UNIVERSAL MIND GURU

SLEEP, DREAMS AND REALITY : PART 2

2009-03-21T23:50:00.011+05:30

DIFFERENT TYPES OF COMMON DREAMS

According to me our dreams fall in one of the following major categories:

1. Dreams in which events and people actually happened but differently than in our dreams.

2. Dreams involving people and events which never happened.

3. Dreams involving people and events which never could have happened

The first and second category dreams are what I call as wishful dreams. In these dreams you “see” what you thought ought to have happened but did not happen. For example you dream that a relationship worked, where as in reality it failed, and if you were rejected by a person, you dream that it is you who rejected or if you were fired from a job, you dream that you voluntarily left the job. These dreams in my opinion serve as a safety valve for all the pent up emotions affecting your waking state. Your mind is trying to protect you or soften the blow.

But one characteristic of many dreams is that we often see people or events that actually never could have happened in real life. For example you dream of people from one place and time sometimes meeting people from another place and time. Or you dream of strange places or strange creatures. I do not know the logic behind these dreams if at all they are logical. Perhaps it is the brain’s way of disposing of random thoughts much like GIGO (Garbage In Garbage Out) of computers. Or perhaps we have not yet perfected the way the subconscious is communicating with us even though many psychoanalysts specialize in the interpretation of dreams.

So the reality in dreams is related yet distinct from waking state. It is clear that most of the times your subconscious is trying to convey some message to you in dreams. What those messages are, what are their meanings is interpreted by some psychoanalysts. We should ourselves try to interpret these messages because there is really no one closer to you than your subconscious since your success insures its success as well.

DREAMS AND PREMONITION

Some people claim to have premonitory dreams. They claim that in some dream or dreams they saw an upcoming event. Mostly it is a warning of an upcoming disaster affecting someone close to them, but occasionally about a disaster affecting many lives. I do not think that these stand scientific scrutiny, but if there is any validity at all, it represents a different form of reality.

This reminds me the story of the King and one of his guards. One day as the King was getting ready for a voyage across the sea in his ship, one of the guards who was on the night duty guarding the entrance to his kingdom came to see him in earnest. On meeting the King, the guard told him to postpone his journey. When the King asked for the reason, the guard told him that previous night he dreamt that the ship carrying the king met an accident and sunk. Seeing his sincerity the King postponed the journey for a day. Later they had reports that there was a big storm on the route the King’s ship would have taken that day and many ships sunk. The King called the guard, thanked him, gave him a big reward and told him that he was fired. Can you guess why?

There is whole new category of dreams within a dream where you dream that you are having a dream. This is analogous to an object placed in between two mirrors facing each other. This generates mirror image of mirror image in both mirrors ad infinitum. So theoretically you could have dream within a dream within a dream and so on. I do not know what to make of it from the reality point of view and so far as I know there has not been any research on this.

SLEEP, DREAMS AND REALITY : PART 1

2009-03-15T01:06:00.009+05:30

ABOUT ONE-THIRD OF OUR LIFE SPENT HERE

We spend about one-third of our life in sleep. It is vital that we get good sleep or else evolution would not have retained this aspect of our life. In fact the modern day stresses if not caused by, then at least are augmented by lack of good quality and quantity of sleep. Before the invention of electricity, our ancestors had to sleep between sunset and sunrise and were not confronted with many of the lifestyle diseases facing us like blood pressure, diabetes, depression etc.. But now when light is available 24X7, we work round the clock ignoring this very important aspect. Ideally an adult should get about 8 hours of sleep everyday. It seems that that much sleep is necessary for our brain to have a period of low activity and refresh itself for proper functioning for the next day’s activities. It is a different matter that under some pretext we make do with considerable less sleep and end up feeling sleepy, tired and stressed the next day. I believe that the Japanese recommend their workers to take a power nap during the day. No wonder that the Japanese are so efficient.

In the sleep we have a period called Rapid eye Movement or REM in which most of our dreams occur. I had covered the area of dreams and reality earlier (see post dated Nov.4, 2008), but it was mainly to illustrate that even in dreams we are performing karma and have to accept its fruits, good or bad. But what about reality in sleep and dreams? It is well documented now that our brain and subconscious mind are active while we sleep and dream and are aware of surroundings at least partially. Thus while dreaming if we hear an alarm or a doorbell ringing, our subconscious somehow incorporates that sound in whatever dream we are having.

Also it is theorized that in the period just before falling asleep or just before fully waking up, we experience very realistic experiences. For example we may experience the presence of another person just standing there or trying to communicate with us. Some psychologists and psychiatrists have attributed these experiences to people claiming to see ghosts or alien abduction. In addition to the experience being realistic, complete with sound and other effects, the person usually feels immobile, unable to speak or offer any resistance but be a helpless spectator. This further strengthens their belief in the experience being supernatural. However if they believe it to be an alien abduction, they should ask themselves as to what makes them so special for aliens to want to study them. In my opinion it is just their Ego or feeling of superiority. If aliens really wanted to study us, they would select the best in any particular field, for example top scientists, top businessmen, top athletes etc. but as far as I know none of these have reported alien abduction. In addition to this if the aliens were hostile, they would simply attack us since they have to be superior to us in order to travel intergalactic distances. If they were friendly they would just offer us their friendship. Under no circumstances I can imagine them studying average earthlings clandestinely.

I am not sure we know the reasons for these experiences but perhaps it is leftover from our evolutionary past when we lived in hostile environments surrounded by dangerous animals, where it was better to be afraid of imaginary “boogeyman” and run for life to live another day than to be complacent and fall prey. In fact as I have written earlier, we are all descendants of these nervous survivors and thus perhaps carry those genes.

REALITY IN DREAMS AND REALITY IN WAKING STAGE

What sort of reality is present in dreams? I had mentioned the Japanese monk who dreamt that he was a butterfly and then wondered whether he was a human dreaming that he was butterfly or was he a butterfly dreaming that he was a human. Logically we can not distinguish between reality in dreams and reality in waking state.. The argument that it feels real in the waking state is fallacious since in dreams also we feel everything as real. All we can do is call one as reality and the other as dream.

Generally we call our waking state as real because it is mostly logical whereas some dreams are utterly illogical as I have mentioned before and again below. For example if you have lived in different countries at different times as I have, sometimes people from one place show up in the other place in the dreams. Logically this makes absolutely no sense since those people have never been with you at the same time and place. In the dream however we do not even think of it as illogical. But just think for a moment. What if the illogical dream state is the real reality and the logical, waking state is unreal? Even our so called logical reality has unexplainable events as we will see in the discussion on Quantum Mechanics which is full of paradoxes.

Let us take the example of the game “Second life” since that is as close to creating an alternate reality in a virtual world as we currently can. Suppose all those Avatars with whatever attributes we give them (for example flying humans, humans with more than two hands etc.) could one day develop consciousness and think about their reality compared to our reality. To them we would be as unreal as they are to us. They would not think of anyone without the attributes mentioned above. Thus it can be said that reality depends on whose point of view we are talking about.

There had been some suggestion that some famous scientists came up with answers to the problems they were solving while dreaming. Often example of Kekule is given where it was said that he came up the with the hexagonal structure for Benzene molecule in his dream in which he saw two snakes capturing each other’s tails. It was later proved that this was not true (that is the dream part, the structure of benzene was proved to be correct). However I believe that dreams do help us come up with solutions to many problems we are facing. This seems natural since our subconscious is thinking about the problem and free from the clutter of other activities and thoughts, it provides much clarity. That’s why when you are considering an offer or facing some problems, it is suggested that you “sleep on it” and usually in the morning you have some inkling of what your decision should be.

Many of the dreams we have are continuation of waking state, for example if you are thinking about a person or place or a situation, you usually dream of those.

More about types of dreams will be covered in the next post.

EVERYDAY REALITY: PART 2

2009-03-08T01:41:00.006+05:30

HUMAN BRAIN STILL EVOLVING

The brain, in particular the human brain is a highly complex and efficient analytical organ but by no means is it perfect or free from errors. Perhaps it has still to climb many more evolutionary rungs and who knows what it would be capable of in a thousand or a million years from now if mankind does not self destruct or is not wiped out by natural disasters? But at the present state the brain is totally dependant on the messages brought in by the five senses. We have already seen that our senses are highly unreliable or can be easily fooled (see post dated Aug. 11, 2008). As a consequence the brain can make wrong conclusions. When two people view an object, say a table or a chair, there is no way of telling that they are seeing the exact same thing. In addition to any preconceived idea about a table, factors such as your distance from the table, the light falling on it from your perspective, your angle of vision etc are some of the factors which will affect your interpretation. Thus one person may describe it as smooth surfaced while other might describe it has rough surfaced and so on. Both might be right or both might be wrong since there is no objective measure which can determine the “table ness” of a table.

Same is true with people. Thus person B may appear as fair skinned to person A but dark skinned to person C, since there is no objective device to measure “fairness” of a person. All our observations and conclusions are subjective. The best our brains can do is making some subjective comparisons, which need not be a reality. I find it highly amusing that in a country like India, where fairness of skin is highly regarded and borders on snobbery, the same fair skinned people are treated as dark skinned by white Americans or Europeans and complain about being snobbishly treated. Funny thing is some white Americans consider themselves as too pale and get tanned by natural or artificial means, even risking the possibility of skin cancer. I guess that’s why the saying “grass is always greener on the other side”.

SUBJECTIVE SCALE OF OUR REALITY

Those who have seen movies like “Honey, I shrunk the kids”, will appreciate this fact. When humans are shrunk many times even an ant would not only appear like a giant animal like a horse or an elephant but the kids could all ride on it. Incidentally without us being shrunk to an ant’s size, ants and many insects like beetles and termites are truly “giants” compared to us humans. Many of them do Herculean tasks such as carrying a weight many times their own weight routinely whereas humans need special training to lift a weight just slightly bigger than them. Even distance covered by us with our long strides is not insurmountable for an ant for example if we cover a distance of two feet in 2 strides and a few seconds, an ant would cover the same distance in a slightly longer duration. In fact army ants are notorious for covering many miles while consuming whatever hapless creature they find.

I had often wondered about how people drawing pictures on a grain of rice, or surgeons performing microsurgeries to attach tiny nerves or blood vessels or scientists using micro syringes or micropipettes to transform tiny cellular structures such a single nucleus which is invisible to the naked eye but visible after many times magnification, did so accurately. The key is the detection limit of our eyes which can not detect below a certain small size. If we could increase the detection level by putting the objects under high resolution microscopes such as an electron microscope then both the objects will appear quite huge to be able to manipulate. Thus the tip of the micro syringe as well as the cell and the nucleus is easily visible at a sufficiently large scale. Or the surface of the grain of rice will appear like a canvas on which pictures could be drawn. Of course one still has to master the movements of their hands since even a tiny movement will be magnified several times, but this can be practiced or mechanized with the help of a computer.

Thus in the above mentioned everyday realities no single reality is the correct or right reality. Either all of them are correct or all are wrong.

A question might be asked, what about our scientific instruments? Are they not accurate to measure quantitatively? The surprising answer is that although they are sufficient to measure most of the things in our everyday reality, at the subatomic level quantum mechanical reality takes over. This will be covered under “Quantum mechanical reality”.

EVERYDAY REALITY PART 1

2009-02-28T23:18:00.003+05:30

REALITY AS WE KNOW IT OR “NORMAL” REALITY

In my opinion we call our everyday reality as “normal” only because majority of us have agreed to call it that. Generally what we experience day to day, we call as reality. Thus animate and inanimate things in our contact are real to us and we can distinguish them from virtual reality. But suppose our so called reality is nothing but super enhanced form of virtual reality? Can we tell the difference? The only reason to call this reality as “normal” is to distinguish it from reality experienced by us in altered state of consciousness, i.e. under the influence of mind altering drugs or various other categories which I described in an earlier post (different types of realities, dated Feb.15, 2009) and will discuss a little more in detail in further posts.

However since most of us are either taking some medications, some of which could be affecting our brain and perception, or we are under various stressors, or suffering from mild to severe form of anxiety or depression (which are becoming modern lifestyle diseases) so that “normalcy” as applied to brain is more a statistical parameter. Yet this seems to work for most of the time. This is similar to the selection of volunteers for clinical study of a drug candidate. Scientists try to control as many factors as possible like the age, sex, weight, sometimes race etc. in addition to imposing conditions such no smoking or drinking, standardized diet in order to get average, normal volunteers. Despite all that there is fair amount of variation due to each volunteer’s individual biological characteristics. In fact some scientists believe that ideally a drug should be tested in actual patients suffering from the disease for which the drug is developed rather than normal volunteers. I do not want to go in too much detail here since that is not the topic under discussion here.

Let us first consider what we mean by reality. With our five senses we experience a person or an object and our brains scan for previous experiences and assign a category or name to it. Generally our brain works so fast that we are not consciously aware of the process. By common convention we have agreed to assign the category or name to objects. Thus for example a flat top object with legs is called a table, the one with a backrest is called chair and so on. This usually works out pretty well. Thus even if the flat top object happens to be square, rectangular, round or many sided, with four or many legs, the brain still recognizes it as a table and we assign a descriptive adjective (for example round table). Same is true with plants, animals and humans. An animal with a long trunk is recognized as an elephant, whether it is a Pygmy variety or a giant one. Of course scientists have a taxonomic scheme to scientifically categorize even seemingly different objects as belonging to genera or species etc. but that is irrelevant here in this discussion. Similarly we recognize people whether they are tall, short, thin, or fat or whatever physical differences like color of their skin, facial features, as humans. The problem comes when we encounter identical twins, where with just by superficial observation we are unable to distinguish between the twins. Incidentally many murder mysteries are based on one of the identical twins committing the murder while the other twin claiming to have an alibi without disclosing that he/she is a twin.

ARTIFIAL INTELLIGENCE AND VIRTUAL REALITY

2009-02-22T00:10:00.007+05:30

MIMICING NATURE, ROBOTICS, SECOND LIFE

Somehow as if our everyday life is not fascinating enough, we try to mimic nature. Thus we are trying to create artificial intelligence with ever faster calculating power and yet more human like (see the post dated Aug.4, 2008). We are impressed with robots which walk, do a few things like vacuuming or mixing drinks and which make rudimentary conversational talk. Thus we are completely floored when a robot “understands” us and makes simple replies and asks us questions. For example if we say “Hello, how are you?” to a robot and it replies “Fine, thank you, and how are you?” We are very impressed and yet in nature even a small child or for that matter a talking bird like a parrot could do what the robot did without really understanding the meaning. I do not mean to belittle the efforts of scientists working in this field, it is just that we have a long way to go still to be as good as nature, let alone be better than nature.

