COMMUNIALISM, SECULIARISM AND TRULY RELIGIOUS MIND

COMMUNIALISM, SECULIARISM AND TRULY RELIGIOUS MIND

COMMUNALISM

Religions have promised roses but you end up with only thorns. – UG Krishnamurti. Millions have been killed in the name of God, in the name of religion, faith and belief. Mankind is divided by religions. Even in the modern civilization we can observe one faith against another, one sect against another, locking horns and trying to establish it’s own superiority. The fight is not just between religions but among the various subsects of a particular religion too. Even the politicians thrive on this division, stimulating people and encouraging them to stand up for their religion, and we feel very enthusiastic to stand up and fight for such cause as it gives us the strange  sense of being righteous and nobler to be identified with such great cause. Religions, with their hierarchical structure has captured and dominated human mind for centuries, and man, in his despair and in search for security submitted to these institutionalized religions, hoping that it will take him closer to the God.

But a closer introspection and skeptical evaluation of these religions will reveal the futility of submission to any structured, organized or institutionalized religious body. Even the study of the religions will show that institutionalization of religions contradicts the very purpose of religion. Religions, as we know today is set of beliefs, ideas dogmas and prejudices and we identify and conform ourselves to a particular box of ideas - prejudices - beliefs – dogmas and then hold the other box in opposition, fighting against it or trying to win them over to our point of views. From the earliest days of religious history, holy war was considered sacred institution, undertaken as a cultic act of a religious community. War between Protestants and Catholics, between Islam and Christians or between Sunni Shiite and Christians to the French war of religions and Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Although every religion encourages the idea of peace and tolerance, almost no one remains in peace or tolerates anything when it comes to their religion. History is full of religious wars and some of them have continued for years and killed millions.

SECULARISM

To combat this problem of communalism and realizing the catastrophic consequences of wars human mind has developed the idea of secularism. ‘Secularism draws its intellectual roots from Greek and Roman philosophers such as Marcus Aurelius and Epicurus; from Enlightenment thinkers such as Denis Diderot, Voltaire, Baruch Spinoza, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Paine; and from more recent freethinkers and atheists such as Robert Ingersoll and Bertrand Russell. ‘The term "secularism" was first used by the British writer George Jacob Holyoake in 1851. Although the term was new, the general notions of free thought on which it was based had existed throughout history.

Holyoake invented the term "secularism" to describe his views of promoting a social order separate from religion, without actively dismissing or criticizing religious belief. An agnostic himself, Holyoake argued that "Secularism is not an argument against Christianity, it is one independent of it. It does not question the pretensions of Christianity; it advances others. Secularism does not say there is no light or guidance elsewhere, but maintains that there is light and guidance in secular truth, whose conditions and sanctions exist independently, and act forever. Secular knowledge is manifestly that kind of knowledge which is founded in this life, which relates to the conduct of this life, conduces to the welfare of this life, and is capable of being tested by the experience of this life. ( From Wikipedia ).No doubt the idea of secularism is more utopian than real. Contemplating honestly on this subject of communalism we should realize that the problem lies else where and no external agency, no legislation to control man’s behaviors will ever help. This may sound pessimistic but this is the reality of the situation. On lighter note, to justify myself I would quote Nietzsche- “Cynicism is the only form in which base souls approach honesty.” 

As UG Krishnamurti has rightly said “ As long as you waved your flag you cannot talk of peace because other chap is also waving his flag.” True, how can we possibly think of the world where false and truth co exists, where the cause of division and love that is binding, that is inclusive and whole can co exists? We need to identify the root cause of division, in all it’s manifestations as class division , as ideological and religious division and eradicate it from the very root. The patch work of pseudo secularism is not going to help.

To sum up the flaws of secularism in few words I would quote the saying of J Krishnamurti - “When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.”

To sum up we must remember " 'Self' is the greatest disease and pestilence on man" - Shri Bhagavan and any action springs from the ‘ I ‘ whether communalistic or secular is divisive.

A TRULY RELIGIOUS MIND

“A truly religious man does not belong to any religion ” – J Krishnamurti.

