Finding peace in unpeaceful times

Hari Aum.

We live in relatively troubled times. There is a lot of violence everywhere. Particularly in the name of religion which is unfortunate as religion and violence are as different as light and darkness.

The world has become a small place. News of violence in one part of the world spreads rapidly around the world. People become angry and feel helpless in the face of the seemingly never-ending violence.

The risk is the divisions in society that violence creates. Communities turn against each other. This creates even more violence and discord. It is a downward spiral.

How shall we avoid this downward spiral? What should our response be when violence occurs? It is normal, natural to feel upset and angry at the senseless violence that is taking place all over the world. We would not be human if we did not feel the pain of others who suffer. But we must not allow this pain to turn into hatred. That is dangerous. That will make us the same as the perpetrators of violence. We do not want that.

Sivananda lived through the second world war. He did intense sadhana to realise God between 1924 and 1931. In 1936, he founded the Divine Life Society of Rishikesh, India to spread the message of peace and harmony, of spiritual bliss and immortality to all. This was at a time when the horrific violence of the second world war was going on. He started non-stop chanting of the Hare Rama mahamantra for world peace. Such was his faith in the holy name of God. That chanting has continued until today and goes on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, non-stop, even at night.

We live in a sea of thoughts as Sivananda and the yogis say. When violent events occur in the world, there is great agitation in many people's minds. People experience anger, fear, sadness, helplessness, hatred and a desire for revenge. These are all negative emotions. The yogis say the emotions of others can affect us even when we are far away. Because, according to them, we are constantly transmitting and receiving thoughts, unknowingly. We share our good and bad thoughts with others and receive these from others too. (For anyone interested, Sivananda has written an excellent book on this subject called 'Thought power').

We need to stay strong at times like these. We cannot give in to negative emotions. The most effective, useful action we can take, for ourselves and others who suffer on this planet, is to repeat the name of God for the peace of all. Any name that we like. We should commit to this daily, no matter what else is happening in our lives. There will never be a time when we are not busy with something or the other. We cannot wait to begin this important task of prayer for peace and protection of all.

Then we need to accept that whatever happens, ultimately happens in accordance with the will of God. This is a plane of duality. There will always be a battle between good and evil forces on this planet. This is the nature of this world. We may be gripped with shock and grief from time to time, but we need to have an element of detachment to be able to maintain our mental balance. We are of more use to other human beings if we can handle our emotions maturely and remain calm as far as possible.

So my message today is: let us commit to chanting a mantra of God daily for our own mental peace and strength, as well as the peace of all beings. For the relief of suffering of all beings. This is a very great duty that we have and would be a true service to all the genuine Gurus that have ever existed and a worship of God Him/Herself.

From my side, I will do my best to complete the fourth purascharana which is ongoing. I have a lot going on in my life currently; however, I feel the mantra chanting is an essential part of my daily life and will keep this up. Whenever I feel upset or agitated, I notice this calms me down and gives me strength to keep going. I will therefore continue my purascharana for my own spiritual development as well as for world peace.

Hari Aum Tat Sat

The pathless path

Hari Aum.

The spiritual path truly is a pathless path. One size does not fit all here. There are some basic ingredients to spiritual life-- practice of ethics, control of the senses, karma yoga, bhakti yoga, jnana yoga, raja yoga.

We each have to synthesise a unique path that works for us, that we can practice given our unique life circumstances. Like chefs creating a unique recipe, we have to examine the various ingredients of sadhana and combine them in a way that works for us. Another person's recipe may not suit our spiritual stomach as it were. We need to find the unique spiritual food recipe that suits our temperament.

Some may practice intense asana and pranayama and try to raise the kundalini. Others may read spiritual books and meditate on the abstract formless God. Still others may do group chanting of the names of God and engage in pujas and ritual worship. Some may throw themselves into selfless service of living beings as a worship of God. Others may give great gifts in charity and practice extraordinary vows of prolonged silence and fasting to control the turbulent senses.

When we read about the lives of spiritual greats of times gone by, they serve as an inspiration to us. But we need not precisely copy their spiritual recipe, just as they did not copy anyone else. Each spiritually successful person of the past found a unique spiritual path that worked for him or her.

What works for us is not something that we will find in books. This knowledge has to come from within us. We know ourselves like nobody else does. We know our minds like few others do. Based on our past experiences and knowledge of what we are capable of, we need to synthesise a unique formula of spiritual practice that we can actually practice. Because it is only actual practice that counts in spiritual life. Day-dreaming about sadhana that we will do later or wish we could do will get us nowhere.