Despite that, already the field of robotics and artificial intelligence has proved to be quite useful to mankind. In the field of medicine and surgery increasing use of robotics is made especially where accuracy in diagnosis and treatment is vital such as brain surgery, where a mistake of a few mm could impair the functioning of unintended organ system. Humans and robots work together in areas such as inspection of medicines, auto assembly etc. Robots not only carry out simple to complex mechanical, often repetitive tasks without errors but they are proving to be companion cum servants to people in need especially old, weak or lonely people.

The Japanese, facing with the prospect of shortage of young people and a growing old population have made great strides in this field. They have made not only humanoid robots but some robotic pets as well. The obvious advantages are that unlike humans robots are programmable, error free and are never bored or tired, at least so far. The robotic pets provide similar comfort as natural pets without us worrying about feeding them or worrying about their health.

ARTIFICIAL LIFE FORMS AND ARTIFICIAL HUMANS

The reason I have written “at least so far” above is because of our desire to make robots more natural. This includes looks; the pet robot dog must look like a regular dog and not a electronic box, or we will not get the same experience and the humanoid robots must look and act like a human being. This has far reaching implications not only scientifically, but also ethically and philosophically. If consciousness in humans is an emergent property of the complex network of neurons as some scientists believe, then it is quite conceivable that artificially intelligent robots (more correctly artificial life forms) will develop not only emotions but consciousness as well. In fact they would be more appropriately termed as “artificial humans”, a distinct species from humans which may either cooperate with us or compete with us. Already some scientists have suggested guidelines to deal with each scenario.

If humans are still dominant, will the artificial humans be modern day slaves? What about their rights? Will they demand freedom from us? On the other hand, if the artificial humans become dominating due to their superior “neural circuitry”, how do we best safeguard our rights and avoid being enslaved?

Unless I am mistaken, mankind will face one of the scenarios mentioned above, if not immediately then some time in not so distant future. The third possibility of the artificial humans being indifferent to us and continuing their own development is almost negligible especially if human tendency for dominance is a guide and with the prospect of decreasing natural resources and increasing population. Even if artificial humans do not need food and water needed by humans, they would most certainly have energy requirements and need natural resources in order to continue their development and “evolution”.

What form of reality would these artificial humans experience? Will it be same or different than “our reality”? For that matter, what about only electronic artificial humans such as the “avatars” in the game of second life? If they ever develop consciousness, what about their reality? Or as I said in the post dated Aug. 11, 2008, we are ourselves in a second life of some other higher species? I had written then that this could go on and on with every stage being second life of some one higher. What about the realities of all those avatars?. . As it is we are attributing various properties to the avatars created by us. Thus we can make them fly, walk on water, live forever or anything else of our choosing. Upon gaining consciousness these would probably become their reality and they would not be able to imagine anyone without these attributes.

So far our experience has been limited to experience virtual reality which mimics reality as we know from our day to day experience. Usually this is achieved with the help of a few gadgets worn by the participants to give sight, smell, touch etc. of something or some place. It is qualitatively slightly better than watching a good quality 3D movie but it is still distinguishable from day to day reality since the participants are aware all the time that they are undergoing an artificial experience, however realistic it may appear.. Recently scientists tested a device where one of the participants trying the device felt that he was stabbing himself with a knife when actually a dummy was stabbed. He described the experience as almost real but obviously could tell that it was not.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF REALITIES

2009-02-15T00:04:00.016+05:30

ALL REALITIES ARE NOT REAL

I have discussed the nature of reality in the post dated Aug. 11, 2008 mainly to illustrate how our senses deceive us. To reiterate briefly I had discussed that when all our five sensory neurons or clusters of neurons are artificially stimulated for a particular object, our brain can not tell the difference whether that object is actually present or not. . I had given an example of a piece of cardboard and an exotic fish. If the brain sensory centers for that particular fish are identified and stimulated then the brain would interpret a piece of cardboard as that particular fish and the person eating it would swear that he had eaten that fish because the piece of cardboard would smell, taste, sound, feel and look like that fish. This is the principle behind virtual reality.

In the post before this regarding meditation through yoga I had briefly discussed the state of Samadhi which Patanjali has described in much detail. It is said that in the state of Samadhi all duality disappears and the person becomes one with the universal soul and experiences Absolute reality.

Consider for example our personal reality. You reading this and I writing it are not the same as we were even a few seconds (or even milliseconds) ago. In that small duration of time literally billions of things have changed in us as well as around us. In our body biochemical changes have taken place such as release of hormones and enzymes, some old cells have died as new ones are formed, our brain chemistry has changed, new thoughts are formed, in the outside world also many changes have taken place some affecting us; in short you and me are different persons than few seconds ago. If we take an interval of 5 minutes then let us put this mathematically as follows: if a person is represented as P at any given moment then he is different from P-5 (5 minutes ago). Now which of this is real? If you say it is P, then P is soon going to fade away and replaced by P+5 (5 minute in the future). If you carry this further, it can be proved that each successive state of a person is more real. But that does not mean a person is unreal at any given moment. Thus either all states of a person are either real or all are unreal. This is what the ancient philosophers and yogis have been telling us; that what we call real “us” is only a reflection of real “us”. Only that is real which is constant, unchanging. This they called as Universal Soul or Brahman or God.

As we have seen the reality as experienced by us is relative and constantly changing, giving an illusion of continuity which we call as our life. I believe the Buddhists give an example of a flame rotated at great speeds, which creates an illusion of a circle of fire or to take an example from our everyday life, when still pictures are processed at a fast speed they create an illusion of a continuous movie, bringing to life our favorite characters which are actually just the figment of imagination of their creator.

The discussion from above would seem to indicate that the passage of time is also a illusion and past, present and future are concepts devised for our convenience. Taking the example of the still pictures creating an illusion of a movie, it would seem that our life is also a movie which we are living much like the characters in the movie. This might suggest to some that our life is predetermined and we are silent and helpless characters, thus giving boost to the argument of destiny or fate. But I had already discussed the role of karma in shaping our life thus giving us free will. Here I would like to give an analogy of one of those children’s books in which the figures are drawn but yet to be colored by the child or the ones where the dots have to be connected. Our life is like one of those books, the blueprint is ready, based on our past karma but details have yet to be filled.

The concept of here and now is also useless in astronomical terms. The known universe itself is so vast that one single moment to describe the happenings in it is useless. For example, suppose a star is 10 billion light years away from us, that means when we see that star in our telescope, we are seeing it as it was 10 billion years ago since the light from it took that many years to reach us. What is its state now we do not know. Perhaps in the time the light traveled to reach us, the star was destroyed. Taking an example closer to home, our Sun is 8 light minutes away, that means when we see the Sun, we are seeing it as it was 8 minutes ago. If the Sun were to be destroyed, we will come to know after 8 minutes of the actual happening.

One thing I do not understand is of quantum entanglement, according to which once two objects (particles?) have interacted, a change in one instantaneously brings about the change in other and since at the Big Bang we were entangled with all the objects in the known universe including the above mentioned star, we should experience some change when the other changes. Perhaps some one with a quantum mechanical background reading this blog will have some answers.

Therefore the time has come to revisit the issue of reality in a little more detail. Thus the question is, are there different types of realities? Hence the title of this post is not all realities are real. In my opinion we should consider various types of realities as follows:

1. Virtual reality.

2. Day to day (everyday) reality

3. Sleep, Dreams and Reality

4. Reality in hypnotic state

5. Reality under the influence of mind altering drugs

6. Mental illness and reality

7. Reality under the influence of sensory deprived state

8. Reality and near death experience.

9. Reality after Death

10. Quantum mechanical reality

11. Absolute reality.

HOW THE KOAN MIGHT WORK

2009-02-08T00:09:00.004+05:30

UNLOCKING THE MIND

Since we are on the subject of Koans, I would like to present my interpretation of how a Koan works. Suppose our mind is an animal trapped in trap of conventional logical thinking with one door which is locked and outside the trap is a vast store of Spiritual knowledge represented by exotic food. The mind-animal can sustain itself in the trap by the ordinary food it is provided with but if it wants the outside exotic food it has to open the lock to the trap door. The keys it has access to do not fit the lock. The mind-animal could live inside the trap comfortably since its needs are met but would miss out on the exotic food (Spiritual knowledge). If it is serious about tasting the exotic food, it will approach a Zen master who would give it a key in the form of a Koan. Apparently this key also does not fit the lock as it is too big. The Zen master assures it that the key is right. Now it has to figure out the Koan (how to open the lock with this key) but since conventional linear logical thinking is not working (the key does not fit inside the lock), it has to find a non linear logical solution. So it ponders and decides to try to fit the key over the lock and suddenly finds itself free to taste the exotic food (Spiritual knowledge). The above example may not be perfect but I think it is adequate to explain the process of how a Koan might work. The mind might have gone forever till eternity trying to fit the linear logical key without any success, which is what most of us do regarding the spiritual knowledge and get frustrated that our efforts are in vain. The apparent nonsensical nature of the koan is deliberate, to shock the mind into thinking in earnest along all possible lines (linear and non linear logical). If the koan was a simple sensible statement then the mind might treat it casually mainly along linear logical lines and miss out on the meaning of reality and spirituality.

The reason I have covered this topic of Koans in detail is because I find the entire process extremely fascinating and sincerely believe that our quest of understanding such fundamentally important issues like the nature of reality, whether what is perceived in a Samadhi state by the advanced yogis is an illusion or some kind of brain Neurochemical phenomenon or absolute reality, would be answered by a similar process. I think solving a Koan is similar to Meditation or in fact it is a type of meditation but with a specific problem (Koan) to ponder rather than abstract concentration on our thoughts. We had seen in an earlier post that reality differs from person to person and even for one person at different times. Even if we agree that a flat thing with four legs is a table, we do not know how each of us sees the table; we do not even know what exactly is there. Our senses deceive us and soon there would be no difference between virtual reality and perceived reality.

Managements have been asking employees to think outside the box to solve difficulties and problems facing them for some time now. However the spiritual problems may require solving a Koan for days on end as the Spiritual issues are much more complex. To use eminent physicist Steven Hawkins’s words, it is like trying to read the mind of God. I would like to devote a post or two in the future to cover this topic further. I would like to encourage readers to contribute any relevant examples of Koans they have encountered.

I think solving of koans may be of particular help to people who are depressed or feeling blue for any reason. Not only will it take your mind away from whatever is bothering you but you will also be thinking along the lines which you had not previously considered. The best part is that there is no right or wrong solution as far as I know. If you think that you are on the right track, you get tremendous exhilaration. It would thus act like an antidepressant drug without any side effects. The beginner should try simple koans first otherwise the frustration of being unable to solve would outweigh any positive benefits. However to be on safe side, consult your psychologist or psychoanalyst if you are seeing one. It would be better than plain meditation since the mind is more actively involved.

ZEN BUDDHIST TRADITION OF KOANS

2009-01-31T23:00:00.017+05:30

Last week I covered the commonly known, traditional method of meditation involving concentrating and contemplating. Therefore let us invoke our mind guru for the help in meditation.

INVOCATION FOR MEDITATION

“O mind guru I invoke you to help me attain stability and peace

So that I can meditate on the Universal Soul.

Also help me to raise my kundalini and

Experience various states of bliss associated with each Chakra.”

WHAT ARE KOANS?

This week I want to cover a Zen Buddhist tradition of meditation. Earlier we had seen that meditation is any activity which makes you remain in the present moment and not obsess about the past or worry about the future. Usually meditation involves concentrating on a specific thing or thought and bringing your attention back to it when your attention deviates. I had also suggested that you can meditate on your daily activities by treating them as if you are doing them for the first time. I came across this Zen tradition of meditation called koans which is used to open the mind of the beginner of Zen Buddhism. In fact there are various levels of koans from the ones for the beginners to the ones for advanced practitioners. Although I am only superficially familiar with this technique, I have tried to describe it as I understand it and how it works.

In this Zen Buddhist tradition a master gives a disciple something called Koan which is like a Spiritual riddle. The purpose of the Koan is to break the hold of everyday logic and conditioning on the mind and allow it to think of previously unthought-of ideas. Usually a Koan is in the form of a question or a riddle which by ordinary logic is nonsensical or even meaningless but makes sense after pondering over it beyond common logic. The disciple is supposed to think and ponder over the Koan given to him in seclusion and find the meaning.

One example which I came across in a book was when a disciple was given a Koan: “what is Buddha”? After pondering the disciple came up with: Buddha is nothing but pure xxxx which was accepted by the Master. Here the xxxx meant the word for excrement. (My apologies to any one belonging to the Buddhist philosophy, but I do not mean any disrespect in reproducing this koan, in fact I have the greatest respect for Buddha as will become apparent in the following discussion). Now imagine how blasphemous this sounds, when a disciple and his master apparently tarnish the very founder of Buddhism. This is especially important in the current climate of intolerant world where knives are out if even slightest offence of one’s religion is perceived. On my own I tried the meaning of the answer to “Buddha is nothing but pure xxxx”, and came up with what I think is the meaning but am not sure. Excrement usually is formed as a waste product by animals and humans but is a rich source of nutrients for plants which provide food for animals and humans to continue the life cycle. Thus Buddha is nothing but pure xxxx actually means Buddha is nothing but pure life. I was especially proud to find meaning to this Koan. I am not entirely sure that my interpretation is correct, but I think there is no right or wrong in solving or interpreting a Koan rather the process involved is important. It makes your brain and mind think along very different lines than usual. On my own I would have never even thought of the original Koan mentioned above, out of my deep respect for Gautum Buddha.

In general a Koan is supposed to encourage a mind into thinking along new, non conventional lines in order to grasp Spiritual knowledge. Our mind is conditioned by conventional logic, our years of experience of what we call as”reality” and formal and informal teachings and trainings we have received.

Generally we are at a loss to explain apparent paradoxes when we encounter problems or situations which are not explained by conventional logic. This is because we think along linear logic,. In general such linear logical thinking has helped us understand scientific knowledge, but even in sciences especially in the field of Quantum Physics, conventional logical thinking fails to explain many apparent paradoxes present. For example the duality of subatomic particle as both a wave and particle, the simultaneous presence of a subatomic particle in two places until an observation is made, “Schrödinger’s cat” which is both alive and dead until an observation is made, the apparent non separation of an observer and the observed and many more. Even at the macro scale there are questions which have stumped scientists for many years. For example astrophysicists are unable to definitively answer the origin and fate of our universe, whether there was anything before universe came into being, what if anything lies beyond our universe, whether our universe is among the many universes (the multiverses theory) etc. I believe that the current thinking is that the universe has always existed and will continue to exist but cyclically goes from expansion (Big Bang) and contraction (Big Crunch). This view of universe is very similar to the one expressed in Hinduism. From ancient times Hinduism has declared that Spiritual knowledge is not amenable to linear logical thinking of cause (how the universe came into being) and effect (the existence of the Universe).

The Koan is thus supposed to shock the mind which is comfortable in accepting some conventionally accepted statements as “truth” and make it think of alternate realities.

