I have encountered several people who start jumping up and down when I express my interest in spirituality. What about evolution, they ask. What about mutations, DNA recombination? Where does God fit into this picture?
What is my take on evolution? I don’t really have a take on evolution. I am not here to get involved in the creationist vs. evolutionist debate. I don’t even know enough about evolution to get involved in the debate. It is an ongoing debate with lots of people having lots of interesting comments on this, and I haven’t followed the debate this far to make a valuable novel comment, or to take sides.
So where does God fit in? He fits in exactly where he always fitted. I agree with Senator John Edwards who says “I don’t think those things (evolution and God) are inconsistent.” Why should they be? If one believes that God molded us, built us up from sand or something, and instilled life in a nick of time, then sure, they are inconsistent. But I am not arguing about the way God created us. How God creates us is up to him, there is no reason why he needs to comply with our imagination. I am just stating that God created us. Let me explain.
Evolution states that different life forms changed one morphing into another, matter and energy and natural laws helping those processes. Now why couldn’t God be the cause of that? It is in fact consistent with the Indian scriptures which state that God impregnated matter with lots of living sparks, or souls (translated from jiva in Sanskrit). God interfered no further and allowed nature to take its course. He remained though as the witness, and remains even today. As Edwards says “The hand of God was in every step of what’s happened with man, and the hand of God is in every step of what happens with me, and every human being that exists on this planet”. Now which part of evolution proves this statement wrong? If we didn’t have evolution in our hands, and we wanted to disbelieve the existence of God, we could just say man appeared out of nowhere. Big Bang theory states that after a combination of gases this universe appeared. What was the cause of this combination? What was there beforehand? Something came out of nowhere, anyway. So not only does evolution not prove the non-existence of God, it does not even lead us anywhere closer to proving the non existence of God. All belief systems comply with a cause, a mysterious force that made it all happen. Why shouldn’t this force be living, why shouldn’t it be conscious? It performs processes which the best of scientists today aren’t even able to mimic, and it makes more sense for such a force to be more powerful than us, to have a higher mental faculty than us, to have far greater power than us. So why cant this force be living, breathing, creating? Loving?
Observing evolution closely, we have also noticed one thing though. Whatever nature does has a purpose, and purpose keeps us going, keeps us alive. When our body needs food, we are hungry. A man gets attracted naturally to a woman to keep generations going, and life thriving. Our natural need for things keep us going. When there is purpose to our eating, sleeping, and mating, why should there not be a purpose to life? Why should purpose end where we fail to understand it, when it is beyond our mental faculties? Why do we feel happy and sad, why do we have affections, attachments, why have we been given a marvelous mind? To maintain our bodies like animals do, to merely increase comforts to our homes the way birds do with leaves? We might as well be animals… Why do we feel empty when we get everything we want? Why have multibillionaires, who have the ultimate physical comforts find something lacking? Because we may have a purpose to fulfill, which we fail to understand and choose to deny… however, when we question the purpose of existence that is the beginning of spirituality.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Monday, March 19, 2007
Vedic vs modern science
There was a very nice comment given for a previous post by a reader, so I decided to put it up here...
"
Just want to share the following points about Vedic civilization compare to modern scientific development.
Some example (I am quoting directly from scripture which were dated around 3000 B.C.):
a) Atomic Theory“The material manifestation's ultimate particle, which is indivisible and not formed into a body, is called the “parama-anu”. It exists always as an invisible identity, even after the dissolution of all forms. The material body is but a combination of such particles, but it is misunderstood by the common man. They are the ultimate state of the manifest universe. When they stay in their own forms without forming different bodies, they are called the unlimited oneness. There are certainly different bodies in physical forms, but the particles themselves form the complete manifestation. One can estimate time by measuring the movement of the atomic combination…”Bhagavad Purana 3.11 [Calculation of Time from Atom] http://www.vedabase.net/sb/3/11/en
Remark: The idea of atom/fundamental particles was first accepted as scientific in 1803 (John Dalton)…almost 5 millennium after this scripture!
b)The world was surprise with amazement when Einstein proposes theory of relativity(TOR)-1905. But this theory is very common to any regular Vedic student. It is accepted as a matter of fact in Vedic literatures/Puranas. This is one of the reasons why Puranas are often considered myth by common public – it requires a genius like Einstein to recognize and understand such a theory.
c) Genetic scienceGenetic scientists were struggling for centuries to determine the most basic of our human origin – how our body is formed in womb.
