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| Chinmaya for YOUth |  |
Personally, I am no advocate of violence. But violence, too, has its rightful place in life, life does not preclude death. The average Indian has been moulded into a particular national mentality of quixotic tolerance. His attitude is shaped into its distinct pattern by the ideologies and moralities preached in our national literature. And no single work in our classics has gained such a wide influence on our people as the Bhagawad Gita: and in, this century, no other single message had such a universal appeal to our countrymen as the single line, "Ahimsa Paramo Dharmah" -- "Non - Violence is the greatest Dharma." This line in its over - emphasis, has sapped both initiative and energy in our millions, and, instead of making us all irresistible moral giants, we have been reduced to poltroons and cowards. And banking on this cowardly resignation of the majority, a handful of fanatics have been perpetrating crimes which even the most barbarous cave dwellers would have avenged. To clothe our weaknesses, we attribute to them glorious names and purposefully persuade ourselves to believe that they are brilliant ideologists ! Let us for a moment go to the original sacred verse and investigate the significances of the moral precept: Ahimsa Paramo Dharmah. This is the opening line of a stanza, and the very next line reads: Dharma himsaa tathaiva cha. "So too is all righteous violence." Indeed, non - violence is the supreme policy to be adopted by man to foster enduring peace in the world; but there are certain dire moments in the life of individuals, as of nations, when we will have to meet force with force in order that justice be done. To every individual his mother, wife and children are the nearest dependents and to guard their honour and life is the unavoidable first moral duty of each head of the family. This is an obligation whether the victim be a member of the majority or of the minority class within a country, province or city. By the over - emphasis laid on non - violence we have come to witness the pathetic situation of today, when thousands, in cowardly fear take to precipitate flight, leaving their innocent children to be butchered and their unarmed helpless women to be dishonoured or converted or killed. Under the cloak of glorified non - violence, an entire nation of cowards fly from their homes, when a small sect of fanatic barbarians boldly stalk in and out of their open undefended thresholds to kill, to rape, and to loot. When will we learn to fully interpret our Vedas, scriptures and Upanishads. If only we all learn that dharma - himsa is equally noble as ahimsa. To me it seems that the only solution for the day's internal chaos is to bring home to the people the significance of the much neglected teaching of dharma - himsa. As it is, a misled and over - excited minority in the country has the sole monopoly of violence; and non - violence is a dangerous folly. However ideal a moral precept may be, so long as, in a society, innocent children, helpless women and defenceless old are left to be butchered dishonoured and tortured, while the youth of the land is made to watch impassionately the hellish scene, we are to conclude that either the idea is a dangerous one, or that we have not rightly understood the full meaning of the precept. Under the present available scheme of chaos in this country, when under the planned instigation of a few power blind, reckless men, a minority community is rendered into a murderous gang of fanatics, it is the duty of the majority to win back the erring thousands. The cure depends upon the disease; the potency of the medicine is decided upon the virulence of the illness. Today when looting, arson and rape are the dharma of a few, it is rank cowardice for the many to suffer the tyranny of the unprovoked violence in meek submission. In the battlefield, when violence is rampant, it is the dharma of everyone to meet that maniacal violence with determined, restrained, violence not only in self - defence but also to convince the aggressive vicious few that 'it rarely pays to be violent.'
Back to Top(First talk by H H Swami Chinmayananda December 23, 1951) A Hindu swami to talk. A Hindu temple for the background. A crowded hall of Hindus audience, and the subject for discussion: “Let us be Hindus.” Strange! It sounds like a ridiculous paradox and a meaningless contradiction. I can very well see that you are surprised at the audacity of this sadhu. It has become a new fashion with the educated Hindu to turn up his nose and sneer in contempt at the very mention of his religion in any discussion. Personally I too belong in my sympathies to these critics of our religion. But when this thoughtless team begins to declare we would benefit ourselves socially and nationally by running away from our sacred religion, I pause to reconsider my own stand. At the present state of moral, ethical, and cultural degradation in our country, to totally dispose of religion would be making our dash to ruin the quicker. However decadent our religion may be, it is far better than having none at all. My proposal is that the wise thing would be for us to try and bring about a renaissance of Hinduism so that under its greatness-proved through many centuries-we may come to grow in to the very heights of culture and civilization that was our in the historical past. No doubt, in India Hinduism has come to mean nothing more than bundle of sacred superstitions, or a certain way of dressing, cooking, eating, talking and so on. Our gods have fallen to the mortal level of administration officers at whose alters the faithful Hindu might pray and get special permits of the things he desires; that is, if he pays the required fee to the priest! This degradation is not the product of any accidental and sudden historical upheaval. For two hundred years Hinduism has remained an encouragement of the rich. Once upon a time, the learned philosophers were rightly the advisers of the state. But then the quality of the adviser-class [Bhramin] and the ruler-class [Kshatriya] deteriorated. By slowly putrefying themselves in the leprous warmth of luxury and power, the have taken us to the regrettable stage in which we find ourselves now. The general cry of the educated class is really against this un-religion. However, it is only the thoughtless, uninformed leaders who call this Hinduism. Certainly, is Hinduism can breed for us only heartless lalas [shopkeepers], corrupt babus [clerks], cowardly men, loveless masters, faithless servants; if Hinduism can give us only a state of social living in which each man is put against his brother; if Hinduism can give us only starvation, nakedness, and destitution; if Hinduism can encourage us only to plunder, to loot, and to steal; if Hinduism can preach to us only intolerance, fanaticism, hardheartedness, and cruelty; then I too cry, “Down, Down” with that Hinduism. And yet the above is a realistic picture of the sad condition and plight into which the Hindu people as a nation have