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By Mahendra Mathur, on 10-08-2009 18:57  

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Sufism      

Sufism is important because it is in this tradition that the more spiritual and mystical aspects of Islam are preserved. This stands in contrast to the mainstream of Islam which, through its first centuries, was more concerned with the expansion and organization of the general community. The original Sufis were basically mystics - people who followed a pious form of Islam and who believed that a direct, personal experience of God could be achieved through meditation and self-discipline.

Although the Sufis tended to integrate beliefs and practices which came from outside Islam, those beliefs and practices were integral in the cultures to which Islam had been transplanted.

Conclusion 

Sufi Islam has a lot of potential in stemming the tide of extremism in the sub-continent. It is also a much more tolerant and secular form of religion that reaches out to all sorts of people irrespective of their caste, creed, ethnicity, colour, or race. The governments of all the three countries have a responsibility to replace the current teachings in Madrassas with the gentler Sufi teachings combined with the core teachings of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Confucius.

                   DAYANANDA AND HEGEL

His Life

Swami Dayanand Saraswati Natarajan was born in Manjakudi - Thiruvarur district of Tamil Nadu on August 15, 1930. He became interested in Vedanta after listening to the public talks of Swami Chinmayananda. He became involved with the Chinmaya Mission in various roles. He became a Sanyasi in 1962.

In 1986, Swami Dayanand Saraswati founded the Arsha Vidya Gurukulam, a Gurukula that has branches in India and the United States. Arsha Vidya Gurukulam is an institute for the traditional study of Advaita Vedanta, Yoga, Ayurveda, Jyotish, Sanskrit and other classical Hindu studies. The word Arsha means that which is from the Rishis - the great seers of ancient India. The word Vidya means knowledge. Thus, Arsha Vidya means the knowledge flowing from the Rishis. The word Gurukulam, means "family of the teacher", referring to a residential center for learning with the Teacher. Arsha Vidya Gurukulam offers Indians and non-Indians, Hindus and non-Hindus alike an opportunity to study the profound spiritual knowledge of the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Brahma sutras, and other classical Vedanta texts.

His Teachings 

Suppose you are in a place which is beautiful. There is a luxury of nature. There is the mountain and the greenery all round you. The place is clean and people around you are also good. Everything is beautiful and you find yourself happy. Do you know why? Because you don't want the mountain to be different; you don't want the colour of the sky to be different; you don't want the river to be different; you don't want the stones around to be different; you don't want your body to be different; you don't want your senses to be different; you don't want your memory to be different. In fact, you just are. Aren't you? You accept yourself totally because you find yourself acceptable. The "I" is but awareness. It is already full, limitless. You experience it whenever you are happy. Whether it is visaynanda, joy coming from sense objects, or vidyananda, joy coming from knowledge, or brahmananda, joy that is Brahman, it is yourself alone that you experience, the you that is fullness. You are limitless because Awareness is limitless, ananta, which is same as ananda.

It is the limitlessness, ananda, the fullness that I am, that I experience in different degrees. Now the important thing is that I should know I am ananda, limitlessness. I am limitless time wise and so I am not mortal. I am limitless space wise and so I am not incomplete. I am the Awareness that illumines both knowledge and ignorance and so I am neither knowledgeable nor ignorant to be limited by them. Thus I am the very three things - free from death, incompleteness and ignorance - that I want to be. Therefore I am the very solution. And this is you. If you are the problem you are the solution.

This is the insight within yourself that I have given you. And it makes one thing very clear - that you have to know. We don't say you will become something. We say that you are everything. That means that you require clarity. The problem is centered on "I" and the solution is centered on that very I the reality of which is entirely different from what you take it to be. Therefore the solution lies in the very problem; it is not outside the problem. The human problem is that regardless of what you do you find yourself a wanting person. That is because the conclusion, "I am wanting" can never be given up. It can only be forgotten. So what people generally do is to try to forget themselves. People go for holidays, go as far as Hawaii, spending a lot of money and time. For what? For forgetting themselves! That is what happens when you find yourself happy. There are a lot of things you can accomplish in this to improve the quality of your life, to make the living better than what it is. But for being happy and for being free from being unhappy, you are the problem and you are the solution. "I am unhappy," is the problem; "I am free from unhappiness" is the solution. This is not a delusion; it is a reality, the reality which one should become alive to.

Hegel

Thoughts of Hegel on the subject follow.