I believe in a way when we are trying to solve a previously unknown problem or situation, we employ a similar tactic as when trying to unravel the meaning of a koan. I experienced this when writing this blog. Since as scientist I am trained to verify everything, when I write about some statements from the ancient masters, I first think about what those statements mean. For example when I was thinking about karma and its long term effect, I had to think of how this might work. In fact I have come up with the following koan

The student: “What is the secret of karma?’

The master: An egg lays a chicken”

Now apparently this is a nonsensical statement or answer to the question asked since we all know that a chicken lays an egg and not the other way. However on pondering you realize that the egg is the previous karma giving rise to new karma, (laying) the chicken.

Just thinking of coming up with a koan was good for me since all my attention was devoted to it, without worrying about anything else. This is precisely the purpose of meditation.

YOGA AND MEDITATION

2009-01-24T23:48:00.023+05:30

NON RELIGIOUS AND NON DENOMINATIONAL NATURE OF YOGA AND MEDITATION

In an earlier post I had talked about ancient masters like Buddha, Christ, Moses, Mohammed and founders or leaders of various religions secluding themselves and acquiring spiritual knowledge by meditative contemplation. Their followers may have called the Universal soul or God by different names but in my opinion they all received the same Universal knowledge of unity, love and peace for all mankind. They abhorred violence and advocated tolerance towards people of other faiths and religions. It is unfortunate that their followers who could not be as great as the founders, in order to consolidate their power, created mistrust and disharmony. As a result most major religions are further divided into different sects which not only fight with other religions but also amongst themselves claiming their philosophy or way of life to be the only true way all others wrong. Those agnostics blaming religions as the cause of greatest evil are of course right since numerous atrocities have been done in the name of religion, but really it is the followers who are to be blamed here. Out of feeling of superiority of their particular faith they want to convert everyone to their particular faith by force if necessary and massacre those who resist. In the process they only succeed in giving their religion a bad name. No religion itself is bad or evil. The religious founders realized this through their contemplation.

UNIVERSAL KNOWLEDGE AND TYPES OF YOGA

What is this Universal knowledge? How did the masters receive it? Is it possible for us to receive it? First of all this knowledge did not come from any external source and therefore they did not receive it as such but uncovered or unlocked it. Each and everyone of us regardless of our social standing or religious background or educational level or any other man made differences, possesses this knowledge but normally it is dormant. It can be unlocked by any of us through various means. In Hinduism these processes are described as practice of yoga. There are generally four major branches of yoga as follows: Karma yoga, Raja yoga, Bhakti yoga and Prem yoga. Karma yoga, as we have already seen, is the practice of good Karma. Raja yoga is more famous because of the various asanas but actually consists of eight step process called ashtanga yoga consisting of asanas, meditation, breath control etc. Bhakti yoga consists of extreme devotion (Bhakti) towards a chosen deity. Prem yoga means extreme love (Prem) towards god. Needless to say these processes are non denominational and can be performed by a person belonging to any faith and religion without compromising their own faith. It is just that they are described in detail in Hinduism. Of these various types of yoga, Raja yoga is of particular importance since it can be almost scientifically taught by a competent guru, step by step, whereas karma yoga, Bhakti yoga and prem yoga are much more individualistic and difficult to teach. At most a guru can guide you but can not teach you how to do your karma or how to devote yourself to a deity or how to love. As such in terms of result i.e. unlocking universal knowledge and unification of individual soul with the Universal soul, experts and ancient literature makes no difference but consider them to be different paths leading to the same destination. Thus depending on your natural inclination, you may adopt a particular yoga to be more suitable.

Raja yoga is also more difficult to practice since in the initial stages it involves almost ritualistic procedures to purify body and mind. Once purified it requires strict adherence to the procedures as directed by your guru. It is definitely not recommended to perform it without the guidance and supervision of a competent guru as it may harm more than help. Also as we had seen earlier, as described by Patanjali, a guru helps in overcoming obstacles and temptations as well as removing any doubts.

WHAT IS KUNDALINI?

How did the ancient masters and religious founders obtain or unlock Universal knowledge without a guru? There is no record of anyone being their guru. I think they did this by treating their mind itself as a guru, something which we are trying to do here but by forming Universal mind as a guru.

By following the methods and practices of Raja yoga it is supposed to activate energy called “Kundalini”. Some of you might have heard of Kundalini yoga. Kundalini is described as energy resting at the base of spine of us all usually in a dormant form. Upon activation it rises along the spine and encounters seven “Chakras” or centers situated at various positions along the spine. Upon the interaction of Kundalini and each chakra various spiritual experiences are experienced by the practitioners. If continued, Kundalini reaches its final destination which is a chakra in brain described as a thousand petal lotus called sahastrar chakra. In the absence of continued practice, the raised kundalini returns back to its original place, the base of spine. When kundalini reaches the brain, it is supposed to lead to “Samadhi” also known as “Nirvana”. In this state a person’s ego is completely dissolved and he/she becomes one with the universal soul. The practitioner unlocks the Universal knowledge and all doubts, fears and duality is supposed to disappear. The person becomes one with God and does not need to return to everyday reality nor is there any need to perform any more rituals or karma. The person after reaching this stage may retain a little ego so as to be able to return to the world in order to be able to educate others. Obviously all the religious founders did return to teach their philosophy but there may be many of whom we have not even heard of because they never returned from Samadhi.

In our day to day life, without practicing Raja yoga kundalini may rise spontaneously a little especially if you are a person with good karma and give a glimpse of a spiritual experience which some have described as blissful and pleasant.

CLARIFICATIONS

2009-01-18T22:25:00.004+05:30

Before beginning a new post I want to clarify a few things which I feel I have not covered in detail. This is as much for readers of this blog as for myself to be grounded.

1. WE BEING NON DOER OF THINGS: When it is said that we are not doers of things but just a medium for karma-fruits to take effect, it does not mean that we should stop doing karma. Indeed it is impossible for us to not do anything. Inaction on our part would lead to laziness and result in depression in some people who believe in fate or destiny and thus feel that nothing they do would make a difference. None other than Shri Krishna has said in Bhagvad Gita that even he has to perform karma in order to prevent the world falling in chaos. Thus when you see injustice done to you or another person, when you see crime being perpetrated, or a hungry child in need of food or any other situation where your action might make a difference, you must act. What it does mean is that the ultimate outcome of anybody’s action is not in their hands but is determined by a complex entanglement of the various karma-fruits of persons involved. Needless to say this applies to both favorable and unfavorable happenings. Thus you should neither take credit nor feel sorrow for what comes your way.

2. FALSE PRIDE: When you believe that you are the ultimate doer of things, your Ego gets a tremendous boost and a sense of false pride develops which consumes even the great philanthropist amongst us. To further clarify this point, I am recounting this story from the epic Mahabharata. Once Yudhisthira (the eldest of Pandavas) conducted a Yagna (an ancient Hindu fire ceremony where various Demigods and Gods are invoked and offered offerings) and at the end gave away considerable amount of material things including gold, precious stones, clothes etc. to whoever wished to have as much as they wanted. After satisfying the last recipient he was filled with pride that no one had ever been as generous as he. Suddenly there appeared a mongoose whose half side was golden. The mongoose rubbed its non golden half on the Yagna floor several times in vain and finally exclaimed that this was not such a great Yagna after all. His curiosity thus roused, Yudhisthira asked the mongoose for an explanation. The mongoose told him that during a time of famine there lived a poor Brahmin with his wife and a married son. They lived by collecting alms and sharing whatever they got. On a particular tough day the Brahmin managed to get only very little flour and nothing else. This divided four way and were about to eat when they were approached by a stranger who was very hungry and asked for some food. In India a guest is usually accorded the status of god and is never denied any request for food, especially during a meal time. The Brahmin thus offered his share but the guest was still hungry so the Brahmin’s wife gave her share. Finally when the guest had consumed all the food, he felt satiated and blessing the family he left. The Brahmin family tried to satisfy their hunger by drinking water but died during the night due to starvation. The mongoose concluded its story by saying that when it rubbed its body on the few particles of leftover food on the floor. It covered only half his body which became golden. When it had heard about the great Yagna by Yudhisthira, it had hoped to cover its remaining half in gold too but in vain. Thus it’s remark. Yudhisthira immediately realized that this was a ploy to relieve him of his false pride since he only donated material things but Brahmin and his family sacrificed their lives in order to satisfy their guest.

3. LOVE AND DETACHMENT: This point is further covered in a future post but I have already mentioned an example of renunciation of worldly things including a new bride by Tulsidas in my previous post. I have stated what the experts have stated in ancient texts and scriptures and which made immense sense to me. As much as possible I have strived to leave my personal experiences, either good or bad, from affecting my views.

It must be noted that any form of renunciation especially involving relationships is very difficult and possible only when the mind is convinced that it is the right thing to do and you are adequately prepared otherwise it would only lead to misery. Also if you find that you are happy with your relationships including a romantic one, then you should continue to enjoy them until, if ever, you feel need that something is missing, when the sayings of the experts make sense. Remember that many of these ancient masters became disillusioned in worldly relations or were born karma yogis before they could renounce worldly things. If you remain in a relationship and the experts advocate detachment, it does not mean that you stop caring about people in your life but bear in mind the non permanence of all relations; that all relations will ultimately end. In fact we have seen many examples where just following their Dharma the practitioners, who were ordinary householders, gained spiritual knowledge without renouncing anything.

As such being social animals, humans need some form of relationship. Another form of relationship humans find satisfying is with their pets. Research had already shown that there are many health benefits of human-pet interaction such as lowering of blood pressure, lowered stress etc. Very new research has shown that interacting with pets brings out maternal instinct in humans due to release of a hormone called oxytocin. Oxytocin is considered to be responsible for lowering of stress and as an antidepressant.

In all the religious figures of major religions, Shri Krishna stands out since he never renounced anything, reportedly had many wives and enjoyed a healthy sex life. Some observers have gone so far as to suggest that the sexual union itself is a form of religious experience. This may be true in the Tantric tradition of Hinduism and Buddhism where the union of Shiva and Shakti may be represented by sexual union but beware of those “Babas” or “Gurus” who promise spiritual liberation through free, uncontrolled sex which had captivated the West in sixties and seventies.

PRODUCER AND DIRECTOR : MAYA

2009-01-12T00:22:00.008+05:30

WE ARE ALL ACTORS IN THE GRAND PRODUCTION CALLED LIFE

We saw that attachment to karma fruits prevents the individual soul from reuniting with the Universal Soul. It was also proposed that this attachment causes the birth-death cycle. Attachment gives rise to expectations and anger. When those expectations are not met a host of other negative emotions arise, all of which tie the soul to the life-death cycle.

Another form of attachment is the attachment to the world around us. Throughout our life we are forming various relationships to the worldly things, most of these are with people in our lives some due to birth such as parents, siblings, children etc, others due to association such as friends spouses, etc. Earlier we saw how even a learned Rishi like Narad got carried away due to Maya and forgot that he was with Lord Vishnu.

The messages brought by the five senses are powerful enough and in the absence of any alternative we have no choice but to believe them. We are happy when people we care for are happy and are pained by their pain. We constantly do things for them even if we don’t want to and convince ourselves that it is our duty to do so. Many remain in an abusive relationship under false pretense. Thus an abused spouse continues living in the abusive relationship due to what she believes to be love or a mother abused by her son continues loving him.

There was a thug who used to loot people passing through a jungle where he lived. Once he accosted a learned man and demanded money from him. The learned man told him that he would gladly give his possessions if the thug told him the reason for his way of earning a living by looting people. The thug told him that he has a large household consisting of his parents, siblings, wife and children all of whom depended on him. The learned man told the thug to go and enquire who amongst his household also shared his sin along with the loot. To his surprise the thug found out that not a single person would share his sins with everyone having some excuses. Thus coming to his senses, he gave up looting, meditated and went on to write the epic “Ramayana” under the name of Valmiki Rishi.

Our situation is not different. We spend a lifetime toiling for material things including wealth without realizing our motive. A newly married saint poet named Tulsidas was so attached to his new bride that one time he swam a flooded river and overcame other difficulties just to be with her. On seeing him and realizing what he underwent, the bride told him that if he even spent fraction of the time and effort on God that he spent on her, he would be instantly liberated. On hearing this admonishment he immediately realized his folly, left her and became one of the great saint poets of India and wrote Ramayana in Hindi called “Tulsi Ramayana”.

We are not different than Tulsidas before he renounced material things . Surrounded by material things, we are constantly seduced by them and are prepared to go to great lengths to get them. Thus if we want to attend a rock concert or a movie or a theatre production of our favorite artists, we are prepared to stand in long lines without regard to thirst, hunger or any other physical discomfort, sometimes even camping overnight in adverse weather. Same is true of the latest Gadgets and Gizmos. The recent example of this is when i-phone by Apple was introduced; people the world over were desperate to get theirs and in some instances camped in front of the stores overnight. Even though eventually one could get i-phone by paying the price, in this instance everyone wanted to be the first to get it. The same is true of scientists working on their favorite projects or hobbyists working on their hobby or collectors wanting to add to their collection. As I know from experience, a scientist working on some breakthrough will forget everything else. If the project happens to be of a caliber to merit Nobel Prize or its equivalent then literally there is no limit to the length the scientist would go to. Yet if you tell someone that by following certain path and observing certain procedures they could receive Universal or Spiritual knowledge or meet God, at the most they will ignore you and not take you seriously. Few of us “find” time to think about Spirituality and fewer still seriously actively pursue it. Here I must add that we are not completely at blame here. Material things by their nature are amenable to our senses. We can see, touch, feel, smell, taste and hear them every day. Even if you could not get the i-phone, you might know someone who did and can handle it yourself. Spiritual knowledge by nature is not amenable to our senses. Even if you hear of some one with this knowledge, you have to personally experience it to believe its existence. So you seek out a so called Spiritual Guru who usually tantalizes his audience with lofty promises of letting you “meet God”. Almost without exception these so called Spiritual Gurus are excellent orators and make you feel good as if intoxicated. People pay good money to attend their Spiritual seminars or get-togethers or Spiritual meets but when they open their eyes all they see is inconsistency in the talk and behavior of these “Gurus”. On the one hand they talk about God, Spirituality and renunciation but are actually living lavishly on other people’s money with huge properties and a fleet of expensive cars. A true Spiritual Guru does not do any of the above things, does not advertise or self-promote him but quietly guides his disciples. It is said that if you are earnest and sincere about Spiritual knowledge, a Guru will seek you rather than you seeking him/her. One thing is clear: without a Guru illuminating your Spiritual path, you would be lost as if in a dark jungle at night without any light with many pitfalls, wrong turns and so on. A Spiritual Guru will also alleviate your doubts and fears which are bound to crop up when you begin your Spiritual Quest. One has to be especially wary of certain tempting inducements which are offered while pursuing the spiritual quest. First: I had mentioned in my earlier post about special occult powers one acquires as one progresses further on the spiritual path as described in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras (see post dated 8-18-08). Although Patanjali and other Spiritual masters caution a new practitioner from getting seduced by these powers, Patanjali did not refrain from describing them even with the fear of someone getting tempted to practice Spirituality just to get these powers, so that a beginner is adequately warned. These are very real powers (compared to which a magician’s tricks and sleight of hand would seem like a child’s play) distracting most of the spiritual practitioners but a few resolute ones from their objective of unification with the Universal Soul. Second: Patanjali also mentions that while practicing spirituality, one is approached by spirits of previously unsuccessful practitioners who are jealous and want to prevent one’s progress and offer various inducements to distract one from the ultimate goal of Spiritual unification. A competent Guru who has gone through this process would be of utmost important for the new practitioner to confide in and seek advice from. Here we are treating our mind as a Guru and hopefully it will guide us after linking with similar minds and forming the universal mind. Shri Krishna acquired spiritual knowledge as well as other knowledge in various fields under the tutelage of the Rishi called Sandipani at his Ashram, as was the custom of ancient Hindus. Shri Krishna had to undergo this training even if he was God-incarnate, since he was in a human form. It is possibly here that he mastered the teachings of ancient Hindu texts such as the Vedas and the Upanishads from which he composed the beautiful and important poem; the Bhagvad Gita. Other historical Spiritual Masters like Buddha, Moses or Christ have received the Spiritual knowledge by secluding themselves and practicing Spirituality.