Vedic: “The Personality of Godhead said: Under the supervision of the Supreme Lord and according to the result of his work, the living entity, the soul, is made to enter into the womb of a woman through the particle of male semen to assume a particular type of body. On the first night, the sperm and ovum mix, and on the fifth night the mixture ferments into a bubble…”Bhagavad Purana 3.31.1 [Lord Kapila's Instructions on the Movements of the Living Entities] http://www.vedabase.net/sb/3/31/en
Remark: Only in 1843-The fact that human conception occurs when the sperm enters the ovum is discovered by physician Martin Berry! and changed the way the world sees human reproduction. Before people used to believe that the male implants life into the female.
d) World map was discovered in 16th/17th centuries only. In Mahabharata how our earth looks from moon is explains – and with some intelligent interpretation it is exactly the modern map! [Sorry, can’t get the exact reference right now].
e) Definitions: Vedas also has a very precise definition. For millennium non of the definitions and models were changed...and they fit the purpose very well. However, modern science is not like that. Very often we find the previous definition is no more valid. Just last year “planet” was redefined. “Species” is defined in science with sooo many exception (remember studying about this in one of my bio module). “Living entity” is only described and not defined in science. However, all these are precisely defined in vedic science.
And there are many more things. But we can see the pattern; modern science is eventually approaching Vedic science. Modern science is still in a stage under research, whereas Vedic science is matured & conclusive. The final answer in modern science is always “under research” but not so for Vedas.
Btw, I am not against modern science. I am too a science student – and science was always my favorite. My approach is that I accept science till the extend it doesn’t contradict with Vedas. If it does, then I accept science as an approximate useful model. Factually speaking this is how science is viewed… as model within a given constrain. For example, Einstein has proven Newtons Laws to be inaccurate (in fact false), however we still study and use Newton’s Law because it is a good and useful approximation in low energy analysis. Beyond certain range Newton’s Law fails terribly. So I believe the same is true for all scientific theories/models, they apply well within certain constrain.
Non of the vedic “models” have been proven to be wrong, yet. "
- written by 'brajahari'
"
Just want to share the following points about Vedic civilization compare to modern scientific development.
Some example (I am quoting directly from scripture which were dated around 3000 B.C.):
a) Atomic Theory“The material manifestation's ultimate particle, which is indivisible and not formed into a body, is called the “parama-anu”. It exists always as an invisible identity, even after the dissolution of all forms. The material body is but a combination of such particles, but it is misunderstood by the common man. They are the ultimate state of the manifest universe. When they stay in their own forms without forming different bodies, they are called the unlimited oneness. There are certainly different bodies in physical forms, but the particles themselves form the complete manifestation. One can estimate time by measuring the movement of the atomic combination…”Bhagavad Purana 3.11 [Calculation of Time from Atom] http://www.vedabase.net/sb/3/11/en
Remark: The idea of atom/fundamental particles was first accepted as scientific in 1803 (John Dalton)…almost 5 millennium after this scripture!
b)The world was surprise with amazement when Einstein proposes theory of relativity(TOR)-1905. But this theory is very common to any regular Vedic student. It is accepted as a matter of fact in Vedic literatures/Puranas. This is one of the reasons why Puranas are often considered myth by common public – it requires a genius like Einstein to recognize and understand such a theory.
c) Genetic scienceGenetic scientists were struggling for centuries to determine the most basic of our human origin – how our body is formed in womb.
Vedic: “The Personality of Godhead said: Under the supervision of the Supreme Lord and according to the result of his work, the living entity, the soul, is made to enter into the womb of a woman through the particle of male semen to assume a particular type of body. On the first night, the sperm and ovum mix, and on the fifth night the mixture ferments into a bubble…”Bhagavad Purana 3.31.1 [Lord Kapila's Instructions on the Movements of the Living Entities] http://www.vedabase.net/sb/3/31/en
Remark: Only in 1843-The fact that human conception occurs when the sperm enters the ovum is discovered by physician Martin Berry! and changed the way the world sees human reproduction. Before people used to believe that the male implants life into the female.
d) World map was discovered in 16th/17th centuries only. In Mahabharata how our earth looks from moon is explains – and with some intelligent interpretation it is exactly the modern map! [Sorry, can’t get the exact reference right now].
e) Definitions: Vedas also has a very precise definition. For millennium non of the definitions and models were changed...and they fit the purpose very well. However, modern science is not like that. Very often we find the previous definition is no more valid. Just last year “planet” was redefined. “Species” is defined in science with sooo many exception (remember studying about this in one of my bio module). “Living entity” is only described and not defined in science. However, all these are precisely defined in vedic science.