allowed themselves to fall. This is the tragic picture of the great Hindu disaster in present-day India. But Hinduism is not this external show that we have learned to parade about in our daily life. Hinduism is a science of perfection. There is in it an answer to every individual, social, national, or international problem. But unfortunately the religion, which we have come to follow blindly, is not the grand true Hinduism. It is only the treacherous scheme thrust upon us sometime in the past by the selfish, arrogant; power mad priest caste whose intention was to make us slaves of their plans and our own passions. The present day Hindu ignoramuses prove the tragic success of these religious saboteurs. With their guidance we overlook the fundamental tenets in sacred scriptures that are the very backbone of Hinduism. True Hinduism is the Sanatana Dharma [Eternal Truth] of the Upanishads. The Upanishads declare in unmistakable terms that in reality, man-at the peak of his achievement- is God himself. He is advised to live his day to day experiences in life in such a systematic and scientific way that, hour by hour, consciously cleansing himself of all the encrustation of imperfections that have gathered to conceal the beauty and divinity of the true eternal personality in him. The methods by which an individual can consciously purify and evolve by his self-effort to regain the status of his True Nature are the content of Hinduism. Hinduism in its vast amphitheater has preserved and worshiped, under the camouflage of the heavy descriptions contained in the Puranas, shastras [scriptures], and their commentaries of thousand different interpretations. This overgrowth has so effectively come to conceal that real beauty and grandeur of the tiny Temple of Truth that today the college-educated illiterates, in their ignorance of the language and style of the ancient Sanskrit writers, miss the Temple amidst its own festoons! To inquire into the very textbooks of our religion with a view to knowing what Hinduism has to teach and how its message can be used to serve us as we face the problems of our daily life is the aim of the One Hundred Day’s Upanishad Jnana Yagna, which is now proposed to commence on December 31, 1951, here in Poona. Religion becomes dead and ineffectual if the seekers are not ready to live its ideals. For that matter is there any philosophy-political, social, or cultural-which can take us to its promised land of success, without our following its principles in our day-to-day living? However great our culture might have been in the past, that dead glory, reported in the pages of history books, is not going to help us in our present trails. If the barbarous cavemen of the unexplored jungles want to become as civilized as the men of modern nations, they cannot achieve this total revolution through mere discourses, or even through an exhaustive study of the literature describing the ways of modern civilized nations. They will have to know and then live the civilized values of life. A mere knowledge of it will not help them. They can claim the blessing of their knowledge only if they are ready to live what they know. In order to live as civilized men, they will have to renounce completely their ways of uncivilized thinking and acting. In fact without renunciation no progress is ever possible. We must renounce the thrills of our childhood games in order to grow to be young men of noble actions. Again, unless we renounce our youthful spirit, we cannot come to the reverence of old age. Unless we are ready to renounce the low animal values of material life and replace them with the noble values of the truly religious life, we cannot hope to gain the blessings of religion. A study of a cookbook, however thorough it might be will not satisfy our hunger. No matter how long we may meditate upon and repeat the name of a medicine, we cannot get the cure we need until we actually take the medicine. Similarly, the blessings of religion can be ours only when we are ready to live the recommended values. To condemn unpracticed religion is as meaningless as those cavemen sitting around their open fire and querulously decrying advanced civilization. During these on hundred days of the Upanishad Jnana Yagna, we shall be trying to discover the eternal happiness and bliss that is the succulent essence of all true religions. In the light of the principle of Truth declared in the Upanishads, we shall be trying to get at the scientific significance of the various practices that are considered part of our religion. In a spirit of communal living for these one hundred days we shall come to discover the Science of Perfection, the true essence of Hinduism. Let us know what Hinduism is! Let us take an honest oath for ourselves, not only for our own sake, but for the sake of the entire world: That we shall, when once we are convinced of the validity of the Eternal Truth, try honestly to live as consistently as possible the values advocated by this ancient and sacred religion. Let us be Hindus, and thus build up a true Hindustan [home of the Hindu] people with thousands of Shankara, hundreds of Buddhas, and dozens of Vivekanandas!
OM OM OM Back to TopAddress by Pujya Gurudev to UN on December 2, 1992 This talk was given by H.H. Swami Chinmayananda, world renowned authority on the scriptures of India. It was recorded live on December 2, 1992 at the United Nations by Source Productions. In a vivid and humorous style, he not only eloquently defines the current problems facing us today, but also offers practical long-term solutions for the individual, the community and the world at large. PROBLEMS FACING US TODAY Why is it that we are not able to find a solution to all the problems in the world? What is it we do not have? Organizations like the United Nations have never before in world history, joined together for the purpose of bringing peace to the world. Technology has brought about global communication. Knowledge and science have developed tremendously. We are not in the caveman's state of utter ignorance and development. We have conquered the world and outer space, yet with all these achievements, people are suffering and unhappy. There are problems after problems. Never before has the world been in this condition. Take the map of the world, close your eyes and put your finger anywhere you like. Is not that area disturbed, having mutual killing and famine? If food reaches there, they do not want to distribute it. Think of it? Then the army comes. But is the army the answer? Is providing food for the hungry the solution? Think, what is the solution? For years you have been struggling in this great Institution. But what is the sum total of your results? You have tried politics, changed the constitutions and changed sonic laws. What is it that you have not done? Diplomacy? It is all right to say that we have progressed. What is this progress? Progressed to what? Progress in the arrangement of the outer world? Expecting from this a great individual satisfaction and fulfillment? This is what we have expected. Did we