KARMA, ITS FRUITS AND ATTACHMENT

2009-01-05T02:27:00.007+05:30

EGO AND RESPONSIBILITY FOR GOOD OR BAD HAPPENINGS

Exactly how the ancients theorized or deduced that the unification of individual and Universal Soul did not happen immediately after death after one lifetime in most cases, is unclear. Perhaps considering the number of good as well as bad karma performed by an individual in a lifetime and thus good and bad fruits thereof suggested that one lifetime was not enough to experience all the fruits. It was clear that the soul can not exist without a body (otherwise we would call it a spirit or ghost). Thus reincarnation of the soul was suggested.

The answer to the question of “why does a soul keep reincarnating and not get liberated?” was answered with the theory of attachment of the soul to the fruits of its karma.

Central to the idea of attachment to the fruits of karma is the concept of “I” or “EGO”. Regardless of how much you try to think of one Universal Soul in all beings, your senses and outside world keep telling you that you are a separate body-soul. With 5 powerful senses telling you the same thing, your intellect has no choice but to accept it. As we saw earlier even a learned Brahmin, well versed in spiritual knowledge is fooled. With ego comes the idea that you are the doer of things. Thus we feel and say things like “I made so much money” or “I fired him/her for incompetence” or “my family is the greatest” etc. And thus you take credit for all the good things and deny responsibility for bad things. When good things happen to us or those we favor we are quick to take the credit but when bad things happen, we are even quicker to blame someone else for it including God. We cry, we pray to God, “Why are you doing this to me or let it happen to me; your loyal servant and disciple?” It is as if God has nothing better to do than monitor our every move. In reality we are merely a medium through which karma and its fruits operate. Whatever good or bad karma-fruits we accrue we eventually get either rewarded or punished. All we can do is perform our duties as per our dharma without expectations or attachments to the fruits of our karma.

Perhaps it will not be an exaggeration to say that the central theme of Bhagvad Gita is how to perform karma without attachment or regard to its fruits. In Gita, Shri Krishna is admonishing reluctant warrior Arjuna about his duties as a warrior and to fight his enemies, even kill them without anger or attachment to the fruits of his action.

We must not accept the theories of ancient philosophers as a given but must ask these questions, why is attachment to the fruits of one’s action bad? Is it possible to conduct daily life chores without thinking of the fruits of one’s action? These questions are necessary since it is almost impossible not to feel any attachment or credit for one’s good karma. We need to know the answer for these questions independently since that is the correct scientific method. Thus Einstein did not hesitate to propose special theory of relativity since he felt it and eventually it explained observations better than Sir Isaac Newton’s theory which was adequate to explain observations till then.. Ironically although Einstein’s work helped establishment of Quantum Physics with all its strange predictions, Einstein himself refused to accept the uncertainty associated with Quantum Physics till his death and uttered his famous phrase “God does not play with dice.” He unsuccessfully tried to solve this behavior introduced by Quantum Physics till his death. To me the answer to the first question is that if attachment creates bondage for the soul and interferes in the unification of individual Soul with the Universal Soul, then attachment is bad. The second question is a little difficult to answer. It is possible to conduct daily life without thinking of the fruits of our karma but initially at least you have to constantly and consciously remind yourself. The lure of publicity and glory, for example, are powerful emotions to overcome. Even if we do a simple little favor for someone like giving them money, we want the whole world to know about it and praise us. We become angry if we feel due credit is not given to us.

If you think that by not performing any karma by being inactive you could avoid the bearing of the fruits, you would be wrong. Every moment of our lives we are performing karma, by breathing, by thinking etc. It is impossible to be alive without performing any karma.

In fact in the Bhagvad Gita Shri Krishna tells Arjuna that despite being the God Incarnate, he (Shri Krishna) has to perform karma else the world will be in chaos. So what is the way out? He tells Arjuna that anyone who dedicates their fruit of karma to him (God) becomes free from the fruit. Taken not literally it means that one should perform karma without any expectation. This is important since it is possible for us to practice this. Initially your mind would expect reward for any good deeds, but eventually you could train your mind to cease expecting.

INVOCATION FOR GOOD KARMA

“O mind Guru please inspire me to perform only good karma

So that

Just as light replaces darkness, my good karma-fruits replace any bad karma-fruits that I may have accrued from previous karma”

PLAY OF MAYA, RIDDLE OF LIFE AND DEATH

2008-12-29T00:01:00.011+05:30

Since Bhagvad Gita deals with life and death extensively especially dying while performing one’s dharma, it would be pertinent to think of these issues both scientifically and philosophically. In Bhagvad Gita special emphasis is placed on the thoughts occurring at the moment of death as it supposedly determines the form one takes in the next incarnation. Thus it is recommended that at the moment of death a person should be free from negative thoughts such as anger, bitterness, jealousy etc. and filled with positive thoughts.

We have seen that due to MAYA one Universal Soul appears as many as can be seen from following figure 1.. Also we have seen that effect of our karma can be long term, sometimes crossing life and death barrier and apparent in reincarnated soul. Before tackling reincarnation, I want to discuss two very fundamental aspects of our life, namely Life and Death.

Since time immemorial these two phenomena have fascinated humans and continue to do so, since we are no closer to understanding them. Particularly death was and still is a mystery. Ancient Hindu literature such as Upanishads has detailed discussions on death and life after death. In particular “Katha” Upanishad has a question and answer discussion between a young person called Nachiket and Yama, the God of death. Nachiket wanted to know what happens after death to a person, since some people said that the person is still alive and others said that the person is dead. Yama tries his best to discourage Nachiket from knowing the answer, by promising him various inducements but young Nachiket remains firm and finally Yama yields. Their dialog/discussion is considered an authoritative account on the subject. This discussion is a little too complicated to be included here, but I hope to present a simplified version in a forthcoming post.

IS LIFE, SIMPLY AN ARRANGEMNT OF A FEW ATOMS?

Although we see life all around us in people, new born babies of humans and animals, trees etc. very few of us ask the fundamental question, what exactly is life and how is it different from non living things? Even scientifically we do not have a clear-cut definition of living and non living things. Thus viruses and plasmids are considered non living, even though they meet at least one criterion of living, i.e. independent reproduction. We are all familiar with viruses. Plasmids are extra chromosomal DNA molecules capable of infecting animals and humans and in some cases impart antibiotic resistance to bacteria. Plasmids were recently implicated for causing mad cow disease.

I am sure that ever since humans started thinking of things other than their survival, this question of life and death has been asked and remains unanswered even today.

Let us consider the building block of life, the DNA molecule. It is a complex molecule made up of inorganic atoms readily available in any chemistry laboratory yet we are unable to create a DNA molecule. We can even make the components of DNA such as the base pairs and sugars but the final living molecule is impervious to us. We can take an existing organism and create a new life form by insertion of genes from other organisms. We can even take existing DNA molecule and multiply it by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) but can not make the original molecule. There are a number of theories regarding origin of life on earth such as panspermia theory according to which life originated somewhere else and deposited on earth by a comet or an asteroid. It still does not answer the question of where and how did the original molecule come from. It is possible that out of innumerable possibilities of arrangement of atoms one gave rise to the DNA molecule. The fact remains though that with all the sophisticated techniques and knowledge at our disposal we are unable to create life.

A somewhat less complex question relates to conception and birth. We still do not know exactly how conception occurs or rather why it does not occur in some individuals. Here at least we have made great progress in terms of in vitro fertilization and artificial insemination.

DEATH COMES AS AN END ?

The other mystery is that of death which has intrigued us since prehistoric times. In fact recent discoveries of cave paintings suggest that even Neanderthal man (the species of man separate from and before us, the Homo Sapiens) had the concept of death as they buried their dead. Even some animal species like elephants seem to mourn their dead.

For humans it must have been perplexing that an individual who was with them eating, talking etc. is no longer active. (For comparison remember when you first heard about death of someone close to you when you were young and had no idea of what death meant). The initial thought must have been that the person is asleep for a long duration and may wake up any time. Over time, they realized that the person is dead and may not return. Later different religions dealt with the disposal of the body in their unique way but the early humans usually buried their dead along with his/her favorite things. Some cultures, most notably Egyptian developed elaborate mummification process to preserve the body with the hope that it will be inhabited by the owner again. Others like Hindus believed that the dead body as useless after serving its purpose when alive and quickly cremated it with some religious rituals and prayers. The reason for going into details on this topic will become apparent soon.

Now consider what happens at the time of death. Some vital force driving that person seems to have gone. The organs stop functioning and the person is declared dead. The ancient Hindus wondered about the nature of the vital force which kept heart pumping blood through the body supplying nutrients and removing waste by-products ,made the brain work as well as kept all other organs functioning.

I don’t think we are any closer in knowing the nature of that vital force than the ancients. However first let us consider if we need to consider any vital force or everything is purely mechanical. Sure, the heart is nothing but a mechanical pump operating by alternately contracting and dilating, brain is a collection of neurons similar to a CPU of a computer and so on. But then at death why do these processes stop? More importantly what made the initial move of starting the pump, the CPU? What is lacking at death which was present even a few nanoseconds before? Why, the vital force of course!

The ancient Hindus termed this vital force as a Soul, which oversaw various functions of the body it inhabited. They postulated that at the time of death this Soul leaves the body. The journey of the soul thereafter was their next quest and they suggested that the purpose of the individual soul was to unite with the Universal Soul. It seems reasonable to assume that every living being possesses soul although as far as we can tell, only humans seem to posses the ability and the will to attempt the unification of individual soul with the Universal Soul.

The thought process of everyone having separate, own individual soul to all having the same universal soul must have made logical sense and was thus accepted as a fact. Remember that as I had said earlier, these thought processes sometimes took centuries of discussion, argument and counterargument in a completely democratic fashion where anyone with a reasonable idea was allowed to participate. In fact ancient Hindus were so tolerant that they allowed nasty criticism as well as verbal attacks on their theories without any repercussions.

The question of how one Universal Soul appeared as many individual souls was already answered as due to effect of MAYA. The next question was what prevents an individual soul from uniting with the Universal Soul and what its fate is after leaving the body at death.

A holy man was once brought before a king for some perceived wrongdoing. The king wanted him to accept the responsibility for the wrongdoing and threatened him with various punishments but the holy man was unafraid and silent. Finally the king threatened to kill him. At that the holy man broke his silence, laughed and said to the king, “till now you were merely uttering foolish nonsensical utterances but now you have said the stupidest thing because no force in the universe can kill me as I am the indestructible, everlasting soul.”

Thus the ancient Hindu view on life and death is that it is an illusion. This does not mean that bodies are not born nor die, but the soul remains unaffected. According to this view, the soul is indestructible but as the body it inhabits gets older, it discards that body and reincarnates in a new body. This process continues till the soul is liberated, that is reunited with the Universal Soul. This process is often compared with a person discarding old clothes and wearing new.

DHARMA AND KARMA CONTINUED

2008-12-22T00:55:00.007+05:30

LESSONS FROM MAHABHARATA

Mahabharata offers a rich source of information regarding one’s karma, one’s dharma and in general about the conduct of life. It is definitely not easy to understand some of the doings of the major characters of Mahabharata and Indians as well as non Indians are often left puzzled by their behavior which is often unexpected to say the least. One phrase that comes to my mind is “helpless inevitableness”. It is not helplessness in the normal sense of the word as in “powerless”, nor are the occurrences inevitable in the sense of the word “fateful” or “unable to stop”. Any of the major characters could have avoided the disaster and massacre of millions of warriors if they wished to. Instead they act in a sort of compulsion to proceed in their chosen course of action. It is not their ego either which compelled them or not knowing right from wrong. The term used throughout Mahabharata is Dharma as in “they followed their Dharma”. As we had seen earlier, Dharma could mean religion or “a code of conduct”. Here Dharma is taken as a code of conduct. According to this each of us is bound by a certain code of conduct based on our birth or a chosen way of life. Thus a Yogi and a warrior have different Dharma. A yogi’ Dharma includes meditation and non violence whereas a warriors Dharma is to fight and kill if necessary. Also according to this view a person does not incur bad karma-fruits if he/she remains true to their Dharma.

Viewed from this point of view, the behavior of some of the characters from Mahabharata makes sense. Duryodhana is so adamant about not giving Pandavas any territory because he believed in principal that they were not the sons of Pandu and thus had no right to the throne. Dhritarashtra believed in supporting his sons even though he knew right from wrong, that his brother’s sons should have been given some share of the throne. Bhishma and Drona as we have seen also knew right from wrong but decided to fight on the side of wrong because they believed loyalty to kuru dynasty and thus Dhritarashtra to be their Dharma. In fact even though they admired and loved the Pandavas, when it came to fighting they fought the Pandavas with all their might and were unstoppable. At one point Bhishma was so potent he massacared many soldliers from Pandavas army and an angry Shri Krishna forgot his oath of not bearing any arms and picked up a weapon to kill Bhishma. Seeing this Bhisma, who knew that Shri Krisna was a god-incarnate, folded his arms in salutation and said that he could not ask for a better death than in Shri Krishna's hands. A worried Shri Krishna had to device some trickery in order for Bhishma and Drona to give up fighting. In the case of Bhishma he put forward a eunuch from behind whom Arjuna sent his arrows. Seeing a eunuch, Bhisma laid down his arms as he had sworn to fight only men, and was finished by Arjuna. In the case of Drona, Shri Krishna asked a rumor to be spread that Ashwathama, the son of Drona is dead. When Drona heard this he was distraught and to confirm he asked Yudhisthira the eldest of the Pandavas, who was known to speak only truth, whether it was true that Ashwathama is dead. Yudhisthira confirmed the news and added inaudibly that it could be an elephant named Ashwathama. After confirmation by Yudhisthira about what he believed to be his son’s death, a disheartened Drona saw no purpose to continue fighting, laid down his arms and was killed.