And there are many more things. But we can see the pattern; modern science is eventually approaching Vedic science. Modern science is still in a stage under research, whereas Vedic science is matured & conclusive. The final answer in modern science is always “under research” but not so for Vedas.
Btw, I am not against modern science. I am too a science student – and science was always my favorite. My approach is that I accept science till the extend it doesn’t contradict with Vedas. If it does, then I accept science as an approximate useful model. Factually speaking this is how science is viewed… as model within a given constrain. For example, Einstein has proven Newtons Laws to be inaccurate (in fact false), however we still study and use Newton’s Law because it is a good and useful approximation in low energy analysis. Beyond certain range Newton’s Law fails terribly. So I believe the same is true for all scientific theories/models, they apply well within certain constrain.
Non of the vedic “models” have been proven to be wrong, yet. "
- written by 'brajahari'
Monday, February 26, 2007
The practicality of spirituality
Many have complained that spirituality is a weird path that goes against the workings of normal world and life, and is a bid to run away from society, wear ochre garbs, and spend the rest of your life meditating in the mountains. Others simply state that working for a tangible goal is more practical, whereas spending all your efforts on something abstract is just not normal.
Spirituality, I would like to clear these thoughts, is not really a physical change, or an external show. It is a state where you yourself are enquiring into the basic goals of life. It is rather a state of mind in a human being, who seems to be dissatisfied with the answers given by the material world, and asks, there must be something beyond all this. If there is, the person is willing to work towards it. In fact, in Bhagavad Gita, the main scripture of the Hindus, it is clearly stated that the working person who deals with the world chin up, while strictly keeping spiritual goals in mind, and adhering to tenets of religious principles is preferred to a monk who renounces everything and goes away. Work and renunciation once again, are not physical characteristics but states of the mind.
Firstly - what is spirituality? Spirituality comes from the word “spirit”; and the Indian scriptures say that our essential nature is that we are spirit souls, who were serving God. Due to our own desires to rule the world, we obtained a gross body on this earth, and go through different species where we have the false illusion that we are controlling things, but we have to get back to where we came from to be truly happy, the “Kingdom of God”. An electron is happiest in its rest state, and agitated otherwise, an infant is happiest at the hands of its mother, and cries otherwise, and we would finally be happy when we are back in this place. A far fetched hypothesis? Perhaps. Let us examine why it may be viable.
In normal life, what are the few things we have observed?
Sometimes we worry. We don’t know what is going to happen in the future. But somehow things turn out fine. Although we have the illusion that we are making things happen, things really happen on their own. We provide the input, the process takes place somehow automatically, and the output is brought back to us. Since we are so used to it, we get the idea that we may be controllers. Also people have often quoted “Life has a way of sorting itself out.” Initially things may seem bleak and there may be a dead end, but somehow everything ends up working out fine. Isn’t there an external phenomenon controlling the process? Most of the time, as is clearly seen, we live in an illusion of controlling things when we actually don’t. It is externally controlled and maintained.
Let us examine the relationship between parents and children. Toddlers and small children hold on to their mothers and naturally go to their mothers. But as they grow up, these kids become interested in many other things. As they further grow up, they want to pursue many further goals. Their parents retain their love for the children but the reciprocating amount of love is not there. Yes, the children may still be affectionate to parents, and very grateful, but their natural desire and focus lies in living their own lives, and pursuing their own goals. However, for parents, children are still all in all. Isn’t this not fair? The usual goal of the materialistic man is to live for the family, earn for the family, and make the family the sum and substratum, the basic goal of life. But your own children are not going to live their lives for you. It is not that they are bad people, it is just a natural way of things. As children you were like that, and as parents, you see your children like that. Is it practical to focus your entire attention on those who are naturally not going to reciprocate?
Money and ambition are things some people are driven by. They are completely motivated by it, and place their joys and sorrows in acquiring and losing it. I shall use my own experience as an example. As an undergraduate, there was nothing more that I wanted more than doing a PhD in US, and for about seven months in my final year of undergraduate study, every single thing that favored this goal, were things that made me happy, and everything that didn’t favor this goal were things that made me depressed. I ate, slept and dreamt this goal. Right now, beyond my expectations, I am doing a PhD with a full scholarship in the US. Am I completely satisfied? Initially I was very happy. Now, well, life goes on. I have many more goals, many other things to eat, sleep and live by. Now what is the point in being completely focused on the goal you are going to achieve, and invest all your time in a goal, when that goal is going to give you nothing but momentary emotional satisfaction?