One of the most celebrated sayings in the Greek Philosophy is that of Solon in his conversation with Croesus, which Herodotus (I. 30-33) has in his own way given us very fully. The result arrived at is this: - "Nobody is to be esteemed happy before his death." But the noteworthy point in this narrative is that from it we can get a better idea of the standpoint of Greek reflection in the time of Solon. We see that happiness is put forward as the highest aim, that which is most to be desired and which is the end of man; before Kant, morality, as eudemonism, was based on the determination of happiness. In Solon's sayings there is an advance over the sensuous enjoyment which is merely pleasant to the feelings. Let us ask what happiness is and what there is within it for reflection, and we find that it certainly carries with it a certain satisfaction to the individual, of whatever sort it be - whether obtained through physical enjoyment or spiritual - the means of obtaining which lie in men's own hands. But the fact is further to be observed that not every sensuous, immediate pleasure can be laid hold of, for happiness contains a reflection on the circumstances as a whole, in which we have the principle to which the principle of isolated enjoyment must give way. Eudemonism signifies happiness as a condition for the whole of life; it sets up a totality of enjoyment which is a universal and a rule for individual enjoyment, in that it does not allow it to give way to what is momentary, but restrains desires and sets a universal standard before one's eyes. If we contrast it with Indian philosophy, we find eudemonism to be antagonistic to it. There the liberation of the soul from what is corporeal, the perfect abstraction, the necessity that the soul shall, in its simplicity, be at home with itself, is the final end of man. With the Greeks the opposite is the case; the satisfaction there is also satisfaction of the soul, but it is not attained through flight, abstraction, withdrawal within self, but through satisfaction in the present, concrete satisfaction in relation to the surroundings. The stage of reflection that we reach in happiness stands midway between mere desire and the other extreme, which is right as right and duty as duty. In happiness, the individual enjoyment has disappeared; the form of universality is there, but the universal does not yet come forth on its own account, and this is the issue of the conversation between Croesus and Solon. Man as thinking, is not solely engrossed with present enjoyment, but also with the means for obtaining that to come. Croesus points out to him these means, but Solon still objects to the statement of the question of Croesus. For in order that any one should be conceived of as happy, we must await big death, for happiness depends upon his condition to the end, and upon the fact that his death should be a pious one and be consistent with his higher destiny. Because the life of Croesus had not yet expired, Solon could not deem him happy. And the history of Croesus bears evidence that no momentary state deserves the name of happiness. 

Conclusion                                                             Obviously Hegel did not fully understand Indian philosophy. Satisfaction is not attained ‘by flight, abstraction or withdrawal from self' but by realizing that you are ‘ananda' - happiness as explained by Swami Dayananda. What is required is only a flight from ego and attachments. But the senses, knowledge and Brahman still give you perpetual joy.

"Oh Lord. whatever I have done, whatever actions I have performed through my speech, through my mind (anything I've thought), through my intellect (anything I've planned, achieved or understood), through my hands or body or through any of my senses, therefore anything at all I have performed, perceived or thought, it is all due to Your divine grace and I lay it all humbly at Your holy feet." So said Swami Dayanand

By chanting this mantra, sincerely, deeply and devotionally every night, we remove any vestiges of ego or attachment which may still be lingering, clinging and preventing us from truly surrendering and therefore finding peace and divine connection.

Mantras and japa are means to the end of God realization. They are the means, not the end themselves. Once we develop that close, intimate bond with God, mantras and japa become less necessary.

Imagine that you love someone with all your heart. You don't need to take a ‘mala' and recite her name over and over gain to remember her.

Similarly, once we have that deep love for God, we don't need to continue doing japa to bring us into contact with Him. We will be in contact all the time. Our lives will become our japa.

Happiness is obtained in this very life by growing out of desires and by self-realization.

22. SWAMI CHIDANAND SARASWATI AND JOSEPH CAMPBELL

Swami Chidand Saraswati

Born in 1952 in Delhi, he left his home at the age of eight, under the guidance of his spiritual master, to live a life devoted to God and in the service of humanity.  Swamiji spent from age nine to seventeen in meditation, yoga, seclusion and silence in the Himalayas. He came to Parmarth Niketan, Rishikesh,  in 1972 and under the tutelage of his guru Swami Shukdevanand. Today, he is a spiritual leader of Parmarth Niketan, visionary and divine guide.

Swami Chidanand Saraswati shared with his disciples the following messages emanating from Hindu mythology.

Shiva as Divine Destroyer

In the trinity of gods - Bramha, Vishnu and Shiva - Lord Shiva is the one who destroys or dissolves that which is old and impure, in order to make room for a new creation of that which is pure and divine. Lord Shiva annihilates our egos, our attachments and our ignorance. Many fear Lord Shiva's destructive capacity, and yet it is destruction for the purpose of regeneration Without death, life cannot begin anew. Without the annihilation of old habits, attachments and ego, we cannot progress toward the goal of God realization.

