All of us desire to reach and/ or remain in a state of perfect happiness or bliss. What does this state of bliss look and feel like? All of us desire to be perfectly happy (in a state of Ananda) when our body & mind feels perfectly at ease with itself (contended).

How does one define this state of Ananda? This is a very difficult question to answer. Invariably, the answers seem to vary from person to person. I guess none of us really know the ultimate goal but depending on our individual environment, we choose a certain path with an opinion that such a path will eventually lead us to the perfect state. Accordingly, a person with no money wants to earn money as a path to reach the state of Ananda. A person with money wants to earn more money as a path to reach the state of Ananda). A person with a lot of money wants to earn power as a path to reach the state of Ananda. A person with a lot of money and intellectual capability wants to change the world through innovation as a path to reach the state of Ananda. A person who is not married wants to get married as a path to reach the state of Ananda. A person who is married wants a more beautiful wife as a path to reach the state of Ananda. A person with a beautiful wife wants children as a path to reach the state of Ananda. A person with a beautiful wife and children desires peace from family problems as a path to reach the state of Ananda. I guess we can go on and on. Many times however, we wonder whether our actions are similar to that of a person who intends to become a Mechanical Engineer but has instead joined a Commerce school. Further, we are persevering hard and thereby wasting time trying to master Accountancy!!!!!

What is peculiar is how all of us seem to be absolutely unclear about the final destination and are aggressively pursuing various vocations that may/ may not have any leading us to the ultimate destination. The choice of our actual vocation (our key goal at a certain point of time in life) is usually relative to our current circumstances of birth and the surrounding environment and both these aspects appear to shape our ideas towards reaching the state of Ananda. It is apparent that we need a clear definition/ depiction of our final destination so that each of us are then able to choose a vocation or live a type of life that will enable us to plan/ live in the most sensible manner.

This brings us to the question – Who Are We? As per Shastras, we are Aatma (or Soul, the English equivalent). What about the Physical Body? As per Shastras, Aatma is the real person but this Aatma is covered with three specific states of matter – Deha (or Body), Manasa (or Mind) and Buddhi (or Intellect). These 3 outer manifestations enable the Aatma to live in the world of existence and conduct its activities. Without these manifestations, the Aatma on its own cannot act in our physical world. Without going too deep into this aspect, it will suffice to state that the Body (with the help of five senses) is the actor, Mind is the driver which drives the body to act (like the RAM in a computer chip) and Intellect is the seat of intelligence (like the hard disk in a computer chip) which enables the mind to judge/ discriminate/ decide. To quote a simple example, when the eyes of a Hindu see a statue of Vishnu, the mind immediately instructs the body to offer a prayer based on the stored knowledge in the Intellect that Vishnu is the ULTIMATE DEITY. However, when the eyes of a person from another faith see the same statue, the mind immediately feels revulsion and instructs the body to move away based on the stored knowledge in the Intellect that Vishnu is a mythical conception of Hindus and therefore is a freak. It is quite apparent that the stored knowledge in the Intellect varies from person to person; the IMPRESSIONS in the Intellect thereby drive behavior of every individual. Please note the stress on the word “IMPRESSIONS” – this is a key word. IMPRESSIONS are not the truth but make a person believe that they are indeed truth. Many times, these IMPRESSIONS remain embedded for our entire lives. A few examples of these IMPRESSIONS are given below:

–       Indians are Arrogant & Dirty, Chinese cannot be trusted or Americans are uncultured

–       Prayers to God will never go unanswered

–       Higher salary and frequent promotions are necessary to confirm success in career

–       Planning your future in a structured manner will give you a peaceful old age

Throw these IMPRESSIONS to a cross-section of people and one will find that while a few agree with these IMPRESSIONS, many others do not!!! Such IMPRESSIONS may be gathered during our lifetime and as per certain religions (primarily, Hinduism, Buddhism, Atlantis believers, etc), the IMPRESSIONS gather over a period of various lives and not just the current life. Howsoever these are gathered, it is clear that most of these IMPRESSIONS remain embedded into our Intellect for our entire life and completely guide the actions of our body and mind all our lives.

WHAT IF MANY OF OUR IMPRESSIONS ARE MISGUIDED!!!!!By holding on to these impressions, aren’t we ruining our life completely by letting these IMPRESSIONS, some sensible but many ridiculous, determine our course of actions in our lives? Are these IMPRESSIONS stopping us from leading complete lives?

Definition of SIN

Let us now dwell on this word called paapa (or Sin, the English equivalent) and a related outcome of such an act, called Karma (there is no English equivalent but I guess this word is familiar to many people though inadequately understood!!!). In the conventional sense, religions of the world are commonly understood to issue forth certain commandments – Do not lie, Do Charity, Do not Gamble, Do not covet, Do not Kill, Do not look at neighbour’s wife, etc. These commandments sound sensible and correct but it is not sure whether all of us have really understood the spirit behind these commandments properly. Let us take the first statement – Do not lie. Since most of us invariably lie at the slightest pretext (though there may be relative differences), it is surprising that many of us equally call ourselves religious people but are unable to follow such a simple commandment properly. The following example may enable us to illustrate this in a better manner:

There are two students who have left their village to study in another city away from their parents. Being students, they are obviously dependent on their parents in the form of remittances to pay their fees to their universities. Both students however decide not to pursue studies and leave the hostel premises – however, their motivations are different.

–       The first student feels very sad that their parents are very poor and are actually cutting into their stomachs to ensure that their child gets out of the bane of illiteracy. However, if he tells his parents not to send the money, they will feel extremely disappointed and the first student therefore conceals this fact from his parents. However, the first student however diligently saves the money remitted by his parents. Further, he decides to work in a company during the course of the day and continues studies in a night school. When asked about the progress in studies, the first student continually shows fake report cards and credentials and thereby makes the parents believe that he is pursuing studies seriously. At the end of the study period, this student returns to his village and surprises his parents by buying a farm land & permanent house using money diligently earned and saved during the intervening period. He conveys to his parents that he had stopped studying and had in fact, lied to his parents all the time.