I used to have this thought when I was about seven. We used to go on vacations, and I had a very nice time with my cousins. When I came back, I was slightly sad, and was looking forward to the next vacation. In a few days, when I got into my usual routine, this thought went away, and I went back to my usual routine. I noticed two things: firstly, the happiness and sorrow is context dependent, rather than object dependant. Time and not the vacation itself decided if I was going to be happy or sad. So, happiness does not come from objects of happiness but our reaction to them. So, to achieve happiness, can we not control our reactions? Or better still concentrate on an object that may give true happiness?
So it seems true that the normal way of life, as mentioned above does not seem to be too practical; we want happiness, but seek it in the wrong places, placing hopes on wrong objects, and living in an illusion. So what may be practical?
Suppose we are lost in a cave, and someone seems to know something about getting out, don’t we follow that person? Sure we do. Similarly, when we don’t know the way to true and eternal happiness, our scriptures claim to know the way, and seems to be right in some ways, why not follow it a bit further? And, how does one live ‘practically’ in the material life, with spiritual notions?
The idea, as once again given in the Bhagavad Gita, is very simple, make God the object of your activities, and life. I have seen this practically in many of the ISKCON devotees. They are mostly married. But the reason why they are working is not for their family, children, spouse, and so on. They are working because they are in this material world, and the nature of this world is to keep working for survival, and this is why they work. But this does not mean they are not successful. I have seen top notch lawyers, and extremely bright PhD students who are devotees. When one is emotionally detached the results of his work, he is thinking less of the consequences of his work, and can therefore concentrate more on the work alone. Giving it their best shot, and using it as an offering to God is the essence of karma yoga, as espoused in the Indian scriptures, and this is essentially what they do. Another question which has come up is how a spiritually inclined person can be married. Rather than being an abominable enemy to spiritual goals, having the right partner can actually be beneficial to spirituality. We are all imperfect people here, and marriage provides a guard against the biggest enemy of spirituality, lust. One is much more controlled when one is able to express his desires in a controlled manner with a wife, and focusing mainly on higher goals. Having children once again, is not a way of enjoying material prosperity, but is merely a way of increasing God conscious people in the world, once again a service for the Lord.
We are not perfect beings; we all have our material desires. However, focusing on the fact that spirituality is the one that can truly bring about happiness, while actually pursuing these desires in a controlled fashion would probably work very well in eventually relinquishing them. One would find out and be convinced gradually that these desires never really brought about happiness, and this would bring a higher sense of renunciation, an emotional detachment from these objects.
In this manner, one works in a practical manner to pursue goals that would bring about true happiness. Now isn’t that much more practical?
Spirituality, I would like to clear these thoughts, is not really a physical change, or an external show. It is a state where you yourself are enquiring into the basic goals of life. It is rather a state of mind in a human being, who seems to be dissatisfied with the answers given by the material world, and asks, there must be something beyond all this. If there is, the person is willing to work towards it. In fact, in Bhagavad Gita, the main scripture of the Hindus, it is clearly stated that the working person who deals with the world chin up, while strictly keeping spiritual goals in mind, and adhering to tenets of religious principles is preferred to a monk who renounces everything and goes away. Work and renunciation once again, are not physical characteristics but states of the mind.
Firstly - what is spirituality? Spirituality comes from the word “spirit”; and the Indian scriptures say that our essential nature is that we are spirit souls, who were serving God. Due to our own desires to rule the world, we obtained a gross body on this earth, and go through different species where we have the false illusion that we are controlling things, but we have to get back to where we came from to be truly happy, the “Kingdom of God”. An electron is happiest in its rest state, and agitated otherwise, an infant is happiest at the hands of its mother, and cries otherwise, and we would finally be happy when we are back in this place. A far fetched hypothesis? Perhaps. Let us examine why it may be viable.
In normal life, what are the few things we have observed?
Sometimes we worry. We don’t know what is going to happen in the future. But somehow things turn out fine. Although we have the illusion that we are making things happen, things really happen on their own. We provide the input, the process takes place somehow automatically, and the output is brought back to us. Since we are so used to it, we get the idea that we may be controllers. Also people have often quoted “Life has a way of sorting itself out.” Initially things may seem bleak and there may be a dead end, but somehow everything ends up working out fine. Isn’t there an external phenomenon controlling the process? Most of the time, as is clearly seen, we live in an illusion of controlling things when we actually don’t. It is externally controlled and maintained.
