Guru is a Need, Not Priest..

Monday, 30th October 2017

After publishing my article In Search of God, Not of Priest...(Monday, 23rd October 2017) I received a number of comments and queries comparing Guru with Priest. I have understood that many have the misunderstanding that a priest is a Guru. That is why I am giving the clarification through this article.

When you are in the young age, you want to find out models in life. A Guru is the perfect role-model for you in the society. The one who shows you an example of his/her teachings through his/her life can be called as the Guru. The one who practises what he/she preaches is Guru.

There are teachers in the society who share information regarding several subjects. They pass information, but you cannot make them models in life. There are trainers as well. They train you in skills like driving, swimming etc. But the Guru is different from them. Guru inspires you to lead a valuable life, not through talks, but through his/her life itself.

You will be stuck in many occasions in life. It is Guru who leads you forward through his/her own living example. Your emotional management, thought process & management, relationship management, financial management, knowledge management and many such aspects are formed through seeing others as your models. If you live with a person who manages his/her finance perfectly, that might become an influence in you. You get such influence from a good person, it is positive. The influence can go negative as well. The one who gives you positive influence through his/her practice is Guru. When you see a drunkard, if you want to be like him, it is not a positive influence. Because it won’t give you permanent happiness. So he is not Guru. When you work with a colleague who is perfect in delivering his duties, suppose you are influenced by him. This influence helps you to develop a good quality in you. He can be called Guru.

Liberation (moksha) means to be permanently free from sorrows. A Guru is the one who through the example of his/her life, influences you to attain such a freedom; ie permanent freedom from all sorrows.

The Nature works in you through insights. When you develop strong insight, you can see things perfectly, understand the Nature of them and through knowledge, can go deeply into the significance of them. This will help you to function well. When you function well in life, you can be successful in various fields of activity. That is the way to permanently liberate from sorrows. Know the world and its sufferings to liberate from them. (It does not mean to run away from them. You have to deal with the sufferings and unhappiness in life. That is the only way. But the insight and wisdom make you strong enough to face them and to help others to manage things effectively.)  So the insight in you is the real Guru-element. That insight is called the Inner Eye. Such influences through which the insight is strengthened can be called Guru. Guru deepens your insight.

You must be very careful when you choose your role-models. There is a practice among youngsters; they choose some film-stars as their role-model. The image of a film-star is false creation. Even their outer appearance is not the real. Can you expect to gain real insight when you accept a pseudo image as your role-model? Do serious research on the person before accepting him/her as your role-model. Your role-model works as a Guru in the matter of insight.

Guru stays in your memory constantly to influence you to do works properly, to think properly and manage things around you skillfully. So Guru is a need in life.

A priest is a part of religious rituals. They deliver religious services on your behalf and get paid for them. Priests lead the people towards dependency. You are mesmerized and temporarily get some peace through rituals. But, when you are disturbed next time, you have to do it again. That is dependency. It is better to avoid that in life, if you prefer internal freedom.

Liberation from sorrow or Moksha is acquired permanently through wisdom.
Wisdom is acquired through action or Karma. The Karma does not mean the religious activities. Karma means the value based deliverance of your duties in life. The teacher may teach well. Farmer may farm in his/her land properly. And the rest. The knowledge and purpose must follow the work. Wisdom as an after effect of work, brings permanent satisfaction in life.

Permanent  Satisfaction / Liberation  from  Sorrows – through Wisdom.
Wisdom – through Observing,  Reflecting  and  Analyzing  your  Experiences.
Experiences – through Functioning with purpose and knowledge in day-to-day affairs.
Success in life - through Perfect functioning.

(Short  time / temporary  satisfaction – through religious  practices.)

In Search of God, Not of Priest..

Monday, 23 Oct 2017

I have trust in God. (I would like to say Nature, instead of God. But considering the characteristics of the subject discussing here, I use the word God. Here God denotes the power behind the laws of Nature.)

But I connect with God not through anybody else. I don’t see the need of any intermediate person to establish my communion with God. God is a truthful and beautiful experience for me. I understand that purifying my self is the means to relate with God.

I am not able to see the need of appointing someone, whoever he is, to pray for me. I cannot see the relevance of paying another person or agency to do Puja for me. Accepting an authority to stand in between me and God is nothing but giving consent to the social exploitation in the form of Priest-hood. This is the largest as well as the oldest system of exploitation still existing in the society.

You believe that you need to seek the support of a priest for praying for you. It happens in temples, churches, mosques as well as in families. It is a common practice that you bring home the priest for various ceremonies. You pay them for the ‘services’ they provide for you. And you feel that God is pleased through their pleasant responses. Priests there act as if the direct representatives of God. Priests come in between you and God generally in all major occasions in your life.