–       The second student was of a wayward kind. He continually takes money from his parents and uses the money for gambling and alcohol. He keeps demanding more money citing higher study fees and costs of city living whereas in fact, he has left college and in fact, living a spurious life.

It is apparent that both students have lied to their parents for many years and while the motivation was LOVE in the first child, the second was SELFISH. Is lying a sin and should both students be condemned as SINNERS? It is quite apparent that the nature of action cannot be prescribed or interpreted as a basis for judging a person but the inner motivation or thought that is behind the action forms a more appropriate basis. What is the basis for inner motivations? It is nothing else but the IMPRESSIONS (that was explained earlier) that reside in the intellect that eventually drive the mind to direct the body to behave in a certain manner. Coming back to our key question on whether lying is a SIN, It becomes evident from the above illustration that it is dangerous to take literal interpretations of religious prescriptions without understanding the spirit with which these statements were made. Similar explanation can be given for other actions – Charity, Gambling, etc. Many people even today relate playing in a CASINO or investing in Stock Markets as gambling. We have however encountered numerous people all through our life who live by these Commandments so literally and with strong belief in their actions – we have to call them foolish misguided people who thereby lived a caged existence by seeing life through a dented prism. The entire life is absolutely wasted and the gathered IMPRESSIONS do not get cleaned up but in fact, get deeper and deeper.

So what is SIN? Swamiji Chinmayananda gives a beautiful definition for a SIN and I quote him completely – A mistake of the mind in which it acts contrary to its essential nature as the Self. Any act of sensuousness which the mind pants for in the world of Objects (meaning the physical manifestation of the world as seen and felt by our senses), hoping to get thereby a joy and satisfaction, creates necessarily within itself more and more agitations and this type of mistake of the mind is called SIN.

Is SIN a mere agitation of the mind? This is ridiculous, you may say. SIN means doing bad things. What is bad – is there anything like good and bad? In an absolute sense, Good and Bad are relative words and there is no such thing as Good or Bad. Gandhi agitated against the British and this is regarded as Good today but when a Politician declares a Strike to protest against the Government, it is regarded as Bad – why? What matters is the thought behind an action and not the action or person itself. Thought is nothing else but an activity in the mind based on certain underlying IMPRESSION. SIN is therefore nothing else but a mere agitation of mind where the action is contrary to our true self but the action is based on an underlying IMPRESSION. Why does the mind agitate? The answer is again simple – our Intellect is the cause or more directly, the misguided (or should I say, rigid) IMPRESSIONS inside our Intellect. Our entire mission of life is to essentially erase the impact of negative IMPRESSIONS to enable our Intellect to come closer to truth. Once we are closer to our True Self, our mind and body are free and thereby perform their actions not in any caged manner.

OUR GOAL IN LIFE, OUR MISSION IN LIFE IS NOTHING ELSE BUT TO RETURN TO OUR TRUE SELF. LIFE IS A JOURNEY TO GET BACK TO OUR TRUE SELF, OUR ORIGIN BEFORE WE BECAME THIS PERSON. Story time….

There is an interesting story of a brilliant Indian mathematician, Ramanujam that may be relevant to quote here. Owing to the sheer brilliance of Ramanujam since he was a child, all people outside his house used to shower praises on a continuous basis. Much to the chagrin of the child, his father nevertheless always criticized him for not being perfect. This used to upset the child considerably and he used to complain to his mother about this aspect. When Ramanujam reached early teens, he cleared on important examination and the entire school and elders praised Ramanujam for his brilliance. However, when he reached home, his father dismissed the achievement as a non-event. Ramanujam was so upset with his dismissal that he plotted to kill his father during the night. He was sure that his father was jealous of his achievements (imagine a person living with such an IMPRESSION for his/ her entire life!!!). Ramanujam then brings home a large stone and goes to his father’s room with the intention to kill him. Once he reaches the room, he realizes that his mother is also present in the room and was talking to his father. The mother asks his father as to why he dismissed the major achievement of his son so lightly. The father replied to his mother that his love for his child increased considerably after the achievement. The father stated that he had always proud of his child but was afraid that Ramanujam may become spoilt or too proud of his achievements in case the father also starts praising him. Such a pride in self could potentially lead to inappropriate consequences and the father was therefore careful in his behavior. Ramanujam, of course, threw away the stone and asked for his father’s forgiveness.

While the above story had a good ending, this points us towards reflecting our own approach to life. How many of us do not understand others or even try to understand others with an open mind. We live opinioned lives and are absolutely sure of our assessment of others. We divide the world into buckets – we divide them into races, into religions, into gender (male and female), into relationships (wife, husband, mother-in-law, father in law, etc) into geographies (North Indian, South Indian, etc) and then assign certain common traits on each individual bucket. Once when I was travelling, I had the unfortunate situation of being close to the toilet in the plane. The reason why this was unfortunate was because some of the people used to leave the toilet door open after they had relieved themselves. I used to carry the impression that modern Indians are dirty and careless and this IMPRESSION was reasonably well embedded into my Psyche for many years. Obviously, this was based on observing incidents of bad behavior amongst fellow Indians all my life. Much to my surprise, however, this lack of etiquette appeared to have been universal and pretty much people of all nationalities appeared to have one or two black sheep in their midst.

WE MUST APPROACH EVERY EVENT OR PERSON WITH A BLANK PAPER RATHER THAN ASCRIBE COLOR TO SUCH EVENT OR PERSON EVEN PRIOR TO OUR ENGAGEMENT WITH SUCH EVENT OR PERSON. WE MUST LEAD OUR LIFE WITH AN OPEN MIND.

 

Past SINS will haunt me in FUTURE, isn’t it?

So, what is the purpose of our life? We are living clearly to experience life and through this experience, we are merely trying to get rid of our deeply imprinted IMPRESSIONS. IMPRESSIONS have usually been likened to dust on the mirror which makes it difficult to see ourselves properly at our reflection. Once the dust is cleared (meaning that our false associations with people and events is taken away), we see ourselves very clearly. By getting rid of our IMPRESSIONS, we can return to our original True – Self.