Let us examine the relationship between parents and children. Toddlers and small children hold on to their mothers and naturally go to their mothers. But as they grow up, these kids become interested in many other things. As they further grow up, they want to pursue many further goals. Their parents retain their love for the children but the reciprocating amount of love is not there. Yes, the children may still be affectionate to parents, and very grateful, but their natural desire and focus lies in living their own lives, and pursuing their own goals. However, for parents, children are still all in all. Isn’t this not fair? The usual goal of the materialistic man is to live for the family, earn for the family, and make the family the sum and substratum, the basic goal of life. But your own children are not going to live their lives for you. It is not that they are bad people, it is just a natural way of things. As children you were like that, and as parents, you see your children like that. Is it practical to focus your entire attention on those who are naturally not going to reciprocate?
Money and ambition are things some people are driven by. They are completely motivated by it, and place their joys and sorrows in acquiring and losing it. I shall use my own experience as an example. As an undergraduate, there was nothing more that I wanted more than doing a PhD in US, and for about seven months in my final year of undergraduate study, every single thing that favored this goal, were things that made me happy, and everything that didn’t favor this goal were things that made me depressed. I ate, slept and dreamt this goal. Right now, beyond my expectations, I am doing a PhD with a full scholarship in the US. Am I completely satisfied? Initially I was very happy. Now, well, life goes on. I have many more goals, many other things to eat, sleep and live by. Now what is the point in being completely focused on the goal you are going to achieve, and invest all your time in a goal, when that goal is going to give you nothing but momentary emotional satisfaction?
I used to have this thought when I was about seven. We used to go on vacations, and I had a very nice time with my cousins. When I came back, I was slightly sad, and was looking forward to the next vacation. In a few days, when I got into my usual routine, this thought went away, and I went back to my usual routine. I noticed two things: firstly, the happiness and sorrow is context dependent, rather than object dependant. Time and not the vacation itself decided if I was going to be happy or sad. So, happiness does not come from objects of happiness but our reaction to them. So, to achieve happiness, can we not control our reactions? Or better still concentrate on an object that may give true happiness?
So it seems true that the normal way of life, as mentioned above does not seem to be too practical; we want happiness, but seek it in the wrong places, placing hopes on wrong objects, and living in an illusion. So what may be practical?
Suppose we are lost in a cave, and someone seems to know something about getting out, don’t we follow that person? Sure we do. Similarly, when we don’t know the way to true and eternal happiness, our scriptures claim to know the way, and seems to be right in some ways, why not follow it a bit further? And, how does one live ‘practically’ in the material life, with spiritual notions?
The idea, as once again given in the Bhagavad Gita, is very simple, make God the object of your activities, and life. I have seen this practically in many of the ISKCON devotees. They are mostly married. But the reason why they are working is not for their family, children, spouse, and so on. They are working because they are in this material world, and the nature of this world is to keep working for survival, and this is why they work. But this does not mean they are not successful. I have seen top notch lawyers, and extremely bright PhD students who are devotees. When one is emotionally detached the results of his work, he is thinking less of the consequences of his work, and can therefore concentrate more on the work alone. Giving it their best shot, and using it as an offering to God is the essence of karma yoga, as espoused in the Indian scriptures, and this is essentially what they do. Another question which has come up is how a spiritually inclined person can be married. Rather than being an abominable enemy to spiritual goals, having the right partner can actually be beneficial to spirituality. We are all imperfect people here, and marriage provides a guard against the biggest enemy of spirituality, lust. One is much more controlled when one is able to express his desires in a controlled manner with a wife, and focusing mainly on higher goals. Having children once again, is not a way of enjoying material prosperity, but is merely a way of increasing God conscious people in the world, once again a service for the Lord.
We are not perfect beings; we all have our material desires. However, focusing on the fact that spirituality is the one that can truly bring about happiness, while actually pursuing these desires in a controlled fashion would probably work very well in eventually relinquishing them. One would find out and be convinced gradually that these desires never really brought about happiness, and this would bring a higher sense of renunciation, an emotional detachment from these objects.
In this manner, one works in a practical manner to pursue goals that would bring about true happiness. Now isn’t that much more practical?
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Spirituality and materialism cross views
Spirituality from a materialistic point of view:
fame, sex and money being goals of the material life...
"Vyasadev wrote all these scriptures... he wanted a name for himself, and had ideas, so he wrote the scriptures. And now we all remember him."
"Spirituality, reading, film-going, entertainment are all different tools with which a person develops his or her relationship with the other sex."
"God was invented by man to make money. Spirituality today is an industry."
Materialism from a spiritual point of view:
keeping God and God consciousness in every sphere of daily life.
"When one is emotionally detached the results of his work, he is thinking less of the consequences of his work, and can therefore concentrate more on the work alone. Giving it their best shot, and using it as an offering to God is the essence of karma yoga, as espoused in the Indian scriptures, and this is essentially what they do."