Religion as I have understood from my limited study and contemplation is a passion to discover the ultimate source and the dissolution of individual consciousness into ( If I may say) God – consciousness and in this process we negate all that is false, all that is creating division and strengthening the ‘I’ consciousness. So the structure of religious culture is built on a wrong foundation because instead of demolishing the barrier and divisive consciousness it has strengthened it.

“I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. ... The moment you follow someone you cease to follow Truth.” – J Krishnamurti. One may argue that religions are there to help people to lead to the truth as all religions expounds the theory of love and brotherhood but it has not done it’s job on contrary it has amplified the divisions and leads to mass – scale  massacres.

“The truly religious man is not the one who practices so-called religion, who holds to certain dogmas and beliefs, who performs certain rituals, or pursues knowledge, for he is merely seeking another form of gratification. The man who is truly religious is completely free from society, he has no responsibility towards society; he may establish a relationship with society, but society has no relationship with him. Society is organized religion, the economic and social structure, the whole environment in which we have been brought up; and does that society help man to find God, truth it matters little what name you give it - , or does the individual who is seeking God create a new society? That is, must not the individual break away from the existing society, culture, or civilization? Surely, in the very breaking away he discovers what is truth, and it is that truth which creates the new society, the new culture…What is religion? Actually, what is religion? First of all to find out what is religion we must negate what it is not. What it is not; then it is. It's like seeing what is not love. Love is not hate, love is not jealousy, love is not ambition, love is not violence. When you negate all that, the other is, which is compassion. In the same way if you negate what is not religion then you find out what is true religion; that is, what is the truly religious mind. Belief is not religion, and the authority which the churches, the organized religions assume, is not religion. In that there is all the sense of obedience, conformity, acceptance, the hierarchical approach to life. The division between the Protestant, the Catholic, the Hindu, the Moslem, that's not religion. When you negate all that, which means you are no longer a Hindu, no longer a Catholic, no longer belonging to any sectarian outlook, then your mind questions, asks what is true religion? This is free from their ritual, without their masters, without their Saviour; all that is not religion. When the mind discards that, intelligently, because it has seen that it's not religion, then it can ask what is religion. Religion is not what I think, but religion is the sense of comprehension of the totality of existence, in which there is no division between you and me. Then if there is that quality of goodness which is virtue, real virtue not the phony virtue of society, but real virtue, then the mind can go beyond and find out, through meditation, through a deep, quiet silence, if there is such a thing as reality. Therefore a religious mind is a mind that is constantly aware, sensitive, attentive, so that it goes beyond itself into a dimension where there is no time at all. - J Krishnamurti

This is the truth that our Upanishads and Vedantas has talked about, they have never gave an idea of institutionalized religion but talked about religious mind which has the quality of questioning and negating that which is false and breeds division.

Om 
Purnamadah Purnamidam
Purnat Purnamudachyate
Purnasya Purnamadaya
Purnameva Vashishyate
Om shanti, shanti, shanti

This insightful verse from Isha Upanishad  celebrates the idea of whole – ness ( the absence of plurality ) That is the whole, this is the whole; from the whole, the whole becomes manifest; taking away the whole from the whole, 
the whole remains. Om. Peace! Peace! Peace!

To sum up : The human being realise that we are all One, basically not as an idea but as a fact
because when you go to India you see the miserythe confusion, the anxiety, the despair of people
If you come to Europe, it's exactly the same thing .You'll sense a thirst to realise, not verbally
but in your heart, in your blood, your whole thinkingthat humans beings right through the world
go through the same agonies that one goes through the loneliness, the despair, the depressions
The extraordinary uncertainty, insecurity whether they live ten thousand miles away or two thousand miles, or here they're all psychologically bound together.If one realises that profoundly in your guts
In your blood, in your heart, in your mind then you are religious.

THE MEDITATION OF ‘SEEING ‘ OR ‘THE CHOICELESS AWARENESS’

What is true Self Knowledge is it assuming about immortality of soul, of re – incarnations or of supposed eternity of Atman, or repeating to oneself that one is brahman?? I believe none of these, I am afraid however profound, lofty or esoteric these phrases sound but these are all in the area of conceptions and speculations based on the ideas we have gathered by reading scriptures and religious books. These are second hand knowledge without much substance.

