Truth vs Yoga Sutras

When Patanjali points at the truth, all the idiots see is the yoga sutras!

जननम-मरणम

पुनरपि जननम- पुनरपि मरणम

மருமகன்

மாமன் மடியில் முழு நிலவின் மணி நேர ஆழ்ந்த உறக்கம்!

Neill Neill Orange Peel

This is an extract from the autobiography of the legendary scottish educator A.S.Neill. I strongly recommend his book 'Summerhill school' and his autobiography 'Neill Neill Orange Peel' to anyone who plans to get anywhere near 'educating' a child (hir own or that of others)!

---

A note on the title

Years ago, Hetney, a little boy at Summerhill, went round muttering to himself: “Neill! Neill! Orange Peel!” The phrase caught on and has lived for more than twenty-five years. To this day, small children follow me around chanting the words, and my usual reaction is: “Wrong again. Not orange peel—banana peel.

I have selected this rhyme as the title of my autobiography, because it sums up my life with children; indeed, it might be the motto for Summerhill, if we believed in mottoes. These words tell the whole story of my school and my life. They show how the gulf between generations can be bridged—or rather abolished—for they do not connote cheek or hate: they mean love; they mean equality. If every kid in the world could call his teacher Orange Peel, or an equivalent, my mail would not be filled with letters beginning: “I hate my school; can I come to Summerhill?”

Parent or teacher - You cannot boss the child!

The little boy’s chant shows that there is no necessity for a gulf separating pupils from teachers, a gulf made by adults, not children. Teachers want to be little gods protected by dignity. They fear that if they act human, their authority will vanish and their classrooms will become bedlams. They fear to abolish fear. Innumerable children are afraid of their teachers. It is discipline that creates the fear. Ask any soldier if he fears his sergeant major; I never met one who didn’t.

The Summerhill rhyme tells the world that a school can abolish fear of teachers and, deeper down, fear of life. And it is not only Neill that the kids treat with equality and fun and love; the whole staff are treated as pals and playmates. They do not stand on their dignity, nor do they expect any deference because they are adults. Socially, the only privilege the teachers have is their freedom from bedtime laws. Their food is that of the school community. They are addressed by their first names and seldom are given nicknames; and if they are, these are tokens of friendliness and equality. For thirty years, George Corkhill, our science master, was George or Corks or Corkie. Every pupil loved him.

Years ago, in one of my books, I wrote that when inter­viewing a prospective teacher, my test was: “What would you do if a child called you a bloody fool?” It is my test today, except that bloody—never a real swearword outside British realms—has been changed to a more popular expletive. More and more, I have come to believe that the greatest reform required in our schools is the abolition of that chasm between young and old which perpetuates paternalism. Such dictatorial authority gives a child an inferiority that persists throughout life; as an adult, he merely exchanges the authority of the teacher for that of the boss.

An army may be a necessity, but no one, barring a dull conservative, would argue that military life is a model for liv­ing. Yet our schools are army regiments or worse. Soldiers at least move around a lot, but a child sits on his bottom most of the time at an age when the whole human instinct is to move. In this book, I explain why the powers that be try to devitalize children as they do, but the mass of teachers do not understand what lies behind their discipline and “character molding,” and most do not want to know. The disciplinary way is the easy one. attention! stand at ease! These are the orders of the barrack square and the classroom. Obey! Obey! they say, but people do not obey equals; they obey superiors. Obedience implies fear, and that should be the last emotion encouraged in a school. In the U.S.A., it is the student’s fear of bad grades— idiotic grades that mean nothing of importance—or fear of not passing exams; in some countries—Britain among them, I hate to admit—it is still fear of the cane or the belt, or the fear of being scorned or mocked by stupid teachers.

