‘Be Still’ to attain Self realization

A few weeks ago, I took my car to the Christian Brothers automotive workshop for a minor repair. In their shop, they have a board with a quote from the Bible as follows:

“Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).

The above statement is very similar to the declarations from the Vedanta on the paths to attain the realization of the supreme. It took me by pleasant surprise on the uniformity in the proclamation of the Ultimate Truths in all the religions.
The meaning for the words ‘Be Still’ does not mean stillness of the individual in terms of the outwardly activities. No living creature in this planet can be physically still as long as there is life in it. Nor is it meant to remain in a coma like mental state without any reaction to the environment.

The words ‘Be Still’ is meant to indicate the stillness of our minds to the stimuli from outside. What is mind ? Mind is nothing but the flow of thoughts. The stimuli received from our five sense organs (pancha-kosas) cause reactions and thought flow in our mind which results in formation of the desires. The desires in turn create more thought flows and this cycle continues till it saps all the energy in the individual and wastes it through unproductive activities. This is the cause of inefficiency in every individual.

On the other hand, by controlling the mind, a person can control his entire personality layers and direct it towards efficient productive work. Controlling the flow of unnecessary and wasteful thoughts conserves the energy in an individual which can be utilized for productive work. The feeling of tiredness in a person is not always due to exhaustive physical work. In today’s world where most of the jobs are white-collar professions to be done at home (telecommute!) or in an air-conditioned office space with all facilities at the press of a button(!), we still find people tired and not able to do anything else at the end of a day’s work. This situation is not the physical tiredness (as was the case in farming era), it is mental tiredness due to un-necessary stress and tension caused due to wasteful thoughts.

Our Srutis (Vedanta) extort us to overcome the pulls of our BMI layers (Body, Mind and Intellect), so that we can exhaust our vasanas (desires). Vasanas are like the fog which covers our view of the Supreme Divinity within us. Clearing the vasanas through the control of the BMI, through the “Swadhyaya, Sravanam, Mananam and Dhyanam” of the Vedantic scriptures (please refer to my previous posting) and the knowledge gained through them helps us see and understand the Divinity within and attain the realization.

Control of mind brings less agitation and more peace within. As this is continued, mind becomes less agitated and more peaceful, pure and serene. A pure and serene individual can hear the stillness within – it is the calm humming sound of the soul within which is like the ‘Sruthi’ (or under-tones) in a music performance. Aligning our worldly activities to this stillness orients our life to the natural wavelength of this universe and gives us a productive and peaceful life. An individual who has stilled his mind and heard his inner soul realizes the oneness of that soul across the entire universe and merges into that One Supreme Being – the Supreme Brahman. Thereafter such a ‘Mahatma’ (great soul), though walking and acting in this world in flesh and blood, is mentally and intellectually merged into the Divine and is not affected by the worldly limitations.

Adi Shankaracharya, Buddha, Jesus Christ, Gandhi, Ramana Maharishi are fine examples of such individuals, though cast in human form, are verily GOD in themselves.

Hari Om.

Narada Bhakti Sutra

The last couple of months, I have been reading on the art and science of Supreme Devotion in the treatise ‘Narada Bhakti Sutra’. Though the name of the ever green Narada is associated with this treatise, the actual author for this compilation is unknown. Narada is widely held in reverence for his perennial and un-wavering Bhakthi (devotion) for Lord Vishnu and hence it is no surprise that the honor of authorship on the best known writing on the philosophy of Bhakthi should be surrendered to him.

The term ‘Sutra’ means a ‘string’ - a string on which the pearls of ideas and thoughts on the highest principles of a philosophical thought are held together for the easy reach of the common man. Sutras are also exploratory statements with deeper imports and meanings. The work of Narada Bhakti Sutra consists of 84 sutras divided into 10 chapters and is in a wonderful poetic form.

The path of ‘Bhakthi’ is one of the three important paths for humans to attain Self Realization, as explained in the Bhagavad Gita and our Upanishads. The other two paths are the ‘Karma’ and ‘Jnana’ yogas (paths). Depending on the mental and intellectual makeup, development and capability, a person is initially driven to one of these paths automatically by his/her instincts and interests. Though the starting path may be different, as the ‘Sadhana’ (spiritual practice) progresses, we realize all paths are important and needed for discovering the the Unique Supreme Power (USP) which is the ‘Atman’ within ourselves. No path is higher or lower than the others – all are equally needed and merge into one another eventually.

Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda has explained it very nicely and clearly in his discourse on Kaivalyopanishad where he says that Bhakthi (Devotion) and Sraddha (faith through knowledge) are like the two wings which will take a person on a flight to the Supreme. If any of the wings is clipped or not fully developed, it hampers the person’s flight.