Then how to begin with this profound meditation of self – knowing, of understanding and freeing one own self. We must “Start near to go far ” , we must begin with “ Where we are not where we want to be ”. That requires tremendous patience and passivity of mind, not a mind that is eager and greedy for the results , mind in becoming, becoming somebody in the realm of spirituality. We must start with the process of self exposure, exposing ourselves to ourselves. We must watch our own movement of thoughts, our mind, the SELF ( totality of emotions- feelings – thinking which creates the I – consciousness, sense of an individual entity ) without judging, without condemning, suppressing or justifying but just to see without any identification. To quote mystic – philosopher- seer J Krishnamurti “So, being aware of a thought or a feeling as it arises, without condemning it or identifying with it, you will find that it unfolds ever more widely and deeply, and thereby discover the whole content of 'what is' .To understand the process of 'what is' there must be choiceless awareness, a freedom from condemnation, justification, and identification…The awareness of which I am speaking is of 'what is' from moment to moment, of the activities of thought and its subtle deceptions, fears, and hope. Choiceless awareness wholly dissolves our conflicts and miseries.”  “Like most people, you have ideals, have you not? And the ideal is not real, not factual; it is what should be, it is something in the future. Now, what I say is this: forget the ideal, and be aware of what you are. Do not pursue 'what should be', but understand 'what is'. The understanding of what you actually are is far more important than the pursuit of what you should be. Why? Because, in understanding what you are, there begins a spontaneous process of transformation; whereas, in becoming what you think you should be, there is no change at all, but only a continuation of the same old thing in a different form.” – J Krishnamurti. But we want comfort and not the discovery of truth, we don’t want to destroy the illusions which give us certain sense of security, identity and vitality. Sri Bhagavan has point out our reluctance to ‘See’ ourselves as we are “ To postpone ( seeing ) is another trick of mind for its continued security , to postpone ( seeing ) is the height of hypocrisy, to postpone ( seeing ) is to deny freedom forever”.

We can assume about God, about eternal soul but that is not going to free us, to the most it can balm our aching mind and drug us to sleep, mind being the product of time can never know the TIMELESS, mind being the perpetrator of all problems and sorrow can never touch ecstasy. That is why our sages and seers talk of mano – nasha, annihilation of mind. ‘Seeing’ or ‘ The choiceless awareness’  can be the first step towards it. For my personal experience I can only say that this process of ‘awareness’ helped me to a great extent, I have experienced moments of deep relaxation, joy and penetrating insights. May we all awaken into Awareness.

CHAKRA DHAYAN

Chakra Dhyana is one of the most powerful sadhanas. It ensures a quick growth of the practitioner and take him to a very serene and tranquil state of existence. Its a simple combination of mantra, yantra, asana and pranayama. It helps to awaken kundalini and activate the chakras or the energy centers. Each chakra has its own charecteristic features; its own symbols, deities, vija mantra ( Follow the pictures below )
There are seven chakras: Mooladhara, Swadhistana, Manipura, Anahata, Vishuddhi, Ajneya, Sahasrara.
Vij mantras :
 Mooladhara - Lang
Swadhistana - Vang
Manipura - Rang 
Anahata - Yang
Vishuddhi - Hang
Ajneya - AUM
Sahasrara - O Gum Satyam Aum

Sit in a comfortable position. sukha asana or padma asana. Close your eyes and sit erect. Place your thumb with index finger. Visualize symbols of particular chakra at the specific region of the body and chant the vija mantra. One can repeat the vija mantra for 5, 7 or even 21 times. At the end chant Kundalini arohanam visualising a golden fluid flooding the chakra turning it into golden in colour. Do the same with all the chakras. Once completed lye down into savasana.

