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| Chinmaya for YOUth |  |
It was a young man, modern, tight pants, tobacco pipe stuck at waist, trim thin moustache. He spoke English with an Americanized drawl, and was evidently one of our university products, with higher education abroad. Sophisticated, to the points of his pointed toes. Question: Swamiji, why did God create this world?
My advice to you is to write this question on a piece of paper, go straight to God, and ask him why He created this world ! I guarantee you that when you are there you will not remember the doubt ! Any question about God and His motives assumes the existence of a questioner different from God. When the seeker reaches that state of God consciousness, this world is no longer seen as different and separate, as something to be understood -- the question and the questioner disappear along with the entire world of creation.
Once awake, the waker realizes the total unreality of the dream world. In the same way, this waking world of plurality is like a dream of All Consciousness. Once you realize that you are nothing but the Supreme Consciousness which is One - without - a - second, this creation with its questions and answers dissolves itself. This is a most speculative region of thought and no final answer can be given. One hypothesis is that the creation is a consequence of God's nature as love to provide a new quality of consciousness. The creative activity of God includes embryonic beings, you and I, having a simple consciousness, yet still infinite and eternal. The maturing of these beings so that they come to know their inherent divinity -- it is already there, but they do not know they possess it -- could be the basis of the whole cycle of creation. How can they know their Infinitude if they do not know the finitude? How can they know the meaning of Immortality if they do not know mortality? How can they know Omnipresence if they do not know limitation? This very special knowledge of their true nature has to be won by a process of descent into the prison of space and time. Then a gradual ascent from there, in which knowledge, and ultimately Omniscience, is won.
Carefully now. Time has not begun. Time is the interval between two thoughts. Now there is only one footprint impression, so an interval has not yet occurred. So when I lift my other foot and leave the second footprint, time begins. That is why the first unit of time is called a second, not first. Or you could put it this way. The Creative Power had an urge to create. The first thought was I, just as when we wake out of sleep, our first thought is ‘I’. Only then do the rest of our thoughts, emotions, and objects of our world begin to roll out into existence. In the same way after this first thought of I, or pure consciousness, the Lord manifested all aspects of Himself; then He identified with these many aspects. That is the reason we each have the essential Divinity within us.
Question: Swamiji, is it necessary to believe in reincarnation? Q: So reincarnation is a theory to explain why one man is born a king and another a beggar. When the disparities in life do not arise from any visible cause, they must be the effect of some invisible past cause or causes. Thus we arrive at the theory of reincarnation. If actions performed in the past bear fruit in the present as experiences, then we can conclude that we must have had embodiments in the past also. Q: Why don't we remember any of our past lives? Q: It must have been some vegetables and rice because that is what I always eat, but I don't remember precisely. Although you do not remember all the thoughts and experiences you had in the last birth, the subtle impressions they left are still with you. They have, in fact, provided a motivation or a driving force for another manifestation, another birth as a human. So you are a product of all your past experiences; it cannot be otherwise. It is not by accident that you are what you are and I am what I am. We are all products of our own past. We Hindus believe in the reincarnation theory to explain these differences. But you do not have to extend the cause the effect pattern back to past lives. You can just look for the pattern in your present life, that's enough. Q: Is there an interval between the departure from one body and entry into another? Q: Can we contact the dead? Q: I am unhappy with my job because I have discovered that my boss is corrupt. He is requiring that I mislead some clients. Q: But I have to think of my family. Jobs are difficult to find these days. Question: How can one impart values? She said "I haven't got a pie. ""Then get out of here. My master has fixed me here to collect the tax. Wait here. When the master comes in the morning you discuss it with him. If the master says he has no objection, the matter could be settled." So the truthfulness, the honesty of words, you know all these from the story alone. You may forget the story but the idea goes in. This is the method. In our modern education we don't give the children any ideal. Data is given but no ideal to pursue. Ideals must be given. The story is not for history, it is for imparting an ideal. Give it to them and they will always check whether their action was morally good or not, beautiful or not. These children will grow up and in their togetherness will constitute the society. The social behaviour in any part of the world, in any period of time, will be the sum total work of the team of people that constitute the society. Each individual functions in the world outside ordered by and governed by his thoughts. The quality and the nature of the thoughts are determined by what values the individual respects. If the values respected by the individuals are wrong, the individual's activities can never be good. Similarly, if the values entertained by the community or the society are wrong, their total behaviour will be only bringing more and more sorrow to them. Hence, in modern times we are insisting upon value based education. The healthy values, psychologically healthy for the individual and, therefore, healthy for the community have been experimented upon and given out as moral and ethical principles. First, we have to conceive and understand and appreciate these values. Thereafter, a mere possession is not sufficient. Each individual should learn to live upto them. In order to impart them to our growing children there is no way other than concretizing these values through the heroic stories of people who have lived these values… Hence the need for stories. The mythological stories of India are perfect and artistic examples on how to impart these values to children. Never can children's education be complete unless we impart to them a true appreciation of the eternal values of life and also help them to open up their sense of beauty and rhythm, their aestheticism and ethicism. That is the reason why we not only try to mould them with our stories of heroism and excellence in character but also give them a free choice to discover and develop their inner secret talents for music, dance, painting, etc. if has been found very rewarding in all our centers. Q: Although each action in itself is relative, yet there are certain commandments, what we call values in life, that are recommended by all religions. For instance, truthfulness. What makes speaking the truth valuable? Why is it advised as a general principle? Truthfulness in its essential meaning is not merely giving a verbal expression to one's honest feelings, but in its deeper import it is the attunement of one's mental thoughts to his or her intellectual convictions. Unless we are ready to discipline and marshal our thought - forces to the unquestioning authority of our own reason, chastened with knowledge, in the ensuing chaos within, we could not grow to realize the fuller unfoldment of our true and divine nature. Question: Swamiji, just how do we purify our minds from all these negative tendencies – anger, for instance? Let us take a concrete example to examine the working of the mind. If you have a tendency to get angry and want to eliminate that tendency you should first feel sorrowful or repentant about it. Then you will have already conquered the anger to some extent. If you merely suppress it, the potential pent up anger will come forth at a later date. But if you are intelligent, you will divert that anger energy into some profitable activity. You should not succumb to the anger weakness by meekly saying, “It is on account of my karma.” Carve out a new canal in your mind with continuous good thought waves. Repeat to yourself: I love all. I am very, very tolerant. Go on repeating the self - suggestive thoughts: I am kind. I never get angry. I am always tolerant. Afterwards, in a very short time, you will observe that you have no anger at all in your mental make up. So first, you must recognize the tendencies. Be fully aware of your weaknesses. Man is his mind. His personality is the very composition of his mind. Because of these vasanas of the mind, we live in a state of constant reactions to the outer objects. The quality of one’s experiences depends upon the mind that is brought to the circumstances. The mind is what it is, only as ordered and set by the various impressions it has gathered in its various transactions in life. Thus, when we have purified and chastened the motives and thoughts in the mind, we have purified our mind.