get it? When we look back in history, was not the caveman much happier? We have everything. Better housing, better clothing and food . Yet with the luxurious plenty of the outer world, you and I sit on cushions and weep. It does not matter if you are rich or poor, powerful or powerless. No community or race is happy. In fact no part of the world seems to be happy. Why? Why? We never ask this question! All we do is find out what the problem is. Then they find out how to mitigate it and cure it for the time being. But we do not inquire into the fundamental source of all these disturbances. It is something like a doctor who does not know the diagnosis and starts treating the various complications he has seen and observed. If it is a fever, he gives him medicine for a fever. If he has a sore throat, treats him for that, etc. But what is the source from which all these diseases are coming? He is not able to understand it. Therefore he starts treating according to what he knows. Are we not doing that? Millions have been doing it. Due to technological knowledge and development, we have started new methods of mitigating the sufferings of the world. Yet have we brought about any peace and tranquillity? By the time you have solved one problem in one part of the world, ten different ones have erupted in another part of the world. How long are you going to treat the world with this same technique? We tried economics, revolutions, political changes, art and literature. We tried different religions, churches, mosques and temples. They themselves have become sources of mutual animosity. I am trying to make you realize what a sad condition we are in . Are you satisfied with the world condition? It is all right in journals and newspapers to congratulate you and me. But are we happy? When you start thinking, you must think deeper. -What is the source of these eruptions? Think! This is what Vedanta does. It is a subjective science. It is not an objective science. We do not recommend a solution for problem after problem, individual, communal , national or international. Vedanta goes into the depths and tries to find out the source of all these troubles. CHANGE As a result of this, the subjective scientists, called rishis, saints and sages, from the Vedic period onward, with one voice, they are all crying out that it is time to move on to a new realm and level of consciousness. I am saying it in one word, but I will try to explain. This is the pain of a new birth. No new birth is possible when the mother is smiling and the child is laughing and giggling. No! When both cry, it is a new birth. Is not the world in pangs of pain and agony? We refuse to move forward in a new direction. We are not able to recognize what has to be done because it is easier to follow what has been done in the past. There are periods in history when the world progresses forward and we must learn to adapt to the new conditions around us. If we are not able to adapt, Nature's Laws have no compassion. It will wipe us clean. Many birds, plants and animals have become extinct in nature because they were not able to adapt themselves to the surrounding environment. The same will be the fate if man is not smart enough, conscious or intelligent enough to understand the nature of the situation around and try to change himself and adapt himself to the new environment. Change yourself means adapt yourself to the new environment. How sad it is that Nature's Laws work to help things become extinct? Has not the Roman Empire died and disappeared? Mesopotamia is gone. All were great cultures and great people. The greatest literature and heroes lived at that time. What happened? Where did they go? Why were they wiped out? They were not able to adapt themselves. A new system was arising at that time. Don't you think we have arrived at a point where the old methods can no longer be a remedy for the sufferings of mankind? Think! Why? Because the source is something different. It is not physical, emotional or intellectual. But with these levels the objective scientists are trying to find out all the remedies Sit back and think, "Why do we have the problems of AIDS?" Why do we have various sorrows of the world, economic upsets, poverty, disease and mutual killing? MENTAL ATTITUDE No two countries can look at each other without anger. Why? When you thus analyze the cause of things, hunting for cause of effects, this is called an intellectual method of analyzing and understanding the world around us. Causation hunting is the preoccupation of the human intellect. This is how all sciences develop. Inquiring into the cause of things. Why is it we are suffering in spite of our continuous efforts? Our goal is clear. We put forth all our effort, more than we have ever done in the history of mankind. Yet by the time we have solved one problem, ten different problems arise. Why is this? What is the spring from which all these problems and sorrows arise? When we analyze it, a wondrous new truth which the ordinary materialist and scientist may not accept immediately. The outside world is an echo and a reflection of our minds. Think! One Swami is talking. You are all intelligent people listening. Can I say that all of you are understanding in the same way? It cannot be. You receive the idea and interpret it according to your own mind. He understands it with his mind. So your world outside is ordered by, governed by, controlled by your mental attitude. Haven't you heard people say that this world is a Hell? Haven't you heard people say this world is a Heaven? Successful people say that this world is wonderful. Unsuccessful people say, "I want to die." Why? It is the same situation, the same sun, moon and stars. The same atmosphere and elements. Yet one feels it is wonderful and the other is miserable. When mommy and daddy are home, the elder son thinks it is heaven. The younger son thinks, "I am waiting to become 18 years old so that I can get away from these wretched people." His parents are loving him fully and completely, yet his interpretation is that he is in Hell. These undisciplined mental disturbances prompt us to live on instincts and impulses of the mind. They are utterly selfish, heartlessly desiring everything in the exterior world, wanting to acquire, possess, embrace, indulge and enjoy. They are like any cattle and we live only at the mental level at this moment. All of us have intelligence to analyze and realize that what I am doing is wrong, but you do not have the strength to live up to it. There is no one who does not know that he is immoral, drinking is bad, smoking is ruinous. And yet we ask them, "Why are you drinking?" It is not that I don't know it. I know it, but I can't give it up. Everyone! Cheating, telling a lie, becoming angry, cruel and criminal in nature. It is not that you do not know it is wrong. But you say, "I am sorry, I cannot be away from it. I am compelled to do things." Think! Now friends, each individual is a unit in this universe. All individuals put together is called a community, nation or world. Apart from the individuals, there