Karma believed keeping his word to be his Dharma. Thus in an incident when war became inevitable and he was donating whatever one asked from him, he was tricked into parting away his natural body armor with which he was born. Fully aware that he was invincible with his armor and vulnerable without it, he gave it up without a second thought perhaps even knowing it could be a trick just because he could not refuse a gift once asked. He showed the same resolve in keeping his word to Duryodhana even when he became aware of his origins from none other than Kunti, his birth mother. When Kunti requested him to stop fighting for Kauravas and join his brothers the Pandavas, Karna knew that he would be received with much fanfare and felicitation as the eldest of Pandavas as well as it would prevent the massacre of many warriors on both sides since without him Duryodhana would call off the war. Yet he decided to honor his word to Duryodhana. As a concession to Kunti he promised her that he would spare all the Pandavas except Arjuna with whom he had a personal score to settle. He also made Kunti promise that she would not reveal his birth secret to the Pandavas because he knew that if they knew that he was their eldest brother they would rather relinquish any claims to the throne than fight him because in Indian culture an elder brother is often considered to be on par with a father. Thus in Karna’s actions we see the helpless inevitableness I wrote about. He was helpless because on one side he had a family including his birth mother he hardly knew and who despised him all his life but now had a chance to make up for the lost time and on the other side he had a friend who treated him as an equal. He knew that the war had to be fought and either he or Arjuna would survive. He also chose to fight with a lot of handicaps like the loss of his birth armor, curses from Rishis etc, but still determined to fight. It is not clear whether Karna’s actions were prompted by jealousy or anger.

For most people Shri Krishna’s behavior is most surprising and puzzling. It appears as if there are two different persons. Otherwise how could one reconcile Shri Krishna, the yogi par excellence and supreme philosopher who composed beautiful Bhagvad Gita with its teaching of practice of yoga and consistent with his being known as the God incarnate, with Shri Krishna the war counsel to Arjuna who tried every trick in the book including some dirty tricks, as we saw earlier, to win the war. At times he even disregarded the agreed upon conventions of warfare. As we will see, in my opinion there is no inconsistency here. First regarding his trying to win the war at any cost including trickery, we have to remember that he apparently knew the fate of everyone involved. The question would be asked then why did he have to fight dirty? Here we come to an earlier point regarding free will. Shri Krishna had to be certain that the war would be won by the Pandavas since he knew their cause to be just and according to him, he reincarnated to restore Dharma whenever the society was plagued by Adharma (opposite of Dharma, lawlessness, anarchy etc). Even if one major person involved decided to act differently, the outcome would be different. As I had stated earlier even God can not make one behave in a specific way and a person is free to use his free will. Second point to note is that even if he was a God incarnate, he was in a human form and thus limited by all the frailties and weaknesses associated with it. Thus the questions “how could God behave in a particular way?” or “how could God have a disease” or “how could God suffer and die?” are best answered by asserting that it is not God or Universal Soul which is immortal that suffers from these afflictions but his human form which is mortal. Another example is that of Jesus Christ considered to be son of God who also suffered at the hands of humans. Shri Krishna was cursed by Gandhari, wife of Dhritarashtra and mother of the Kauravas for getting her sons killed by trickery and foul tactics. Gandhari had special powers due to her remaining voluntarily blind to match her husband’s blindness. She cursed that Shri Krishna will have his kingdom destroyed by in-fighting and he will die alone at the hands of a hunter. Eventually both these curses became true. Could Shri Krishna being God incarnate evaded Gandhari’s curses? Perhaps, but being in human form he had to be subjected to the same rules.

I want to point out that it is easier to judge the actions of others with the benefit of hindsight but it is extremely difficult when faced with these type of situations yourself in real time. Suppose you faced a situation where you had to fight on your brother/s side or against for a property dispute what would you do? Suppose you had to fight your brother/s for a share of property, what would you do? Where do you draw the line between selfishness and claiming what is rightfully yours? People are not one dimensional but multidimensional making the clear-cut decisions difficult. Thus each of us is a combination of good and bad attributes. When facing a situation where you have to take your friend’s side against your brother/s, you remember all the good points about your brother/s. Similar situation exists regarding your friend, you remember all the good points about your friend if you decide to take your brother's side.

DHARMA AND KARMA

2008-12-15T03:06:00.009+05:30

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO MAHABHARATA

Perhaps no other single literary masterpiece occupies the place of Mahabharata in Indian psyche. People from all walks of life are known to quote and learn lessons from Mahabharata. Bhagvad Gita, which is part of Mahabharata, is full of philosophy and is of course known the world over and people like Mahatma Gandhi have drawn inspiration from it when faced with life’s tough problems.

Mahabharata which literally means the great Indian war is seemingly a story of warring cousins with backing from various kingdoms comprising ancient India. The story itself begins much before the war and culminates after the war. The sheer range of emotions expressed in Mahabharata range from lust, greed, jealousy, selfishness, selflessness, wickedness, trickery, devotion and perhaps all the other emotions and behaviors known to man and would delight any Shakespearean fan. I don’t know whether Shakespeare himself had heard or read Mahabharata but would have been thrilled if he had.

There are two main epic literary masterpieces of ancient India which every Indian knows, Mahabharata and Ramayana, or story of Ram. Of the two, Ramayana is full of people and characters that behave ideally and are almost lifeless. Mahabharata on the other hand is full of people who are far from being ideal and thus more lifelike. Experts in the field do not agree about the period when Mahabharata took place or indeed whether it really happened at all. It makes no difference for us to appreciate its beauty and lessons learned from it.

For the sake of brevity we will confine this discussion to the period just before the war and thereafter. The war took place between Kauravas and Pandavas the sons of two brothers Dhritarashtra and Pandu respectively each laying claim for the ancient throne of King Kuru. Dhritarashtra, who was blind from birth, was the king at the time and Kauravas claimed to succeed him to the throne whereas Pandavas demanded at least a share of the kingdom. On the face of it, it seems to be a reasonable request since their father Pandu had never enjoyed the throne but Pandavas’ demand was denied by Duryodhana, the eldest son of Dhritarashtra on advice from his maternal uncle Shakuni who was wicked and blinded by the power. Here we have to understand the technical reason for Duryodhan’s refusal to share power. Pandu’s wife and Pandavas’ mother Kunti had borne each of the Pandavas from a different deity with a boon given to her by a Rishi Durvas for attending to him and taking care of him when Kunti was still unmarried. According to the boon Kunti had to just think of any deity by which she desired to bear a child and the wish would be fulfilled. Kunti had already used the wish while still unwed and bore a child from the Sun god but fearing social repercussions had given him up. This was Karna the eldest son of Kunti but mistakenly taken to be son of a chariot driver who and his wife had raised him. Although really of a royal blood and possessing expertise in all weaponry, he was constantly ridiculed as a son of a chariot driver by Pandavas and their teachers in war craft, who regarded Arjuna the third Pandava as the supreme warrior. This rivalry between Karna and Arjuna was to prove disastrous till the end. Thus according to Duryodhana, since the Pandavas were really not Pandu’s sons (Pandu was cursed that if he ever became intimate with a woman he would instantly die and thus could not father any children of his own) they had no right to the thrown. On legal and technical grounds Duryodhana was probably right but to avoid further disaster he should have granted Pandavas request for just five villages. The Pandavas were counseled by none other than Shri Krishna, the God incarnate and great diplomat and tactician in addition to being a great philosopher.

Much drama takes place before the war itself including exile for Pandavas, attempts on their life etc. through which they survive mostly due to the cleverness of Shri Krishna. Duryodhana and Shakuni raise a number of obstacles and put unreasonable conditions in Pandavas way which they patiently overcome and reiterate their demand for some territory. By denying these, Duryodhana precipitates the war and both sides begin lobbing various kingdoms for support.

The whole of ancient India is divided in two camps sometimes with relatives belonging to opposite sides. Last minute diplomacy by Shri Krishna fails as Duryodhana on advice from Shakuni is confident of victory in the war and tells Shri Krishna that he would not part even with the land equivalent to a tip of a needle. When shri Krishna offers himself without any weapon or his well prepared army, Duryodhana foolishly chooses the army without realizing the importance of counsel by Shri Krishna. Thus Shri Krishna acts as chariot driver/counsel for Arjuna which ultimately wins the war.

On the Kaurava side we have people like Bhishma the patriarch of the family as well as Drona, the teacher of both Kauravas and Pandavas, and Karna the eldest son of Kunti whom Duryodhana had made a king of a territory so as to be called a warrior and not a “son of a chariot driver” who in turn had sworn to be loyal to Duryodhana which is exactly what Duryodhana wanted.

Bhishma and Drona despite being sympathetic to Pandavas were forced to fight on the side of Kauravas since they belonged to the ruling kingdom of the Kurus and thus the ruler, Dhritarashtra. Due to this sense of loyalty they remained silent even when it became known about Duryodhana’s wicked attempts at Pandavas life or when Duryodhana and his brothers behaved indecently with Pandavas’ common wife, Draupadi who was dragged to a full court and attempts were made to disrobe her. The Pandavas could do nothing but watch helplessly as they mistakenly believed that they had lost her in a game of dice to the Kauravas. However this incident sealed the fate of the Kauravas as Bhima the second of the Pandavas and the strongest one swore to avenge the Kauravas behavior and the humiliated and angry Draupadi never let them forget this incident.

Karna, now a King due to Duryodhana’s granting him a kingdom, of course chose to fight on the side of the Kauravas and gave his word to this effect. At that time he had no idea about his real identity and later when he was aware of it, he still chose to abide by his word. Constantly ridiculed by the Pandavas and especially Draupadi, he was angry and eager to prove himself and defeat the Pandavas on a battlefield. Duryodhana, well aware of Karna’s prowess, counted on this and encouraged Karna against the Pandavas. Without Karna on his side, Duryodhana would have never challenged the Pandavas and the whole tragedy which followed would have been avoided

FREE WILL, KARMA, FATE AND DESTINY CONTINUED

2008-12-08T00:30:00.008+05:30

PROSTITUTE AND THE HOLY MAN

Most people are also confused regarding the concept of exercising free will versus fruits of karma in relation to someone else. For example, if someone has wronged you, should you believe that that person will be punished by his own karma fruit or should you exercise your free will and take action against that person? I have often wondered about this and most of us face similar situations, so some elaboration on this point is required. Let us take an extreme example. Suppose someone has murdered those close to you without your fault. Should you rely on karma theory and believe that the person will be punished by his own karma or should you actively do something about it? Every atom in your body will demand revenge in some form including killing the person yourself without worrying about consequences. Telling you to be patient and let karma punish the person will only be rubbing salt in your wound. What then should you do? For the answer we again go to Bhagvad Gita where Arjuna is paralyzed with the thought of killing his own friends and relatives from the opposing army and has refused to fight. The answer given by Shri Krishna sums up the point I have raised. He told Arjuna that as a born warrior, his dharma was to fight his enemies and abandoning one’s dharma was the worst he could do. By abandoning his dharma he (Arjuna) faced not only spiritual consequences but material consequences as well. He would be forever ridiculed as the person who was afraid to fight and nobody would consider him as the great warrior that he was. He then tells Arjuna to rise and fight without anger and without thinking about the fruits of his actions. Thus the answer to the question I raised is that you should do everything in your power to bring the person to justice without any anger and with complete detachment. It may be a difficult thing to do but it is not impossible for us to practice. Most importantly when law and order are available you should never act as a vigilante and take law in your hands. Of course often times it is a long wait for the law to administer its verdict and it may be an outcome you did not want like the person going free on a technicality or getting less punishment than deserved but at least you will have the satisfaction of doing everything you could.

This also brings to my mind the question of capital punishment. Should the state have a right to take someone’s life if that person has allegedly committed the most heinous and gruesome of crimes? Most of the victim’s relatives would want “an eye for an eye” and punish the perpetrator with death penalty. I am however against the capital punishment not because I am sympathetic to the alleged criminal but simply because we can not create life artificially from scratch then how come we have a right to extinguish it? Also lately there have been reports of innocence of some individuals wrongly executed based on inadequate evidence or inadequate detection techniques of the time but proven innocent by improved techniques such as DNA fingerprinting. No one including the victim’s relatives wants the innocent person executed because not only it is unjust but also because someone guilty walked out free and may still be out there. Whether the perpetrator could be reformed or not is a question worth considering but it is impractical to ask the victims relatives to show compassion under the circumstances. Also certain crimes are so inhuman that even the most compassionate amongst us wants the proven criminal’s blood. Here certain serial killers come to mind who were not only proven guilty beyond a doubt (some even admitting to committing crimes), but were non repentant for their acts. There is virtually no way of reforming such individuals.

Another important point to remember is that karma in a particular situation may be rewarding but in another situation may bring punishment. For example if your country needs you to defend her from attackers, even killing of the enemy will bring you reward since that is your Dharma or duty at that time. Otherwise killing someone not in a war situation is a bad karma. As we have seen it in the discussion above, this is the starting point of Bhagvad Gita where Shri Krisna tells a bewildered Arjuna that his duty towards his king and country requires him to fight and even kill enemies, when Arjuna lays down his arms and refuses to fight and kill his relatives and friends in the opposing army.

In the discussion that follows, Shri Krishna makes two very important points relevant not only then and now but perhaps for all time. The first point is that he tells Arjuna that he (Arjuna) is mistaken in thinking that he is the doer of things that he may think that he has slain all these people but they would have died as per their karma any way. The point is we all think that we are doer of things due to our Ego. In reality we are just a means to an end. The second point Shri Krishna makes is that he tells Arjuna that even if Arjuna believes that he has slain all those people, it is only their body that died and not their Soul which is immortal and indestructible.

Also it is important to note that one person’s karma is not necessarily somebody else’s karma. As we had seen from the story of the butcher and of the woman, they both practiced their karma in the situation they were both born in, to the best of their ability without expecting any reward. Thus they both received the gift of the spiritual knowledge without doing any meditation or practicing any yoga. Similarly one should perform one’s duties as best as possible.