There are two believes among the ordinary people which are the reasons for the establishment of the system of priest-hood:

1. You think that priests are more close to God than you. They have developed some knowledge system with which they mesmerize the common people. Ordinary people cannot chant Manthra-s or prayers as priests are doing.  How can an ordinary person show hand-gestures and movements as a trained priest performs? The priests will also blind the people with their elaborate ‘costumes and attire’.

2. The second belief is that you are not able to connect with God directly without an intermediate person/group. You are brainwashed by the tradition with a concept that your knowledge is not enough to reach God! And that you need a priest to act on your behalf!

Both these believes are not true. No knowledge system can take you closer to God. Only innocent and pure mind is required to reach God. Your good heart can help you to find out God. A priest is not at all necessary for you to connect with God.

Priest is not Guru. Guru is the one who liberates you from the difficulties of your inclinations. Guru gives you the right knowledge to establish the connection with God. The priests benefit by putting you psychologically in dependency to them.

Either taking birth in a priest family or becoming a priest through some ‘training’, both cannot be considered as a desirable goal of life.

Five Essential Understandings

Monday, 16^th October 2017

Men & women have the following five basic understandings always in life-time. Some are aware of them. Many are not. Whether you know or not, the awareness is there, because you cannot exist on earth without it.

These are the five essential basic understandings: 1. Values 2. Dietetics 3. Concept of Exercise 4. Personal Economics and 5. Philosophy. You start your life with doing what ‘you like’. But later, when you become matured, you start understanding what ‘you should’. When you are young, you eat all that you like to. But when you are matured, you start choosing your food. There are food items which you should eat and should not. In your matured age, you follow what ‘you should’, rather than what ‘you like’. The transformation from what ‘you like’ to what ‘you should’, in all the above said five aspects, marks your growth as a human being.

There are people who say that they do not know anything about philosophy. They say that philosophy is too complicated to the understanding of ordinary people. There are even some scholars who say that ordinary people cannot understand philosophy. He/she is un-educated and not capable of understanding any philosophy. Let me share an experience I had some years back, related to this subject. One of my friends wanted me to talk to her father who was a drunkard, to bring him back to normal life. During my casual talk with him, he said, that he was working hard, making money, taking good care of his family and enjoying liqueur very often. What is wrong in it? (He didn’t mention that he was regularly beating his wife though, as if it was a right of husbands..) See, this is his philosophy. He gives value to his pleasure through liqueur more than anything else. Through this, his value system is also clear. He has a value system as well as philosophy. Only thing is that he is not aware about it. He is not able to understand or observe it because he didn’t get sufficient training for it. Instead, he heard from every corner that he cannot understand philosophy and it is difficult to follow value system. He trusted these ideas and followed easy and careless path. After regular efforts for a long time, we became successful in making him understand his wrong ideas. Once he changed his value system and philosophy, even though due to the force from his surrounding, it was easy for him to stop taking liqueur. Eventually he got convinced with his new values and philosophy which changed his life for good.

So whether you understand or not, your present life style is due to the five folded views you have about the concerned subject in life. Let’s try to understand each one of them.

1. Values: Values refer to what you give importance in life. Some people give importance to money more than anything else. Some people think that being famous is the most important thing. Many people think that doing something for the society is the most needed thing. A few others think that being a good person is the most important. Your value system is depending upon what you see as the most important. Your ideas of beauty, happiness, success etc. are depending upon your value system.

2. Dietetics: All human beings need to have food to survive. Nobody can exist without food. Each one has a concept of his/her own food habit, whether he/she knows it or not. The concept and attitude towards food in general called dietetics. Some people take this seriously and plan their diet in a healthy manner. Most of the people do not care about this.

3. Concept of Exercise: When you do a job sitting on a chair for a long time continuously, you may feel to stretch your hands and spine by standing on your toe. Why do you feel so? Because you know unconsciously that exercise in the form of the stretching is necessary for the free flow of blood and to re-energize your muscles. This feeling is nothing but your concept of exercise. This is natural to all human beings. Not only to human beings; you can see dogs and cats doing the same thing. This natural concept of your own exercise must be observed and developed properly to form your system of exercise for a healthy body and mind.

4. Personal Economics: No one can exist without using money for buying things and services. How to make money and spend properly is a matter of consideration for all human beings. You have it whether you have reflected upon and developed it scientifically or not. This is nothing but a personal way of money management. Some are good at it and some others are not.