The stories and the messages of Bhagwan Shiva are innumerable; however, one of the most important is the story of how He - for the sake of humanity - swallowed the poison which emerged from the ocean.

Shiva as Mahadeva - the Swallower of the Poison

The story says that the Gods and their brothers, the Demons, were churning the ocean in search of the pot of the nectar of immortality, However, after a great deal of effort, what emerged was not nectar, but poison!! The Gods and demons knew that in order to continue churning, and ultimately to unearth the Divine nectar, they could not simply toss the poison aside. Someone had to drink it, But, naturally, no one was willing to drink the poison. Everyone had some excuse for why he or she was too valuable to be sacrificed. Finally, Bhagwan Shiva came forward and said "I will drink the poison if it will preserve peace and enable my brothers and sisters to attain the nectar of immortality."

However, if He swallowed the poison it would harm His internal organs and His physical body. If He spit it out, it would destroy the world. Thus, He kept it in His throat – hence the name Neelkanth (which means ''blue throat") - and sat peacefully in meditation for eternity.

Poison in Our Own Lives

In our lives, in our families, so much poison emerges - between parents and children, between husband and wife. We wait and wait for the divine nectar to emerge, but it seems that only poison comes. So many times people come to me, complaining, "But why should I always be the one to compromise? Why should I always be the one to give in? Why should I always say I'm sorry? It's not fair!"

As we worship Bhagwan Shiva, we must also pray for the strength lo take His message to heart! Let us not only worship Him, but let us emulate Him. He who is willing to peacefully swallow the poison, he who is willing to sacrifice for the family, for the community and for humanity is the true Mahadev.

Bhagwan Shiva went to the Himalayas, to the land now called Neelkanth to meditate after He drank the poison. The message is - when poison emerges in the home. When poison emerges anywhere in our lives, when we feel like if we swallow it we will die, but if we don t drink it then the fight will continue - the secret is to meditate! You don’t have to go to the Himalayas. Just create your own Himalayas. Wherever you are. First be the one to accept the poison Be the one to sacrifice, apologize and concede humbly. Then go, sit and meditate peacefully. This is not weakness, but strength

Poison always comes; obstacles always come. When we work for good causes, when we embark upon divine work, the poison always comes before the nectar. However, we must never get discouraged. We must never give up. If the Gods and demons had forfeited the

churning at the sign of poison, it would have been a tragedy for humanity. Similarly, we must always have faith that the nectar WILL come. It is only a matter of time. We must be willing to churn and chum, no matter what comes - be it poison or nectar.

As we remember the churning between the Gods and Demons for the-nectar of immortality, we must take another lesson to heart. This battle between the gods and the demons does not exist only in our scriptural stories. Rather the battle also exists within ourselves.

After the nectar emerged, the demons tried to abscond with it in order to become ever more powerful and ever more able to destroy their brothers, the Gods. However, through a series of divine interventions, the Gods emerged the victors and the ones with the gift of immortaiity.

Similarly, by-the grace of Bhagwan Shiva  the battle within ourselves, the battle between the Gods and the Demons, between night and wrong, between poison and nectar, between death and immortality, can be won. Let us use our puja, our prayers, our meditations to pray for the divine intervention that within ourselves the good might vanquish 'the evil that the nectar within us might emerge, rather than poison, that we too may be carried from death to immortality.

All on this Earthly Plane is Transitory - Live in peace not in pieces

Lastly, Bhagwan Shiva is portrayed with ash on his forehead, and devotees of Lord Shiva frequently apply sacred ash to various parts of their body, This is symbolic of the fact that everything which today has a form on the Earth once was ash in the ground and again

will be reduced to nothing but ash. Therefore, the ash serves to remind us that all that we are, all that we do, all that we earn and acquire will only be reduced to ash one day, and therefore we should live our lives dedicated to God, rather than to the accumulation of temporary possessions and comfort,

It is our greed, our expectations, our attachments and our desires which read us to fight with one another and to live our lives in pieces rather than in peace. When we realize that everything we accumulate, everything we desire, everyone whom we envy, everything and everyone to which we are attached will someday be nothing but ash as will we ourselves, then the question arises: “Why to fight? Why to lose our peace? Why to covet? Why to envy? Why to anger?'