But we have to have a goal, you may say. How can merely getting rid of IMPRESSIONS be the only goal? Well! The goal is merely to get rid of IMPRESSIONS, there is no other goal. How does one feel after one has got rid of IMPRESSIONS? Life becomes free and pure; our actions acquire a new meaning and they thereby make our life beautiful or, dare I say, DIVINE. We become a PARAM AATMA (or ultimate Soul). This is however a detailed topic and we can take this up another day; it will suffice to state that this indeed is the true goal and purpose that all of us are striving towards and there is no other purpose. If you however do not agree with this aspect, it may not make sense to proceed further ahead.

To reiterate the meaning of SIN, SIN is nothing else but embedding of false impressions and deepening them as we live our life. This brings us to the definition of Karma. Karma is nothing else but a sum total of various IMPRESSIONS gathered over multiple lives that we have led since the date of our existence. These impressions invariably get deeper and deeper with each life. Karma is usually related to good or bad behavior in the past. Karma is not a fatalistic proposition that states that SINS acquired in the past or current life lead to miseries in the current and future lives. A person living an average middle class life may falsely acquire an IMPRESSION that money will solve his/ her problems. If this IMPRESSION is cultivated all through life, such a Soul will automatically CHOOSE a birth or circumstance where the need placed by this IMPRESSION is fully addressed. Such a birth will therefore give the potential to fulfill such an IMPRESSION in a proper manner. Focus on the word – CHOOSE. We choose our life and the nature of experience in our life. As much as this may be hard to believe, this is an act of active choice rather than passive “Cause & Effect”. Once such an experience is fully realized, the soul is expected to learn that his/ her IMPRESSION was just an IMPRESSION as the Soul realizes that even with money, the problems continue to remain.

There is a statement in the GITA where KRISHNA states – Whosoever, at the end (of their life), leaves the body, thinking of any being, to that being only he goes, because of his constant thought of that being. Even in the modern world, someone interested in Athletics will participate aggressively in Sports events to become part of the Country teams. Similarly, a person interested in politics will choose to associate oneself with Politicians so as to get opportunity to enter Politics and thereby make a career in Politics. Since one constantly thinks of Sports or Politics, the state of constant thought will automatically drive the mind and body towards the relevant career disciplines. If this works for one life, why will it not work as a principle from life to life? It is clear that our thoughts and deep IMPRESSIONS lead us to our choice of circumstances so that we can continue to experience life through those IMPRESSIONS. So, what is the message – CHOOSE WISELY. So what if we do not choose wisely? A statement by KRISHNA is pertinent here – “When a man thinks of objects, attachment for them arises, from attachment, desire is born, from desire arises anger, from anger comes delusion, from delusion comes loss of memory, from loss of memory comes the destruction of discrimination and from destruction of discrimination, the man perishes”.

How does one cleanse our Karma (Or get rid of IMPRESSIONS)?

The process to erase these (false) IMPRESSIONS is indeed very simple. IMPRESSIONS get deeper if our reaction to the event of the World lead to deepening of existing IMPRESSIONS or create fresh IMPRESSIONS into our mind and Intellect. Choose your reaction to the events of the World and cleanse your existing IMPRESSIONS. For example, do not increase the mistrust for people – it is precisely why various religions of the World keep repeating – LOVE EVERYONE or DO NOT HATE ANYONE. I always wondered – How is it possible to LOVE everyone? We will definitely not like a few people or few behavior types – isn’t is natural? I now realize that we do not have any choice but to love everyone equally as our current discerning behavior is nothing else but merely an IMPRESSION. Clear these IMPRESSIONS and look at all people with a fresh open mind – your view of the other person may change drastically. This LOVE for others does not mean that you turn a blind eye to their faults. Love your Enemy is also another statement made by various Religions – it means that you fight Evil in the Enemy (which is merely caused by IMPRESSIONS in the mind of the Enemy) but continue loving the person. Slap the enemy if that is a path to kill the evil in the enemy but do not get personally affected or involved in a vicious manner – love the enemy.  There is no other choice as this is the real truth. I will like to quote another statement by KRISHNA – He who is the same to for and friend, and also in honour and dishonor, who is the same in cold and heat and in pleasure or plan; who is free from attachment; to whom censure and praise are equal, who is silent, content with anything, homeless, steady minded, full to devotion – that man is dear to me. What does this imply? This implies that this person is living a life devoid of IMPRESSIONS and thereby the reactions are therefore controlled rather than excitable.

This is boring!!! Same in heat and cold, silent, Equal in censure or praise!!!!! This is a mark of a boring person leading boring and dull lives and I would definitely not like to be like this!!!!! Don’t you think so? Why does KRISHNA like such a person? KRISHNA himself did not live like this. Story time….

There is an interesting story in the Mahabharata at the end of the Great War. Ashwatthama succeeded in killing the 5 sons of Pandavas and also the yet-to-be born son of Arjuna (Parikshit was in Uttara’s Womb; Uttara was the wife of Abhimanyu). In fact, Parikshit was forced out of the womb of Uttara as a dead child. When wise men were summoned to evaluate options to save Parikshit, it was foretold that in case Parikshit is held by a true Brahmacharya (an unattached soul), he will be brought back to life. Parikshit was then passed on to each of the Pandavas but did not become alive. He was then passed on to the Great sage, Vyasa himself but to the surprise of all people, even Vyasa was unable to bring the child back to life. Suddenly, KRISHNA enters the room and holds Parikshit and lo!!!!! The baby starts crying. Everyone in the room wondered how KRISHNA with the various escapades or events of his exciting life can be a true Brahmacharya!!! Vyasa explained the greatness of KRISHNA which in summary is nothing but that of person who led an unattached life without IMPRESSIONS (I am not going into details here).