It is important to realize that Bhakthi is not a sapless, figurative love or affection on the picture of a God or symbol, as is commonly seen nowadays in the places of worship. Nor is it an order of blind faith which should not be questioned. Bhakthi towards an ideal arises from an integrated personality through knowledge gained through ‘Svadyaya’ (स्वाध्याय -study) as well as ‘Sravanam’ (श्रवणं - hearing) of the scriptures, ‘Mananam’ (मननं) or contemplation of the knowledge gained as well as ‘Dhyanam’ (ध्यानं)or Meditation on the principles of the scriptures so as to integrate those principles into our personality. The contemplation and meditation are the crucial steps in this process where the devotee comes to convincingly realize the value and significance of the philosophical truths within him/her and those principles show through their activities in their life. Nowadays, we unfortunately see the population reading blindly on the scriptures of their religions, but do not follow the other crucial steps of integrating those into their personality.

In my next few postings in this blog, I will try to capture the wonderful poetic verses from each chapter from the Narada Bhakti Sutra in its English translation and try to bring out the meanings as I understood them.

Hari Om.

On Fasting and its purposes - an opinion.

A couple of weeks ago, in the sunday edition of a local newspaper, I read a column from one contributor about fasting during Ramadan month. The author’s husband practices Islamic faith and the author being a Christian says in the column on how difficult it has been to fast dawn to dusk every day and she had to do it initially to please her husband. She goes on to say how this sacrifice from her has helped her connect with her husband and improve on their marriage through team work and trust.

I do agree and understand with her on the aspects of team work, trust and sacrifice in marriage and do appreciate her fasting for Ramadaan along with her husband. However I felt after reading the column, that there is a lack of spirituality in her which made it seem very difficult to go through this religious practice of fasting.

All world religions attest to the practice of fasting and the positive benefits derived from it. The time, duration etc. of the fasting may vary from one religion to another, but the basic premise is one and same - the premise is that by fasting the individual tries to transcend his/her attachment to physical body (gross) as well as to the subtle (mind & intellect) layers and tries to go deeper into his/her soul. By searching deeper into the soul and integrating it with the supreme power of this cosmos (that we call Brahman in Vedanta and as GOD in general), we realize the oneness of all living beings in this universe. This is the basic foundation of spirituality.

The purpose of fasting is not starving oneself of food, starving is suppression of the emotions and needs of the body. A person does not gain anything by suppression, what is needed is sublimation. Sublimation is making any activity nobler and purer through knowledge. This knowledge has to come from reading of religious scriptures, contemplation, and meditation and there by developing the spirituality within oneself. So for fasting to be easy and effective, there has to be a strong affinity for spirituality, whatever the religious beliefs may be. Individuals with materialistic mindset need to overcome many of their attachments and ego for such religious practices to be successful.

Hari Om.

Kauai’s Hindu Monastery and their publications

The past few days, I have been reading a wonderful magazine by name ‘Hinduism Today’ published by the Kauai’s Hindu Monastery, based out of Kauai island in Hawaii. As per their website http://www.himalayanacademy.com, they practice the Tamil Saiva tradition of Hindu worship which is originally popular in Tamil Nadu (India) and in Sri Lanka. The monastery has a well equipped publishing team and they are doing a great and noble service of publishing excellent books and magazines on Hinduism which covers a range of topics from Vedantic philosophies to modern Hindu traditions and lifestyles. Their quarterly magazine Hinduism Today www.hinduismtoday.com has very insightful articles and commentaries on Hindu Dharma, interviews and news clippings related to Hinduism. The monastery also has published a book on ‘What is Hinduism’ which can be downloaded free as PDF copies from their website http://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/wfdownloads/viewcat.php?op=&cid=2. This book will also make a great option as gift for others who may be new to Hinduism or would like to know more about it. I heard that some Hindu communities across the US are conducting discussion groups among adults and kids in temples and other community centers where a chapter from this book is read regularly.

Hari Om.

Fundementals of Vedanta - Sraddha (श्रद्धा) and Bhakthi (भक्थि)

Hari Om.
In Kaivalyopanishad (कैवल्योपनिषद), the student Asvalayana asks the teacher Lord Paramesthi to teach him the highest Brahma Vidya (the Science of Reality). The teacher starts the teaching with one powerful and significant statement as below:

“श्रद्धा भक्थि ज्ननयोगात अवैहि”

‘Sraddha Bhakthi Jnanayogat Avaihi’ – Know (the Bramha Vidya) yourself through Sraddha, Bhakti and Meditation.

What is Sraddha (श्रद्धा) and Bhakthi (भक्थि) ?

Sraddha is Faith infused with knowledge. It is not a blind faith on the words of the master. The student has to understand the import and reasons of the knowledge taught and intellectually understand and comprehend them. Gurudev Chinmayananda explains it as follows: ‘Faith is the faculty of the human intellect by which it can reflect and understand the deeper imports of the scriptural declarations and thereafter assimilate those ideas into the very texture of the intellect’ .