As it gains more and more joy from the spiritual life – the reflection on the Upanishads and meditation – the Q. ‘‘Does understanding of the Atman solve any Economic Problem of the world we live in? (Asked a student from the Mamoot College, Secunderabad) A . This is a very interesting question indeed ! The old type answer to this question, though it expresses fully the truth, will not satisfy the modern minds of impatient agitations ! The ancient answer is ‘‘Priya Soumya !(Dear son) When you come to live in the Atman as ‘The Universal Atman am I,’ in you there is no more a field for such problems to function. Just as in the waking state there can no more be the fatigue of the Dream pilgrimage ! The lion that hunted you out of your dream can no more be under your bed as you wake up in terror and switch on the lights ! Thus, the moment one has come to experience the Atman, the Permanent Changeless Reality behind this seeming shadow play called life, one has gone beyond all the so called economic problems..... they belong only to the walking state world ! Though this answer is fully endorsed by logic, reason, records and everyday experience, the modern economic man, stranded in life and confused by the burning problems of the day will not understand easily the significance of the old - time Masters’ wise answer. What Chinmaya can give to his generation is but a re - statement of the same Truth in a language which his brothers can follow. Let us try now to understand each other. Please co - operate fully in sympathetic understanding and with full attention. What are the most serious problems in modern economics? Is there any ultimate cause out of which all these problems have risen? If so, is there an absence of that wretched cause - of - problems in the Atman? This should be our line of enquiry. Now to the first of the investigations : What are our economic problems? Inequity in the distribution of wealth, blackmarket or profit - madness, exploitation of the poor by the rich. These are the main ones. We need not be very great economists to know for ourselves the cause for the inequity or the profit - madness or the exploitation. Are they not the poisonous fumes of the national and the international sorrows, rising from the stinking pool of selfishness and lust in the individual hearts? And again, this selfishness and lust can be traced to have been caused by our Ego, the arrogation of separativeness in individuals. The individual ego is frantically seeking for a permanent joy among the impermanent things of the world. In the blind mad rush, each gets dashed against one another and many fall tumbling over the scattered skeletons of the earlier economic - problem - solvers ! What a meaningless revelry of death and self - damnation !! If the Ego in us is the ‘‘ultimate cause’’ for all economic problems, are there such problems available to our experience as the Atman? Are the pains of hunger and thirst of a famine experienced by you, in a dream, in existence when you are awake? Certainly not. Why? Because the dreamer - I was a false ego belonging only to the Dream State Consciousness and on passing into the Waking State Consciousness that dream ego ends, and with the Dream, famine has also ended. So too, in God consciousness, in the Atman - am - I consciousness, in the Soham (He am I) state - of - consciousness..... there is no Waking State Ego possible, and therefore, the Waking- State - World and its economic problems must be absent in the Atman. One, who by Abhyas and self - purification, has cleansed the within, of all the base animalisms and the cause - of - problems, the Ego, he alone can experience the Atman; and if there be an intelligent generation which takes up to this Path of Wise Living, the Vedanta, then in that generation there can be none of our today's ulcers, such as the inequity, the lust, or the exploitation. This is the ideal scheme of living we in India had in our glorious Rama Rajya. This is the plan we are crying for in our Village Panchyats. This is the principle behind every revolutionary effort of man at recorganizing his generation: the Communists, the Socialists, the Religionists and the Moralists all are standing upon this very same platform. But in actual inauguration we find little effectiveness; for we often, in working out our theories, overlook to educate, train, insist and compel the individual standards of perfection attainable through the Renunciation of Ego and the cultivation of Universal Love. Your question, as it stands, unfolds the cause as to why every noble human attempt, at constructive reorganization, has been to date, at its best, mere expensive failures. You ask, ‘‘Does understanding of the Atman.... etc.’’ A mere intellectual understanding of any noble ideal will not help us; we must learn to live the ideal. Then only its blessings can be ours. Just as a mere understanding of peace will not end all wars, so too, a mere understanding of the Atman will not solve for us our world’s economic problems.The study of ethics presupposes that we can assert our will over our lower impulses. We cannot be held morally responsible for actions that are out of our control or not within our capacity to change. A moral system must be based upon an understanding of the nature of mankind and its capacity for change. Vedanta's theory of karma examines this issue of free will versus destiny. The Law of Karma The law of karma has often been confused with the law of destiny, when actually there is a great deal of difference between the two. Had the Vedantic law of karma been equal to the law of destiny, Hindu civilization would have long ago perished, as have all the ancient civilizations through history. The law of destiny has a corroding effect upon the human heart, and those who depend entirely upon it to guide them become weak-minded, passive human beings. Those who believe in predestination, or that all actions and events have been determined since the beginning of creation, deny any personal responsibility for their actions, hiding under the cloak of fatalism-asserting that since they were fated to act thus, they are not to be held morally responsible for their low actions. On the other hand, a people believing in and living up to the law of karma become dynamic citizens and spiritual giants. The law of karma is based upon the conclusion that this life is not an end in itself but is just an incident in the eternal existence of each of us. Each one of us is unique and each one's life is different from another's. The destiny of one is obviously different from that of another. Had this been the very first and the last of our births and had we all entered the world as equal, justice would have necessitated that we all have a similar experience of life. Whenever we inquire into the differences among human beings, we arrive at the conclusion that, having risen from different causes, each of us should manifest as a different effect. Effects depend upon their causes. This life which we live is only one of our incarnations, according to the law of karma. From birth to death and from death to birth, the cycle goes on, but we do not appreciate it or understand it because we view life from a very circumscribed point of view. .We think that life means only the period spent by us from our birth to our death, and what we experience during this interval is the sum total of life. But let us for a moment take the example of a picture painted on a canvas. In order to see the entire picture painted on it, we have to step back some distance and only then can we get the entire view, the rhythm of the colours, the beauty of the shapes, and so on. Similarly, when life is viewed 6:um a close perspective, we feel that it is illogical and unrhythmic. But when we stand back 6:um our present life in detachment and try to view the whole of life in its entirety, we can begin to perceive a vast harmony 'and perfection. Some of us blame the Creator for the sorrow or sin in our lives, and despair by saying that the sorrows have been fated to us. The Vedantins teach differently. It is important that we understand that there is a rhythm in the universe, that the planets move regularly, that the stars ride in their appointed paths, and that the natural laws never deviate from nature. Everywhere we can discover the law of 'rhythm (rtu), and everything conforms to that law. Why then, in the case of human life, do we say that there is no logic or reason in it? Destiny (Prarabdha) Each human being represents the various effects arising from different causes. The causes being different, the effects are different. Thus, every action of the past has its own reaction, and each of us must have a treasury of all these past reactions. This accumulation of reactions is called the sanchita karma. We should understand that after having lived the fruits allotted for the present life, called prarabdha, each person, while departing from life, takes the next form according to the pattern ordained by the ripened karmas in the total sanchita karma. Let me explain it more clearly. Suppose I have a plot of land divided into orchards. In one, I plant coconut seedlings; in the second, apples; and in the third, mangoes. In order to germinate, grow and yield fruit, each seed must take its own time. Similarly, each action takes its own allotted time to fructify. Every action has its own reaction; certain actions give their reactions immediately, while others give their reactions after an interval. To live out the reactions of our past actions, each of us needs to experience certain joys and sorrows, and in order to bring forth these required experiences, each must have a definite field, or loka, of his own experiences. The generally accepted meaning of the word loka is 'the world'. Etymologically, loka means 'a field of experience'. In the discussion of karma, loka means the special, private realm in which I live my subjective experiences. Again, people misunderstand the real meaning of prarabdha when they use it to mean all the failure, impotence and selfishness in their character. If we are to be guided by this delusion that all our actions are predetermined, then in every act of ours there is no room for self-improvement through effort. There are some who justify their actions by saying, 'I have no faith in a Higher Good, and it is my prarabdha, so why should I try to live a noble, moral life? 