How can one lead an exciting life without gathering additional IMPRESSIONS and in fact, getting rid of existing IMPRESSIONS? How does one control our urges and ambitions – do we run away to the forests? This is not really human and in fact, a ridiculous advice, you may say. In fact, this is echoed even in the GEETA which says,– “Even a wise man acts in accordance with his own nature; beings follow their own nature; what can restraint do? Some of the Religions have certain commandments – Do not tell lies, do not Kill, Restrain from Sex, etc. KRISHNA is very clear on this – restraint is not possible. Do not Control. For example, what is the use of restraining or controlling your sexual urges in a forced manner when your mind is unable to do so in a similar manner? Go ahead and enjoy yourself. What enjoy – Do I mean like we live like dogs? No – instead, the message is that we go ahead and enjoy the experience so that once the experience is over, we move on. We must not stay in the feeling of absence of any goal on a continuous basis. Physical abstinence or control is of no use at all if the mind is unable to get away from the object of desire. Strong desires must therefore be pursued with vigour and WITHOUT ANY GUILT. Am I confusing you? On one side, I am stating that indulgence in world of objects leads to loss of discrimination and on the other side, I am telling you to go ahead and indulge yourself in the “world of objects”? So what am I stating?

One cannot meditate when the mind is full of stress. One cannot stay back and study at home when your friends are having fun playing football outside. One cannot work in office when a Cricket World Cup match is being shown on TV.  But there is another side to this aspect. When we are kids, we used to love beautiful toys given by our parents and used to get very upset when someone else (our brother/ sister) snatch this toy away from us. But after a few years, the same toy ceases to excite us. Why? WE HAVE GROWN OUT OF IT. But there are many desires that we cannot grow out of till we experience such a desire thoroughly. So we must pursue our real desires and inclinations thoroughly – there is nothing to feel guilty about this.

This brings us to a key word – Introspection. Introspection is critical to learn and grow. Introspection will enable us to form an appropriate reaction to every action of ours and assessment based on such introspection will either deepen the existing IMPRESSION or will clear it. One must therefore introspect whether one is really pursuing one’s OWN desire or one is merely copying someone. Many times, we see a great tennis player and start dreaming about winning the next Wimbledon. We learn about a huge bonus earned by someone associated with the Software profession and start working towards joining a Software company. Introspection is therefore critical to understand ourselves thoroughly and pursue our real desires rather than follow new paths. Once we are absolutely sure of ourselves and our inclinations, we must definitely pursue our life goal of owing, say, a Mercedes. Once this becomes our own, this desire ceases excite us as we have grown out of it. Introspection is again critical here as we may still aspire for Mercedes – we may want E Class after owing a C Class, etc. The IMPRESSIONS embedded may therefore get erased not only after achieving our desires but only if your reaction to such achievement based on introspection enables us to grow out of the desire. Introspection is therefore very important to ensure that we steer our behavior towards a more positive life rather than behavior based on loss of discrimination.

Karma stops accruing when our actions are free from IMPRESSIONS. They do not create further IMPRESSIONS as they are performed with a free mind. If I am working with a Sales organization (in a travel firm, for example), there are two ways in which I can approach work –

I can work for a good salary and promotions from year to year. As and when my salary increases and I keep getting promotions, I get motivated and this can go on for many years. If I get stagnated in the company, I can decide to move to another Travel organization which gives me better perks and continue to live life in this manner. This is the normal way most of us approach work and this may be considered sensible. It must be noted however that since the motivation is personal, the danger is that non-achievement in certain years be de-motivate me and such dejections, if frequent, could lead to loss of personal esteem and cause sadness.

I can work to perform my core duty in an effective manner. I can choose to give my customers the best deal so that they enjoy travel experiences thoroughly. Since my work involves working within the rules of the organization, I respect these rules and thereby work towards giving the highest satisfaction to the customers. The key difference is that while the earlier approach is focused on personal satisfaction, the second approach focuses on doing our Duty effectively and gives satisfaction to others primarily. My pursuing this course, your organization may reward you with higher salary and promotions but while we accept this, you do not lose focus from your core role – customer satisfaction. While one may face dejection even here (your employer does not recognize your contribution effectively or your customer may not see the difference), the action of introspection here is more positive – it focuses on enhancing customer satisfaction rather than figuring out introspection that focuses on why you did not get promotion. The latter can lead to analysis that our employer does not like me personally and such introspection could lead to actions that create further IMPRESSIONS (e.g., the “race” of our employer cannot be trusted, the organization is not fair, etc.).

The second approach has a lot of benefits. Here, we are aligning to the larger goal for which we are performing an activity rather than focusing on what we get out of performing an activity. It does not add negative Karma and also ensures ridding of existing Karma. This positive approach enhances our quality of being, state of happiness and enrichment of our Self.

Applying Philosophy in practical day to day life

 

What should we aspire for?

If you have reached till this stage, I must congratulate you – you are really keen to understand the meaning of life. Of course, I must congratulate myself also for being sensible enough so far. Anyway, let us get to the point. What is the relevance of the esoteric terminology introduced so far to our day to day life? It can be labeled as mere theorizing if it does not address concerns of my day to day life. So what are we meant to do in our lives?

Is desire wrong? Do we lead dull insipid lives without planning, aspiring and trying to reach our goals? Let me answer this in another manner. I am not sure whether you have heard of Daley Thomson – he used to always win the Men’s Decathlon event regularly. Decathlon, as you know, judges the best sportsperson across 10 events. Logically, you will ascribe Daley to be the most famous one as he is proficient in 10 events rather than a single event. History however remembers Carl Lewis who was a good 100 m sprinter more than Daley – why? I will not be far away from truth if I make a supposition that focus on a certain event and achieving fame in the relevant field of discipline is regarded well the world over. What is the use of being Jack of all Trades when you are the Master of none? The World will remember the Master and not Mr. Jack. Around us, while we see sportsmen like PT USHA or Carl Lewis who come up through hard work and continuous dedication, you also see people who end up getting fame without actually desiring such an end goal. Manmohan Singh did not dream of being the PM of India even in early 21^st Century whereas there are umpteen number of politicians who have tried all their life to become a Minister and have died without achieving this goal. So goes for Narasimha Rao. Narayan Murthy as Infosys Chairman is more of a Business person by default. Abdul Kalam became the President of India by default – they did not even aspire for these positions.