This last point is further illustrated from the story of “The prostitute and the holy man”. There was once a holy man living in a city in a neighborhood of similar white collar professionals. He spent his days meditating and practicing yogic principals and serving god. One day he heard that an alleged prostitute was moving in the neighborhood. He became enraged and agitated that his neighbors were allowing such a “low life” to move in his neighborhood. He tried to prevent her from moving in by various means to no avail as the neighbors could find nothing wrong with her behavior and she paid the required money. It so happened that to the holy man’s chagrin the prostitute moved in a house exactly opposite to his house. They could see each other’s house clearly. This further upset him and he could not concentrate on his meditation as he was constantly worried about her behavior. Some years passed and by coincidence they both died on the same day. To his surprise after death he found his soul in hell and even more surprisingly the prostitute in heaven. He approached God and said that there must be some mistake since he was a holy man serving God and she was a common prostitute. The God assured him that there was no mistake. He told the holy man that despite his meditation and devotion, all he thought was about the prostitute with contempt whereas whenever the prostitute saw the holy man she always thought respectfully about him. Therefore their Soul’s were in the respective places.

This story further tells us that whatever profession you are in, follow your karma honestly and adhere to your Dharma and then you have mastered the secret of karma and its fruits.

INVOCATION FOR PROPER PERFORMANCE OF KARMA

“O Mind Guru, guide me and give me wisdom and strength to

Perform my karma to the best of my abilities in the situation

In which I am born and continue living

And let me follow my Dharma Without any hesitation and complaints”

FREE WILL, KARMA, FATE AND DESTINY

2008-12-01T00:19:00.005+05:30

FREE WILL VERSUS FATE

A distinction has to be made between free will and karma, fate and destiny. Much has been discussed and written about these assuming them to be mutually exclusive. Most people not only in the western world but from India as well equate karma as their fate and think that their destiny is already decided. This is erroneous as destiny implies a fixed outcome. This makes people inactive or fatalistic. They either give up any positive action or seek God or his self appointed agent the “Baba” or “Guru” to help them overcome effects of bad karma. Unfortunately for them the Baba or Guru are only too happy to promise them results in exchange for a lot of money. First of all people should think, why would a God who supposedly can control the whole universe and has access to the entire wealth need measly sum from them? Secondly if the Baba or Guru has that kind of power over God then they would be Super Gods then why would they need money? Unfortunately even supposedly educated people, burdened by their problems think irrationally and fall prey to these false prophets. Also people think that what they are going to loose if it does not work, but may gain something valuable if it works.

The correct answer to these dilemmas is that only you can change the fruits of the karma you performed and no body else. In this sense your destiny is in your hands. It is neither written in stone nor is it unchangeable.

Earlier we had seen that there are 3 types of karma-fruits. Those karmas performed and the fruits of which have been borne, those karmas performed and some of the fruits of which we are currently bearing and some will be borne in time and those in which karma has not yet been performed. We also saw that everyone is responsible to his/her karma fruits and there is no need for a central account keeper such as God to keep an account and reward or punish as the case may be. A question thus arises, who is administering the fruits of the karma, punishment or reward? How can one’s soul monitor these? The answer in my opinion comes from Quantum Physics. It is said that in Quantum Physics an effect can occur billions of light years (1 light year = distance traveled by light in 1 year, approximately 10 trillion miles) away from the cause almost instantaneously even though general relativity states that nothing can travel faster than light. This suggests that there exists a link between a cause and its effect which is still operative regardless of the distance between them. In fact in Quantum Physics the line separating an observer and the observed is often blurred. Some physicists themselves have called this a “spooky science”. Perhaps a similar link exists between karma and its fruits and manifests at an appropriate time.

In fact according to Quantum theory an outcome of an experiment is not “decided” until an observation is made. The observer is thus a part of the outcome. Those who are more interested in knowing about these effects should read about a famous thought experiment called “Schrödinger’s cat” in which a cat is both alive and dead at the same time until an observation is made.

Quantum physics gives a possibility of an event occurring unlike classical physics which gives a fixed outcome. In Quantum Physics the final effect collapses to one only after an observation is made. For example consider a game of chess where it is a turn of a player to make a move. Depending on the positions of the pieces and the rules of the game, a number of possibilities exist. Now if the player touches a particular piece, the possibilities are reduced but still many. When the player moves that piece to a particular square, only that possibility exists. (Here I am not talking about the total possibilities with a number of pieces left on the board, which could be in many billions)

In a similar fashion our karma may have a possibility of a number of outcomes and thus not fixed. The question is can such things as Quantum effects are verifiable? Usually a verification of a theory comes from observations made, and possible effects postulated, which are verified by designing controlled experiments. If the outcome matches with the predictions then that theory is accepted as a proof. To some extent effects of Quantum theory have been verified by experiments. Is it possible to design experiments to test theories about karma and its effects or even about spirituality itself? The Yogic masters’ answer is an unequivocal affirmative. According to them these theories can be tested only by experience by following their directions. Unfortunately we have physicists advocating exotic theories about universe and its origins based on a few experiments but there are no takers for spiritual theories principally because the outcome of a spiritual journey is to be experienced and also the path is long and arduous. Although a person qualified in both Quantum Mechanics and spirituality is rare if at all existent, many physicists working in Quantum Physics have pointed out similarities between the Hindu concept of spirituality and Quantum Physics.

To reiterate the karma theory in terms of practical, day to day behavior; people usually choose one of the two ways. The first type of a person refuses to take any responsibility for their actions either in the present life or from previous life/lives preferring instead to let “God” be the judge and arbiter of punishment/reward for their present situation. They do not believe in past lives (may be correctly as we will see in the discussion on reincarnation). The second type of a person takes full responsibility for their actions in this as well as previous lives and believes that there is nothing they can do about the reward/punishment resulting from their actions. Both of these views are wrong. The first type of a person has no answer as to why God arbitrarily chose to punish/reward them. The second type of a person usually becomes helpless and fatalistic regarding punishment. One should instead take the responsibility, realize that some fruits are inevitable as they are already in motion but change their behavior for the better and thus dilute effect of previous bad karma and ensure that they perform only good karma from hereon. There are a number of things one can do apart from their usual daily activities. One can donate money/food to a charity, feed at least one person, volunteer to work for a charity/soup kitchen, volunteer to spend some time with hospitalized patients/people in retirement homes and so on. Most of these cost little or no money but the reward is immediate when you see the happy face of the person you helped. Many of the senior citizens are hungry for some company (as I have experienced) and want nothing more than talk to you.

MAYA IN ACTION, MANY FORMS OF THE UNIVERSAL SOUL

2008-11-24T01:39:00.007+05:30

BONDAGE DUE TO MAYA

There are contrasting views about a man’s (or more appropriately Soul’s) original nature as presented in Christianity and Hinduism. In Christianity a man is born a sinner and must repent and ask forgiveness to God to be liberated. In Hinduism a man is born free but has forgotten his true nature due to Maya and must reclaim his true nature not by begging for forgiveness but by following Yogic path and practices for liberation.

To my mind a question comes that supposing we accept that one original Universal Soul is now apparent as many individual ones, then why do we see differences in these individual souls; in other words why don’t we see separate but equal individual souls if we all started from the same Universal Soul. Why are there differences in each such as some are happy, some sad, some wealthy, some poor and so on. I think for an answer let us consider the example of a horse race where each horse is at the same starting line and possesses exactly equal ability, thus each having an equal chance of crossing the finish line. Now suppose that after the race starts, there is a fog on the racecourse, affecting each horse slightly differently and thus causing the gradation in their rankings. Add to that each horse’s way of dealing with the problem and we see further gradation in rankings. Now imagine each horse as an individual Soul, Universal Soul as the finish line, and Maya as the fog and Karma as the ability of each horse to deal with the problem and then we have somewhat of an answer to why we appear to be different from each other and why we possess different abilities, attitudes and fortunes.

Thus every individual Soul is affected by Maya which is not under its control, but then acts on its own volition (karma) to deal with it giving rise to its fruits. The process continues like a chain reaction until the individual Soul realizes that enough is enough and chooses the path towards reclamation of its original pure state by Yogic practices.

It is important to note that these concepts may be relatively easy to accept intellectually, but to practice them is extremely difficult. These days it is commonplace, almost fashionable to utter these concepts like a talking parrot but I have not met anyone with a first hand knowledge of these concepts. For an example consider the following short narrative.

A learned Brahmin was giving a lecture on Maya to a crowd of villagers. He had the audience enthralled with the concept of Maya, how the world is an illusion and how in reality we are all just one Supreme Soul. The audience was fascinated by the concept of Universal Brotherhood, how even animals and plants are just a reflection of the Universal Soul. Suddenly there was a disturbance in the crowd and someone shouted “a tiger is loose, run everybody, run” everyone panicked and stared running for cover. The learned Brahmin was amongst the first to run. His disciple asked him “Sir, but you said that the world was an illusion, so must be the tiger, then why are you running?” the master said, “You and I know that the tiger is an illusion, but does the tiger know?”

This is the state of things for a learned Brahmin well versed with the concept of MAYA, is it any wonder that ordinary people are easily fooled?

Try the following exercise for understanding how difficult this concept of” one Universal Soul in all beings” concept is. Consciously look around you and imagine you are in all the things and people around you. Thus say things like “I am that table”, “I am that chair” etc. for a while you will feel very good, elated even. Then say that about people around you and you will start feeling really good, thinking that this concept is really easy to master. But the moment your eyes fall on someone you consider obnoxious or detest or the moment someone does something you disapprove of like spitting, all the thought of Universal Brotherhood will evaporate in a fraction of a second and you will be filled with disgust for that person. I realized this one night when I was practicing “Universal Brotherhood” as described above when I saw a cockroach in the room (I am not talking about those small wimpy ones but large flying ones). All the thoughts about “Universality of everything” disappeared and I could think of nothing else but that cockroach but with fear and disgust. At that moment even if you had promised me a lot of money, I would not have been able to bring to think of myself and that cockroach as one substance in different form. My mind was occupied with killing it or at least drive it out of the house. So much for my bookish knowledge!

It is this ability to “see” with a mind’s eye and truly experience the presence of the Universal Soul in everything that separates an advanced Yogi from us beginners.

However it is better to constantly and consciously practice such experiments of trying to feel the universality of everything than not doing anything at all since at least you are training your mind.

INVOCATION FOR LIBERATION FROM BONDAGE

“O Mind Guru,

Please help me practice Universal Brotherhood Consciously as well as Subconsciously without envying others more fortunate than me.

And thus help me free myself from this Bondage created by Maya and my own Karma, and help me to find a path

Towards liberation so that I may attain my original Bondage Free Nature”

BODY THE BEAUTIFUL

2008-11-17T03:57:00.002+05:30

Before continuing with effects of MAYA further, I wanted to discuss this important aspect of our spiritual journey. Although we are primarily concentrating on invocation of mind guru intellectually, the importance of a healthy, clean body can not be overemphasized.

In ancient Hindu texts various ways of uniting the individual mind-soul with the Universal mind–soul are described. They all fall under the term “Yoga”. Thus we have Karma Yoga dealing with proper conduct of one’s karma, by means of which the unity is achieved. Gyana Yoga deals with achieving the same intellectually. Raja yoga deals with achieving the goal by performing various Asana or body postures with which many of us are familiar with. In reality we equate Yoga with the Asana part but it is a part of what is called as “Ashtanga Yoga” or eight step process. Under Ashtanga Yoga various techniques of purifying a body are described. Since that is out of the scope of present discussion, I am only going to deal with one aspect which is not greatly discussed in the texts perhaps considering it to be somewhat obvious. If you, the reader find it obvious, please ignore this part but some of you need to be reminded of.

The part which I want to stress is about keeping the body well fed. The ancient Yoga Ashrams (schools) which frowned upon material possessions by the students practicing spirituality dealt with it in a unique way. They required each practitioner to go door to door and collect alms needed for that particular day. This served a two-fold purpose; the basic needs were met without accumulation of material wealth and induced humility, which is so vital to a spiritual practitioner, at the same time. Of course it is impractical in these times.

The point I am trying to make is that even ancients had recognized that one can not be a spiritual master with an empty stomach. In fact one Indian Saint-Poet has written that “first stomach, then God”, meaning without taking care of hunger you can not worship god. Those who believe that God can be worshipped by great penance to the body, by torturing it, are either highly advanced on the spiritual path or are plain mistaken.

In my opinion none of the great spiritual masters have suggested starving yourself. The reason is plain and simple. One simply can not think straight let alone spiritually lofty thoughts when one is hungry. Those of us who have remained hungry either by choice such as fasting or forced, know that while you are trying to think, only the thought of food keeps recurring until satisfied.

I have personally experienced the importance of healthy body through very painful circumstances. About 5 years ago I suddenly had difficulty eating and digesting food.

I started reading spiritual literature at a relatively young age and thought that all one needs is a healthy mind for spiritual pursuit. Thinking of body as just a necessary accessory, I developed a sort of contempt for the body and somewhat neglected it. In time the body showed its contempt for me by not cooperating. The thought of eating food filled me with dread and I reluctantly ate a little. Those days I was attending a number of seminars and parties where good food was served. I used to feel hungry but could eat only a few morsels, always afraid that it would cause me discomfort. There is nothing worse than feeling hungry, availability of good food but unable to eat it. Consequently my health suffered and I felt no energy even for daily tasks. This was my body’s way of telling me that it too is as important as a healthy mind.

If you consider body as a vehicle with your soul as the passenger, the passenger can not reach its destination (The Universal Soul or God) if the vehicle is broken or out of fuel. In fact most of us take better care of our cars than our bodies. Eventually I recovered and have learned my lesson and take reasonably good care of my body. My point is that you should neither pamper your body (like a narcissist) nor should you ignore it.

The ancient masters have written that when one is sufficiently advanced on the spiritual journey, the importance of body gradually diminishes. Then the Yogi can do a number of things to his body which are impossible for less advanced souls like us. The advanced Yogi can stop breathing for extended periods of time, stop eating, can perform various other incredible things, even slow effect of the passage of time on the body and appear much younger than his physical or chronological age. However, remember that he/she began like you and me but has spent a number of years perfecting these techniques.

This brings me to second important point that of world hunger. It is not my intention to tell others how to conduct their lives, but I am making an exception. It is simply unconscionable to ignore when billions of our brothers and sisters including many children go to sleep hungry every night. It is convenient to use karma theory and say that these people are suffering because of their past karmas and we can not do anything. But remember it could be our karma to help these people overcome hunger with very little cost to ourselves. Also as we shall see the fruits of karma are not written in stone but can be changed for better or worse. Similarly the argument used by some people that these children’s parents should have known better than to give birth to children they can not provide for, only punishes the children.

It is a shame that we grow enough food to sustain everybody but still it does not reach some needy people. It may be because of economic-political reasons or simply due to wastage. India alone grows enough food grains but many billion tons are wasted due to improper distribution system or storage. Many billion tons are lost due to consumption by rodents.

Even as child I detested wasteful consumption of food. In traditional Indian weddings in those days guests were over-fed to the point that they could not eat any more and ended up discarding some good food. A few feet away some beggars, many of whom were small children were begging hopefully for scraps of leftover, discarded food. The situation regarding over-feeding has changed now due to practicing of buffet system (where guests eat as per their liking without being over fed) but not regarding the hungry begging children.