'This is a self-defeating concept based on a defeatist mentality. But then, where does this self-effort, purushartha, come in if prarabdha orders every situation? We have been given limited freedom by nature. For example, we cannot bend a piece of thick metal, but supposing the metal is beaten out and made into a chain-it then becomes pliable. Similarly, when a cow is tied to a rope in the centre of a pasture, it is not free to graze the entire field but can move freely only within the circle drawn by the rope. Similarly, although we have taken this form to live out a fixed prarabdha, we can reach the supreme goal of life by applying our pure motives and intelligent discrimination to harness the freedom allowed us from moment to moment. We have come into this world to enjoy and suffer for our past karmas, through the circumstances ordered by our prarabdha. There is provision for us to discriminate and act rightly. For example, is there not a certain amount of freedom of choice involved in deciding whether to go to a cinema or to a temple? At every moment of life there is a challenge posed by the question, 'Shall I do this or shall I do that? 'Two distinct paths are open to us, the path of the good and the path of the pleasant. We find ourselves at every moment standing at the junction of these two paths. Often we are at a loss to decide which path to pursue. There is a tussle between the devil and the God in us at such a moment of trial. By adopting the path of the pleasant, we can get immediate but short-lived rewards, whereas by adopting the path of the good, we can gain the long-term goal, our full satisfaction. Imagine the mind to be made up of soft matter. As each thought passes through it, an impression, like a scratch, is left on it. When similar thoughts are repeated, the small scratch deepens into a channel. Every subsequent thought has a tendency to flow through that readymade thought-channel. Thus, if the impression, or the channel, was produced by good thoughts, then a good character is maintained and strengthened by the subsequent thoughts flowing irresistibly in that direction. Let us take another example. Examine the working of the human mind. If you have a tendency to get angry and want to overcome that tendency, you should first of all feel repentant about it. Then you will have already suppressed the anger to some extent. Of course, pent-up anger will burst forth at a later date if you merely suppress it. But if you are intelligent, you should divert that energy to some other profitable direction. You should not succumb by meekly saying, 'It is my prarabdha to get angry.' Carve out a new channel ill' your mind with repeated good thoughts. Repeat to yourself, 'I love all; or’ I am very tolerant.' Go on repeating the suggestive thoughts, and in a short time you will observe that you have no anger at all in your mental make-up. First of all, we should be aware of our weaknesses. We must be fully aware of them. We are essentially the very composition of our minds. When we perform some actions repeatedly, our minds get fixed with certain impressions. The quality of our experiences depends upon the quality of the mind that undergoes the experience. The mind, being what it is, is conditioned by the various impressions that it has gathered in its different stages of life. Thus, when we control and chasten the motives and thoughts in our minds, we purify the mind itself. Free Will (Purushartha) At each moment of our life, we are not only living the fruits of our past actions, but also creating those for tomorrow. Similarly, at each moment we are preparing ourselves for the lives yet to come. Prarabdha is caused by the actions done in the past. Thus, if our prarabdha is a sorrowful one now, let us perform such acts today that can determine a happier life for us in the future. The law of destiny does not explain to us how, even while we live the preordained and prarabdha-controlled pattern of circumstances, we can have in the immediate moments a freedom to create afresh (purushartha). This positive approach is an essential part of the law of karma. A happier tomorrow is built only when we assert our will to live a divine life today. Religion asks us to entertain and live such values of life so that while living them we are able to create an ordered life, full of joys, in the future. Follow the righteous path of the good; avoid the by-lanes of the crooked, the unrighteous path of the pleasant. We must start and constantly keep on the right path to reach the goal of supreme good. If our course is in the right direction, we shall certainly reach our destination. Yet another way of looking at the question of free will versus fate is by reviewing life in the light of the flow of time, wherein the future, through the present, is ever becoming the past. Anything that is now in the future must in time arrive to become the present and before long will pass on into the past. We have already noted that the human intellect cannot rest without seeking the cause of things, but we generally do not take full advantage of this causation-hunting urge in us. If we search for the causes of our present life, we shall discover certain facts that reveal to us the inner meaning and the deep significance of the law of karma. From the seed the tree grows; the seed is the cause and the tree is the effect. From cotton cloth is made: cotton is the cause, and cloth is the effect. Now, in all conceivable examples, the cause is anterior with reference to time, like the father of a child, and the effect is posterior, like the child born. The father was in existent before the child was born. Cause is thus that which was, and the effect is that which is. The past causes the present: the present will therefore, cause the future! In short, it is said that the future is not a mystery, an unknown miracle that we must wait to see unfolded. The past modified in the present alone is the future. The things to come are not ordered by; mere continuity of the past. This freedom to modify the past and thereby create a future for better or for worse is called purushartha or self-effort. To illustrate: a log floating down a river will move at the same speed at which the river flows, but if the log is fitted with a motor and manned by an intelligent driver, the log will have an independent movement of its own, although conditioned by the flow of the river. Let's assume that the waters of the river are moving at two miles an hour. When the speedometer on the log shows ten mile an hour, the log will move at twelve miles an hour down the river but only eight miles an hour if it goes upstream. The flow of the river will always be there; but because of the motor and the intelligence of the driver, the log has a limited freedom of movement now. The plant and the animal kingdoms move just as the log the floats down the river, directed and guid8d by their inborn instincl and impulses. But we, having reached the human level, have acquire a reasoning capacity and a discriminative faculty. Using these two we can steer the ship of life safely to our destination, the higher go: we have set for ourselves. To consider therefore, that the present is but a product of past actions (prarabdha) is undignified: to recognize that the future only a product of present actions (purushartha) is equally unintelligent there is no slavery, nor is there complete freedom. There is however a limited freedom, which, if used intelligently, can redeem us from all entanglements. Thus, the law of karma, when understood correctly, is the greatest force of vitality in Vedantic philosophy. It makes us the architects of our own future. We are not helpless pawns in the hands of a mighty tyrant. If we are weak or sorrowful, it is solely because of our own willful actions. In our ignorance, we may have pursued certain negative values of life in the past, and their fruits have reared up now to give us the pattern of circumstances we are living today. Still, take heart. By living rightly today the divine values of love, kindness, tolerance and mercy, you will ensure a more noble pattern for you; future. By honest introspection, you can detect your wrong tendencies and eliminate them through constant, deliberate effort. Develop positive thinking and thus come to be the creator of your own future life. Then only will lasting success be yours. Till the final Illumination in pure Wisdom is achieved, a strict policing of the mind is needed; else, at any moment we may slip back into our false identification with our body, mind and intellect and claim ourselves to be the 'doer', the 'enjoyer'. This is Avidya at work. With Avidya will come back all desires, converting the mind into a hectic scene of agitation. Build a very strong fortress round the Treasure House of Wisdom, with Vichar, Vairagya and Vivek. The dacoit will not then have access to loot the Inner Wealth ! Swami Vivekananda had prescribed Pratyahara as a remedy; it is indeed a very effective and immediate cure. But the medicine is not available for all, and even when procured it cannot be administered to everyone !! Withdrawing the senses from their external activities, just as the tortoise withdraws its limbs, is Pratyahara. Eminent Yogis who have reached perfection in Pranayama (breath control) alone can thus fold up, at will, the vital Pranas which in each sense -organ, and maintain their Indriya Shakti. All of us are not such perfected Pranayamis. A yogi by Pratyahara can, at will, shut off his sense organ doors and be AT HOME within himself. Even amidst the din and roar of a battlefield he can be alone within himself in silence and peace, by withdrawing the registering capacities of both his ears and eyes ! On the other hand, a Jnani, even while seeing the mutual killings and hearing the roars of the engines of destruction on the battlefield can experience the falseness of his sense reports and can live the Truth that is behind all the superimposed magic jugglery. The Jnani's experience is of the Supreme Reality -- where there is no noise, no killing, no dying, no fighting ! A Jnani too, with the strength of his Vichar and with the vividness of his own intuitive experience, effects thus an internal Pratyahara. This is nobler, easier and much more effective than Pranayama Pratyahara. Practise; Do Vichar. Cultivate good Vasanas. Get strength and efficiency for this self - policing through Nama Smaran. Surrender to the Lord. Do Japa. Pray fervently. Let thy Bhakti blaze up into a conflagration of Divine fervour and burn down for thee all the negative elements in thy character. Do Japa. Do more Japa. Do more and more Japa.