There appears to be something else that is at play rather than mere fulfilling of desires or goals. I daresay that our desires and dreams are also therefore mere IMPRESSIONS and do not represent the focal point of our life activity. Put the question of a life goal to a typical middle class person in any part of the world. The answer may read as – To educate oneself well so as to engage oneself with a vocation that addresses our dreams. So what are our dreams? Oops!!! That is a difficult question. Our dreams are never stable; they keep shifting. I used to dream about owing a telephone when I was a kid; I used to dream about owing a car when I was in college; I used to dream about traveling to another country when I started working; a beautiful sex life when I was married, etc. With all these experiences behind me, I am now dreaming of starting a building a city; making a discovery that will change mankind, … the list goes on and on. Effectively, I guess I am a normal day-dreamer with ordinary dreams but it does appear that having already realized a few of my so-called dreams, I seem to still long for more. Popular religions of the World talk about dreaming about Heaven which is defined as a wonderland after you die (why not when you are alive?). They also instill a fear that if you not in Heaven, you go to Hell. Oops!!!!! What is this Hell? Nothing can be worse than being born in a slum in one of the Indian cities and begging for food. Nothing can be worse than being born blind. However, if you look back in History, some of the most popular people were not people born in palaces but are normal people living ordinary lives but have made the World come to them. So how did these people magnetize the World? Some of the richest people born in our times have been driven to depression and have committed suicide (including philosophers like Ayn Rand). Forget the world outside – look inside our homes. Our parents did not travel around the world, did not own even a single car, did not do scuba diving, did not really have a great career, etc but they seem to be happy with their life and its achievements (howsoever minute they may seem to the World). So what should we do?

Do your DHARMA

So if we do not have desires what do we live for? Jesus is credited with a statement – “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you”. Much of the Indian Philosophy is entirely devoted to providing approaches to discover the so-called “Self” within you. The declaration in the Indian Philosophy is that there is no need to wait for Heaven after life but one can achieve this right here right now the moment one aligns with oneself (w/o getting deluded by Ego formed by false associations of mind with false IMPRESSIONS in the Intellect). How can one find joy within oneself? By reading Biology and learning about Functioning of the Heart or reproductive system!!! I guess not. The answer is actually not very difficult – DO YOUR DHARMA. DHARMA is one of the most intractable terms of the Indian Philosophy. Dharma denotes “that which holds together the different aspects and qualities of an object into a whole”. While a loose translation of the word has found various meanings – Duty, Righteousness, morality, etc – a closer definition of this word has been given as “that which makes a thing or being what it is”. Accordingly, Dharma of the Sun is to provide heat & light and thereby sustain life; Dharma of a tree is to give fruits/ flowers.

One of the most celebrated statements of the GEETA is – “Our right is to work only, but never to its fruits; let not the fruit of action be our motive nor our attachment to inaction”. This is indeed our life motto in a nutshell. We are not working in a Bank (for example) for a good salary or a 5 figure bonus. We are working in a Bank to keep Bank customers happy and give them the most satisfying Banking experience. It is that that keeps us engaged for most of the time and it is this that we should strive at. Incidentally, we earn salary or get a good bonus but if we focus more on salary or promotions rather than happy customers, we strive from our true purpose. In a similar manner, the goal of owners of Toyota is to make the best car in the World and give satisfaction to their car buyers – incidentally, they may make a good profit. If they focus on making more money, they may make cars that cater to certain sections only or may not experiment too much thus shifting their focus from their core activity. Easier said than done, this is possibly to most challenging requirement, i.e., to align oneself with the larger role that our situation demands rather than what we personally are looking to gain from our engagement with the event. Despite its difficulty, there is no other choice – aligning oneself to personal goals can only lead to misery and pain. This is a huge mindset change but one must try to align to this mindset each time we feel we are straying into the selfish zone.

Do not be attached to inaction. Lazy people are shunned not only by modern thinkers but even by religious leaders. Yet, you need to look around to realize that many of us lead lazy and dull lives that are devoid of experimentation. We do not serve customers in office completely on certain days when our supervisor is not in office. We do not help a colleague in office who is in distress because we believe that such an action will not give us anything in return. We get up at 10 a.m. on holidays, have a bath in the evening (or sometimes do not bath at all), eat junk food, etc and all these are signs of desperate laziness though we may not recognize this. Do live an active and exciting life – activity does not mean a long list of activities; these may tire us and make the body weak. Activity means an active mind that engages in all actions at all moments with a fresh and excitable outlook rather than in an incomplete manner. A dull mind gives a dull life and sensible people always avoid dull characters.

How is the message of JESUS relevant? It is indeed very relevant. We always are led to believe that our dreams are a manifestation of something external (car, beautiful wife, etc) whereas our joy/ happiness is something within us. We will never be completely happy with external achievements; our real Aatma is already happy and joyful but the dirt covering of Mind and Intellect is deluding us from experiencing this joy. Once this covering is removed through careful practice and worship, we experience joy even without the presence of external trappings. Is this true or is this unadulterated Bullshit? All I can say is – Try to live a life of DHARMA for just one year and see the difference. Do not therefore focus on outputs of action; focus on action and living completely every moment of our life. A beautiful story is worth talking about here.