CHIEF SEATTLE'S LETTER

"The President in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. But how can you buy or sell the sky? the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?
Every part of the earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every meadow, every humming insect. All are holy in the memory and experience of my people.
We know the sap which courses through the trees as we know the blood that courses through our veins. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters. The bear, the deer, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the dew in the meadow, the body heat of the pony, and man all belong to the same family.
The shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water, but the blood of our ancestors. If we sell you our land, you must remember that it is sacred. Each glossy reflection in the clear waters of the lakes tells of events and memories in the life of my people. The water's murmur is the voice of my father's father.
The rivers are our brothers. They quench our thirst. They carry our canoes and feed our children. So you must give the rivers the kindness that you would give any brother.
If we sell you our land, remember that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with all the life that it supports. The wind that gave our grandfather his first breath also received his last sigh. The wind also gives our children the spirit of life. So if we sell our land, you must keep it apart and sacred, as a place where man can go to taste the wind that is sweetened by the meadow flowers.
Will you teach your children what we have taught our children? That the earth is our mother? What befalls the earth befalls all the sons of the earth.
This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.
One thing we know: our God is also your God. The earth is precious to him and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its creator.
Your destiny is a mystery to us. What will happen when the buffalo are all slaughtered? The wild horses tamed? What will happen when the secret corners of the forest are heavy with the scent of many men and the view of the ripe hills is blotted with talking wires? Where will the thicket be? Gone! Where will the eagle be? Gone! And what is to say goodbye to the swift pony and then hunt? The end of living and the beginning of survival.
When the last red man has vanished with this wilderness, and his memory is only the shadow of a cloud moving across the prairie, will these shores and forests still be here? Will there be any of the spirit of my people left?
We love this earth as a newborn loves its mother's heartbeat. So, if we sell you our land, love it as we have loved it. Care for it, as we have cared for it. Hold in your mind the memory of the land as it is when you receive it. Preserve the land for all children, and love it, as God loves us.
As we are part of the land, you too are part of the land. This earth is precious to us. It is also precious to you.
One thing we know - there is only one God. No man, be he Red man or White man, can be apart. We ARE all brothers after all."

Have you noticed how, throughout the world therefore in your own life, sex has become extraordinarily important? You are all very strangely silent. Talk about Ramayana and Gita, you all burst with energy .Talk about your daily life you all subside. You duck your heads when one talks about sex. Look at your faces; its so obvious. You are frightened, you are nervous, embarrassed, shy, guilty, which all shows that it has become tremendously important in your life. Why?

Energy comes only when you completely lose yourself, when there is total absence of yourself. And that takes place when you have sex; for a second everything ends, and you have pleasure of it. Then thought picks it up, create images, wanting it more and more and more. Therefore that becomes the most extraordinarily important factor of your life because you have nothing else. You have no brain capacity; you are confused, miserable, unhappy human beings. You are not intense. You have no passion to stand alone, to see clearly something and stand by it; you are frightened.

And what you have left? Sex. And all religions say  ‘Don’t have sex’ and you are full of sex, and you try not to be sexual. So you have a battle with yourself the more you battle., the more important it becomes

No one can cause me to suffer like wise no one can free me of my suffering

There are two ways in which people can share a relationship. One is, they are conflict free they have found peace within themselves, they are happy people, they have discovered love in them, and from that place of love, from that place of joy they actually relate. All these higher state of consciousness- joy, love bring about connectedness.

The other way of relationship, which you can see in many cases, which is the usual conflicted relationship, where you are relating because you want to run away from the conflict. There is discomfort within, there is lack of peace within and you are struggling with so many things within you and the only way to evade this is to somehow seek out another and expect them to heal or expect them to be kind to you, to share love with you so that in their company you can forget your conflicts. This relationship will be turbulent, at times you deeply feel loved, you feel deeply accepted, but eventually your inner conflict will take over.

What can liberate you, is the process of self awareness, when you start paying attention to your emotions to your thoughts, specifically in moments of emotional disturbances  or insecurity, if instead of projecting out from those conflicted state, instead of blaming somebody for that conflicted state, if you were to move your attention inwards and really starts asking yourself - what is this emotion all about, why am I so conflicted? What am I really thinking? If you start paying attention you will discover a lot about what you are internally. We all know what we are externally but we may not so totally know what we are internally. And if there is a huge divide between our external personality and internal reality that itself is going to be the cause of conflict because you are something inside and something outside. When there is awareness, there is merging of these two sides of the individual. Your external world is aligning with your internal world therefore conflict ceases.