is no world. Without distinction, all your minds put together is the world outside. If the majority of the minds are egocentric, utterly selfish, arrogant, vulgar, without character, that society, that community will be of the same character. That nation is no nation, it is only a country where a population lives. There is no integrity between themselves and no understanding internationally. . . Through individual perfection alone can world perfection be aspired. In all world scriptures, this is the conclusion of our great thinkers of the past. I am not talking about Vedanta or Indian textbooks. Is not the Bible saying the same? Is not the Koran saying the same? The Dhammapada of the Buddhists saying the same? Every great Master who has given thought to it has understood that the cause for the sorrows of the world, is the imperfection and disturbances of your own mind. ECOLOGY Ecology has been a new science for the past fourteen years. Suddenly they have realized that the world is Divine. You have to look after it and not reject it disrespectfully. Your greed should not destroy the world. Your plundering in the world outside must stop. You must reverence and respect nature. Ohhhhh, in only fourteen years?! In the Vedic period, Purushasookta, the Great Chant expresses that the whole universe of things and beings is One Divine Person, One Divine living organism. Not a dead carcass. It is pulsating and living, revere it and love it. There is no limit. The sky is the limit that nature can supply you. Environmental peace and quietude is the right field for us to function, strive, achieve and aspire to. But this environment is all broken down. Think! Recently the government of India decided to clean the Ganges. A lot of money was spent cleaning the river. Do you know that every river is clean at all times. You and I sitting on the banks of the river are dirtying it. The dirtying is not stopped, but we are purifying the river. Stop dirtying and poisoning it and the river will purify itself. Why? Fresh waters are coming in. It pushes out all the poisonous matter and the river becomes pure. We are the ones who made it poisonous and dirty. Whether it is environmental or political disturbances, or economical thralldom all these rise from endless greed and negative tendencies of the human mind, therefore life is miserable. Once two brothers were living in the same home, eating from the same table and the sister-in-law cooking the food as in India. At 2 a.m. the younger brother woke up and vomited up the food. This happened for two or three days. His wife thought that the sister-in-law poisoned the food and suggested to exchange the food plates the next day. So the younger brother exchanged plates as his elder brother looked on. He smiled and said to his younger brother, "You are still childish, what is the difference?" Again the next morning he vomited up the food. So they went to see their family doctor. This doctor suggested that he go to a dentist. After the dentist looked in his mouth, he asked him if he was still living. "Your teeth are in very bad condition with a lot of pus," he said. He x-rayed and pulled all his teeth. The dentist explained that the food was not poisoned but that he himself poisoned the food with his bad teeth. SECRET OF ACTION Even today the world is a pure divine thing. When it passes through our mind by "My terms and my experiences", we poison it with our own false thinking, false ideas and false values. Think, all living organisms are responding and reacting to the world around us. This is called Life. There is not a single moment when you are not responding and reacting to the world. These responses and reactions at the body level in the world are called "work" or "action". We are all active, dynamic people because we are alive. But your actions are totally different from another individual even when the conditions are the same. Under the same circumstances, threats or joys, the environment remains the same and each individual responds differently. Why? Responses to the world are ordered by, determined by, guided by my thoughts. It is subjective. All actions are expressions of our minds. If we smile, that is your thought. If you growl, it is your thought. If you punch his nose flat, that is a thought. Good, bad or indifferent, all actions are expressions of our minds, our thoughts. You say, "Swamiji, this is funny, it is God who gives thoughts to me and I am angry." "I have no objection when I succeed in action. Is it God that succeeded or myself that succeeded? Oh! no, no, I did it!" What are you talking about?" When you do something wrong and the police are after you, then you say that the Lord gave you this idea and I am now punished. Absurd! This is escapism. When you scientifically analyze it, the quality and quantity of thoughts that I entertain in my mind determines the very contours of my expression in the world, my behavior and responses to the world. "If that is true, Swamiji, tell me why I always have a dirty mind and thoughts? I shamelessly express it. Everyone laughs at me because I am a dirty fellow. My brother's thoughts are beautiful, his actions are perfect and everyone applauds and congratulates him. Everyone loves him. Why? My thoughts are negative and his positive. This is really a serious problem." Think of yourself. Why am I lustful, greedy, passionate, jealous and have all these negative thoughts? These thoughts create trouble for myself and sorrow to others. Other people are loving, tender, compassionate, ready to make sacrifices for others. Why these differences? If these are all thoughts and the quality of thoughts are the cause for it, now the question is, "Why do I constantly have negative thoughts? Why does my brother have good thoughts? Why?" This was a serious question and those great Subjective Masters that scientifically observed, analyzed and collected all the data, came to the conclusion that the quality and types of thoughts. that arise in you are ordered by your own intellectual convictions. If I am convinced from childhood that money is all I want. If I have money and am a billionaire, I am a happy man. All I want is money, money, money. I am introduced to Swami and shake his hand. What are his thoughts? "Can I get something from him? Has he got enough? Are there any methods to get that money?" Suppose you are constantly dreaming about women. No matter how strong in character and behavior you are, the moment you shake hands you start thinking, "Not bad". I am not joking. The quality of thoughts are determined by each individual's intellectual convictions that this is my goal. My purpose in life is the same, whether it is women or drinking. Do not all alcoholics advise you that drinking is the only way to live comfortably in life? Minus drinking, life is empty and miserable. You are not living, that is why you are not drinking. He is convinced that living means drinking. Then you say that you do not drink at all. Another man feels that power is the thing. He wants power by whatever means, fair or foul. Even if millions