There was once this person who used to work under a King in a Court. Let us call him ABC. After years of Court life with all its politics and continuous stream of activities, ABC got tired one day and decided to quit this Court life and retired to a forest for meditation to relieve stress. Like all sages, he used to go to a neighboring village and the villagers used to provide food every day. One day during noon time under a tree, while engaging in meditation, the sound of birds on the tree disturbed ABC’s meditation activity. ABC angrily looked upwards towards the birds and the anger in his mind was so intense that heat rays emerged from his eyes and instantly burned the birds. ABC was stunned – and it dawned upon him that multiple years of meditation have given him many powers. ABC was proud of the results of his efforts. The manner and demeanour of his behavior changed instantly as he became aggressive with the villagers who used to ignore him. One day when ABC went to a small house asking for food, a voice of a woman came from inside requesting ABC to wait for a while as she was tending to her husband. ABC waited for a while but when it took slightly long for the woman to come out, he immediately resolved that he will burn her just like the birds in the forest. Immediately, the woman spoke – “Do not think that you can burn me like those poor and harmless birds. My Husband is sick and without my help, he cannot do anything on his own”. ABC was stunned and thought how an ordinary woman living the life of a housewife can know about this event of his life. When the woman finally came out, ABC asked her how she knew about the Birds. She replied that if ABC really wanted the true answer, he should go to a Butcher who lived outside the town. This surprised ABC more; how can a true and pious vegetarian go to a Butcher to learn what he already learnt by reading the Scriptures? However, since he was keen to find out, he went to the Butcher. On reaching the place, ABC was appalled at the sight of the slaughter house and the numerous animals that were being butchered on a continuous basis. After searching around, ABC finally reached the Butcher whose name was recommended by the Woman. The Butcher made him wait for a few hours and after all customers departed in the evening, the Butcher asked ABC for the reason for his visit. ABC related his experience with the Woman and asked him the answer to the puzzle. The Butcher replied that the Woman acquired her powers merely by doing her duty in a complete manner without ever shirking her responsibility for a moment. It turns out that the Woman had a sick husband who was bed ridden for many years but instead of shirking her responsibility and duty towards her husband, she served her husband faithfully and continues to do so day after day. The power that this unswerving adherence to her DHARMA provides is itself immense but she ignores these powers and continues to serve her husband completely. ABC was impressed with the statement of the Butcher and asked him that why such a knowledgeable person was wasting his time undertaking such a deplorable activity? The Butcher replied that his activity was not deplorable at all. He explained the circumstances of this previous life (I will not go into this here) and stated that having been born in a Butcher family, he regarded his duty to take up the family profession completely. He stated that he is able to take care of his old parents and family by doing this profession. He is however not a killer as he undertakes his activity in an unattached manner without any pride or prejudice. The Butcher clearly stated that one gets born in a certain life with specific circumstances to gain specific learning experiences and must therefore follow their DHARMA by performing the actions of their life in a complete and unadulterated manner. The Butcher finally advised ABC to return back to Court instead of wasting time in the forest further stating that his life demanded action in the Court and not wasting time in the forest. ABC was profoundly impacted by this meeting and returned to his life in the Kingdom – only much more knowledgeable, informed and wiser.

Two statements from the GEETA deserve attention here –

“From Whom is the evolution of all beings, by Whom all this is pervaded, worshipping Him, with one’s own duty, man attains perfection”.

“Better is one’s own duty (though) destitute of merits, than the duty of another well performed. He who does the duty ordained by his own nature incurs no sin”.

Lead a Complete Life

Religion is usually meant as a domain for serious people but the person credited with providing one of the most profound philosophies to the World is KRISHNA whose does not generally to carry the image of a serious person. In his book on KRISHNA, Osho mentioned one thing that has remained with me since. Anyone who knows a little of KRISHNA is aware of his relationships with Cowgirls when he was young. KRISHNA is famous for engaging in song and dance with various women in his village and all women used to revel in his company. It is stated that whenever KRISHNA indulged in dancing with various women, each and every girl felt that KRISHNA is actually dancing with her only and not with a crowd. How is this possible? The answer is again simple – whatever action we do, we must do in a complete manner. It is story time again –

There was once a Monk who had his hermitage near a village. People from the village revered this Monk and went to him frequently for advice guidance. The villagers felt that all their good fortune in life can be credited to this Monk and they therefore felt very protective about the Monk. There lived in the village a young girl who became pregnant owing to her escapade with a local youth. The people of the Village were very upset with this illegitimate action and confronted the girl to reveal the truth about her relationship. Since the girl liked her lover very much, she felt inclined towards protecting him strongly and thereby misguided the village that the Monk was responsible for her illegitimate child. The Villagers were stunned with this revelation and confronted the Monk about this. While the usual punishment for such an action was death, they told the Monk that since they used to revere him, he must leave the village immediately. The Monk immediately obliged stating that if this was the wish of the villagers, he will leave the place. Knowing this, the girl was filled with remorse but she was also stunned that the Monk did not protest or expose her untruth. She sheepishly approached the village leaders and revealed that the Monk was not guilty. The villagers were immediately filled with remorse and decided to approach the Monk to return back to their Village. When the villagers reached the Monk’s place, the Monk enquired the reason for such a large gathering. When the villagers apologized for their action, the Monk asked them the reason for the apology. When the villagers replied that they had banished the Monk outside town a few days back, the Monk replied – “Is that so”? The Monk clearly does not live in the past and lives life as the moment drove him to live. The Monk eventually returned back to the village.

All of us lead split lives. We either live in the past or live in the future. WE DO NOT LIVE IN THE PRESENT. With the memory of the past strongly bedded into our mind along with simultaneous worry about the future, we do not live our present fully and completely. If our minds are pre-occupied with worry and fear, how can we live today completely? When KRISHNA was dancing, he was dancing with complete joy of the dance and it is obvious that a person living completely in the present thereby wears an expression of completeness in his/ her dealings with all people. What does this mean for us? This means that we must merely lead complete lives is focused on the Present. When we are working in office, we work with all our hearts and forget about home, when we are at home; we engage thoroughly with our family and forget about office. In our various roles, we must strive to be the best. As a husband, I must be the best husband and strive to give everything to my wife, as a wife, I must be the best wife in the World and devote fully to my husband. I must similarly try to be the best employee in office, best supervisor to staff working under me, best child of my parents, best brother to my sister, etc. Our engagements with each of them may vary from time to time but whenever we spend time with each such person, we behave that we are only with this person and give them the most complete part of our life. There is no other aspect to our life than following this Philosophy.

Where is GOD in all this?

This is a difficult one for me to answer as my knowledge is merely from books and not from any direct personal experience. I am however keen to record my thoughts based on the books that have come to my attention and my personal understanding from such readings. It is apparent that my interpretation of what I have read may differ from the real thing though I hope that I am thinking the right direction.