The foremost realization one has to have not only in relationship but in life is that, people or external situations could provide you with comfort but they really cannot create happiness or love within you. Happiness or love is always personal discovery. The characteristic feature of a relationship that is from a conflicted place is that there is a lot of expectations for love from the other. And why do we really expect love from the other – because we some how believe that the other has the responsibility of liberating me of my suffering which is a huge responsibility and no one can really take this responsibility.

Every individual has to be personally responsible for their own happiness. No one or no situation can cause you to suffer. When we are talking of suffering we don’t mean external suffering for which people can be responsible but we are talking of internal suffering. How are you emotionally responding, what are you feeling in those moments of emotional crises.

No one can cause me to suffer like wise no one can free me of my suffering. If it is an external challenge yes all of us can come together and can solve it but if it is an internal state which I have created due to wrong application of thoughts how can somebody come and bail me out. It’s only my awareness that can set me free and that is the spiritual process and that is the spiritual journey. It starts with the realization that your happiness is in your hands and you can set your self free whenever you choose to.

4 Personalities

The first thing to understand is that there is no person inside us, only personalities. We may have a lot of personalities inside us, but to have a clear vision we must have atleast four strong personalities. These four personalities are, the king personality, warrior personality, the magician personality, and the mink personality. The king is that which is clear headed and decisive. The warrior personalities is that which is never tired of fighting. The magician thinks everything is possible. The monk personality is one who leads a simple, austere life and is completely detached from any situation. The youth must deliberately practice these personalities and cultivate them and apply them to different situations to their lives. As they keep on applying them something very strange happens. They'll get almost like a movie, a full vision of their life and what is the best thing to do and what you will love to do. Th econnections will happen very naturally and they will also know how to go aboput it. And things will fall into places. That is how the youth must discover their vision. _ Shri Bhagavan

External Integrity

The external integritty is very poerful tool that must be used very carefully. It is not merely speaking of the truth, but it is speaking of the truth without any sense of fear. Now it may not be possible to do always, in that case we would not advise to follow external truth. But if and when used, it is a remarkably powerful tool, but quite dangerous also if you are not prepare for it.

For example, I often tell when you are not enlightened , do not behave like one. When you are not a Mahatma Gandhi, do not behave like one. I often say when Gandhi faced the British bullets. it never really hit Him And then I say if somebody behave like Gandhi the first bullet would hit him. Because your very fear will attract the bullet to hit you. One should not behave like you have courage and strenth when one does not really have them.

To give an example in India someone came to our courses and learnt about external integrity. But he forget the strategic warning that we gave that you should not practise that unless you have the courage to take it on. And not merely speaking of the facts, but of the inner cycle. You must come from what you have discovered on the inside and speak it out. Now this gentleman went to his boss's office and told him " Boss I dont like you." The boss said "Fine". "Look you are a crook." The Boss said, "Then Get lost". The man said, "I know all corrupt things you have done. The boss said, "Please stop it" . The man added "I have also been also corrupt. I am also corrupt." The Boss dismissed him from his job on the spot.

The man questioned a dasa about the teaching. What kind of teachings are you giving? I thought there was power in it, and I lost my job. We gave him correction. It has to come from inside and, and if you have the courage, then you must speak it. Truth is a concept to you.

You can only lift the weight that you can handle. You must not lift beyond your capacity. To what extent you can be truthful without being hurt.

Ther must be a deep inner conviction when practised, it is amazingly powerful, because the mind stops day dreaming. All the time playing with concepts, constructing emotions, constructing thoughts, onstructing feelings. It's a machine that just cannot be quiet. Its all the time building up things. A lot of things you'll find is actually build up by mind. There is no truth to it, not fact in it. When practised external integrity this mechanism slows down and the mind becomes very very quite. Only if you have the strength you must practise external integrity otherwise you must not practise it.