A deep awareness of the transitory nature of all people and all things, coupled with a deep awareness of the permanence of our soul allows us to focus on that which is truly important rather than that which is not. At the end of our lives, nothing we've acquired, nothing we've fought for, nothing we've been attached to can come with us. However, our karma does come with us - only to be cleared in a future time. So, although the new car

itself cannot come with us into the next rife, the negative karma we may have accrued by earning the money in less than honest ways or stepping on someone else’s head to get the raise - all of that karma DOES come with us.

Therefore, let us be aware of the ephemeral nature of all of that which causes us to lose our peace, and the eternal nature of the Divine itself, focusing our lives on the latter rather than on the former.

Happy Lives are Healthy Lives

Let us pledge to be calmer, more peaceful, more loving, more giving and sharing. These qualities not only make our lives here on Earth more peaceful and joyful but also more healthy. So many scientific studies have shown that those whose lives are filled with joy, gratitude, appreciation, and acceptances are not only more peaceful but actually live healthier, stronger, more productive, and successfull and longer lives. Further, to focus on giving, sharing, appreciating accepting and sacrificing also ensures that whatever karmas travel with us after we leave the Earthly realm are only positive, liberating and Divine rather than binding and negative.

Let us pledge to live each day with the awareness that some day we - and everything we possess - will be turned to ash. Thus, let our every moment and every minute be used in the service of the world, to help the needy, to cultivate our spiritual awareness and to get closer and closer to God. Let our attention go to the things which truly matter, those aspects which are eternal, rather than those which are fleeting.

Let us become the "Mahadev, wherever we are - always prepared to quietly and peacefully hold the poison in our throats (neither letting it harm us nor harm anyone else) for the benefit of humanity.

Tirumantiram Verse 272 says: You may turn your bones to fuel, your flesh to to meat, letting them roast and sizzle in the gold-red blaze of severe austerities. Bu t unless your heart melts in love’s sweet ecstasy, you never can possess my Lord Shiva, my treasure-trove.

Devi Mahatmaya

The text of Devj Mahatmya is a blueprint for the path of sadhana, which is nothing but the unveiling of maya to reveal our own true selves; maya being none else than the goddess' divine power of serf-concealment, concealing the infinite consciousness of the supreme reality, restricting us instead to the finite world of names (nama) and forms (rupa).

This maya is a three-fold shakti, each of whrch needs to be overcome by the grace of the Mother Goddess.herself: 1). The Tamasic Avarana Shakti - The power that veils the individual consciousness. 2). The Rajasic Vikshepa Shakti: The power with which the

manifold nature of the world projects itself on the individual consciousness perplexing it with its multiplicity, making it forget its essential unity with the One Supreme Consciousness. 3). The Sattvic Jnana Shakti: Finally, this is the liberating power of knowledge. Thus we see that the Great Goddess is not only the confounding power of maya, but also the only means to overcome it - namely vidya or knowledge.

The Power of Myth

Having sampled the power of myth in Hinduism it is gratifying to note that the American intellectual, Joseph Campbell, also thought on the same lines. What follows are some of his thoughts.

"A myth is a lie, isn't it?'' exclaimed a member of his audience at a lecture. “No, a myth isn't a lie," and then I gave him my definition. I said, "It's an organization of symbolic forms, images and narratives that are metaphoric of the possibilities of human experience and fulfillment in a given society at a given time.” Well, that went out of the window and he said, "It's a lie."

"So and so runs very fast, ‘he runs like a deer’, that's a metaphor." “That’s not the metaphor!!” I said. "The metaphor is, 'so and so IS a deer'”. He says, “That’s a lie!” And I said, "That's the metaphor!” and that was the end of the show!

"So that taught me a lesson. This is a metaphor. Good. Nobody knows what the hell a metaphor is. All religions are mythological. You see what that means. They don’t realize that Yahweh is a metaphor. The terrible thing about Yahweh is, he didn't realize it either! He thought he was the connotation, don't you see? So, when a metaphor is read with reference not to the connotation but to the denotation, it’s a lie. Hence atheism.

Meanwhile, the ones who are worshipers of the metaphor don't know what they are doing, so they are missing the message. Do you get what I'm saying? This is really important stuff I don't know whether it is in the N. Y. Times yet bit its important.

If you think your metaphor is the connotation then you think the other guys metaphor is a lie. You see what I mean? And here all these people all over the planet-talking about the same connotation, sticking to their metaphors and we're having trouble. I think I’ve gotthe answer to the contemporary problem.