"Another question which has come up is how a spiritually inclined person can be married. Rather than being an abominable enemy to spiritual goals, having the right partner can actually be beneficial to spirituality. We are all imperfect people here, and marriage provides a guard against the biggest enemy of spirituality, lust. One is much more controlled when one is able to express his desires in a controlled manner with a wife, and focusing mainly on higher goals."
"Having children once again, is not a way of enjoying material prosperity, but is merely a way of increasing God conscious people in the world, once again a service for the Lord. "
fame, sex and money being goals of the material life...
"Vyasadev wrote all these scriptures... he wanted a name for himself, and had ideas, so he wrote the scriptures. And now we all remember him."
"Spirituality, reading, film-going, entertainment are all different tools with which a person develops his or her relationship with the other sex."
"God was invented by man to make money. Spirituality today is an industry."
Materialism from a spiritual point of view:
keeping God and God consciousness in every sphere of daily life.
"When one is emotionally detached the results of his work, he is thinking less of the consequences of his work, and can therefore concentrate more on the work alone. Giving it their best shot, and using it as an offering to God is the essence of karma yoga, as espoused in the Indian scriptures, and this is essentially what they do."
"Another question which has come up is how a spiritually inclined person can be married. Rather than being an abominable enemy to spiritual goals, having the right partner can actually be beneficial to spirituality. We are all imperfect people here, and marriage provides a guard against the biggest enemy of spirituality, lust. One is much more controlled when one is able to express his desires in a controlled manner with a wife, and focusing mainly on higher goals."
"Having children once again, is not a way of enjoying material prosperity, but is merely a way of increasing God conscious people in the world, once again a service for the Lord. "
Saturday, January 6, 2007
Why do we need a Guru?
There are so many bogus paths, and bogus sanyasis around, that I have a very negative view about this whole guru thing. Why do we need a spiritual master? Why can’t we follow a spiritual path on our own, make up our own set of rules, and go towards spirituality?
We cannot deny the fact that we are all lost in this world. Which philosophy is which, what to do, no one really knows. Even more dangerous is the fact that we have the inclination to mentally concoct our own ideas and start believing that it is true. This, for some extent is there in everybody, but when it reaches beyond a certain limit, it jumps over to insanity, schizophrenia. But the bottomline is we are all lost. We all think differently, this is why we have quarrels and fights, basically because of misunderstanding between people. Since different people believe in different things, we can naturally conclude that not all of people’s thoughts are true.
The very essence of spirituality is in figuring out and enquiring into the basic questions of life. We desire to no longer be lost, but to find the way. But when we are essentially lost, how can we find the way on our own? If you are stuck in an alien land without a map, and make up your own ideas as to where the exit is, can you get out? Not at all. Now here is where the need for external help comes in. Help from a person who is not lost, or no longer lost.
So the arguing party might ask: fine, you may have external help. But why should it be in the form of a personal guru? Why can’t it be books? Now consider our position as that of the patient. We have a mental disease. The disease is that we are lost in this world. We don’t know what our business here is, why we have to go through miseries, and where we are to essentially go. Now we want to get cured. Can we read books, go to holy places, and try curing ourselves? It can be used to improve the general health. However, each of our individual mental make ups is different. Although everybody is supposed to eat fruits and vegetables to improve general health, a doctor advises some patients to eat more, and others to eat less, some to drink milk, some to stay away from milk and so on. For physical health, if such specific instructions are needed to cure the similar body, why not for mental health, when we have already seen previously, that we have different thoughts? For example, some spiritual aspirants are told to get married, as they are not emotionally stable enough to handle sanyas. For others, it is advised that sanyas or celibacy is the best method. This diagnosis can only be given by an expert guru.
Now we come to the third question, which is especially relevant in the Kali Yuga, with a plethora of bogus gurus, claiming to be God, and promoting weird ideas and customs; how to we know the right guru? If we go to a wrong doctor, it may prove fatal; if we invest our faith in the wrong guru, we would be abjectly misdirected. This is the trickiest question, as there is no cut and right formula for what a true blue guru looks like. Obviously if there was, the bogus people would copy these symptoms, and they would no longer represent the true blue guru. However, it is true that a lot of people have their own idea about what spirituality should be, and with that in mind, they try to match a guru to their own criteria. Don’t forget, the very reason why we look for a guru is because we are lost. If we look for a suitable guru that fulfills our own ideas (and believe me, at this day and age, there is a guru that fulfills every single idea a person may have) we might as well dig up our own spiritual path; what is the point in a guru? As a simple example, I used to think that a guru should look calm and serene in all his photographs, and should always have a smile on his face. On seeing people who didn’t have these characteristics, I would automatically say they are not gurus. Later I realized that a true blue guru wouldn’t even care to put a serene look on the photos.