I don’t know what we can do at a collective level but at an individual level we can do a lot of things such as feeding at least one hungry person, volunteering to help in a charitable institution etc. Most importantly we can stop wasting food, eating only as much as needed, and giving left over food, if in good condition to a needy person, charity or soup kitchens. By our actions we should also have a moral right to tell others to stop wasting food.

Remember we can not hide behind “MAYA” theory and say that this is all an illusion and there is only one Super Soul. Even if true, it means that all the others are same as you and you would be only helping yourself. Swami Vivekananda used to say that instead of expecting gratitude you should thank a person for letting you help him/her.

INVOCATION FOR A SOUND BODY

“O mind guru, though I am trying to reach Universal Mind through you,

Let me not ignore the body which is your temple.

Please help me realize this aim to keep my body well fed and healthy so that I will

be able to achieve my ultimate aim of unification of you with the universal Soul.

INVOCATION TO EASE WORLD HUNGER

“O mind guru I realize that there are millions of others who would like to practice spirituality, but are unable to do so due to basic hunger

Please help me feed these people if only one at a time so that there will be one

Less hungry person, a child, going to sleep on an empty stomach.

THE WORLD IS A STAGE OF MAYA

2008-11-10T01:19:00.000+05:30

(Dear friends, we are now going to enter a relatively less charted territory in the following several blog posts. It’s not that there is less literature available or commentary by eminent scholars in the field is absent but it is my way of interpretation of some of the subjects by trying to reconcile with modern scientific breakthroughs, the knowledge of which ancient philosophers did not have nor anticipate.

Most of the philosophical discussion is from the scholarly commentary on ancient Hindu texts such as Vedas, Upanishads or Vedanta. It is not my intention to restrict this to only one religion’s point of view (POV) but my own understanding of other religions is not adequate enough to present any POV in a succinct form. This is where you, the readers of this blog come in. if you have any comments or differing POV on these discussions, I would love to hear from you. Let us make it a truly interactive discussion. You can submit your comments by clicking on the “comments” section of this post. I promise to publish your POV’s in subsequent posts with credit given to you.

CONCEPT OF MAYA

In a way the concept of Maya is really if not a central theme, is at least a major theme in ancient Hindu philosophical discussions. There is no exact translation in English language but most philosophers and commentators have used the word “illusion”. This is not a mere magician’s sleight of hand type of an illusion but illusion of the soul, mind etc.

The concept of Maya does not make any direct appearance in the ancient literature but is sort of referred to in an answer to the question of what made One Universal Soul to appear as many different forms that we see around us.

Here we have to understand that these type of discussions did not appear overnight but sometimes took centuries of formulating a thought, discussion on it and then acceptance or rejection. The process was continuous and ongoing and nothing was accepted as final if differing views also made sense.

According to ancients there exists only one Universal Soul (call it “GOD” if you wish) which appears as many different individual souls due to “Maya”. Thus their view is that just like the reflection of Sun appears as one in a mirror but many different Suns in many broken pieces of the mirror, the Universal Soul is reflected in each of us in our individual souls. It is important to note here that the ancients do not answer “why” it is so, only “how”. To the question of “why”, their answer is because it is for amusement of the “Universal Soul”. To me, trained as a scientist, it is not an adequate answer. To a scientist a cause and effect relationship is important. I am reluctantly willing to accept that at that level, may be cause and effect relationship breaks down and thus we could never answer this question. Perhaps as per the scholars and philosophers, after practicing Yogic methods and uniting with Universal Soul such questions are automatically answered or become unimportant or irrelevant. Even physicists accept that at a singularity (where matter is tremendously condensed in an infinitesimal space) our entire known physical laws break down.

To understand the concept of Maya further, I am reproducing a story narrated by Swami Vivekananda in his lecture tour of America and Europe. One day Lord Vishnu was asked by Narad Muni to show him what Maya is. (Narad is described as a learned Rishi who is mainly an advisor to the Gods, but had uninterrupted access to both warring sides, Gods and Demons. One of the characteristics of Narad muni is that he relished instigating the warring sides against each other). A few days passed and when Lord Vishnu and Narad had gone for a walk, Lord Vishnu told Narad to fetch some water as he was thirsty. Narad came across a river on other bank of which was a village. Crossing the river Narad knocked on a door which was answered by a beautiful woman. On seeing her Narad forgot what he had come there for and spent time talking to her. This continued for a few days and finally falling in love, Narad asked her to marry him. They got married, had a few children and were living happily. Twelve years passed and one day there was a great flood to the river and everything started getting washed away. Somehow Narad managed to hold on to his wife and two kids, but soon the children were swept away one by one. In great anguish Narad tried to hold on to his wife but soon lost her too. Grief stricken he somehow made to the other bank and was weeping for his loss of everything he had built for when he suddenly heard Lord Vishnu asking him for the water he had promised to bring and his whereabouts for the last hour. Thus in reality what was one hour was stretched to twelve years in Narad’s life in which all those important things had happened to him. This is one example of Maya.

DREAMS AND REALITY

2008-11-04T04:45:00.000+05:30

DREAMS AND KARMA

In the earlier Invocation I had included the phrase about good thoughts and good deeds in both the waking as well as dream state. This is significant because most of us think of dreaming as just a past time for the brain but ancient Hindu philosophers believed that once a thought is generated in the mind it will not die or disappear until it produces effects. Thus a cause and effect (or karma and its fruits) relationship exists for any action including thoughts. It is therefore equally important that not only we do good physical karma but to think of good or positive thoughts so that its effects would be good. What has this got to do with dreams? For that we first need to understand what dreams are.

In fact according to one Japanese monk it is impossible to know which the reality is and which is the dream. He once dreamt that he was a butterfly happily flying from flower to flower. Then he wondered whether he was a human dreaming that he was a butterfly or whether he was a butterfly dreaming that he was a human. If you think about it, it is impossible to tell the difference. Earlier I had discussed how our senses can be fooled in to believing anything by manipulation of neurons or nerve centers in the brain. This is a similar incidence.

Science has still not fully understood dreams and its mechanism although a lot of research is currently going on to understand them. What we do know for sure is:

· Every one of us dreams whether we remember those dreams or not. If someone says that they don’t dream, it merely means that they don’t remember dreaming.

· In fact dreaming is essential to the wellbeing of an individual. Some research suggests that if a person is prevented from dreaming (by interrupting etc.) that person feels restless.

· A good part of our sleep is spent on REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep during which we dream.

· Some researchers believe that dreaming is an effective way for our brains to dispose of unimportant facts and reorganize. This is partially corroborated by often illogical quality of dreams.

· Some other researchers believe that there is more to dreaming than a random electrical activity.

· There is some evidence to suggest that other animals also dream. Any one who has a pet dog or cat must have observed this.

I have not included the belief especially of some psychics that dreams foretell our future and often act as a warning of some impending bad event or even a disaster related or not related to the dreamer.

The two broad categories most dreams fall into are pleasant dreams and bad dreams (nightmares). At times in our dreams people or events unrelated to each other coexist. Also sometimes we dream of meeting a person long gone from our lives (deceased or parted) and feel very good that the person is still alive (if deceased). The joy we feel that the person is still alive or is still part of our life is indescribable. Perhaps we had some unfinished business with that person.

Whatever may be the circumstances, we have a lot of thoughts associated with the dreams and since thoughts are nothing but electrical activity (energy), according to second law of thermodynamics (which states that energy can never be created nor destroyed but transformed) these thoughts can not be destroyed. According to ancient Hindu philosophers these thoughts produce good or bad fruits depending on their nature.

Although we have no conscious control over what we dream, if we think of good, positive thoughts while awake and request our mind guru to produce similar thoughts in our dreams we would succeed eventually to only dream of positive feelings toward others.

The reason ancient philosophers attached so much importance to karma and its effects is because they believed that every karma produces fruits and as long as the fruits remain to be borne, the person is tied to the life and death cycle i.e. the person is reincarnated till all the karma-fruits are exhausted. What is important here is that the ancients believed that the ultimate aim of the soul is to free itself from life-death-life cycle and thus they make only a qualitative distinction between good and bad karma. Thus according to them a good karma (and its fruits) is preferred over a bad karma (and its fruits) but ultimately to free the soul, all karma-fruits have to disappear. Thus they advocated replacing bad karma with good karma and ultimately no karma at all.

The point about being reincarnated to enjoy or suffer the effects of one’s karma is debatable and subsequently I am going to discuss ancient philosophers’ as well as my view on the topic. What is clear to me is that effects of good karma are all around us to see. Practically every religion advocates doing good to others.

Recently in an article I read about a theory which suggested that luck plays far more important part in the decision making of successful people as does talent. I personally do not believe in luck since I don’t think anybody knows what it means. It suggests of randomness. Why is person A is luckier than person B? Who decides that? If we substitute karma for luck, it makes far more sense. There is no randomness. Person A had done some good karma previously and is now reaping its benefits compared to person B. this also puts the responsibility of our fate squarely on our shoulders. Therefore do not envy a person doing better than you since that person has earned it by his/her good karma. If you want to do better, engage in good karma.

SUFFERING, UNHAPPINESS AND HAPPINESS

2008-10-27T21:46:00.000+05:30

If there is a kind and compassionate God, why would he allow so much pain and suffering to happen to his devotees especially if they offer him prayers and various gifts? It seems that all around us chaste and god fearing people suffer the most whereas evil people seem to triumph. Is there an answer to this apparent arbitrary behavior of god? There is and it is called the theory or laws of Karma. But first of all an omnipotent and omniscient god would not need any offerings from insignificant beings (compared to him) like us.

LAWS OF KARMA

Most people have heard of karma theory and have a vague notion about it. Very few people try to understand it. In a nutshell what it states is that we and we alone are responsible for our actions and there is no omnipotent, omniscient being deciding our fate. This is contrary to popular belief that our fate is pre-determined and unchangeable, which makes people weak and fatalistic and leads to inaction or wrong action.

Karma in Sanskrit means action, which could be physical or mental. In fact throughout our lives we are continuously performing karma. According to karma theory, each kind of action produces effects or fruits of the action which are neutral, good or bad depending on the type of karma and further the theory states that we can not refuse the fruits of actions, thus it is very important that we perform good karma which would produce good fruits. The karma theory also states that the fruits of our actions are operative not only in our present life but over many lives. This last point being a little controversial, we will only stick to consideration of present life as it makes no difference to the discussion.

Accordingly there are three types of karmas that we perform: those performed in the past, those we are currently performing and those we would be performing in the future. Each of these karmas has good or bad fruits associated with it. For those karmas performed in the past the fruits have already been borne out or are presently being borne. For the karmas we are currently performing, some have borne fruits and some yet to bear fruits and obviously for those karmas which are yet to be performed, no fruits have been borne. Now for those karmas which were performed in the past, we have no control and have either borne the fruits or are currently bearing them. For the karmas which we are performing, we have some degree of control and thus if we decide right from this moment onwards to engage in only good karmas, they will bear only good fruits. For the future karmas we have complete control since we can decide that if we perform only good karmas they will bear only good fruits.

From the above discussion it is clear that our lives far from being pre-determined are actually in our control at least from this point onwards. We just have to do good karma in our deeds and thoughts and rest will take care of itself. This makes people hopeful and strong and induces them to be good and do good deeds. It also discourages people from envying other successful people because they realize that the object of their envy has done some good karma in the past and is reaping the benefits now. It does not require any central god to keep account of our actions but each of us maintains his/her own account and is responsible for it. Thus it is clear that contrary to the objection some people have, karma theory does not make people helpless and believe in fate, but induces them to be active and do good deeds.

People, who believe in reincarnation of soul, also believe that the fruits of our karma (good as well as bad) transcend the birth and death cycle and are operative till the fruits have been borne. I am a little ambivalent on this although I used to strongly believe in reincarnation of soul. I will discuss this in a future post but when I did believe in reincarnation, I was telling one of my junior colleagues about importance of doing good karma in this life in order to spare our future avatar from the grief, what he said made me really think. He said why should he care about his future avatar? What he said made at least some sense since your future avatar is not going to know about you anymore than you knowing about your past life avatar even though presumably the soul is the same. So why should you care? I don’t think I could satisfactorily answer him at the time and even now I probably have a partial answer. You should care because perhaps your past life avatar did not know about soul and rebirth, but if you know that your future avatar will have same soul as yours, then you should do everything in your power to spare that avatar from any grief even though for all practical purposes you are strangers to each other.

Most importantly though whether you believe in reincarnation or not you should do good karma because it is the right thing. I know I want to do good because it makes me feel good inside, and that’s very important to me.

Therefore this week’s incarnation is as follows:

“O mind guru, you who knows me more intimately than anyone else,

Please help me always do good karma and prevent me from doing evil karma knowingly or unknowingly.”

“Please let me think of good thoughts and do good deeds in waking state as well as in my dreams so that no one is harmed even by my thoughts”.

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

2008-10-20T03:05:00.000+05:30

THE BEST SHORT HORROR STORY WITH MORALS.

Before we begin this week’s topic, let us invoke our mind guru for what we discussed in earlier posts.

“O mind guru, please help me find pleasure and happiness in simple things in life.

Guide me to be content with what I have, and not envy others.

If I ever waiver from this contentment and feel sorrowful and unhappy,

Remind me of the happiness when I -------------------------------

In the blank space you insert the event/s mentioned above when you felt completely happy when you had achieved or felt that you had achieved something important and had felt near total happiness as a result. This invocation will ground you and remind you to be happy with the things as they are since that is due to a long chain of cause and effects (Karma and its fruits) stretching back many years if not lifetimes. Regarding Karma and its fruits we will deal subsequently, but first a little reminder about wishing for something.

Remember the old saying be careful what you wish for, you might actually get it? There is some truth to it as can be seen from the following story, “Monkey’s Paw”. This story or its contents go by various names such as “Three Wishes” etc., but the moral is the same. Someone is granted three wishes. Usually by first wish they ask for some material gains and use the remaining two wishes to undo the effects of the first wish. The moral of the story is that it is never advisable to change the natural order of things unless you are ready to pay a heavy price. As an illustration I am recounting the story in short.