have to die, he must have power. It does not matter if it is political power, power in a company or in a board meeting, anywhere! VALUES Each one of us is convinced of a goal in life and every thought in him is ordered by and colored by that intellectual decision and conviction. All these thoughts are being expressed through you and me. These are called values of life. Values have become very popular in America the last few years. Value based management, value based economics, value based politics, value based family life . . . hmmm. At election time, all these things come out, afterwards they are forgotten. Value based conferences and symposiums are held at many universities. In the past several years, I have been invited to these lectures at several universities. Professors carry many books and files and embrace the knowledge outside. There is no knowledge inside. Professors speak as if they were lawyers with law books on both sides of them. They talk from morning to evening, one after another. What enormous patience the Americans have to sit and listen all day. But they are not understanding it at the end of the day. After 18 hours, how can you understand? You are tired, but they go on talking. At the end of the day, sometimes they ask me to come and say a few words. I went to the platform and said, "My learned erudite scholars, in your presence, what can I say? You have been talking the past three days on values. What is a value? Value is a price? Value means what? In order to make you believe it, I am telling you honestly that in all six universities, I was shocked. I felt that somewhere an attempt should have been made to at least define what a value is. All of them just looked at each other and said, "What a funny question you are asking. Why? Why do you want to know what a value is, it is a symposium on values." You see they are not thinking of values. A thing by itself has no value. Think of it, a piece of wood at the road side has no value. If someone takes it and carves a doll and gives it to a poor man's child, it has value. A piece of iron rusting away on the road side has no value. But let a man heat up the iron and beat it to make a vegetable knife with a wooden handle, then it has value. A thing by itself has no value. The thing plus your effort in it gives it a value. Raw material taken from the world has no value by itself. We use our technological knowledge, put effort into it and it becomes a thing that has value and use to society. You cannot get values from a symposium by merely listening or reading. After reading and listening, you have to start thinking, then you have to work on yourself to create the right values. MENTAL RENAISSANCE This can be helped to a great extent if the environment for the growing child is healthy. Children understand not by words, but by demonstration. If parents have values and are educated, their behavior must be a declaration of these higher values. Children are then living in that atmosphere. Not only parents, teachers and the school atmosphere, but the whole thing has to be changed. We have neglected it for thousands of years. The whole system of thinking in the universe has changed into a calamitous tragedy and it has created more and more problems and situations. Change! "But Swamiji, changing is difficult." I mentioned earlier that the plants that refused to change and adapt themselves became extinct. Animals that could not adapt to the environment became extinct. The great cultures and civilizations of Rome and Greece, Mesopotamia and even the Chinese, the culture is gone, almost gone. Why? They are not emphasizing the necessary discipline. There is a method, no doubt there is a totality of the method. "No Swamiji, it is not possible." OK, that job is not mine but you have to start rethinking the whole system by which we are trying to solve today's problems. Any intelligent man will say that it 's ineffectual, a waste of human effort, human lives, army fatalities and through the army, other people die. That is not the solution. You have to change the mental attitude. If the mental attitude had changed in South Africa, would so many people have died there? I am just giving an example. Whether it is Lebanon, Iraq or Iran, when there is a change of values through which quality of thoughts are purified, the actions become so beautiful and the community is healthy. I am not talking in terms of economic development, more money in the country. This is not necessary! All our saints and sages searched and attained bliss and maximum happiness. It is not true that all of them were voluntarily poor. It is a superficial observation to say that poverty is the cause for sorrows. I can also say that the sorrows are there because of the wealth of the country. Sorrows are not caused by wealth or by poverty. It is your own clinging attachment. Have higher values in life where minimum is sufficient. Jesus never had a pope's palace. He was living under a bridge. He wore a torn frock, a broken chappal (sandal) and in the daytime he and his disciples sat on the public park bench. Do you mean to say that he was not happy? Did he not contribute anything to the world? He never had a United Nations Organization, a counsel or committees. What sheer beauty of thought! Think! Friends, this mental renaissance must come. A greater awareness must come. We are being pushed towards the search for a higher state of consciousness. Just as when the fetus in the mother's womb is fully developed, does not every muscle in that loving mother push the child out? The child also wants to come out. If he does not come, a c-section is performed. In the same way, does not Nature from all sides squeeze the rich and the poor, the powerful and the powerless, whether you are a developed nation or an underdeveloping nation? A developed nation or a never developing nation, it does not matter. Is not everyone in the whole world being squeezed? Why? The pain and agony of a new birth. We have to move from materialistic prosperity and from running after objects into a better and larger awareness, a greater state of consciousness. REAWAKENING THE HUMAN SPIRIT We have to move into a process of reaching out to that greater state of consciousness. Or call it God-state consciousness, I have no objection. A larger state of consciousness. A broader shoulder to take the responsibility of the sorrows of the world upon your own shoulders. "I am the cause for the sorrows of the world". You change and the world will change. What we want is for the world to change so that "I" may be happy! This is called a materialistic point of view. We have lived this way for thousands of years. We have been struggling to beautify the world, not to beautify yourself. You are left to rot and the rotten people live in a beautiful world. We make the world rot. If pigs are brought into your living room and allowed to stay over night, what will be the condition of this room the next day? It will become a pig sty. Where pigs live, it will be dirty. People live in this world and complain that something is wrong with