The quality of Civilization flourishes with the promotion of culture, but when the cultural values deteriorate, the civilization of a society breaks down, as we have known from the fall of the Egyptian, the Greek and the Roman civilizations. The great religious masters of India, using their own ingenious efforts, have time and again revived the philosophical and religious values for which India stood and thereby arrested the deterioration of the culture. When culture deteriorates there is an increase in barbarity and immorality in the country and its philosophy is misinterpreted, leading to confusion and chaos among its people. This, in short, is more or less the sad condition of the present world. The need of the hour is to arrest forthwith the deterioration by reviving the great philosophical and religious values of life. In no other literature in the world have these values been so beautifully and exhaustively dealt with as in the sacred books of India. In this context we may note the following advice given to the students by the Rishi of the Taittiriya Upanishad : The practice of what is right and proper is fixed by the scriptural texts; it is to be followed along with reading the texts oneself and propagating the truths of the same. ("Truths": this means that practising in life what is understood to be right and proper is to be pursued along with regular studies and preaching.) This Upanishadic passage closely parallels the corresponding function that we have in our colleges today, which goes by the term, "Convocation Address". The students of the Gurukula are given some key ideas on how they should live lives dedicated to their culture, consistent with what has been taught to them as the goal and way of life. More than Just Facts In this section the teacher presents twelve immortal ideas of living and rules of conduct. An equal number of times he has insisted that the student continue his study of the scriptures and propagate the immortal ideas of his culture all through his life. In these passages, we find that the brilliant students are repeatedly commissioned to continue their study and be preachers throughout their lifetime. The Upanishadic style lies in its brevity. Use of even a syllable more than the minimum required is considered as a great sin; yet, here we find in a small section twelve repetitions of the same idea; study (swadhyaya) and discoursing upon the Veda with a view to making others understand (pravachana). For this missionary work the Rishis never saw any necessity in organizing a special class of teachers. The preaching activity was built into the duty of every householder. In the pursuit of his vocation, the householder was not asked to spare any special time or to sacrifice his duties either towards himself or towards his own children, the society, the nation or the world. But while emphasizing the need to pursuing his duties at all these levels, the Rishis asked him to keep continuously in touch with the scriptures and to preach the same truth to others. The great qualities that the teacher has insisted upon are: (a) The practice of what is right and proper as indicated in the scriptures (ritam); (b) Living up to the ideals that have been intellectually comprehended during the studies (satyam); (c) Aspirit of self - sacrifice and self - denial (tapas); (d) Control of the senses (dama); (e) Tranquillity of the mind (sama); (f) Maintenance of a charitable and ready kitchen at home in the service of all deserving hungry fellow beings (agni); (g) Practice of concentration and ritualism through fire worship as was in vogue in the society of those days; and (h) Doing one's duty towards humanity, towards one's children and grandchildren and towards the society. Continuing the "Convocation Address", the teacher says: After the studies, before the students are let out to meet their destinies in their independent individual life as social beings, the teacher gives his exhortation, which comprises, we might say, "Vedanta in practice". Relationship to Society Having developed this quality of truthfulness, where should one apply it? As if anticipating such a doubt in the student, the teacher says, dharmam chara. Dharma is a Sanskrit word that has no corresponding word in English. We may, for our convenience, but not to our full satisfaction, translate dharma as "duty". Hinduism is built upon duties and responsibilities, not on rights. A culture built upon duties recognizes the right to do one's duty as the fundamental privilege in life. A generation that understands such a culture gets trained to demand of life ample chances to fulfil its duties. Duty, therefore, develops the spirit of giving, not the lust to hoard or the anxiety to keep. The sequence of thoughts -- "After giving the preceptor his fees, do not cut off the thread of progeny" -- implies a healthy suggestion as how best to plan one's life. After finishing your education, first of all become economically independent; learn a trade, create a market, assure a comfortable income. Then, as the next duty in life, marry and maintain the line of descendents in the family. This is followed by a series of warnings not to swerve from truthfulness, duty, personal welfare and prosperity. The Rishi advised the students to be prosperous so that they would be able to serve others in selfless charity. It is reasserted that we must pursue the study of the scriptures and make it a life's mission to spread those truths among ourselves with a burning, irresistible missionary zeal. Continuing the advice, the teacher says: Never swerve from your duties towards gods and towards the departed "souls" (manes). May the mother, father, preceptor and the guest be to thee a god. Relationship to the Teacher Practising Charity Hinduism recognizes the householder's existence only as a necessary training in curbing his animalism and purifying him for the greater heights of spirituality. Cultural perfection is the goal. Ultimately the individual was valued upon the spirit of sacrifice he could show toward the finite, when the call of the Infinite reached him. Naturally, therefore, the teacher has to give some instruction as to how charity can best be practised. Therefore, charity is acceptable only when it toes the line with our own independent intellectual beliefs and convictions. Indiscriminate charity is not acceptable to the science of Vedanta, which is not trying to cultivate fruit trees. Its aim is to cultivate the thinking animal called "man". Therefore, the Rishi pointedly condemns the opposite idea by the positive declaration. "Gifts should not be given without faith." Every benefactor has the right, even the duty, to inquire into the righteousness of the cause he is trying to patronize. It is said that having come to judge a cause to be deserving, give it your entire patronage: "Give in plenty; with both hands, give." However, charity can bring to us the feeling of egoism and vanity. These are avoided by instructions to give with modesty. Charity constricts the heart and obstructs human growth if it is not honeyed with the spirit of love and the joy of identification. Proper Conduct An ideal Brahmin should be one who is not set on by others. He must not be cruel. He must be a self - dedicated champion of the greater values of life as explained in the immortal scriptures. Such men of dedicated life, firmly established in their ideas and stoutly independent, are the true sons of the Hindu culture, and the student is asked to follow them whenever there is a doubt regarding either action or conduct. The above passages, starting with satyam vada, consisting of twenty - five items and divisible into six waves of thought, constitute the sacred commandments of Hinduism. The waves of thought as indicated in this section are advice regarding (1) the individual himself, (2) his relationship with others, (3) his right action in the world, (4) his attitude toward the eminent men of culture, (5) the laws of charity, and (6) his duty to follow the eminent living men of his own times. In the seventh wave of thought, the teacher concludes by saying that these commandments are to be followed diligently by every intelligent seeker who lives a life for a higher cultural purpose -- more than mere worldly ambitions and secular activities. In short, over the shoulders of the students, as it were, the Rishi is addressing the entire community to follow these commandments and bring about the perfect cultural and spiritual unfoldment in themselves and in the society. IS THE MEANS FOR TOTAL PERFECTION - Swami Chinmayananda Mankind stands between two worlds - one dying and the other struggling to be born. What form will the new world take? We alone can choose. We are the makers of our own world, and if today the world is an ugly place, it is because we ourselves are ugly. If we cleanse our hearts; we will find that the brilliance in the world is but a reflection of the brilliance within. This self-cleansing