There lived an older couple with their only adult son in a village in England. The couple was retired and the son worked at a local factory to earn wages. They were not very rich nor very poor but reasonably well to do. The son was more like a friend to his father and they often engaged in jest and leg pulling as they were doing one wintry, cold night with fire burning in the fire place, having their after dinner coffee. Suddenly there was a knock on the door. When they opened it they found the older man’s good friend paying them a visit after many years which he had spent in the Indian military service (the story is obviously from pre independent India). After the pleasantries were over, he told them of his rich experiences in India of many fakirs and sadhus (holy men) with their bags of tricks and so on. Then he removed a shriveled black object from his pocket and when they asked him what it was, he told them that it was a magical monkey’s paw which a fakir had given him to illustrate how one should let fate take its course and man should never interfere in the natural scheme of things out of greediness etc. else he would have to pay a great price for doing so. When the old man persisted in knowing more about the monkey’s paw, he told them that whoever holds that paw and makes a wish, whatever may be the wish, it would come true but it can only be used for three wishes by a person and not more. When the old man asked him if he (the friend) had used it for himself, the friend said that he is happy the way things are with him and is not interested in wishing anything and besides he had heard enough bad things about the three wishes and was not going to tempt the fate. Then the old man asked him what he planned to do with it to which his friend replied that he would probably burn it. The old man then expressed a desire to have the monkey’s paw for himself, still thinking it is some kind of a joke and that it would make great conversation topic. Even after his friend’s repeated warnings he holds the paw in his hand makes a silent wish and suddenly shivers and throws the paw. When they asked him he said he wished for 200 pounds when the paw moved in his hand and so he threw it. Then recovering from this he jokes about what a nonsense the story was as he had not received his 200 pounds.

The next day the couple was sitting in their living room when they were approached by a well dressed stranger. Hesitantly he introduces himself as a lawyer working for the company in which their son worked and tells them that he has a bad news for them regarding their son that he had met with an accident at the workshop and that their son was drawn into a huge machine and got mangled before anybody could react. As a result their son was dead. The couple is devastated to loose their only son who was more like a friend. After consoling them the lawyer removes an envelop from his biefcase and tells them that although the company assumes no responsibility of their son's death, as a goodwill gesture they were offering some compensation. Then he removes 200 pounds from the envelop and gives it to them.

The father immediately realizes that his wish for 200 pounds had come true but at the cost of their son’s life. The mother is inconsolable and frequently breaks down and cries, the father is no better, thinking he would have never asked for the money had he known the consequences, but he tries to be strong for both of them. The mother looses all interest in life and sits at a window as though hoping to see their son return from work. This goes on for a few days when she suddenly remembers about the monkey’s paw and the remaining two wishes left. She forces her husband to give it to her and holding it she wishes that their son to be alive again. The next night as she is sitting by the window in anticipation she suddenly shouts with joy and tells her husband that she has seen in distance their son returning home. The father panics because only he had seen how mangled and disfigured their son’s corpse had looked and he had not told his wife about it to spare her from the horror. Now he dreads the sight of their son returning in that disfigured state. He implores his wife not to open the door as whoever or whatever was outside was not their son as they had buried him but the woman ridicules him and gets angry that he would not welcome their son. As the woman rushes down to open the door, the man clearly hears the footsteps of their son walking with difficulty and dragging his feet with every footstep. Panicking, he suddenly has an idea and frantically searches for the monkey’s paw. As the woman was about to slide open the door, he finds the paw and hurriedly wishes that their son was dead again. On opening the door the woman finds an empty road and cries in disappointment and the man breaths a sigh of relief.

Thus the story illustrates the point that if you tempt the fate out of greed, you may have to pay a terrible price. The old man probably did not need the 200 pounds but he got it at the price of loosing their only son and even the 200 pounds probably were spent on the son’s funeral.

Thus we should be content with what we have, whether we are rich or poor, happy or unhappy is all due to a long series of actions and reactions called karma stretching not only in this life but according to some even several lives. Karma and its consequences will be my discussion topic for the next post.

GOOD AND EVIL, EVOLUTION, GOD AND LAWS OF KARMA

2008-10-09T00:55:00.000+05:30

GOOD AND EVIL, EVOLUTION, GOD AND LAWS OF KARMA

INVOCATION FOR UNIVERSAL HAPPINESS

Saint Dyaneshwar was a saint poet of 13th Century. At the age of seventeen he took Samadhi. He is largely known for his translation, critique and elaboration of Bhagwad Gita into local language and dialect called Dyaneshwari for people who found it difficult to understand the original which is in Sanskrit. It is a beautiful piece of literature by itself but I want to concentrate on a wish which the seventeen year old asks the higher power. I am paraphrasing and rearranging it a little here. It goes like:

Let the evil people loose their evilness and ignorance. Let the people of the Universe see the light (truth) by means of their own dharma. Let all creatures be granted whatever they wish.

What a beautiful prayer, what a depth of compassion! How many seventeen years amongst us would think of asking this? Even the oldest and supposedly wisest of us usually ask for personal favors and here he is asking nothing for himself.

Therefore this week we will unanimously ask for what he has asked higher powers. But let us ask this wish of our mind and collective mind:

“O mind, I sincerely wish that let there be peace on earth. Let evil people loose their ignorance and see the light of truth by whatever means they employ. Let everyone in the universe find joy and happiness in their life in whatever they undertake. “

This will not only make us happy but remove some of the bitterness and negativity from our lives.

All throughout I have avoided the use of term: God”, not because I agree with the so called rationalist or atheists but because I am myself unclear about the concept. But one thing I am clear about and that is he (I am using the term” he” for convenience. You could substitute “she” or” it” if you please) is not some one sitting in a Temple or a Mosque or a Church or any of the religious establishments passing judgment for our good or bad behavior but he exists in our hearts. Let me try to be clear with this example: You have probably heard about the little girl called Virginia who was bothered by the talk of Santa Claus not being real but a mythical figure and wrote to the then editor of New York Times asking him whether there was a Santa Claus. In return he wrote a beautiful editorial in which he wrote about goodness in people’s hearts and concluded, as long as such good people exist,” Yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus”. By writing that beautiful editorial he not only reassured her of her faith in the mythical being, but taught all the rest of us cynical people the true meaning of “Santa Claus”. I urge those who have not read that editorial to please do so. It is often reprinted around Christmas time or you can look in the archives of New York Times under “Virginia” and “Santa Claus”

Along the similar lines I would like to state that as long as we have desire to help fellow creatures, as long as we are moved by their plight, there is a God. I believe that basically we are all good at heart but some get misguided and employ evil means. Thus to all those atheists shouting till their voices are hoarse, I would shout equally loudly that there is indeed a god but you are right that he is not in heaven or any manmade place of worship but in each of us, in our minds and hearts.

Incidentally I firmly believe that these places of worship whether a temple, a church or a mosque or a synagogue or any other, do have a positive influence on our psyche. I have experienced it as well as people I know have had similar feelings. I think that in a place of worship there is a preponderance of positive thinking and all that thought energy concentrated in a place makes it positive as well. Thoughts being energy whether positive or negative are never destroyed (since energy can never be destroyed according to laws of thermodynamics) and eventually come back to their source sometimes manifold. Thus it is always better to think good, positive thoughts as they might help you, and negative thoughts might harm you.

I do not agree with intelligent design theorists who maintain that due to complexity of living beings there must be an intelligent designer, God. I do not believe in their argument because of multiverses theory discussed earlier. Thus ours is just one of the universes where by chance all factors favorable for life came together and evolution took over and produced us. There may be many universes where even one factor is off the mark and thus are lifeless.

In the earlier prayer/wish saint Dnyaneshwar is asking that let all see the truth by their own dharma. Here Dharma could mean religion or as is known in India a way of life, a code of conduct. Either way what he means is that let people discover the truth by their own means. This message is especially important in today’s increasingly religiously intolerant world. It constantly amazes me how otherwise rational people become totally irrational when it concerns religion. They are adamant that theirs is the only right way. Over the years unspeakable atrocities have been committed in the name of religion. Wars have been fought and lands conquered for the mistaken belief that “their” God is the right god and others who do not practice their religion needed to be converted by force if necessary, when in reality all religions lead to the same ultimate truth. This is in spite of the fact that none of those fighting “own” their religion nor are they the founders of these religions. In fact the founders never advocated intolerance towards others but advocated tolerance and peaceful co existence. I like to compare religions as buses going to the same destination but different routes. Some buses may start earlier, some may take a longer scenic route but all will take you to the same destination. The owners of these bus companies may compete with each other for your patronage but the society would not allow them to use force. They may even use incentives for you to use their bus but the choice is yours. The followers of certain religions use force, murder people etc. all in the name of god and we are just helpless witnesses. In reality we are only born in a particular religion and have done nothing special and should not take excessive pride in that respect and certainly not kill in its name.

The concept of God as a person sitting in heaven and passing judgments for our every little action is a purely human invention. I believe that for all our actions we know inherently when we err and when we do the right thing and naturally we expect punishment or reward as the case may be. Who better than someone much more powerful and blemish free than a god in our own image? No wonder that the gods we envisioned looked just like us. For example if you are Greek your god will be Greer\k looking and if you are Chinese your god will look like Chinese and so on. But were these gods really blemish free? Not really. The stories from the Hindu or Roman or Greek literature are rife with gods behaving in manners which would be totally unacceptable to us and make us hang our head in shame. For example Hindu gods routinely lied, womanized, drank intoxicating substances, seduced other’s spouses including those of humans and were even punished for their behavior. From this description it seems that .they were just like humans but with super human powers. This led the Hindu scholars after many years and generations of discussions and debates to conclude that a super human god behaving in this manner and answerable for his/her action can not be a judge of our actions and thus they concluded that the god they were looking for is really resident in us in the form of a soul which is a part of an universal soul. Just like a reflection of Sun in individual mirrors or a PC is a part of Internet our individual soul is a reflection of universal soul and our individual mind is a reflection of universal mind.

2008-09-22T19:33:00.000+05:30

NON PERMANENCE OF SITUATIONS

Another curious thing about desires is the non permanence of situations or people. Very little of what happens now or what we desire now is going to be important in the future. In the past we all had faced situations where something or someone or some event seemed vitally important like an upcoming interview or an examination or finish of an important project on which our future, our promotion seemed to depend on. We thought the situation to be so critical that it seemed like a life and death situation. We obsessed about it; perhaps we spent many sleepless nights worrying over it. What happened next? The event came and passed. Perhaps we did get that job, that promotion etc., perhaps we did not. Did it change our life significantly? There could have been a person who was very important in our lives and we thought that life without that person would be unthinkable, not worth living even. Perhaps things did not work out and that person went out of your life. What about you now? You are probably doing alright, the fact that you survived just fine means that the event or the person was not so important after all. The point is that whatever seemed so vitally important then hardly matters today. We may not even remember the person, the situation involved, unless we make an effort. So it is true of situations and things and persons we are involved with today. In the future they may not matter at all. This is not to make light of someone really facing critical choices which may actually change the course of their lives but just remember to rate the situations and people according to their importance in your life. Do this as unemotionally as possible and you will find your anxiety levels decreased considerably.

HOW TO BE ALWAYS HAPPY

If you think about it you would realize as I have, that happiness is really a state of the mind independent of any external factors. What do I mean by this? Do I mean that external factors do not affect our decision? They do affect our actions and decisions but have no power to make us happy or unhappy. That decision is solely yours. Let me illustrate this with a few examples we are all familiar with. You appear for an examination or an interview and you think you aced it, or you think that you are getting a long overdue raise and promotion, or you proposed to someone and think that you are going to get a favorable reply. You can add any number of things to this list of your own. What is common in all these is that you think you were successful and thus are very happy. Perhaps you go and celebrate in anticipation when in fact things turn out to be otherwise. But the mere fact that you thought that you were successful made you happy and not the external factors. This talking to your self is the key point here. If you could always think that way, you will always be happy. This also happens to be the hardest thing to do since these thoughts are happening at lightening speeds. But if we could catch them and consciously think positively you would be happy regardless of the actual outcome. Just try to imagine that particular day when you thought you had successfully done the things mentioned above, how happy and content you felt. Most of us though talk to ourselves negatively without even realizing it with the outcome being unhappiness. This does not mean that you take a totally laid back attitude and make no effort but quite the contrary. If you were still unsuccessful, that a project you worked on failed, you learn from that mistake and move on. Do not take it so seriously as if facing a life or death situation, that the fate of the world depends on your success or failure.(Imagine if ours is this state facing daily situations, what poor agent 007 a k a James Bond must be going through. Practically every situation he faces is a life or death situation, and the world may come to an end if he fails). Seriously though, the point is that you can learn to be happy. Just tell yourself every day that you will remain happy and slowly it might become a habit automatically. I have myself far from mastered the technique, but have made considerable progress. Being a perfectionist I always used to think of the worst possible outcome, for example in an examination. I mostly thought that I did very poorly; maybe even I was going to flunk it. It often turned out that the examination was difficult for everyone who took it and when the results came out rather than flunking it I usually did much better than I imagined and relative to others.
It is also my observation that regardless of the means of happiness at their disposal, some people are always unhappy and there are others who are always happy as long as their basic needs are met. I noticed this contrast after observing life and people firsthand in the United States and in India. In the U.S. many people always seemed to be unhappy and complained of not having more things, better job, better salary, better boss etc. and as soon as they got them, they wanted more, better things whereas when I observed people in India, some of them lived on the road side, living in a shanty, cooking their food right there on makeshift burners with a few pots and pans, their children playing nearby, but from their body language they seemed happy. This is not a cultural difference (nor is it an attempt on my part to generalize) as many people of Indian origin settled in the U.S. also belonged to the first type, wanting more. It seems to me that the lesser one’s necessities, the easier it is to meet them and easier to be happy. This is the lesson from the story “Happy man’s shirt” mentioned earlier. Perhaps if the man were to be given a shirt, he would be unhappy that now he has to worry about the shirt, maintaining it, buying more shirts etc.
Sometimes just completion of a task, whether successfully or not, makes one happy. Those who are procrastinators will understand this point better. Many times procrastination happens because of our perfectionist nature. Thus we ignore that pile of papers on our desk thinking that if we did less than a perfect job of it, it is not worth doing. So what happens? The next day the pile is even bigger and will keep on growing every day until we decide to deal with it, however imperfectly, just to get rid of it. There is no such thing as “A” perfect job. Most of the things are measured relative to others. Nowadays I feel happy just to finish a few unfinished tasks like completing a few papers at a time or finishing rearranging just a drawer of a cluttered cabinet and feel content, happy even, knowing that tomorrow few less tasks will be there waiting for me. So my advice to you: just take a few tasks at a time and you will be less overwhelmed.
Another useful technique I found is when you are facing a difficult situation and do not seem to know how to deal with it, imagine a difficult situation you faced in the past and came out of it unscathed and compare it with your current situation. If relatively your current situation seems less difficult then you know you can deal with it, however if it seems tougher, then it should give you resolve to overcome it and thus set the bar higher. In this respect we can learn a lot from animal kingdom and no need to go to a zoo either. As I am writing this, I am reminded of a sparrow couple who built a nest in our window may be a fourth or a fifth time. All the earlier ones we removed for the sake of the chicks which would be eventually growing in it. We thought it would be unsafe from the crows or from us unintentionally harming the chicks but to no avail. The couple built the nest blade by blade from scratch every time, untiringly. Finally their resolve to use that site paid off and we gave up removing it. Many humans also show such resolve and overcome many obstacles surpassing their disabilities even, but most of us give up trying if we do not succeed a couple of times. Rarely if at all, does any animal would give up trying.