5. Philosophy: Why do you live? What is happiness? What gives you happiness? What is success? How do you think that you can be successful? All human beings can face these questions; even though very little can give a clear answer. There is a reason for everybody to live. Most of them have no idea about the purpose of their lives. Similarly the majority is not consciously having a concept about their happiness, success etc. But unconsciously, all are concerned about their own happiness, success etc. In other words, all have their philosophy. But very few are aware of it.

All these five understandings are essential for human life. But very few are observing themselves to have a clear idea about it and transform it.

You start your life with what you like. What food you like. In what way you want to make money. In what way you like to lead your life. But day by day, you start understanding the world around you. You start observing you as well. You can compare your life with others’; and it may inspire you to rethink about yourself. As a result of it, you start managing each aspect in you. Your value system changes. Your food habits become more healthy. You follow better methods of exercises. You manage your economics in a better way. You follow a higher philosophy. This is called the growth in life.

All want to lead a happy and contented life.

Observe and Manage (OM) these five understandings in you. That is the way to be happy and contented.

I am Lazy..

Tuesday, 10th October 2017

Question: I am lazy. I don’t want to be so. I want to get rid of it. What is the method..?

Answer: There is no set method effective for everybody. It is your responsibility to find out your own method to achieve something.

It is a fact that you feel lazy right now. It means, you want to postpone your activities and feel like lying down without thinking of anything. This is what you call laziness.

If this is the reality, how can you change it? The reality is that you want to lie down without thinking of any of your activities.

Why do you feel so?

May be because you ate too much and your stomach is working hard to get it digested. All your energy is channelized for this necessary function. So your body is giving you suggestion that ‘please give me more time to complete my work’. As a result of it, you feel to postpone your work.

Or, You spent so much energy for your sensual enjoyments like taking excess of liqueur or having repeated sex, that your body is working hard now to regain the loss. That may be the reason for the feeling that ‘let me postpone my work and lie down peacefully..’

Even otherwise, you might not have slept properly. Then, naturally your nervous system might be very tired due to lack of necessary relaxation. In this situation, the demand from inner self to postpone your work is quite natural. Sleeping for some time will re-energize you.

Mental depression can be a reason for the feeling to postpone the work; Or fear of failure in work also can be another reason. You will not be able to focus your mind when your mind is against you. Check your own state of mind seriously..

Laziness is an expression of an unhealthy aspect deeper inside you. Discover that hidden inner reason and get rid of it to be more energetic for the successful day-to-day activities..

Observe yourself to find out the reason for the feeling to postpone your work. Find it out and Manage your body, mind, action as well as your surroundings effectively to get rid of it, the basic reason for your laziness.

OM (Observation & Management) is the method. Do it now.

A tip for practice: Never postpone any of your work..  Is it practical..?

Importance of Clean Habits

Tuesday, 10^th October 2017

A clean & pleasant mind is the most important faculty to do our day-to-day activities successfully. Mind should be free from negative emotions like anger, arrogance, competition & the rest. Such a free mind, full of love & compassion, can be called as clean.

A clean mind can be evolved only in a body having clean habits. Mind will not be clean if your bodily habits are unclean. Negative activities & attitudes are the cause for unclean habits.

You may clean your body habits by Observing & Managing the following five habits in you. Management of these five habits will give you a clean body & healthy mind.

These five habits determine your personality. If you try properly, they can be easily managed. You have the capacity to do so. Only thing required is the readiness to utilize the power in you, effectively. Observe & Manage properly.

OM - Observe & Manage. This is the method. Observe means to watch carefully & understand the significance. Manage means to control watchfully.

1. Food Habit: what food you are eating & how much you are eating; this is important. You yourself may choose what you want to eat. No one else has the power to control you; but you yourself have it.

2. Sleep Habit: How many hours you sleep, this should be Observed and Managed. Too much sleep and too little, are not good.

3. Sex & Other Relationship Habit: Sexual behaviour of an individual is the most important faculty which directly affects his/her personality. The other relationships in workplace as well as at home must be Observed & Managed. What subject you are talking, to whom you are talking, how much you are talking, all these must be Observed & Managed.

4. Relaxation Habit: The way of your relaxation should be Observed & Managed. It is necessary to make sure that you are utilising your time properly, even when you are relaxing.

5. Work Habit: What work you are doing & how sincerely doing it, all must be Observed & Managed.

Through Observation & Management, better the above mentioned five habits in you, according to your own interest. You decide what you want & be responsible for the after effects of your own decision.