I am sharing a few quotes from the GEETA that may enable us to comprehend the scale of this question:

 

“Whatever being (and objects) that are pure, active and inert, know them to proceed from Me; yet, I am not in them, they are in Me. I am the Father of this World, the Mother, the supporter and grandsire; the one Thing to be known, the Purifier..”. “I am the Goal, the Supporter, the Lord, the Witness, the Abode, the Shelter, the Friend, the Origin, the Dissolution, the Foundation, the Treasure House and the Seed Imperishable”.

 

Everything has come into this World from this Original Being (whom we call PARAMATMA) and it has been declared clearly that our goal again is to return to our original state of being.

 

“The Lord dwells in the heart of all beings, causing all beings, by his illusive power, to revolve, as if mounted on a machine”.

 

GOD is present in all beings; this is an unequivocal declaration. GOD is not present only in a certain geography or in certain races or in certain species.

 

KRISHNA further goes on –“I am the Source and the Dissolution of the Universe. There is nothing whatsoever higher than Me, all this is strung to Me, as clusters in the gems on a string. I am the sapidity in water, I am the light in the Moon and Sun, I am the sound in ether & virility in men; I am the sweet fragrance in Earth and the brilliance in Fire; the life in all beings and I am the austerity in the Austere. Know me as the eternal seed in all beings; I am the intelligence of the Intelligent. Of the Strong, I am the Strength – devoid of desire and attachment, and in (all) beings, I am the desire – unopposed to Dharma. 

From the above description, for a layman like me, the description sounds very different from the normal ideas that we associate with GOD. Firstly, GOD does not appear to be a person or a being. GOD is a much more holistic concept and much broad than a certain type of being. The description is more of qualities in every aspect of our surroundings rather than a certain living being – in fact, it appears to be more than a certain living being. Everything we see in the Universe, active or inert that is manifest or un-manifest is defined as GOD.

Taking the “String of Pearls” definition a little further, another declaration in GEETA is – “And whatsoever is the seed in all beings, that also am I; there is no being, whether moving or un-moving, than can exist without Me”.

All Phenomena of nature ranging from needle to a mountain, bacteria to a elephant get covered in this definition. What is left – actually nothing else is left. So why should we seek GOD?

“Those who worship Me, renouncing all actions in Me, regarding Me as the Supreme Goal, meditating on Me with single minded devotion, for them, whose minds are set on Me, I become their Saviour to save them out of the ocean of finite experiences; the SAMSARA”.

Essentially, the various lives and finite experiences gained out of these lives can be quite tiring and repetitive. Living such lives on a continuous basis is therefore regarded as nothing else but a sheer waste of time and message therefore clearly suggests that devotion to GOD will enable us to get rid of these multiple finite experiences.

The most appropriate mind orientation that is required from us can be gauged from the following line in the GEETA – “He only sees, who sees the Supreme Lord existing equally in all beings, the un-perishing within the perishing”. Another one says – “He who sees Me everywhere and sees everything in Me; he never gets separated from Me, nor do I get separated from him”.

It becomes apparent here that our action with every person, our orientation with every object must be filled with reverence as there is nothing where GOD does not exist or is not present. There is no other GOD other than the one Universal GOD. There is not one GOD (as some religions state) but everything around us, animate and inanimate as well as us is nothing else but a representation of GOD. GOD is not something separate and distinct – GOD is present everywhere. “Even those devotees, who endowed with faith, worship other gods, worship Me alone, (but) by the wrong method”.

Conclusion

It is time I draw this dialogue to a close. Since many words have been stated, it is time we conclude what the entire dialogue means to us. In my opinion, our purpose of life is to become free. Our accumulated past IMPRESSIONS have led us to choose our current life and it is essential that we use this life for getting towards our goal to become free. I will therefore summarize our actions into three main rules:

FOLLOW ONE’S DHARMA

What is the use of Charity to others when people at home feel incomplete? What is the use of being the best individual outside home when your husband/ wife is not happy? What is the use of running an old age home when you are not taking proper care of your parents? Do your own DHARMA. We have dwelt on what DHARMA means in detail earlier. The core focus of life is to play our role perfectly. Align yourself to the larger outcome expected from the situation encountered by you by focusing on WHAT YOU CAN GIVE rather than WHAT YOU WANT.  Whatever we are doing, we should do such actions to the best of our ability. These actions range from washing dishes to participating in the strategy design of our organizations. In the various roles that we don – father, mother, son, friend, employee, by-stander, etc., we must play these roles to the perfection rather than on a half-hearted basis. Best the best Son/ daughter, Be the Best Husband/ Wife, etc. Try to know our nature/ inclinations and follow these inclinations in a complete manner. We will definitely encounter difficult situations where tough decisions are required – listen to your heart rather than your brain and move on. Incidentally, we may get some fruits of our actions – these may range from good marks in an examination, good bonus from our organization or we may become the Secretary General of the United Nations!!! It is equally possible that we may not get any fruit for our actions or we may get brickbats – it does not matter; having pursued a path, never look back on whether the action was right or wrong – just move on. This is not relevant; what is more important is for us to know and understand our inclinations, establish our purpose or role and pursue such an action using our heart as a guide. Enjoy the journey of life and do not get bogged down by focusing on outcomes of your path.

LIVE WITH AN OPEN MIND WITH INTROSPECTIVE OUTLOOK

We must try to remove color or prejudice about any event or any person or any vocation. We should not be judgmental about any aspect and thereby live life with an absolutely open mind. Such a life opens up tremendous opportunities and makes our life more interesting and satisfying.

What is however equally important is our action to introspect every event thoroughly. We must continually observe ourselves and our reactions on an objective person. It is as if we are observing each time we are getting angry or each time we are getting happy and wondering why we are getting angry or are feeling happy. This act of introspection will enhance our understanding of our own selves and such understanding will equip us with a lot of clarity of thought and action. If we flow with the feeling of joy or sorrow without understanding why we are feeling such emotions, we will be unable to use such knowledge to enhance our quality of life.