'Be up and doing', my Guru Sivananda used to say. And that is what we need to do. Be up and doing. As Sivananda says, we are the makers of our destiny. Nobody can make or mar our destiny except ourselves. In this spiritual endeavour we have the Divine Him/Herself as our trusted partner. If we are sincere, we are bound to succeed. That is after all what we are born for.

In the Bhagavatam, there is a bit that says that Narayana was not satisfied in His heart after creating numerous birds, animals and other species. He then created the human being, who alone was capable of intuiting the spiritual truth of life, and then felt satisfied. This tells us of the value of human life and what we are capable of. In our own ordinary life, we can experience extraordinary inner change through sadhana. If Narayana was not satisfied until He created us, then we should also not be satisfied until we fulfil the purpose for which He created us....that purpose is the attainment of the spiritual goal of life.

Hari Aum Tat Sat

The doves: a story from the Srimad Bhagavatam

Hari Aum.

I would like to share an interesting story from the Srimad Bhagavatam. When Lord Krishna was preparing to withdraw His physical incarnation from Earth, His devotee, Uddhava, approached Him for spiritual teaching. They then had a detailed discussion on a variety of spiritual topics (similar to the Bhagavad Gita but more detailed in certain respects) and this is called the 'Uddhava Gita'.

As part of His teaching, Krishna told Uddhava the story of a discussion between a wandering ascetic, the enlightened avadhuta, and a great king known as Yadu. The avadhuta told King Yadu that he learned about spiritual life from 24 'gurus' (which included the five elements, sun, moon, and various animals, birds and people). One of the 'gurus' was a pair of doves.

The ascetic explained that, in the forest, there lived a pair of doves who were greatly fond of each other. They were always together while they ate, slept and flew about, and were completely absorbed in thoughts of each other. In time, they built a nest and had some beautiful baby birds whom they loved very much. One day, as usual, the parent birds flew away from the nest briefly to get some food for their children. While they were away, a hunter passed by and saw the nest. He placed a net over the nest and went away, planning to return later. In the meantime, the parents returned.

Upon seeing their baby birds caught in the hunters net, the parent doves were filled with shock and grief. The mother bird immediately rushed to her babies in the hope of rescuing them but only became entangled in the net herself. The father bird, seeing what had happened to his family, began to lament. He asked himself what use there was in living without his family. Feeling that life was hopeless, he decided to share the unhappy fate of his family and also flew into the net. Thus, both parent doves and their children became trapped in the hunter's net. A little while later, the hunter returned and was delighted to see his fine catch. He collected up the net with all the doves and went home feeling very satisfied.

The avadhuta told King Yadu that the story of the doves taught him that excessive attachment to worldly life led to suffering. He said that a soul who had got a human body was greatly fortunate as the doors of spiritual freedom were now open wide. If such a soul frittered away their precious lifetime in living a sensual life, like the doves, it would be like falling down from a very high position. Thus concludes the avadhuta's story of the doves as told by Lord Krishna to Uddhava.

I found this story quite interesting. It clearly is a metaphor for human life. The net is the net of samsara or Maya. The hunter is Lord Yama, the demi-god of death. All of us human beings, who have taken birth on Earth, are the doves caught in the net.

If we do nothing, we will ourselves be taken away by Lord Yama, and we will also have to watch as our beloved relatives are taken away one by one. Like the doves in the story, we too will have to experience pain, suffering and death. This is our default situation. However, this will happen only if we do nothing. We can however, do something-- that is the excellent part.

We human beings hopefully have more intelligence than the unlucky doves in the story. We have enough brains to realise we are in a net, the net of pain, disease and death-- the net of Yama, the net of Maya. We also are blessed enough to have the spiritual scissors to cut this net that binds us down-- that scissors is sadhana. We need to be smart enough to use this scissors, that is all.

The most powerful spiritual scissors, suitable for Kali Yuga, is the name or mantra of God. With this scissors of the mantra of God, we can steadily cut away the net that entangles us. This will allow us in time to spread our wings, fly away and experience freedom, peace and bliss. We can also use this scissors to pray for our relatives, friends and the entire world, so that all may become free of the net of Yama. Unlike the birds in the story, we can free ourselves and also inspire others to free themselves with the powerful spiritual scissors of mantra japa.

May we become free of the hunter's net in this very lifetime. May we use our spiritual scissors smartly to ensure this. May Lord Yama not get the better of us. May the grace of God and Guru be with us all and grant us supreme success in our spiritual endeavours.

Hari Aum Tat Sat