A clean & pleasant mind will evolve in a body having clean habits. A healthy mind is the instrument with which successful day-to-day activities can be done joyously.

Understanding Dhyaana

Monday, 9th October 2017

Now-a-days, people have a general feeling that Dhyaana is a good exercise. Yes; it is true. Dhyaana is a very good exercise, not only for the internal organs, but for the body as well. But, most of the people are confused about the purpose, function as well as method of Dhyaana. They have no idea about the subjects like, what is Dhyaana, what is its purpose, how it should be practised, what are the varieties of it etc.

First of all, let me tell you that Dhyaana cannot be taught. Each one must try to find out his/her own method/methods of Dhyaana by practising and doing experiments with it in various ways. It can be understood only through trial and error method. It is so, because Dhyaana is a natural behavior just like sleeping, having food and sexual relationship. The purpose of sleep, food and sex should be understood properly before involving in them, if you want to do them effectively. Similarly, the purpose of Dhyaana also must be understood.

The purpose of Dhyaana is to consciously and directly connect with Mother Nature. You are always dependent upon Nature. But you are not aware of the fact; on the contrary, you think that you are a separate individual and forget that you have no existence other than that of the Nature.  To re-establish the link with Mother Nature is called Dhyaana. Your thoughts and emotions are the reason to break your link with the Nature. Thoughts and emotions of greed, anger, envy etc. are to be checked; the thoughts and emotions of love, acceptance, compassion etc. must be established inside to connect with Nature. Love, acceptance, compassion etc. are the higher feelings of Nature. So the thoughts must be managed and re-arranged in this way to re-link with Nature. So to re-define it, Dhyaana is the management of your thoughts and emotions.

Thoughts and emotions are to be observed and managed. There are several ways of exercises to practise Dhyaana through which thoughts and emotions can be observed and managed. Just as the bright rays of Sun re-appear when the covering of the clouds is removed, the joy of re-established connection with Mother Nature is experienced when the thoughts and emotions are transformed.

Dhyaana must be practised through day-to-day activities. All actions you do in a day are the methods of practising Dhyaana. Your house hold activities, work for livelihood, creative activities and even relaxation can be considered as Dhyaana. But this statement may seem to be very absurd. This needs to be understood properly for effective practice.

Let’s listen to the words of Sri Aurobindo in this matter. He categorizes Dhyaana into three different methods. He calls the three categories as Meditation, Contemplation and Self-Observation. In other words, they are three different methods of managing your thoughts. Always it is important to Observe your thoughts and Manage them. But the question is how to do it. Sri Aurobindo’s direction is helpful. (The Integral Yoga, Selected Letters of Sri Aurobindo)

Sri Aurobindo says, “Meditation means properly the concentration of the mind on a single train of ideas which workout a single subject.” Train of ideas refers not to one single image or one word; but it represents a number of images and words interconnected with some common basis. For example, remembering what happened yesterday from morning to evening can be considered as Meditation. Or reflecting upon the meaning of a Sloka from Bhagavad Gita also can be considered as Meditation. Meditation in this sense is useful in day-to-day life, very much. Meditation is needed for house hold management, office management, planning your work, assessing your work, preparing for examinations etc.

Please see the second category of Dhyaana, called Contemplation, mentioned by Sri Aurobindo, “Contemplation means regarding a single mental object, image or idea, so that the knowledge about the object, image or idea may arise naturally in the mind by force of concentration.” Focusing mind upon a form of a deity or Manthra comes in this category. Contemplation is more useful in life during creative thinking; like when you are planning your work, or creating story, situations or expressions of emotions in art etc.

Sri Aurobindo suggests another category of Dhyaana, which in my personal experience, is more useful for a spiritual seeker.  It is a training in non-attachment; Or in other words, Abhyaasa to develop the habit of Vairaagya. Sri Aurobindo mentions Swami Vivekananda when he says about this category of Dhyaana. He continues, “There is a passage in which Vivekananda advises you to stand back from your thoughts, let them occur in your mind as they will and simply observe them and see what they are. This may be called concentration in self-observation.” This happens in life when you are really involved in a work of art; reading a creative literature, listening to a music, watching a play, appreciating a painting etc. This kind of Dhyaana is very important for a Yogi who is trying to observe his thoughts and emotions and to manage them.

These three ways of Dhyaana are needed in life, in time to time. The Saadhaka must be capable of selecting what is needed in each circumstance. The difference between Meditation and Contemplation is that the Saadhaka is following mental streams just with a gathered attention in the former, where as the mental vibrations are more concentrated in the latter. Thoughts and emotions are not restricted that much in the former, and they are in more focused state in the latter. Sri Aurobindo discriminates, “Meditation is the easiest process for the human mind, but the narrowest in its result; contemplation more difficult, but greater; self-observation and liberation from the chain of thought the most difficult of all, but the widest and greatest in its fruits.”

