Jesus encompasses the entire teachings of all the religions of the world. Whatever may be the religion, and whatever may be the time period in the history of the world, this single teaching shows a straight and unequivocal path to salvation for mankind. It also clearly demonstrates and proves one single core concept of all theologies namely “Monotheism’; whether it is ‘Torah ‘of Judaism, ‘Koran’ of Islam, or Baghwat Geeta of Hinduism or Buddhism, it emphasize ‘One God’. Ramana Maharishi said: “Ask yourself who am I, and seek an answer with great earnestness and you will find only a silence. The sense of ‘I’ will disappear because ‘I ness “is only construction of your mind, and mind is ‘Maya’ an illusion and not a “Reality”. Ramana was absolutely clear that only the “self” is Real and everything else is only “Maya’. What he calls “self’ is “Iswara” or ‘God”? In other words ‘Only God is within you’- a monotheism. When a man identifies his body and mind with “self’ there is ignorance, and because of this delusion, he suffers in this world. But once he realizes that this body and mind are not the ‘Real self’, there is liberation from the bondage, which is ‘salvation’. Even when you mistake your body for the self, there is great ‘Love’ for yourself. Is there anybody in the world who does not love ‘himself”? Therefore, there are two issues involved; one is self and others one is Love. When you apply the principle of ‘Monotheism’ (one God) and you love the ‘self’ that means you love ‘God, who is within you and within your neighbor’. But Jesus did not elaborate what he meant by ‘your self’ ; and Ramana Maharishi explained by a simple and direct question “Who am I?”. The Ten Commandments, the teachings of ‘eight fold yoga’ and the core teachings of Torah and Koran of Islam, all points to the one and the same ‘one God’. When one ‘identifies’ one ‘self’ with his body and mind then there are conflicts and wars. We are now living in a scientific world and science needs proof for everything we believe. If science can prove that the sense of ‘I-ness” is false then there is a hope for salvation for humanity. Only “Death’ proves that all that happened in our life is nothing but an illusion and with ‘Death’, such an illusion comes to an end. But we don’t accept this reality when we are alive because we are unable to distinguish between our true ‘self’ and our ‘body and mind’. We always take our ‘body and mind’ as our ‘self’. Patanjali of Yoga sutra says that the purpose of yoga is to free a man from such ignorance or mistaken identity of ‘body and mind ‘for the ‘self’. Once we remove this ignorance, then the teachings of Jesus Christ “love you neighbor like you love yourself’ can become easier. That will put an end to all human conflicts, wars and destruction and open a new world order of peace and happiness. When we accept there is only “One God’ and we love ‘that God’ and that ‘God only’ is within each of us then, there is no room for conflicts and misunderstandings. When Ten commandments tell us “”Thou shall not kill”, the meaning is absolutely crystal clear to each one of us.