It has to do with the earth. The human woman gives birth just as the earth gives birth to the plants...so woman magic and earth magic are the same. They are related. And the personification of the energy that gives birth to forms and nourishes forms is properly female. It is in the agricultural world of ancient Mesopotamia, the Egyptian Nile, and the earlier planting-culture systems that the Goddess is the dominant mythic form.” Mythology, as Campbell knew, always aims to include the listener in the tale. “The story of the hero, for example, ultimately turns back to our own experience. “The might hero of extraordinary powers -- able to lift Mount Govardhan on a finger, and to fill himself with the terrible glory of the universe – is each of us!” I am Telemachus, ever waiting for the last father Odysseus to come home; I am Gilgamesh, longing to overcome the mystery of death. There is in me the blood-red hatred of Kali who is consumed by his own rage; in me too is Demeter, the earth mother that loves and nurtures. I am Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobir, the learner and the teacher, preparing for bold action A1l these stories are my stories.”

He was eager to see mythology in the service of world peace and human understanding. He reached always beyond the myths peculiar to a given culture toward planetary mythology. "We need myths," he said, "that will identify the individual not with his local group but with the planet" (a concern shared by Asian theologian Tissa Balasuriya in Planerary Theology (Orbis, 1984).

This is Campbell's most powerful critique of traditional Western theologies: turning all metaphors into facts, all poetry into prose, they tend toward divisiveness supporting and validating a given social order as divinely ordained. Flexibility is abandoned for the sake of certainty The power of myth gives way to the multiplication of propositions. Simply put, theology gets caught up too often in explaining the meaning of life instead of seeking an experience of being alive. Theologians need hear this criticism. Too frequently they have been guilty, as the Polynesians say of “standing on a whale, fishing for minnows.” Theology is never served by an explication of facts that is removed from an underlying experience of the holy. Nor is Christian faith true to its mission so long as it clings to a parochial intolerance.

Campbell frequently quoted the Hindu truth that "I am the mystery of the universe.” Tat tvam asi – “thou are that” which is beyond all description. The stories of the gods are about me! This is a profound mystical insight, as proclaimed within the time-honoured tradition of the Upanishads. He also quoted Hindu saying: “None but a god can worship god.”

"What you are living is but a fractional inkling of what is really within you, what gives you life, breath, and depth. But you can live in terms of that depth. And when you can experience it, you suddenly see that all the religions are talking of that.” Absence of the religious experience of ecstasy, of joy, the denial of transcendence has turned so many people to the use of drugs.

Experience of eternity right here and now, in all things, whether thought of as good or as evil, is the function of life. God is an intelligible sphere - a sphere kn6wn to the mind, not to the senses - whose centre is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere. It is right where you are sitting. Each person can be in touch with his own sat-chit-ananda, his own being through consciousness and bliss. The whole planet should be our field of concern. It is good to be able to put yourself in situations that will evoke your higher nature rather than your lower.

The Buddha went into solitude and then sat beneath the bo tree, the tree of immortal knowledge, where he received an illumination that has enlightened all of Asia for twenty-five hundred years.

Eros is a biological urge. It is the zeal of the organs for each other, Agape is love thy neighbour as thyself - spiritual love. It doesn't matter who the neighbour is. Love does lot immunize the person to other relationships,

There are some societies that shouldn't exist. Sooner or later they crack up. (Did he have Muslims in mind?)

I don't have to have faith. I have experience of the wonder of life, I have experience of love

When you experience your god as with form, there is your envisioning mind, and there is the god, There is a subject, and there is an object. But the ultimate mystical is to be united with one's god. With that, duality is transcended and forms disappear. There is no body there, no god, no you. Your mind going past all concepts, has dissolved in identification with the ground of your own being. The metaphorical image of your god refers to the ultimate mystery of your own being, which is the mystery of the being of the world as well.

Some people are living on the level of sex organs according to Freud. In the philosophy of will to power all life is centred on overcoming obstructions - that is a perfectly good life and a form of divinity also. But they are on animal level. But the life which involves giving oneself to others one way or the other is the one that symbolizes the opening of the heart.

If you don't experience eternity here and now, you are not going to get it in heaven. Heaven is not eternal, it is just everlasting.

Shiva is a very ancient deity, perhaps the most ancient worshipped in the world today. There are images from 2000 to 2500 8.C., little stamp seals showing figures that clearly suggest Shiva. He is the archetypal yogi, canceling the illusion of life, but he is also the creator of life, its generator, as well as illuminator.

Schopenhauer concludes that it is as though our lives were the features of the one great dream of a single dreamer in which all the dream characters dream, too; so everything links to everything else, moved by the one will to life which is the universal will in nature. It is like mythical Net of gems of Indra. And Goethe says, “All things are metaphors. The word AUM puts you in touch with that resounding being that is the universe.