the world. There is nothing wrong with the world. The sun, moon, stars, plants, animals and birds have no problem with the world. The problem arises only with the intelligently stupid man. Man is not able to live up to the Laws of Nature. He does not want to have any controls put on himself and he lives as he likes. It is here where troubles come from. So then how can we bring about change? By changing the educational system! One man, one Swami cannot do it. It must be international organizations like the United Nations and others. The educational system needs changing, but when I say change, I do not mean writing new books written by rascals about the greatness of . . . Ah! Don't do this. It is not the books, it is the atmosphere. Think! It must be an atmosphere of serenity and beauty. Teach them how to enjoy beauty. Let parents take the children to museums and show them. They are genuinely born. Children are just growing and themselves do not know what beauty is. Parents must be able to point out beauty, show them the beauty of sunrise and sunset. Train them to see beauty and love. Parents must manifest that love to children. In that way an atmosphere is created. Then alone can children develop new values and a system of values in life. It cannot be done by the gun. Communists have tried it for 55 years. Now everyone has a gun. Change cannot come by the gun. Change can come by a method of slowly educating them. It is not a five year plan or a ten year plan. It is long term plan to bring back the world that has gone mad and astray. We must bring them back again to the line of right thinking and right living. It takes time. The entire system and the logical reasoning on why it should be done is elaborately given in the Vedas. That alone can satisfy modern man. Modern man is not like our grandfathers. Grandfather said that it is sufficient to pray. The Bible said it is sufficient. In Hinduism, the Ramayana and Bhagavata said that it is sufficient. No questions were asked. Today this is not sufficient. If you tell your son, "My dear, you must pray everyday," they ask "Why?" You have no answer because your father told you to pray. Children ask "What is prayer? Pray to whom? Where is God? Who is God? What is God?" You say that this is a terrible generation and you tell them to go away and drop it. This is your own ignorance. If you had only explained to him why he hould go to church. The son asked, "Mommy, you say that God is all pervading, is He not also in this house? If God is in this house, is He not in my bedroom? If He is in my bedroom, is He not also under the blanket?" You answer him that God is everywhere. He is in this house, in your bedroom and under your blanket. The son asks, "Then why should I get up and go to church? God is everywhere , so then God is within me?" When children talk this way, the mother says, "Nowadays children are terrible monsters. They talk to me as if I were....... and I cannot answer them." My dear child, is not the milk the essence of the cow? "Yes" Is not that essence everywhere in the cow? "True" When you want to get some milk, can you milk the cow's ear, nose or tail? If you milk the tail, milk will not come out. You have to go to the udder to get milk. In the same way, though God is all pervading, it is evidently more clear only in the church, mosque and temple where there is a mental atmosphere of quietude and contemplation. This atmosphere can take you to a higher state of consciousness. If you explain it in this way, will your youngster not accept it? Think! Remember, we are not able to answer them. It is not their fault. We as a generation seem to have forgotten all about it. Study your own scriptures. I am not saying you must study Vedanta only. In case your intellect is of a questioning type and would like to get more and more logic and argument of why and how, where and when of these ideas, Vedanta is an exhaustive science expounding it in a scientific way. All scriptures point out this great Truth in yourselves. There is no distinction. Any scripture can take you to the highest, but you have to work on yourself. It is a subjective science. Just because my father is a great and famous musician does not mean that he can give me music. Music is not a cup of tea you can pass around. In a good atmosphere he can teach you. But you have to sit down and practice it. Music is subjective. In the same way, spiritual unfoldment will have to be developed in each individual. But we can give our children the necessary atmosphere and information. Slowly feed them from childhood onwards to the logic behind it and once they have understood it, they are dynamically marching into the spiritual unfoldment. You will be surprised at how they take to it as a duck does to water. It is not true to say that the modern youngster is a lost soul. He is lost because of your confusion, your inability to guide him. Vedanta gives you the necessary knowledge. I am not telling you this as an idealism. I have been practicing it on the junior children, senior children and Yuva Kendra of our approximately 62 schools. In all these schools, there is an insistence upon the study of philosophy. Not philosophy in the sense of the western philosophy. Western philosophy is discussed only at the intellectual level and they do not go beyond. Children really respond beautifully. The books being prescribed and created were beneficial to many and thus we went on. I cannot give you the whole science of Vedanta in one hour. Three years ago at MIT, I was invited to a tea and was introduced to Professor Charles. They told me that Professor Charles was an authority on nuclear science. I have not studied nuclear science and wanted to know what nuclear science was about. I asked Professor Charles, "What is this nuclear science?" He looked at me from top to bottom two times and turned his whole body to the fellow on his right and went on talking to him. He looked at me like something a cat had brought in. I cannot blame him. How can he explain all his nuclear science knowledge in a short time? Similarly when you ask me to explain Vedanta in one hour at United Nations, it is not possible. But I can give you some ideas on how it can be beneficial to mankind especially in this period of time. The whole world is sorrowful and miserable. Joy and happiness is not in more money or in one more wife. The present wife turned him away and he is miserable. Now he wants the other man's wife. Why? For happiness. This is not permanent happiness. The first week may be all right, but after this you feel, "Oh Lord, I made a mistake, I have to change again." So it is my fourth and her fifth. It goes on. No, it is an understanding of the mind. An awakening in yourself, an unfoldment, a growth in ourselves to the higher. Naturally you leave these petty, paltry temptations of the toys of life and start living for a higher purpose in life. There is a great satisfaction when man lives for a higher purpose in life. There is a great satisfaction to man when he lives in this way, pursuing a higher life. Thank you very much. Back to Top