becomes difficult for the average person because it is a subjective process, wherein each has to cleanse himself. Moral living, ethical standards, religious virtues, and cultural values are often discussed, but of the many people who talk about them very few come to live them. Unless we decide to bring these known virtues into life, the world cannot be improved. Only by readjusting the inner personality can each one of us bring out a greater dynamism, cheer, and fuller love in all our contacts in Society. Without this unfoldment of our inner beauty the quality of life cannot be improved. Secular and material organizations are necessary; the politicians, the economists, and the scientists have a great responsibility to improve the social welfare, organization of production, distribution, and administration of justice and thus to improve the conditions of life in society. But the happiness of the community can be assured only when we have a healthy community. A community is healthy only when the members are healthy. If man has the positive virtues of the heart and the creative values of the intellect, his responses to the environment will be healthy, and he will gain a balance and a joy in life. Individual perfection is the means for the total perfection. For this, man must regenerate himself. He must have an ideology in life by which he can individually and collectively grow to be a healthy individual. All religions are built upon such rejuvenating ideologies. They supply the higher eternal values of life to their followers and nourish them with their various techniques until each individual absorbs them into himself. The values that religions provide are based on eternal truths of life, and therefore are the permanent values of the changing world. The world may change, but the eternal values will always remain the same. They were good for our ancestors, they were equally good for the people in the Middle Ages, and they were again found good for the communities of the last century. Surely they are good for the present century also. They are ever one and the same at all times. These fundamental values, when practiced, are capable of making man healthier to face the world outside, even if riddled with endless tragedies. If the world around him were already happy, then these values would help him enjoy the happiness intelligently. These are certain fundamental rules that govern the inner health of man, and these are called by all scriptures as-“fundamental values”. The values seem to be different, at least in emphasis, in different religions and a student who studies various religions may find that one religion emphasizes one set of ideals and another religion, a different set of ideals. Buddhism asserts one maxim, Hinduism another, Islam and Christianity yet another. But if one closely examines the maxims, one discovers that the fundamental principle is one and the same, though the language and the emphasis are different. Just as two doctors would prescribe to the same patient on separate occasions two seemingly different prescriptions for the same disease, those who understand the science of medicine would know that the prescriptions are the same, only in name are they apparently different. Similarly, the ethical and moral values that religions prescribe are all rules of conduct by which we can develop our personality, integrity and inward health, with which we may enjoy the world more and develop the strength and courage to meet our problems in life. It is true, no doubt, that those who live all these great values of life will be a mere few in a society, but those few will soon grow up to such a stature in themselves that they will be leading the world with an irresistible secret spiritual power of their own. It is always such individuals of heroic inner personality who have been guiding the generations and initiating new civilizations in the world. The great religious masters, using their own ingenious efforts, have time and again revived the philosophical and religious values and thereby arrested the deterioration of culture. When culture deteriorates, there is an increase in barbarity and immorality in the country and its philosophy is misinterpreted, leading to confusion and chaos among its people. This is more or less the sad condition of the present world. The need of the hour is to arrest forthwith the deterioration by reviving the great philosophical and religious values of life. -Courtesy: Mananam Vol. VIII: Number 1 AUGUST 1991 All the Shastras and scriptures unanimously declare that our enemy is the ego. The sorrows and sighs belong to the ego - phantom. Sublimate the ego in constant vichar. In your discrimination of the real and the unreal, the false ego dream ends. End the ego and end the woes. If the ego in you is the samsarin, if the ego in you is the tormentor, if the ego in you is the enemy, spy on him more closely and come to know who he is. Find out your enemy and drive him away. This ego, in fact, is a myth, a non - entity, a dream, a phantom, a mere false shadow. All the sorrows belong to this shadow of your own reality, and in your own thoughtlessness you have surrendered yourselves to the endless tyranny of this shadow. End the shadow for ever. Fall flat at the feet of the Lord in love and surrender. When the ego sense is offered at His lotus feet, the mortal limitations end and the bhakta who has done a full and complete atma - samarpan becomes God himself. Turn your gaze towards the light within. If you cannot all of a sudden do so, then do the easier act of self - surrender. Detach the mind from memories and hopes. Egolessness is the state of Godhood. Attain that supreme goal of life through knowledge and right living. Kill the tyrant within you and bring out the real Rama.Mysticism in Hinduism is so rich, precise and of such depths that the extremely poetic minds of our later Rishis tried to express it all in the form of stories. Such mystical stories have a significance of their own, revealing the final conclusions arrived at in our Upanishads. Not fully realising these secret suggestions people read, sung, worshipped our deities and thus maintained the dry skeleton without the soft flesh and its pulsating beauty and its bursting mirth. The Reality is Peace, Good, Beauty (Satyam Shivam Sundaram). But our life in this world of names and forms is experienced as just the opposite. This paradox is explained as caused by a mysterious inherent power in the Supreme called Maya. It is a natural trick of the human inner equipment of mind and intellect. When the intellect cannot apprehend a thing rightly, at this non - apprehension, the mind starts projecting delusory images and creates a thousand misapprehensions. The dual effect of this non - apprehension and its consequent mis - apprehensions is termed as this mighty Maya Power (Shakti, Divine Mother). In all religions, in the earlier days God was conceived as an unrelenting father, a severe disciplinarian, ready to punish His children for all their trespasses. It is an evolution in religious thought that brought the idea of an all loving, all forgiving, Mother God. This is Devi: Consort of Shiva, the Supreme. The Supreme with Maya is Ishwara, the Creator - Sustainer - Destroyer, Lord of the Universe. Shiva minus Devi is Pure Consciousness and Maya merges with the Supreme Self. Think !! Question: Swamiji, why is it important that we meditate? Swamiji: Man is mind-meditation works on the mind itself Realization is the long-term goal of meditation. You will wake up from the dream of the ego into the Infinite. Q: But my mind never seems to be quite enough to meditate. Swamiji: Meditation is for making it quite. When you meditate look at the depth of silence between your thoughts just as if they were two waves of the ocean. When you are repeating your mantra, you are constantly looking to that depth between each repetition. Even in our daily life, we jump from one thought to another, never noticing the silence between the thoughts. Use any two thoughts; even any two vulgar thoughts will do. The substratum of silence remains the same. Q: But we are still the observer, that is, we are observing silence. Swamiji: You’ve been reading too many books. How can there be an observer when there is nothing to observe? Dive into that gap, its is your gateway. Q: What about the Vasanas [the innate tendencies]? Swamiji: What vasanas? Who’s go the vasana? You have to go beyond these intellectual concepts. Intellectual study is only for the purpose of finding out that there is a Truth beyond the intellect. In satisfying the questions of the intellect you get thrown beyond it. As the pole-vaulter goes over the top, he does not keep the pole. He lets it go. Just sitting with the body motionless will calm the mind, at least, a relative quiet. Drop all worries; they will be there waiting for you. It’s just like after you have slept, you wake up to the same old problems. Q: