Today, the evening was a peaceful one. The inner turmoils seemed quite, a result of the cooling rain or the pre-evening short nap, I shall never know. Got up and went to mess for tea, saw a notice about a talk and attended it. The talk was on Shankaracharya a saint of yester years- known to have rekindled the dying faith in Hinduism. Also the proponent of Advaita philosophy. At a time when Hinduism had deteriorated, become ritualistic and rather inhuman in practices to certain sections of Indians he revived the faith, released the followers from the clutches of rituals and asked them to head along in the search of truth, showed them their lost path.
Few of his teachings that are worth pondering on-
“The atman resides not in the body, not in the intellect. The only way one can find it is by dispelling the ignorance. Ignorance can be dispelled only through the single minded pursuit of truth, through pure concentration and perseverance”
In a way he was reinstating the lost values of the religion- Hinduism is not about rituals. It’s the search of truth. Thus the Hindu mind is constantly grappling with these concepts- what is atman, what is truth, what is ignorance. The fun of being a Hindu is that there are no dictates; nobody will tell you that this is the truth and this is the ignorance. But it extols one to find the truth. It understands that everybody has their own perceptions which they believe to be the truth. It extols one to rise above perceptions, to question ones own truths. It guarantees only one thing that when you find the truth you will find peace of mind. It helps you by setting the criteria for truth- Impersonal, Impartial, Eternal and Constant. That’s it, from here on you are on your own. Some hints are thrown along- The thoughts are held captive by the emotions, emotions are held captive by the five senses. Free yourself from these and you shall find the truth and most probably the promised ever lasting peace of mind. Your only Messiah out there is inside you! There are some other rules such as, when in doubt about the truth or the right decision chose the path which will not harm others or the path of least harm. For one and everyone here has equal rights to live (be it an animal or human being). Ignorance leads to bad actions and knowledge to good actions. If you fail in the search for truth or are not interested in its pursuit, do not worry nothing bad will happen.
Does all this make sense? I guess it does. Some days back I lost two new bottles of liquid hand wash. I am sure they were lifted by someone. I was angry I was upset. It had caused a lot of inconvenience not to mention the money lost. I had every right to be angry, anybody would have been upset. But were these emotions of any use- I did not know who had done it and I would not get my bottle back. I was left nursing my own anger. Then it occurred to me the loss of the bottles was not entirely that other person’s fault. I had left it unattended for long or so it seemed. And I was aware of the fact that there were people around to whom an unattended new bottle of liquid hand wash may seem enticing. I did not give this too much of a thought when deciding to leave my precious bottles out (not even after the first one was lost). Then something struck me- there was a person out there who needed my bottle so badly that stealing seemed a good enough option. What might the person be like and what might be the conditions. What benefit the bottle held for her I will never know, may have resold it or may be she could not afford one for herself so felt enticed into taking mine. Was she to be blamed for it- yes but only partly, she could have controlled her urges but was it entirely her fault that she was stuck in such a situation? I may love to become the richest person on earth. I am ready to do the hard work. Will I make it there- may or may not. Whichever the case, the credit of the accomplishment or the responsibility of the failure would not belong entirely to me—things should fall in place synergizing my efforts. Well the explaination holds good for her too. We both exist in a system wherein we are responsible for somethings and somethings are not in our hands. She had no personal grudge against me.
So what did I learn, things happen; sometimes good and sometimes bad. The bad that happens (we don’t seek explainations for the good that happens) to us happens through a man/woman/animals/objects. That person/thing may or may not be entirely at fault and we might not be the chosen victims. Yes, they could have chosen not to do that action that harmed us. Similarly we have to decide upon actions that are least harmful and most beneficial. When one rises above the emotions attached to the incident- one sees clearly the choices at hand and their consequences and is therefore able to choose the action that will maximize benefits and minimize the harms
I now keep my hand wash in an unattractive bottle. Nobody has touched it since and its there near the sink ready to be used whenever needed. And pray that the lady also rises above such situations
(Hindu prayer, Sanskrit)
Om Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu
Om sarveshaam swastir bhavatu
Sarveshaam shantir bhavatu
Sarveshaam poornam bhavatu
Sarveshaam mangalam bhavatu
Sarve bhavantu sukhinah
Sarve santu niraamayaah
Sarve bhadraani pashyantu
Maakaschit duhkha bhaag bhavet
Meaning:
May Eternal Peace & Goodwill Prevail in the Whole World,
Auspiciousness (swasti) be unto all;
Peace (shanti) be unto all;
Fullness (poornam) be unto all;
prosperity (mangalam) be unto all.
May all be happy! (sukhinah)
May all be free from disabilities! (niraamayaah)
May all look (pashyantu)to the good of others!
May none suffer from sorrow! (duhkha)
(the prayer and its meaning copied from this site: http://teck.in/om-lokah-samastah-sukhino-bhavantu.html)
Good bottle experience, but I stick to my old argument that you need not require religion to know truth better or develop better thought processes in your mind. The human mind is, innately, capable of such thinking without attributing it to a religion. There is no such thing as religion, if you can think so.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, the two poems by you below are excellent. I liked them a lot. Your poems are written with a characteristic style.
On yet another note, Wikipedia's article on Hand Washing is excellent, too. Your post led me to it, and this, too
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/313/5792/1451
Igor, I totally agree with you! I am not attributing the knowledge of truth to religion. Religion is a way of taking it to the people. If scientific teachings make one aware of the collective human knowledge on how things work and instill scientific thinking; religious teachings do the same in the spiritual realm.