Asking him whether a temple should be built in Ayodhya is insulting him personally........ as insulting as asking one his opinion on whether one should reject one's wife, exhorted Swami Chinmayananda, in an hour - long interview granted exclusively to VANDE BHARAT MATARAM in January 1993. The late premier pedagogue of the Bhagavad Gita was occasionally irascible, particularly when a reference was made to the obduracy on the part of the Congress government as well as the Muslim leadership about Ayodhya. No mincing of words, no hiding of views............ an honest and frank Swamiji candidly answered wide - ranging questions on Ayodhya, secularism, etc........... in a conversation with Ram Madhav, Editorial - In - Charge, Vande Bharat Mataram. Swamiji : We waited for 45 years. After 45 years of waiting we want to start now. Till now we thought that our own government will do it. But they are not doing anything. 45 years we waited. We don't want to give them a complete half a century. Vande : Can you please substantiate your allegation against the government? In what way are they...........? Swamiji : In their misconception of secularism. To them, secularism means supporting the minority. That too, on the basis of religion. They say that they are secular. Nowhere in any dictionary is the name secularism given as supporting one religion or the other. The Government should be above religion. To divide the country on the basis of religion is absurd. Vande : But is it not the responsibility of the government to protect the interests and promote the welfare of the minorities? Vande : There are several other such structures in this country. Do you advocate the same treatment to them also? Swamiji : We started with one. There are so many corrupt people. But we collect one or two and then bang them. Hang them if necessary, as an example for others. Similarly, first let us have this Ram Temple. Afterwards, there are two more monuments which are built upon our Krishna's birth place and Kashi Vishwanath. Vande : There is an allegation that a particular political party is exploiting the Ayodhya issue for political gains. Swamiji : The British were also saying the same thing that the Congress was exploiting. It is natural to say so. That party is not exploiting. They are supporting the public. If the public is not supporting the cause, how can they exploit ? If the government is intelligent and diplomatic, they should immediately see that they take it, instead of allowing the BJP to do it. They will not do it, because inside it there is a lot of gadbad (trouble). There is no discipline. So, the BJP is doing nothing wrong. Vande : Some saints have termed our Constitution as "anti - Hindu". Do you subscribe to that opinion? Swamiji : I don't. But if the masses feel insecure under the present Constitution, they have got every right to demand for a change in the Constitution. The Constitution is not "Vedavakku"(divine utterance). Under certain circumstances, 45 years ago, some intelligent people sat together with the data available at that time. They prepared the Constitution. We have amended it 82 times. Instead of cutting and rejoining it the 83rd time, we throw the whole lot away and make another one. What is there? Changing the Constitution is the wish and will of the people. If the majority wants it, they have to do it. Vande : You are opposing the Constitution providing a special status to the minorities on the basis of religion. Do you support the Mandal Commission Report which confers some special privileges to a section of people on the basis of caste? Have we tried to make our Indian educated people conscious of their past during the last 45 years of independence? Have we brought about, in education or any other training, any idea of the greatness that was ours? We have never done it. We could not call ourselves Hindus or Bharatiyas. How can the integration of a country come? Back to TopAgainst the disintegration, only the youth can save the country. If one Gandhi could inspire so many at that time, our CHYK members can inspire the youth. Living a life of self confidence and self respect, proud of their country, and prepared to work to rebuild it with heads held above the clouds and hands and legs ready to sacrifices and work, that is sufficient... Now, the question is who is to bell the cat? At this moment when I look around, people are fanatical Hindus -- they cannot do anything, or they have one - sided political views -- they cannot save the country. Our simple CHYK members alone have the vision, the understanding and the readiness to make sacrifices if only they take it up. I am not asking you to do it because it is not a thing that I can ask you to do. I need not tell you that you should love your wife -- how can I give you love for your wife? You have to discover love for your wife. It is very intimate; it must spring forth from yourself. Start thinking about it what can I give to my country? Don't expect the leaders to do it. They released us from the shackles of the British and thereafter sat back to share the spoils and spoilt the whole nation. In this chaotic madness, the saner youth is our CHYK and when you start marching in the right direction with the right inspiration in yourself, you shall find a long crowd behind you..... Have a vast vision. Just look at what we have done in the last 35 years and where we have landed -- even if you realise that, it is enough. So, I want you children to rise above these limitations. See in one sweep the past, the present and the possible future. From the Himalayas to Cape Comorin, it is my country. Everyone is my brother, be he a Christian or a Muslim. In India, there are only two societies -- those who were Hindus and those who are Hindus. The Indian tradition is the Hindu Tradition because 82% of the populace are Hindus. If the Hindus rise, the country rises. The redemption of the Hindus is the redemption of the country; the strength of the Hindus is the strength of the country; the glory of the Hindus is the glory of the country . The politicians are responsible for the present state of drift and slime, but we are not going to spend time regretting it. We want to get out of it. You are responsible for the future of the country. I have said enough. The rest is for you to show in your actions. Back to TopAn orphan - he doesn’t know who his father is, or who his mother is. He has been cared for all these years in an orphanage. He comes out with nobody to support him, to call his own, nobody to love him and none to love. Such a person will try to get money somehow, by fair means or foul, just to feed himself. He will plunder, burn, shoot and kill, if necessary, to achieve this end. Why does he do so? Because he has no self - respect.On the other hand, an individual who belongs to a family, knows who his father and mother are, and who knows the tradition and the family - even when he is starving, he will not think of stealing, but rather of some constructive way of creating comfort. He may, under the pressure or the urgency of the