But some days it’s so difficult even to sit still! Swamiji: You must watch your mind during the day; meditation is difficult if someone has hurt you or criticized you. Your mind will go back to that situation when you sit to meditate. With intellectual discrimination, you must let the mental bruise go at the moment it happens. Tell yourself that the insult is no true of your true Self; it is only true of the material that hangs around you. Why bother to defend it? Let it go. Q: If I know the Higher, I don’t really need to meditate. But if I don’t know it, how can I meditate on something I don’t know? Swamiji: All scriptures say God cannot be described; so all scriptures are an attempt to explain the inexplicable. Even though all use the same words to describe this higher reality, they are not exact descriptions; they are indicators. You hold your mind in the indicated direction, that is meditation, and then mind ends. Q: When should I start meditating twice a day? Swamiji: If my child were to ask me, “When should I eat my supper?” my answer would be, “Not now, my son.” The very question clearly indicates that my child is not hungry. If my son runs to the dining room and demands supper, threatening to stuff himself with cookies if the food is not served, then I will say, “Son, it is now time to eat.” When I hear from you that you have already started an inspiring session of meditation in the evening, I shall send you permission to meditate twice a day. Q: But is meditation for beginners? Swamiji: No, meditation is not meant for beginners. They will be sitting to sleep, that is all. Of course, the resulting rest may be of some physical benefit, especially to you restless Americans, but no spiritual. Beginners must strive to make their mind and intellect quiet, calm, serene, single-pointed, and sincere. This can be achieved in your daily activities, by performing them with care and attention. e a mirror! Reflect everything; keep nothing. No matter what passes in front of the mirror, no image remains. KEEP NOTHING! Question: Swamiji, are you able to read our minds? Swamiji: God forbid! Who would want to waste their time raking through the garbage in your minds? Question: But there are times when we have a question in our minds and you do answer it, either in satsang or the lectures, before we even have enough never to ask it. Swamiji: Yes, that will happen. That’s the way universe works. When a lesson is to be learned, the appropriate situation arrives. A question is there, and then the answer comes. It’s not from an effort or some trick on my part; I’m an instrument. Sometimes the solution could come from a stranger on the bus. But because I’m a swami, everyone thinks I’m using some special power. Because of certain strong desires of some student, the answer spontaneously manifested through me. It just looked like reading of the mind. Question: What about the times when you say something and it happens that way? It does appear as if you do know the future. Swamiji: I mentioned something and because it happened to correspond to your desires you all got together and accomplished it. Think of how many times I have suggested projects that no one has carried through. Question: But miracles can happen. What about those yogis that can levitate, be buried alive, all sorts of far-out things? Swamiji: There was an incident between Sri Ramakrishna and one of his disciples. It seems the disciple came to him one, day proclaiming “Master, Master. I have learned to walk on water. It took me three years of constant concentration and work, but I have mastered it.” He was of course expecting some great complimentary words from the master. Fool replied Ramakrishna. “You can get across the river by paying only a nickel to the boatman. If you had spent that same time and concentration on investigating who you truly are, you would now know your divine birthright.” For one who knows there is no creating – why would he bother to manipulate the creating? There are some schools of thinkers who have established that death is the end of everything and there is nothing beyond it. There are others who accept, argue and heartily proclaim that there is existence even beyond the grave. Most of us also show a keen interest in wanting to know what lies beyond. But only few of us apply ourselves to the practice of how to make our lives more fulfilling in the present moment. Yet, understanding our present life is much more important than trying to discover what is after death. How to experience undisturbed peace and happiness in ourselves, and how to bring this newfound peace and harmony back to the world is of vital importance to us all. Nevertheless, in this modern era, where people consider themselves to be highly intellectual, there is great curiosity and preoccupation to know what lies beyond the death experience. This shows that what we cannot see or experience has significantly greater attraction for us. Before entering into the subject, we should first analyse the following questions. What is life? What is death? And who dies? Q: What is life? A: From the point of view of the materialist, life is an illogical and meaningless procession from birth to death. One who is constantly engaged in the pursuit of earning, procuring and hoarding material wealth cannot have the required subtlety of mind to inquire into the possibilities of the hereafter. As long as the mind and intellect are drowned in the base values of life, which are built upon thoughtless conclusions and instinctive identification with one's body, one will not easily entertain the urge to go beyond the shackles of mortal limitations. The materialistic person seems convinced that there is nothing after death, and firmly believes that death is the and, as no one has ever come back to talk about it. But for spiritual students, life is a continuous process with a great purpose, a glorious pattern, and full of meaning. They understand that the life which they are living today is an effect, and since every effect must have a cause, their lives must have their independent causes, even though they may not be visible today. Spiritual life is a continuous attempt to live a divine life. Thus, the spiritual student tries to live up to certain higher values, such as tolerance, love, kindness and mercy. Q: What is death? A: Viewed from a scientific perspective, a person is considered to be alive when he is able to respond to certain stimuli that he receives through the sense organs. When an organism or individual stops responding to the stimuli, we say he/she is dead. Now let us analyse this, please. Who exactly is dead? We see that the body is still there; no part of it has gone away. The same body is lying there which was there before death. Yet, when we say Mr. X has died, what we really mean is that the mind and intellect which were receiving and responding to the outer stimuli have left the body. [The mind and intellect are expressions of thoughts in two different functions: feeling (mind) and thinking (intellect).] Hence, we conclude that Mr. X, the person who called himself 'I' or 'me', is other than the body. Though the physical body is still there, the mind and intellect have left it. This physical body is composed of the five great elements: space, air, fire, water and earth. It is the nature of the body to merge with the same five elements when it is dead, meaning, when the mind and intellect have left it. Therefore, I must conclude that I am the possessor or the indweller of the body. The body is just like a tenement for which I pay rent in the form of food, three or four times a day. If I forget to pay the rent you can imagine what a tragedy I will have to meet with! Similarly, this' dwelling' is but an instrument through which I express myself in this world, just like my car. If my car is destroyed, why should I think that I am destroyed? I am not the car. I am only the owner of the car. In the same way, if the body is destroyed, I am not destroyed. I am other than the body. My senses are only those instruments through which I receive stimuli from the outer world. Therefore, it is the mind and intellect which is the real individuality of a person. When we say we must develop the personality, we denote that the mind and intellect are to be developed. A truly cultured or civilized person is one who has a sharp and integrated mind and intellect. Due to our unintelligent ways of thinking, however, we do not look beyond the body. Q: What is the difference between life and death? Matter activated by Consciousness is a living body. if Consciousness is not activated in a dead body, what happens to that Consciousness? Is it all-pervading? But if Consciousness is not present in a dead body, how can we say it is all pervading? A: Consciousness reflected in the mind and intellect (subtle body) is the consciousness of things. When the mind and intellect leave without the subtle body, the physical body must perish. But