The truth is we are lost. And we don’t have the capability of recognizing the guru. To this, I have to revert to saying something which the ‘logical’ population of today’s youth wouldn’t agree too well with. Pray to God that you would get a guru. Pray that when a real guru comes across your way, you would be able to recognize him. If you say this is illogical, let me ask you a question: when you are faced with a desperate situation, where you are completely helpless, and don’t see a way out, whom do you turn to? Don’t you pray? Well, this IS a desperate situation - it’s just that no body realizes how bad things are. We are all lost, we don’t know what we are doing here, and to add to the misery there are so many imposters claiming to give us directions, in order to fulfill their selfish motives. And we don’t even know how to recognize which is which. So there IS nothing we can do but pray. Like the other prayers that you know have been fulfilled in your life, why wouldn’t a sincere prayer help this time?
We cannot deny the fact that we are all lost in this world. Which philosophy is which, what to do, no one really knows. Even more dangerous is the fact that we have the inclination to mentally concoct our own ideas and start believing that it is true. This, for some extent is there in everybody, but when it reaches beyond a certain limit, it jumps over to insanity, schizophrenia. But the bottomline is we are all lost. We all think differently, this is why we have quarrels and fights, basically because of misunderstanding between people. Since different people believe in different things, we can naturally conclude that not all of people’s thoughts are true.
The very essence of spirituality is in figuring out and enquiring into the basic questions of life. We desire to no longer be lost, but to find the way. But when we are essentially lost, how can we find the way on our own? If you are stuck in an alien land without a map, and make up your own ideas as to where the exit is, can you get out? Not at all. Now here is where the need for external help comes in. Help from a person who is not lost, or no longer lost.
So the arguing party might ask: fine, you may have external help. But why should it be in the form of a personal guru? Why can’t it be books? Now consider our position as that of the patient. We have a mental disease. The disease is that we are lost in this world. We don’t know what our business here is, why we have to go through miseries, and where we are to essentially go. Now we want to get cured. Can we read books, go to holy places, and try curing ourselves? It can be used to improve the general health. However, each of our individual mental make ups is different. Although everybody is supposed to eat fruits and vegetables to improve general health, a doctor advises some patients to eat more, and others to eat less, some to drink milk, some to stay away from milk and so on. For physical health, if such specific instructions are needed to cure the similar body, why not for mental health, when we have already seen previously, that we have different thoughts? For example, some spiritual aspirants are told to get married, as they are not emotionally stable enough to handle sanyas. For others, it is advised that sanyas or celibacy is the best method. This diagnosis can only be given by an expert guru.
Now we come to the third question, which is especially relevant in the Kali Yuga, with a plethora of bogus gurus, claiming to be God, and promoting weird ideas and customs; how to we know the right guru? If we go to a wrong doctor, it may prove fatal; if we invest our faith in the wrong guru, we would be abjectly misdirected. This is the trickiest question, as there is no cut and right formula for what a true blue guru looks like. Obviously if there was, the bogus people would copy these symptoms, and they would no longer represent the true blue guru. However, it is true that a lot of people have their own idea about what spirituality should be, and with that in mind, they try to match a guru to their own criteria. Don’t forget, the very reason why we look for a guru is because we are lost. If we look for a suitable guru that fulfills our own ideas (and believe me, at this day and age, there is a guru that fulfills every single idea a person may have) we might as well dig up our own spiritual path; what is the point in a guru? As a simple example, I used to think that a guru should look calm and serene in all his photographs, and should always have a smile on his face. On seeing people who didn’t have these characteristics, I would automatically say they are not gurus. Later I realized that a true blue guru wouldn’t even care to put a serene look on the photos.
The truth is we are lost. And we don’t have the capability of recognizing the guru. To this, I have to revert to saying something which the ‘logical’ population of today’s youth wouldn’t agree too well with. Pray to God that you would get a guru. Pray that when a real guru comes across your way, you would be able to recognize him. If you say this is illogical, let me ask you a question: when you are faced with a desperate situation, where you are completely helpless, and don’t see a way out, whom do you turn to? Don’t you pray? Well, this IS a desperate situation - it’s just that no body realizes how bad things are. We are all lost, we don’t know what we are doing here, and to add to the misery there are so many imposters claiming to give us directions, in order to fulfill their selfish motives. And we don’t even know how to recognize which is which. So there IS nothing we can do but pray. Like the other prayers that you know have been fulfilled in your life, why wouldn’t a sincere prayer help this time?