Yoga is the mother of all sciences

In a scientific world the concept of ‘God’ is not compatible with scientific principles because science requires ‘proof’; something that is demonsratable and reproducible at will. Science requires certain principles, mathematical equations, instruments and equipments to prove certain concepts and theories. These principles and concepts are then applied to create an apparatus or machine that can demonstrate those theories that people can see, touch, feel and use. Alternatively, scientists observe certain events in Nature. For example, Sir Isaac Newton observed a falling apple from a tree and formulated the concept of ‘Gravity’. The concept is born in a human mind from nowhere or from somewhere in the Nature. This is our understanding and evolution of science and technology and our world is full of them. Where the concept of God will fit into this scheme of things? The science of ‘Yoga’ teaches us a completely a different method. It does not require theories, mathematical equations, instruments or equipments but requires only a quiet, absorbing and focused human mind. It demands a crystal clear mind completely free from any thoughts and memories of the past or present. When a pure mind is totally absorbed on an object, the object ‘reveals’ its true Nature by itself. Patanjali explains in his Yoga sutra: “To him the entire mental modifications are controlled, there eventuates a state of identity with, and similarity to that which is realized. The knower, knowledge and the field of knowledge becomes one, just as the crystal takes itself the colors of that which is reflected on it. When the perceiver blends the word, the idea (or meaning) and the object, this is called mental conditioning of judicial reasoning. Perception without judicial reasoning is arrived at when the memory no longer holds control the words, the object is transcended and only the idea is present. The same two processes of concentration with and without judicial action of the mind can also be applied to things subtle. The gross lead to subtle and the subtle leads in progressive stages to the state of pure spiritual being called 'Pradhana'.All these constitute meditation with seed. When this super contemplative stage is reached, the yogi acquires pure spiritual realization through the balanced quiet of Chita (mind stuff). His perception is now unfailingly exact and his mind reveals only the truth. This particulate perception is unique and reveals that which a rational mind, using testimony, inference and deductions, cannot reveal.” By such super contemplative meditation, sages of the east were able to visualize even the structure of an atom. They have referred to ‘atoms’ in scriptures and in ancient texts several hundred years before Christ. Such masters of yoga had acquired powers and knowledge without any instruments or super computers but by deep contemplations and visualisations. They were strictly prohibited in exhibiting their super powers, which might hinder their spiritual progress to reach their ultimate goal of ‘Samadhi’. No matter how much progress science and technology has achieved and how much more it will achieve in the future, such progress is unlikely to remove human miseries and sufferings because, the ultimate purpose of science is to fulfill ‘human ego’, which yoga describes as ‘Avidya’ or human ignorance.Scientists can search for ‘God particles’ at the expense of billions of dollars but only to satisfy ‘human ego’.

Duality and Reality

Duality is a concept widely accepted in almost all religions of the world. Good and bad, dark and light, wisdom and ignorance, man and woman are some of the dualities we witness in our everyday life. The biggest ‘duality’ that still puzzles humanity is ‘mind and matter’. What is the relationship between mind and matter? In a scientific sense one is able to understand matter with mind in a macroscopic world. But that is not necessarily true with microscopic matters or in a quantum state because they are not visible to human eyes; neither have we had instruments to locate them and measure them. For example, sub atomic particles, which we can hypothesize with imaginary concepts and mathematical equations but they are not verifiable with scientific means. They are hypothesis. But science insists on ‘proof’ which can be repeated over and over by demonstrations. Even if we can understand matter, we don’t know the relationship between mind and matter. When people say ‘beauty lays in beholder’s eyes’, I wonder the real meaning of this sentence. Beauty is a concept. Unless we define the word ‘beauty’ precisely the above sentence has no meaning. We cannot define ‘beauty’ with another synonym. Therefore words describe ‘abstract concepts’ and one cannot grasp a concept with words.Eventhough we all agree what ‘beauty’ is, there is no proof that our agreements are one and the same. Language is the basis of our civilization and survival. Language is nothing but bunch of words that describe various things. We all understand things by exchange of words. Yet, they are only descriptions of abstract things. Abstract things are intangible. We cannot touch, smell or feel. ‘You can draw a small circle on a paper and write at the bottom ‘pumpkin’. Can we make a soup out that ‘pumpkin ?’. This drawing may indicate the concept of a ‘pumpkin’ but they are not ‘real pumpkins’ with which we can make a soup. Abstract concepts do not represent ‘Reality’. I will go one step further and say even the so called reality ‘pumpkin’ is no longer a pumpkin once it becomes a ‘soup’. Everything is changing constantly. Today it is pumpkin’; yesterday it was a ‘pumpkin seed’ and tomorrow it will be a ‘pumpkin soup’. Matter is constantly changing and so our minds. When we accept changes in our everyday life as a ‘process of Nature ’ there is no anxiety. No more quest. Baghwat Gita eloquently explains: “What have you lost that you grieve, what did you bring along that you lost? What did you produce or create that has been destroyed? You never brought anything along. Whatever you gained, you gained it from here. Whatever you lost, you lost it here. You came empty handed, and you will leave empty handed. What is yours today, belonged to someone else before, and will belong to someone else tomorrow, and to another person at some other time. What you take as yours, the material things, relations etc. and feel so contended, those very things and the feeling of contention resulting from such thoughts, are the real cause of your suffering”. You create a bondage with material things and relationships which do not represent the ‘Reality’ and they are mere concepts and illusions , called ‘Maya’.Once you get over that ‘Maya’, then , there is a freedom or liberation from that bondage.