actually we have not perished, for we are something other than the body. Q: Why do we after death? A: Whatever be the span of life allotted, there is death lurking at the end of it all. Death is equally painful whether it be today or a thousand years from now. Everything that one has gathered, for which one has worked many hours each day, three hundred and sixty-five days of the year-the house, wife, children, name and fame-he must leave one day. Because we lack the correct knowledge of our real nature, we unintelligently create wrong relationships with the objects of the world. These relationships are called attachments. But suppose there had been no death and only birth. What a tragedy! There would have been no more space available on the earth. An increase of only a few million people creates a headache for the government. Whether we like it or not, it is the benevolent law of nature that brings death. When we agree that death must come, why should we fear it? We fear death because of our identification with the gross body and of gathering the qualities of the body on our Self. Our identification with the 'body is so strong that we apprehend destruction of ourselves whenever we think of the death of the body. Now the question is: can the mind and intellect remain without the body? Let us take the example of the relationship of the bullet and the gun. A bullet or a gun alone cannot frighten or kill us because by themselves they do not have any power. But when the bullet is in the gun, it certainly can frighten us. And when fired from the gun it can bring death. A bullet can only travel in the direction in which the gun is pointed. As long as the bullet is in the gun, the gun has control as to which direction the bullet will travel. Once the bullet is shot or has left the gun, the gun has no control over it. Similarly, while our mind is in the body we have control over the mind. But once the mind and intellect have left the body, the body has no control over them. The mind will be shot in the direction decided by the sum total of our thoughts and activities in our entire lifetime. Q: Why should we not indulge in the objects of the world during our lifetime, and contemplate the Lord only at the time of death? A: This proves impossible, for how can we think of God in our final hours after focusing a lifetime of thoughts on the external world? It is therefore suggested that we should begin to contemplate God right here and now, for it is not certain when death will come. It is necessary for us to think of the Lord at the time of death because these thoughts provide us with a certain atmosphere and a proper vehicle to accomplish our voyage to perfection. Therefore, to the intelligent person, death is not painful, but a new experience. If a candle is burned, nothing is lost. There is only a change in name and form. Similarly, nothing is lost in death to the person of wisdom. For him it is but a change of body, place and time. Q: Is there an interval between the departure from one body and entry into another? A: This can be explained by the following example. When an officer is transferred from one city to another, say from Bombay to Delhi, he must first give up his charge and leave Bombay and then reach Delhi in order to take up his new appointment. He has handed over his duties at Bombay and is on his way to Delhi. If he is asked on the way if he is an officer, he will certainly confirm that, but when he is asked if he is an officer of Bombay or Delhi, he cannot answer, for, at that moment, he is neither in Bombay nor in Delhi. Yet he is still the officer inasmuch as he is also getting paid for the interim period. Therefore, the interval can be called the joining time. Similarly, when the subtle body leaves a given physical body in order to assume a new one, there must be an interval between the two events. The duration of this interval depends upon the relationship that you have with the body that you are shedding and the urgency you feel for the next embodiment. Q: Can we contact the dead? A: In our scriptures it is said that we can contact the dead, but the Rishis strongly advise against it. They say that by calling our loved ones back here, we are perhaps asking them to come down into a lower world. If, at that time, our loved ones are at higher realms of experience, we stop their pilgrimage by calling them down, and instead of sending their blessings they will curse us. In this world also, no one wants to come down from a higher t~ a lower state. If one is forced to come down from a higher state he will be cursing those responsible for his fall. Similarly, why should the spirits respond to our call when they are in a higher realm? They do so because they are overpowered by their love and attachment for us. Some spirits, however, refuse to come down because they are not overpowered; thus they continue their pilgrimage to a higher plane. We can observe similar incidents rights here on earth as certain parents sacrifice their own principles in order to make their children happier. Say a young man wants to marry a particular grief, but his parents do not like the match. If, after much persuasion, the son still wants to marry the girl, the parents, though not happy, will sacrifice their happiness in preference to that of their son. This is because of their attachment to him. Therefore, by calling the spirit of a dead person, we are not going to do any good for our dear ones. If we are not able to do something good for them, at least we should not harm them. It is now left to each individual to think these ideas over and act intelligently. Question: Swamiji, is it necessary to believe in reincarnation? Swamiji: First, reincarnation is not a belief; it is an assumption of Hinduism. Religion must be supported by a philosophy, which logically explains what I see and experience around me and its relationship to the Higher Reality. It is not necessary to accept the theory, but how else can you explain the differences, the injustices, you see in the world. If the explanation for one man being born as a leper’s leprous son and another as a king’s kingly son be the free-will of God, then God becomes a power-mad, lusty, partial Lord who blesses and curses according to his eccentric whims and fancies. This is against the observed rhythm and order that exists in all of nature. Question: So reincarnation is a theory to explain why one man is born a king and another a beggar. Swamiji: Yes. Man is a rational being who inevitably seeks a cause in every effect, and expects an effect from every cause. When man sees about him types, modes, kinds, and classes without number and observed that the experience of life as lived by two individual organisms is never the same, he naturally seeks a reason for the diversity. A Buddha, a Rama, a Ravana, all had their own individual experiences of life, even though they were all sons of their respective royal fathers. Thus to every given set of external circumstances, each entity reacts differently and each undergoes his unique experience. When the disparities in life do not arise from any visible cause, they must be the effect of some invisible past cause or causes. Thus we arrive at the theory of reincarnation. If actions performed in the past bear fruit in the present as experiences, then we can conclude that we must have had embodiments in the past also. Question: Why don’t we remember any of our past lives? Swamiji: Luckily, through the infinite mercy of God, nature has put a veil on the details of the past. Now, I ask you question: what did you have for lunch last Saturday at noon? Question: It must have been some vegetables and rice because that is what I always eat, but I don’t remember precisely. Swamiji: So you didn’t bother to remember? So when we eat, at that time we enjoy the food. Afterwards we forget because we have better things to do in life than to remember what we ate last week. You are that product of all that you have eaten, but, fortunately, the details are not available. In the same way, we don’t remember all our previous births. Thank God that we cannot remember! One wife with the present children is enough of a problem! Can you imagine having the concern of 1,000 wives and 10,000 Children? Although you do not remember all the thoughts and experiences you had in the last birth, the subtle impressions they left are still with you. They have, in fact, provided a motivation or a driving force for another manifestation, another birth as a human. So you are product of all your past experiences; it cannot be otherwise. It is not by accident that you are what you are and I am what I am. We are all products of our won past. We Hindus believe in the reincarnation theory to explain these differences. But you do not have to extend the cause and effect pattern back to past lives. You can just look for the pattern in your present life, that’s enough. Question: I am unhappy with my job because I