ReplyDeleteIts simple, human mind is capable of sound scientific (logical and methodical) thinking. However we have universities and schools to teach them. Not everbody excels at science even after being taught how to go about it. Misuse of derived equations is also galore. Not to mention the misuse of the word and knowledge derived from methodical pursuit of things around us. I guess, thats how things work in the world. You learn something, you understand it and experience its benefits. You want to share it with the world. But the transmittance of knowledge is never 100% efficient. You try to imbibe it in all the ways life is carried on. Then you have all sorts of people using it and it becomes maligned in some ways. Call it what you want, but these are processes of life. You need not bash up science or religion (just for clarification Hindu philosophy does not make a distinction between the two, both are complimentary and both have the same goal-pursuit of the truth), the idea is to lead a good life beneficial to yourself, without harming others and if possible one of benefit to others with these as tools. Why a distinction is made between the two, I do not know. Why one is called religion and the other science I do not know.
Its waste of precious time reinventing the wheel.....if I already have at my assistance, a knowledge source on how to think logically and rise above emotional compulsions, is it wrong if I use the knowledge?
The reaction I feel is towards the use of the word religion, I am at a loss why it be so. I use it freely because, in my head religion is Dharma. Dharma is “the righteous way”. No God the Almighty involved ;), no reference to mystical super powers.
Hindu religion-- Hindu way of doing things rightly :),
Philosophy guiding the way Hindu’s conduct themselves (or are supposed to conduct themselves ;))
Is it wrong if we refer to the works of sages (spiritual scientists) who spent their lifetimes coming up with ways of objectively deciphering the good from bad, the righteous ways from the unrighteous? The “Hindu way of doing things rightly” is using the head, understanding the reasons of the action and correcting it if it is wrong. The 'collective wisdom of Hindus' knows that for the whole world to prosper and be at peace everybody should evolve equally in their thoughts, actions and lives and for that they must conquer the emotional realm.
Thanks, I am happy that my poems are found to to be original in their style:)
A learning for me..Good one
ReplyDeleteThank you.
I liked the term "spiritual scientists". Nice explanation.
ReplyDeleteHi again,
ReplyDeleteI understood what you say about the knowledge source which already exists, but I still choose to ignore religion and religious literature (except reading some for fun) because I think that is the ethical way to go about it.
By acknowledging the useful stuff in religion, we only succeed in glorifying it, or pushing more people to think positively about it. This, I know will create pockets of people around the world who will try to base their lifestyle upon one particular religion or another, which has the potential to succeed in creating thin (if not deep)divisions among people and create categories. In India, this is clearer than anywhere else in the world.
I envision a world (or at least parts of it)free from the influences of religion.
Language, differences in race, colour, habits I can take it all, but religion is where I choose to draw the line. I am a perfectly normal nonreligious person, at peace with the society and very much a happy part of it, and I can't see why more people can't be so.
Hi Igor,
ReplyDeleteIts funny! You say you understand but I feel you have not understood a word.
a)I know of very religious people living happily at peace with people of other religions. Such people also do not make differences about race, language or colour.
b)If not the religion the world will be divided on other facts......race, language, colours, habits, I have seen people divided and fighting on all these reasons. So I guess you do not have a logical point. Atheists are also part of such fights. The west is good example of this. Not only are they intolerant to other peoples religion, they also have problem with what they wear. Dark colored people have been facing the brunt of intolerance as well. They are intolerant towards sexual preferences too. Most of perpetrators of such hate claim to be atheists. More than half the western world is. I don’t see much difference. Yes they are busy looting rest of “racially inferior” world.
c) So if you are arguing for a peaceful world, I do not understand how erasing only religion is going to help.
Blind, illogical, intolerance puts me off! Its clear you do not want see reason.
Anyways, for some reason, known only to you, you are very rigid on this issue.
Its your life your call. Just do not force your opinions on others or tell me what I should or should not do. I am not trying to tell you what you should be doing.... if you are happy the way you are its good. You have no business questioning other peoples happiness.
This might irritate you, but many Hindus are also atheists, they are called Nastiks. So accordingly you are a Nastik and I have no problems with it. :)
@all: Well im not in the discussion till now and I prefer to stay away. Friendly, i would like to suggest one thing which gives me peace and happiness, I hope u guys wont mind.
ReplyDelete"Whether you r atheist or a religious follower, be true to your true. It somehow know what is good and what is bad. Just follow ur intuition, it gives u the freedom and peace."
Oh, I'm so sorry :(. I didn't expect the discussion would leave a bitter aftertaste. I seem to have angered you. I don't intend to force my opinion on anyone or 'question others' happiness' (!), but was just voicing my thoughts.
ReplyDeletew.r.t a)it's the best possible case
b) is true, but your words in b) hint you're slightly prejudiced against the West and are prone to make quick generalizations. . (I don't represent the West here.)
c) we'll never know, because such a situation is unlikely to ever arise ;)
d)it's best that we stop all further discussions on this contentious topic and get back to posting occasional noncontroversial comments on harmless things only, like handwash, shampoo and the like!
@ Igor,
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you say in (d), I do not want to discuss any further
Are you from the west? Oh, I am sorry, I did not know. My turn to apologise, (no use telling the truth that hurts). I used the example of West, because, it suited my explanation the best.
No more comments from this end ;)
You can expect more posts regarding god, religion, spirituality and such topics from me in future and you are welcome to comment without imposing ;)
@ arunachalam
ReplyDeleteYou are very much welcome in all the discussions. Although we have decided to end this one here, I am sure there will be many more and hope to see your participation there!
Leo Tolstoy had written a story in which he expresses a similar thought---human mind can instinctively distinguish the good from bad. I am not able to recall the name of the story :(