need, come down a little, but there will always be a limit set by himself, thus far and no further. Why? Because I belong to that family, I respect my father – a kind of restraint comes upon him. The quality of your behaviour will depend upon the respect that you have got for the association, the institution to which you belong -- may be caste, creed, religion, a nation or community. For this sense of belonging, I must know who my parents are and what they have done. Do they deserve my respect? Have they made any sacrifice for me? I don’t know that, and then I am a bastard - an orphan. I don’t know my father and I have no respect for my mother. Such an individual feels lonely in the world. He has no moral values to compare whether what he is doing is morally right or wrong. Is it not true that today, when we try to solve our problems, the question of morality never comes up? Certainly, a Punjabi should get Punjab - he has the right to demand it. But look at what he does - putting bombs in ordinary buses, and that too, in Delhi, not bothering as to who dies. Is this the solution that your perverted intellect can find? This is because; our sense of belonging is not there. The Sikhs feel that the Hindus are useless. Who are the Hindus? Their own fathers and mothers. Sikhs, as a community, never came from the clouds – they are the sons and daughters of Hindu mothers, and a Hindu mother offered her son to protect Hinduism for this great movement. Think…...! These disintegrating forces are working all over the country. It is not only the Sikhs - it is absurd to say so. Disintegration is the first stage before a nation collapses. Just as the smoke rising from a building is the beginning of the entire building gutting down by fire, this is the beginning. It is not that I am forecasting. History teaches me so. Whether it is the Moghul Empire or any other empire - when they founded it, they were all together, united, integrated. After indulgence for some time, disintegration started, and that is the beginning of the end of that dynasty. That is why generally people take History because it is very easy to pass; the cause for growth and development of an empire is the same, and the cause for decay is also the same. They became more indulgent, more sensuous, more self - centered, more selfish and, therefore, neighbours who were relatively integrated, conquered them. Whether it is Greece or Rome or Egypt -- all over the world, this is the trend. At the same time, I cannot blame my youngsters for not having this love for the country, or an awareness of what is happening around. They are the products of the education that been given to them even after Independence. Even the attempts at changing the education system were all corrupt. The ministers never thought of our culture and keep them inspired by the very word – “BHARAT”. After centuries of condemning our country; we have now come to a point where we have no respect for the nation, no sense of belonging to the nation. All that we know is that the population is increasing. That is what the politicians tell us. to control population. Have they ever thought of what would happen if our neighbours, China, decided to attack us? At least we should be able to stand man to man. I am talking of a political exigency. We can’t afford to reduce our population -- don’t say you can’t feed them. We have got enough land. Even today our villages are lying empty. Only the old villagers are going to the fields, the educated ones don’t want to roll up their sleeves and do manual work. They just want a job, a cushy cushy job in an air - conditioned room. That is why everyone is running madly to get trained in computers – to get an A / C room. If everyone wants to sit in an A / C room, where is the nation? Who is to sweat for it? Without any sacrifice, can we create anything? (The above article is a talk given by Swami Chinmayananda to the youngsters of the Chinmaya Mission (Chyks)…. It is a call to each of us to get together and make a positive contribution to the nation…. WE CAN ! ……WE WILL ! !…. WE MUST ! ! !) Back to TopUnless the youth of a country is trained to live vitally the culture of the country, they will never be able to appreciate the cultures of the world. Especially, in these days when almost every educated man has become a world - trotter, it is necessary that everyone 'has a certain amount of his own cultural beauty within himself so that he may absorb the best from around him. A dry syphon cannot draw or convey; a heart that is dry of any of the higher values cannot get itself benefitted in the presence of, or in its contacts with the various civilisations of the world, and the cultural beauties in the different continents. The grown up and developed nations in the world have all cultivated consciously, and often unconsciously, under the moulding hands of History, a generation that knows and lives its own culture. When such people come in contact with others, they react healthily and absorb into them what is useful in polishing and strengthening their own cultural traits. In the relatively new nations that have recently come to their political and cultural freedom, they, the children of a slave generation, who in the past had wandered away from their own nation's traits -- in their immaturity -- when they reach the foreign shores, the glamour of light and sounds and the passing fashions in life are cheaply borrowed into their native lands, not as men who have known the world and have polished themselves, but as ugly caricature of foreign types. The Hindu nation in our country is at this moment suffering from this great malady. They go to the foreign shores not to chasten what they have, but to borrow shamelessly new tonics of thought, and clad in them, when they return back to their native towns, they are neither a foreigner nor a native. This is making the Indians a laughable crowd in the foreign countries. I have been receiving many letters from my friends enquiring why young boys and girls visiting from India bring with them not the atmosphere of India, but they suddenly get converted into the foreign ideologies. Many a foreigner I had met in the country who had reached often for pleasure, but sometimes for profit, and yet without an exception, their anxiety had always been to understand our culture and to draw from it whatever that is useful for them. They never give up what they have in them as their national traits. It is only in India we find that our own educated youths have no such firm framework to maintain in their bosom upon which they can work up and beautify their own essential national character. It is high time that we give at least a six months regular training to our young Indians in their national culture before they are allowed to leave the shores of their country. The type of boys and girls businessmen and others who reach the foreign countries have slowly undermined the world’s respect for our nation - which is mainly for the ancient and powerful spiritual culture of the land.
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