have discovered that my boss is corrupt. He is requiring that I mislead some clients. Swamiji: Walk out! Question: But I have to think of my family. Jobs are difficult to find these days. Swamiji: If you have to work in this environment for the sake of your family, surrender all to the Lord. You follow the boss’s exact instructions only. Carry out the tasks assigned to you exactly as he instructed, then mentally drop it. Don’t worry about it or talk about it. If you were really an honest person, you would not have been the one asked to do something dishonest. Corrupt, dishonest people quake in the presence of honesty. If you had been totally honest, the boss would not had had the guts to ask you to do something dishonest. Goodness has a positive beauty about it. Remember, it was your won past impressions that brought you to this situation. Now you have an opportunity to improve you attitude. All is for Him alone, good or bad. Q: Swamiji, what do you consider the purpose of religion? Swamiji: A mature man who has lived his experiences intelligently and has maintained an alert, critical attention upon the incidents of life will come to such an inner maturity that he will feel certain unrest. Hehas the necessities of life, but no complete satisfaction. He sits back and listens to muffled questions from within. “Where did I come from?” “Where will I go (as one day I must)?” “Is life an empty and meaningless accident?” “Has life a purpose?” Religion is for this man; it provides assurance and guidance in his endeavor to answer these inner questions. Q: You make religion sound so positive. But so many injustices and wars have occurred in the name of religion that the mature, intelligent, critical person is rejecting it. Swamiji: It is true that villainy, cruelty, ambitious, madness, and even wars have repeatedly reached the arena of life clothed in the cloak of glorious religion. Even today it is a regrettable fashion to go mad in the fury of war and loot, kill, plunder, rape, and dishonor ourselves in the name of religion. Thus religion has come to signify a danger signal to the peace loving and honorable. But this is not religion. What prompts these fanatics to draw out their weapons and murder the weak and the helpless is not their faith in religion, but their own base and low animalism, disguised in the pious robes of religion. Q: What you say is true, but what about those who are working in church organizations, yet never seem spiritual; that is, they lack the qualities of love and compassion. Actually they are rather narrow-minded. Swamiji: Remember I said religion is for the mature person who has conscientiously lived and examined the experiences of life. Of course, the majority never question the why of the sorrows of the body and the torments of the mind. They just hurriedly discover a new set of excitements and a fresh pattern of distractions to engage the formalistic religions-visit churches, give to charitable causes, or even build a temple. They will even run to their pews on Sunday or go to the temple for daily prayers. But all of these are only a variety of distractions to keep the mind from looking at itself, thereby escaping from its unhappiness. Q: You have referred to religion as a philosophy which gives the answers to life, yet even in India the majority of the people who call themselves Hindus do not know the Vedantic philosophy. Swamiji: Yes, that is true. Hinduism has in its vast amphitheater preserved and worshiped many ideals as contained in the Puranas [epics], the numerous scriptures including the Vedas, and the 1,001interpretations of these scriptures. All of this overgrowth has so effectively concealed the real beauty and grandeur of the tiny Temple of Truth that today it is hidden behind its own banners. A true religion has two important limbs: the ritualistic injunctions and the philosophical support. Most of us generally accept the former as religion. But the rituals and formalities are mere superstitions without philosophy; philosophy reinforces the external practices of the formalities and blesses them with a purpose and an aim; yet philosophy without any actual practice is madness. Ritual and reason must go hand and hand. Religion promises no magical change in the nature of the objects or in the pattern of their various arrangements. The world will remain the same and circumstances will continue to function according to the Eternal Law, whether or not on has spiritual insight. Religion only lends the faithful a psychological balance and spiritual poise to enable them to face the inevitable vicissitudes of life. Q: Then a person who condemns other religions cannot have a true spiritual insight. Swamiji: No. ALL religions have the same goal. Once the individual realizes this goal he can never ridicule others no fanatically proclaim that his is the only way. Humility, not fanaticism, is the character of one who has realized the Truth. We are all One; there is one God. Q: How does one acquire the faith that you mentioned? Swamiji: Faith springs from understanding. It is conviction that grows from understanding. Therefore, one develops it by study of the scriptures and reflection on the ideas given there. As the conviction grows, desire to experience the highest state grows. Q: Is faith really necessary? Swamiji: Yes, just as it is necessary for any endeavor in the world. You must have faith that the work you are now doing will bring results in the future-at least the paycheck. But faith is already in everyone; even Ravana had faith in his power to gain glory for himself. So having faith in the Lord; you gain the Lord. It cannot be a vague, wandering faith, but a true intellectual understanding of the goal to be reached. Action by itself is beyond good and bad. It is the attitude and the intentions with which we act that really matter. Actions that do not cause regret in us and help us to integrate our personality are considered good actions-punya. Those that leave a sense of guilt or regret in our bosom, that weigh heavily on our conscience and disintegrate our personality are considered sinful actions-papa. The ancient seers classified these constructive and destructive actions as karmas and vikarmas, respectively. Karmas are all actions that are enjoined in the scriptures, that are noble, and that should be pursued as our dignified duty in life. The constructive activities are of three kinds: nitya karmas, daily duties; naimittika karmas, special duties prescribed for certain occasions; and kamya karmas, purposeful and self-determined work done for attaining a desirable result. Vikarma refers to those actions that are destructive and therefore forbidden by the Vedic scriptures. These actions, called nisidha karmas, spring from our lower urges and demean our evolutionary status and cultural dignity. They are self-insulting actions, prompted by our ego and its passions. In addition to karma and vikarma, a third category exists: akarma, or inaction. The scriptures explain that men of realization live in this state, having risen above identification with the body, mind and intellect and thus above the notion of action, whether good or bad. Seekers, in their over-zealousness, often make the error of attempting to adopt inaction as a path. In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna entreats Lord Krishna to allow him to pursue the path of inaction. Lord Krishna vehemently rejects inactivity (akarma) and states: 'Perform your bounden duty, for action is superior to inaction. Even the maintenance of the body would not be possible for you by inaction' (III:8). To sit back physically retired is not the way to reach any goal, much less the state of Perfection. If physical retirement is not accompanied by an equal amount of mental withdrawal from the world of desires, the spiritual future of that seeker is sure to be bleak and dreary, tarnished by mental repressions. The Vedantic scriptures, though describing a goal of 'inaction', insist that we perform actions that are obligatory to our present social status, to our domestic situation, and to the members of our community and the nation. Not to perform diligently all our duties would be inaction. Inactivity brings about the destruction of not only the nation, the society, and the home but of the individual himself, as he becomes victimized by his own idleness and suffers intellectual and psychological deterioration. Even a healthy bodily existence is not possible for one who lives in complete inertia and inactivity. Thus, a life of dynamic action is always superior to a passive life of slothful inaction. Waste not your time. Never run away from material or personal problems. Sometimes they may attack in hosts, and you may feel incapable of coping with them. Never mind. With faith in yourself and in your ideal, act diligently. A new force, a fresh stream, of strength will reach you as though from above, and you will find at the end of the play, | ||||||