Learning self-observation, observing and distancing from the thoughts, is the practice of Jnjaana Yoga. Self-knowledge is developed through this practice of observation, through which the maturation of the personality happens in reality.

Practise OM (Observation and Management) to do proper Dhyaana in proper time, according to your purpose. Be victorious in life; and in mind.

Reflecting on Mahatma Gandhi

Monday 2nd Oct 2017

Today, on 2^nd October 2017, let me reflect upon a sentence written by Mahatma Gandhi, which deeply moved me in the warmth of its truthfulness. This is the sentance: “The more I reflect and look back on the past, the more vividly do I feel my limitations.” (Introduction to The Story of My Experiments with Truth)

Gandhi ji was called Mahatma, according to me, because of this approach in his life and Sadhana. He was aware of his own limitations, more than anybody else. That is the strength of a Sadhaka. Knowing about your limitation means to have the idea of that which is beyond your limitation. The one who is aware truthfully of his own limitation can look into that which is beyond the limits in a realistic sense. Gandhi ji was ready to set forward for such a journey courageously, to go beyond the limitations. He writes: “I am prepared to sacrifice the things dearest to me in pursuit of this quest. Even if the sacrifice demanded be my very life, I hope I may be prepared to give it.” This much of power in Sadhana makes him different.

In the Indian scenario, he could easily live as a “God-man” if he wanted to. But he didn’t intend to. What he was trying to, was to experience the Truth within. All his political as well as social activities were manifestations of the internal quest for the Eternal Truth and Freedom. In his words: “My experiments in the field of politics are now known, not only to India, but to a certain extent to the ‘civilized’ world. (Gandhi ji had become a bit sarcastic here to highlight the word ‘civilized’.) For me, they have not much value; and the title of ‘Mahatma’ they have won for me has, therefore, even less. Often the title has deeply pained me; and there is not a moment I can recall when it may be said to have tickled me. But I should certainly like to narrate my experiments in the spiritual field which are known only to myself, and from which I have derived such power as I possess for working in the political field.”

The writings of Gandhi ji is becoming more and more relevant in the present time, because of its emphasis on Truth. “Success at the cost of any value” is the advice the young ears receive from all corners. In fact, young minds are naturally inclined to truth and justice. But they are advised to look for so called success through any means. They get confused and lose their right direction. At this scenario, the writings of Gandhi ji, gives us a system of values to set the right direction for a personal as well as social life. Ahimsa (Non-violence) and Sathyam (Truthfulness) are the spiritual values, he put forward for the man kind. They are not newly invented. They are the age old values of human kind all over the world. Gandhi ji tried to practice them truthfully. That was the change he brought in it.

Sadhana means to bring your ideas into practice. Gandhi ji lived a life, trying his level best to implement his ideas. Remember, he himself accepted his limitations. He was generous enough to enrich us with necessary inputs to criticize him in all aspects. He knew that. But he was the least bothered about them. He was truthfully following his values. Each day, he evaluated himself for the progress in implementing his values in day-to-day life. He noted down his failure. He never tried to glorify himself. All his activities were his experiments with the practice of Ahimsa and Sathyam. He continues: “These will of course include experiments with non-violence, celibacy and other principles of conduct believed to be distinct from Truth. But for me, Truth is the sovereign principle, which includes numerous other principles. The Truth is not truthfulness in word, but truthfulness in thought also, and not only the relative truth of our conception, but ultimate Truth, the Eternal Principle, that is God.”

Gandhi ji was a spiritual Sadhaka in all its sense. But he was aware that no spirituality exists distinct from day-to-day life. Spirituality is for truthfully and permanently removing the unhappiness in man. Of course it is directly related to day-to-day life. When we observe the thought process of Gandhi ji we realize that even while involving in the day-to-day social life around him, he was keen upon the perfection of the mind and personality in Truth. See what he wrote: “For, it is an unbroken torture to me that I am still so far from Him. Who as I fully know, governs every breath of my life, and who’s offspring I am. I know that it is the evil passions within that keep me so far from Him, and yet I cannot get away from them.”

I prostrate with pranam-s in front of him for the last sentence above, for the courage to tell the Truth that yet he could not get away from the evil passions.. That is the expression of Truthfulness in him.. And the young world may model him for truthfully creating a better world..

                                                                        =======================