Bhakthi is devotion to the ideals that is understood through Sraddha. Devotion is higher than just love – it is love combined with respect to a higher entity or statement. We love our pets but we do not say we are devoted to it. However we are ‘devoted’ to our parents and Gurus and their teachings. Devotion makes a person attached and dedicated to the higher ideal.

Sraddha is the function of the intellect and Bhakthi is the function of the heart. They are the two wings of Dhayana (Meditation) that uplifts a person to higher plane of consciousness. Both the wings are needed to fly upwards. Sraddha without Bhakthi would be mere ‘theory’ with no practical applications. Bhakthi without Shraddha will be blind faith with no knowledge. Infact, nowadays we see more of blind faith with no effort to gain the knowledge through the scriptures (such as the priceless Vedas or Bible etc.). People visit places of worship to search for GOD externally and petition to that GOD ! Without knowledge, such individuals do not see the universality of GOD in every living being in this plant and this result in disrespect for each other and other living beings.

We all need to develop the faculties of Sraddha and Bhakthi and this harmonized head and heard develop in themselves a power of subjective perception called ‘Intuition’ which is needed for Spiritual awakening.

At His Service,
Hari Om.

Western philosphies and their connections to Vedanta

A few weeks ago, I happened to read a quote by Wayne Dyer who is a well known motivational speaker. The quote says “We are all infinite spiritual beings having a temporary human experience. Find that within yourself ".

I have heard of Wayne Dyer, and have read some of his writings and blogs, but this quote above from Dyer took me by pleasant surprise as it reflects exactly our Vedantic declarations.   With all the due credits to such motivational gurus for their writings, I still could not stop thinking that all this philosophical thoughts in the Western world ought to have some connections to Eastern philosophies and specifically to our Vedas from Bharat (India).   I decided to read to look for connections and started reading further, but did not have to go too long.
In his writings, Wayne Dyer refers to his guidance on philosophy from Ralph Waldo Emerson  (1803-1882) who was a famous essayist and philosopher and started the "Transcedentalist' movement in America and Europe in late 19th century. Though Ralph Emerson had been brought up in a Christian thoughts and trained as a minister, he was greatly influenced by the writings on Hindu Religion and on Vedas by another well known thinker and philosopher Henry Thomas Colebrooke. Henry colebrooke spent many years in Bharat (India) in the 18th century (1765-1837) studying on Sanskrit and Hindu scriptures.  He wrote a well known treatise “Essays on Vedas” in 1805. This essay is now available to read and download in Google books (http:// books.google.com).  
Wikipedia says Ralph Emerson was greatly influenced by Vedas and much of his writings has strong shades of non-dualism (Advaita Vedanta). In his essay 'The Over-Soul' Emerson says the following:
"We live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles. Meantime within man is the soul of the whole; the wise silence; the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related, the eternal ONE. And this deep power in which we exist and whose beatitude is all accessible to us, is not only self-sufficing and perfect in every hour, but the act of seeing and the thing seen, the seer and the spectacle, the subject and the object, are one. We see the world piece by piece, as the sun, the moon, the animal, the tree; but the whole, of which these are shining parts, is the soul."
Infact the term 'Over-Soul' can be considered as the closest English equivalent of the Vedic term 'Paramatman' .  This essay 'Over-Soul' by Emerson is also available for all to read and download in Google books.
Another great poet and philosopher who influenced Ralph Emerson and became his friend and was his contemporary was Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) who had most beautifully expressed his admiration of reading Bhagavad Gita every morning as follows:
"In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavat Geeta, since whose composition years of the gods have elapsed, and in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seem puny and trivial; and I doubt if that philosophy is not to be referred to a previous state of existence, so remote is its sublimity from our conceptions."
Thoreau was a naturalist and poet and a follower of Vegetarianism.  He is quoted to have said ""Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind."
Mahatma Gandhi was deeply influenced by Thoreau's writings and in fact took the idea of Civil Disobedience from him.
Another philosopher who brought Eastern philosophical knowledge to the western world was the French thinker Victor Cousin (1792-1867).  Ralph Emerson was introduced to scriptures from Bharat (India) by Victor Cousin.
Thus goes all the connections of these western philosophers to our rich, exquisite, unparalleled and priceless collections of Vedas, Upanishads and of course the crown jewel, the Bhagavad-Gita. Undoubtedly, there has been no society, no country, no civilization in the history of the earth with such advanced and scientific contributions to philosophy as that of our Vedas.   As Emerson quoted above,  in comparison (to scriptures from Bharat) all the rest of the world's contributions seem puny and trivial. The more I read on the western thinkers and philosophies, the more I see the connections to our scriptures.  I feel it is only the tip of an iceberg that I have scratched - there is a huge mountain of knowledge that needs to be read and understood !  I  don't think our lifetime is enough to go through all of them, but I am determined to keep reading.
Hari Om.