It is Deepawali time now and most of the Indians are surrounded by bright lights and cacophony of sound in the form of crackers filling our neighbourhoods. As usual, media is littered with articles on the relevance of crackers with arguments of the resultant noise and air pollution causing inconvenience to many (if not all). Schools are also advising children to either avoid or minimize the use of crackers and there does appear to be an impact in the society which is seeing far less cracker bursting than what we were used to when I was a kid.

What I have stated above is however not an isolated debate in my opinion. When one talks about temples, many people appear disturbed after visiting a temple and state that their peace of mind has got worse after visiting the temple. Especially if one talks of popular temples, people end up standing in line for long hours for a mere Darshan of a few seconds besides coming across all sorts of people behaving in all sorts of manners as they are standing in the line. Of course, it is the educated elite who come back more disturbed as the humble normal Indian is quite used to this rabble and internalized this as normal. When therefore one visits the Bahai temple in Delhi where people are informed that they must keep peace and quiet inside the vicinity, logically, people must feel connected with such a place and frequent such a place periodically. What is however observed is that most run away within a few seconds while others stay on for a tad longer but peace continues to elude them. Why? It appears as if while people are uncomfortable with sounds and noises within our temples, they are equally uncomfortable with complete silence.

One is also reminded of Puja rituals which we have been witnessing within our homes. As kids, we are used to seeing our parents/ grandparents telling the whle house to be silent as they are undertaking Puja with the logic that in silence, they will be able to pray with higher concentration. However, with this mindset, it becomes evident that they become highly sensitive to the perception of sound around themselves and this overt sensitivity manifests in the form of high level of anger during the entire Puja time as a consequence of which both the Puja-doer as well as people around them are highly stressed during this time. The deity must be laughing all through this time!!!!!!!!!!!!

The moot point is to get to the underlying thought behind the above world=view. A certain mindset exists in many people that appears to believe in the principle of exclusion. Using the above examples, the following appear to be the propositions:

a. Sound is disturbing and Deepawali must be celebrated without sound
b. Temples are zones of peace and quiet and noisy temples are therefore avoidable.
c. Only in pin-drop silence can one pray to Ishwar.

We seem to want to exclude ALL to get to the ultimate which actually includes ALL!!!!!

Swami Krishnananda remains my favourite Guru-Swami-Thinker-Writer-… and thankfully, his disciples have made available his vast corpus of knowledge on the site http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/. The depth to which he pushes our thoughts is amazing and once you have internalized his teachings (which is a difficult task of course), life will never be the same again. In his paper titled Yoga, Meditation and Japa Sadhana, he refers to the point about the idea of integral unity emphasized by the ancient Indian thought. The world is therefore not a mechanical connection of assorted objects but a connection that is vital and organic. An example of a mechanical connection is a heap of stones struck close to one another. Indian thought, he says, however emphasizes the concept that the entire world is organically connected to one another just like different cells within a human body come together but the human body feels one and connected. The world is similarly connected as one body of a Cosmic Individual whom we refer to as VIRAT or ISHWAR. For connection to thus be vital or organic, a test will be that if one part of the whole is removed, the entire whole suffers. Therefore, while removal of one stone from a pile of stones does not vitiate the character and status of other stones (thereby implying that the connection is mechanical), removal of one limb (or even a finger) impacts the entire body thereby implying that the connection is integral/ organic/ vital.

How does the above idea change our lives? Simplistically, it means that during meditation, our minds must work with the idea of inclusiveness instead of the principle of exclusion. During Puja, if our kids shout and make noise, there is no need to glare at them angrily but instead smile at their indulgences and get back to focusing on our chosen deity. This mindset is indeed put to test in Indian temples. Firstly, you have alluring & seductive images of deities at the exterior of the temple walls and once you are inside, you witness everything that you witness in a society outside (maybe much more – hahaha). There are some people collecting money, some people shouting at others, some temple staff are pushing the devotees, children ringing bells, Pujaris chanting shlokas, flowers splashed and milk offered to deities which in turn gets collected in via-ducts and flows into drains which are cleaned all through the day, people eating prasada but some people carelessly throwing Prasada on the ground which is again cleaned up a cleaner using an outdated broom making a lot of noise in the process. The highlight of the trip is of course a smiling deity or an angry deity in the middle of a dark room where only the face is visible thanks to DIYAS lighted around the deity but this vision lasts for a few micro-seconds till one is pushed away by the temple staff.

So how does one achieve peace of mind? It took Swami Krishnananda to convey the idea that peace must not be sought outside but one must achieve peace inside. The temple, like the world outside, represents the world “as-is” and one must observe all these with amusement and constantly watch one-self as to whether one is able to remain peaceful inside with the mind fixed on the deity despite the so-called chaos outside. In my recent visit to the Sri Mookambika temple in Kollur Karnataka, I actually looked around attempting to wear this mindset. I patiently stood in the long lines, saw a whole load of people around me furiously doing their chores – i was however not disturbed much by the seeming chaos and much of my earlier yearnings of seeking an external peace seemed infantile. I fact started enjoying the rhythm of the temple which seemed chaotic but in the larger context was also following a lifestyle that appears to be consistent and rhythmic. I do not want to sound too poetic since I am still a very novice devotee but this mindset change I felt was the first step in re-looking at life compared with the earlier infantile cravings.

Is the above in any manner helpful in our practical day to day “secular” life? Absolutely – in my opinion. As one drives down the chaotic roads of India and participates in the traffic woes, wearing this new mindset suddenly reduces the road rage that I used to experience earlier. Every driver who is breaking lanes, slows down, etc does not appear like a villain to me (of course, some immature teenage kids and motorcycle drivers still do – hahaha) but many appear to be merely negotiating their way to reach their destination. Each time someone used to slow down the traffic, I realize subsequently that the reason is either because some pedestrian must have crossed the way or the driver encountered a pothole or some other reason. The causes or triggers for road rage come down significantly (as though fully eliminated for a preliminary Sadhaka like me) and driving becomes a far more pleasant experience. Even in office, the different characters whom we start interacting with seem normal though different and unlike earlier, I start enjoying the differences in people rather than wanting all people in behave in a so-called “professional” manner. Of course, it does not mean tolerating the “intolerable” and our “spontaneous” reaction in an objective manner is also part of the WHOLE (just like anti-bodies are also part of the human body).

Nature has huge differences and these differences make it beautiful. All the various people in the world are different and this difference makes life more exciting. We crave to eat something different every day, crave to travel to a NEW location every day, etc and experience of these differences makes us grow and expand ourselves. The possibility of applying the “enveloping all” approach is limitless, what is limited is our own imagination in applying the principle to all situations. Over a period of time, such approach consistently applied will lead us to the smiling expression of the Divine Principle that lies hidden in the Garbha Griha of the temple of the Universe which indeed forms the basis of the Unity of the Universe, the Sookshma Tattva of the Universe, the Purushottama

OM TAT SAT