CONTEMPLATE THE GREATNESS OF GOD

We must contemplate the greatness of this universe and try to understand and appreciate its greatness. This will enable us to understand and reach closer to GOD. This is important and every action, every encounter with another person and every aspect of life involves GOD and it must therefore be felt in a spiritual manner. Knowing GOD does not mean only going to temple or singing BHAJANS. These are helpful but such attitude of prayer must be displayed in all aspects of life including our dealings with all persons and in all actions. God is everywhere – in our food, in all objects, in all actions and in all the other people (it is for this reason that even today, when an Indian accidentally touches another person by foot, they ask for forgiveness – because GOD exists in all Beings). Keeping sensible company is important as this will enable us to learn from good company and thereby benefit from it considerably. If you find time, do read scriptures (not only Hindu books but even those of other religions). Slowly but surely, once we deepen our understanding of GOD and his/ her working, we will be able to benefit from such knowledge and thereby position ourselves to benefit from such knowledge. A simple suggestion made in the GEETA on our approach to life is quoted here –

–       “Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer in Yagna (meaning actions we undertake in our life), whatever you give, whatever you practice as austerity, do it as an offering to Me”.

–        “Fix your mind on Me only, place your Intellect in Me; then (thereafter) you shall, no doubt live in Me alone”

–       If you are unable to fix your mind steadily upon Me, then by the Yoga of constant practice, seek to reach Me

–       If you are unable to do the Yoga of constant practice, be you intend on performing actions for My sake; even by doing actions for My sake, you shall attain perfection

–       If you are unable to even do the above, then taking refuge in Me, self-controlled, renounce the fruits of all actions.

Success is no doubt guaranteed for a person who is contemplating GOD all of his/ her life. To end our dialogue, I quote the GEETA again –

 

And whosoever, leaving the body, goes forth remembering Me alone, at the time of his death, he attains my being; there is no doubt about this. “I am easily attainable by that ever-steadfast YOGI who constantly remembers Me daily, not thinking of anything else”.

ALL THE BEST IN ALL YOUR ENDEAVOURS

Annexure

While I could have stopped at the previous page, I wish to add my comments on “Vegetarianism”. This is not really related to the main topic but gets frequently discussed in various forums. Since food is indeed an essential ingredient to our life, few comments on this are indeed worth mentioning. Why is there such a passionate discussion on this topic? Advocates of vegetarian food go to great lengths to defend their choice and the advocates of non-vegetarian food laugh at the self-imposed restrictions of the former. Who is therefore correct?

It is essential to come back to the main topic – the purpose of life. The Purpose of life is to get back to our real True Self – the purpose of life is spiritual enhancement. Such spiritual enhancement will necessarily mean gaining experience through multiple lives and such experience will thereby equip us with the necessary knowledge that our original True Self is indeed great and complete. What are we? WE are not the body but the body, mind and spirit (or Aatma). The mind and spirit can only function through a field of operation and this field is nothing else but the body. The manner in which we are designed today, the body needs energy to function properly and this is obtained from consumption of food. It is therefore essential that we eat proper food as this enriches the body which is the house of the Aatma. Bad food habits are harmful for the body and therefore, even spiritual enhancement cannot happen the body is not in a good shape (e.g., illness). It is obvious that when the body is sick, the mind is weak and our ability to gain experience through the medium of life gets disturbed completely – eating wholesome food is therefore very important. So far so good, I hope!!!

This neatly brings us to our topic – why vegetarian food? The essential goal of life is spiritual enhancement. Spiritual enhancement can occur if we use our life in an effective manner. To use our life in an effective manner, we need to eat proper food. We eat to live or not live to eat. By eating sufficient food and on a timely basis, we remain healthy and thereby this health will enable us to experience live in the most effective manner. The key principle is that we take from Nature what is sufficient for us and leave the rest for someone else. If there are 10 mangoes, maybe 2 are sufficient for my use and we can leave the rest to the other members of the community. What will today’s man do? Eat two mangoes and put the balance 8 in the refrigerator!!! This principal of life extends to other aspects of our behavior also – we want to take more than what is necessary and with this excessive life focus to GET rather than GIVE, we are straying from the principles necessary for spiritual enhancement.

What has this got to do with the debate between vegetarian food and non-vegetarian food? Actually….nothing – and this is the point. We need to eat sufficient food that is necessary to sustain life and use this life for meaningful pursuits. However, if we live to eat, we are unnecessarily attracted to food by loving it too much and thereby get diverted from our true purpose of spiritual enhancement. To quote another example, we have come across people who spend their entire life in pursing “Stamp Collection”. While this may be a sensible pursuit, what is the use of such life that spends every moment thinking about Stamps and nothing else!!! Bhishma was asked a question by Yudhistara on what food type is desirable? Bhishma replied that non-vegetarian food is indeed tastier, strength giving and wholesome but despite its merits, it is avoidable as people seeking spiritual enhancement will find it difficult to pursue such a path owing to their attraction to non-vegetarian food. There was a movie – “Gods must be Crazy” where the Africa hero of the movie actually seeks forgiveness from the deer that he was about to kill and states that he is killing out of necessity for survival of his family – a need based living indeed!!! What is however done today is that animals are fed costly food for many days till they become fat and are then killed for converting them into food. It is quite possible that much of such food goes wasted as it moves along the chain – from the butcher shop to the market to the home of the person. The conditions of rearing such animals are abominable and it also shows how merciless human is. This is not something that I know from some RSS website – there was a recent Hollywood movie which presented this true story (I forget the name, I must confess). Knowing all this, is it possible to eat non-vegetarian food? Forget spiritual aspect but is it really necessary to eat food that is generated out of so much violence and cruelty?

Eating vegetarian food and loving such food beyond what is necessary will also not enable spiritual enhancement. We throw parties (which is not a problem), call many people and at the end of the party, we observe that more than 50% of the food is wasted. We throw such food away. Killing animals is bad but wasting plant food is equally sinful – we are taking from nature more than what is necessary. It is not surprising that ancient society ensured that our human society survived for many thousands of years but the modern 20^th century which is proud of its scientific achievements is not sure whether it will last for another 100 years (there are more books/ movies talking about the end of the world in the last 100 years and this will make it seem that our ancient people were more optimistic than us). HAVE I STATED MY POINT?