- Shri Bhagavan.

Inner Integrity

Inner integrity is a tool to see what is happening inside us.It does not judge, it does not condemn, it does not offer explainations. I t is merely seeing what is going on. As you go inside, you'll discover that there are terrible things inside you, there is fear, there is lust, there is anger, there is jealousy, there is envy, there is no love, there is no connectedness. You'll see a lot of terrible things. You may not like what you see but then, you must continue to see what is there. Then you will discover that what is there is not only in you, but in every human mind. Not only in human mind, but it has always been so ever since man came on the planet. You will then discover that these are aspects of human mind. It has been so for milleniums. The mind has not changed. The brain has not dramatically changed for few milleniums. fear is there, Desire is there, anger is there, jealousy is there, love is not there, etc. Objects has changed but structure has not changed. Mn have been fear of tiger earlier and now fear of stock market. You'll then discover that there is no change possible. When the immpossibility of change strikes you, your mind falls silent. Without effort, without energy, you'll find very naturally there is acceptence, followed by love and very soon it is followed by presence. If you follow external integrity also it will be very powerful, but also very dangerous, so I dont advise you to do unless you have the strength to do it. - Shri Bhagavan

Imee Ooi - Usnisa Vijaya Dharani Sutra

LEARNING IS TO UNLEARN

My endless prostrations at the lotus feet of my beloved Bhagavan. Bhagavan's sutra's are like seeds that grows with time and reveal its meaning in its true profoundity with time. Intelect alone cannot help us to grasp the true meaning of these sutras, along with subtlety to assimilate the teachings we need to have a sort of vacant mind to receive grace so that we could really understand the sutras.

One of the most profound sutra of Shri Bhagavan is that ALL LEARING IS TO UNLEARN. When we learn something new we unlearn something old, but if we are stuck with the past knowledge we cannot move forward. Most of the time our prejudice becomes a hinderance to unlearn something that we know, we not only become possesive of our mundane possesions but also about our knowledge. Actually our ego survives through our knowledge or we can say what we call " I " is the knowledge, not that there is some entity that is accumulating knowledge but what is there is this accumulation of knowledge and end of these knowledge is end of " I ", so we dare not to let go what we know. If doubt arises in your mind about what Bhagavan is suggesting about unlearning is in accordance to our traditional scriptures or not I would like you to remind the Upanishadic doctrine of Neti Neti or negetion. What is that eternal knowledge we dont know and cannot be known by any means of conceptual knowledge what we can do is to negetate all conceptual knowledge and what remains is that pure knowledge, that can never be the part of our conscious existence.

Can knowledge be of any use to experience the reality of anything? Certainly not even the so called day to day experiences that we have taken for granted as something substantial is questionable. The tool we use to experience anything, namely mind is itself an illusion, so it cannot be of any help to understand any thing, to experience anything and what is mind afterall its flow of knowledge which is memory. What we experince through that is projection of our memory or thought or kowledge. Say as a baby we have been told that this is a computer from there after whenever we look at it we say its computer...............there is no way of directly experiencing it at all. If that knowledge ( the word computer, words and thoughts are same ) is absent then there is no way these physical eyes can seperate itself from what it is looking at. That is why Bhagavan says the experiencer and the experienced are same that the mind is creating this trifurcation of experiencer, experienced and the process of experiencing. When we unlearn the knowledge we have or let go the memory our sensory experiencing becomes extraordinory but can we unlearn by ourselves certainly not since what we call " I " is that movement of knowledge.........we need grace for such a thing to happen.

Let us pray to our beloved Shri Amma Bhagavan to bestow upon us that grace of Liberation.....Liberation from knowledge.

OM

SAT - CHIT - ANANDA PARABRAHMA PURUSHOTTAMA PARAMATMA

SRI BHAGAVATI SAMETA

SRI BHAGAVATE NAMAHA

My best wishes to all for 2011. May Amma Bhagavan's divine grace bestow upon all of us in abundance

"Where is the life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
The cycles of heaven in twenty centuries
Bring us further from God and nearer to the dust." T.S Eliot.