Introduction to the blog
Hi,
Welcome to my blog. For some time, a lot of people asked me if I wanted to create a blog. I never did want to because I never really had a theme. Writing about your own life? Well, you have thousands of 'life stories', and everyone loves writing about themselves, perhaps much more than others woud like reading about them. So I wanted a theme, rather than to write about myself alone. Now I feel I have a theme.
Before you read on, let me let you know that this blog is about spiritual realization and Hare Krishna. If you are not interested perhaps this is the time to leave. Else, please read on.
I had a few basic questions ever since the age of five. I used to ask myself, why we are here. Why as a kid, do I aspire to be an adult? Would I as an adult be happy? And then after we came back from holidays and vacations I used to feel sad, and then feel happy after a few days...then I used to think that happiness really is context dependent, and not on dependent on the "object of happiness" itself. As a young kid, no one really listens to you, so I kept my thoughts to myself. Thoughts like all ignored thoughts faded away in due course of time, as I grew up. However, they were revisited when, at 15, I went to the Chinmaya International Residential School, a school with spiritual education. There I got my first introduction to Indian Philosophy as well as complete answers to questions I had had a long time ago. I loved these classes. During my university years I completely drifted off from the spiritual mindset, and felt that perhaps I just had been "infatuated" with the idea of spirituality erstwhile, and ignored the idea for a while. But four years taught me, that sprituality really makes sense, and at times when I am down, spirituality is the only thing that makes sense.
In my fourth year I seeked spirituality. However, it didnt come to me because of any 'search'. I devotee fellow-classmate that I had known even before started meeting me for lunch. We became much better friends, and I was introduced by him, to Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna philosophy is at loggerheads with the Chinmaya "mayavaadi" philosophy, and so I had huge problems accepting the HKs. We had a lot of debates, and arguments regarding this, and slowly, I came to accept, and then be completely convinced of the HK philosophy. It came gradually.
Once I accepted this philosophy, my interest picked on the pace. I started reading more, getting more interested...and finally started to realize that the spirituality, or more specifically, as in HK terms, devotional service is more than just a nice thing to do...
...It is the purpose of existence.
What made me feel this way? How did I come to these conclusions? These are the topics I'll talk on, in this blog.
Any comments, ideas, and questions can be directed to my email: hakrlax@gmail.com.
Welcome to my blog. For some time, a lot of people asked me if I wanted to create a blog. I never did want to because I never really had a theme. Writing about your own life? Well, you have thousands of 'life stories', and everyone loves writing about themselves, perhaps much more than others woud like reading about them. So I wanted a theme, rather than to write about myself alone. Now I feel I have a theme.
Before you read on, let me let you know that this blog is about spiritual realization and Hare Krishna. If you are not interested perhaps this is the time to leave. Else, please read on.
I had a few basic questions ever since the age of five. I used to ask myself, why we are here. Why as a kid, do I aspire to be an adult? Would I as an adult be happy? And then after we came back from holidays and vacations I used to feel sad, and then feel happy after a few days...then I used to think that happiness really is context dependent, and not on dependent on the "object of happiness" itself. As a young kid, no one really listens to you, so I kept my thoughts to myself. Thoughts like all ignored thoughts faded away in due course of time, as I grew up. However, they were revisited when, at 15, I went to the Chinmaya International Residential School, a school with spiritual education. There I got my first introduction to Indian Philosophy as well as complete answers to questions I had had a long time ago. I loved these classes. During my university years I completely drifted off from the spiritual mindset, and felt that perhaps I just had been "infatuated" with the idea of spirituality erstwhile, and ignored the idea for a while. But four years taught me, that sprituality really makes sense, and at times when I am down, spirituality is the only thing that makes sense.
In my fourth year I seeked spirituality. However, it didnt come to me because of any 'search'. I devotee fellow-classmate that I had known even before started meeting me for lunch. We became much better friends, and I was introduced by him, to Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna philosophy is at loggerheads with the Chinmaya "mayavaadi" philosophy, and so I had huge problems accepting the HKs. We had a lot of debates, and arguments regarding this, and slowly, I came to accept, and then be completely convinced of the HK philosophy. It came gradually.
Once I accepted this philosophy, my interest picked on the pace. I started reading more, getting more interested...and finally started to realize that the spirituality, or more specifically, as in HK terms, devotional service is more than just a nice thing to do...
...It is the purpose of existence.
What made me feel this way? How did I come to these conclusions? These are the topics I'll talk on, in this blog.
Any comments, ideas, and questions can be directed to my email: hakrlax@gmail.com.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)