The tragedy is that fear also exists on the teacher’s side— fear of being thought human, fear of being found out by the uncanny intuition of children. I know this. Ten years of teach­ing in state schools left me with no illusions about teachers. In my time, I, too, was dignified, aloof, and a disciplinarian. I taught in a system that depended on the tawse, as we called the belt in Scotland. My father used it and I followed suit, without ever thinking about the rights and wrongs of it— until the day when I myself, as a headmaster, belted a boy for insolence. A new, sudden thought came to me. What am I doing? This boy is small, and I am big. Why am I hitting someone not my own size? I put my tawse in the fire and never hit a child again. The boy’s insolence had brought me down to his level; it offended my dignity, my status as the ultimate authority. He had addressed me as if I were his equal, an unpardonable affront. But today, sixty years later, thousands of teachers are still where I was then. That sounds arrogant, but it is simply the raw truth that teachers largely refuse to be people of flesh and blood.

Only yesterday, a young teacher told me that his head­master had threatened him with dismissal because a boy had addressed him as Bob. “What will happen to discipline if you allow such familiarity?” he asked. “What would happen to a private who addressed his colonel as Jim?” I believe that in the Russian Army after the Revolution there were no barriers between officers and men. They were all pals. But the system failed, I am told, and the army returned to its old ways of class division and stem discipline.

Neill! Neill! Orange Peel! is a title that may shock the “dead” teachers. But it will be understood by students in all lands—barring those in Iron Curtain countries who are never allowed to hear of Summerhill. Why do I get hundreds of letters from children? Not because of my beautiful eyes—nay, but because the idea of Summerhill touches their depths, their longing for freedom, their hatred of authority in home and school, their wish to be in contact with their elders. Summerhill has no generation gap. If it had, half of my proposals in our general meetings would not be outvoted. If it had, a girl of twelve could not tell a teacher that his lessons are dull. I hasten to add that a teacher can tell a kid that he is being a damned nuisance. Freedom must look both ways.

I do not want to be remembered as a great educator, for I am not. If I am to be remembered at all, I hope it will be because I tried to break down the gulf between young and old, tried to abolish fear in schools, tried to persuade teachers to be honest with themselves and drop the protective amour they have worn for generations as a separation from their pupils. I want to be remembered as an ordinary guy who be­lieved that hate never cured anything, that being on the side of the child—Horner Lane’s phrase—is the only way to pro­duce happy schooling and a happy life later on. As I am “Neill! Neill! Orange Peel!” to my little pupils, so I would like to be to all the children in the world — one who trusts children, who believes in original goodness and warmth, who sees in authority only power and, too often, hate.

Soon I must shuffle off this mortal coil, but I hope that coming generations will look back at the education of our time and marvel at its barbarity, its destruction of human poten­tialities, its insane concern about formal learning. I hope, against everything that makes me pessimistic: the wars, the religious suppression, the crimes. Cannot those who yell for the hanging of criminals see that they are treating a rup­tured appendix with aspirin? Will not society recognize that it is our repressive system, plus the poverty of our mean streets, plus our soulless, acquisitive society, that is making criminals and neurotics?

I confess to dithering. One day, when I think of the challenge of the young, I am optimistic; next day, when I scan the newspapers and read of rape and murder and wars and racialism, I become engulfed by pessimism. But I guess that ambivalence is common to us all.

Extract from the novel 'Theatre' by Somerset Maugham

"Have you made up your mind what you are going to be yet?"

"No, is there any hurry yet?"

"You know how ignorant I am about everything. Your father says that if you are going to be a barrister you ought to work at law when you go to Cambridge. On the other hand, if you fancy the Foreign Office, you should take up modern languages."

He looked at her for so long, with that queer, reflecting air of his, that Julia had some difficulty in holding her light playful and yet affectionate expression.

"If I believed in God I'd be a priest", he said at last.

"A priest?" Julia could hardly believe her ears. "That was all right in the sixteenth century.", she said. "It is too late in the day for that"

"Much."

"What is it that you want?"

Once gain he gave her his disconcerting stare. It is hard to know if he was serious, for his eyes faintly shined merely with amusement. "Reality."

"What do you mean?"

"You see. I've lived all my life in an atmosphere of make believe. I want to get down to brass tacks. You and father are all right breathing this air, it's the only air you know and you think its the air of heaven. It stifles me."

"Dear, we are actors and successul ones in that and thats why we have been able to surround you with luxuries."

"I'm very grateful for all that you have done."

"Then, what are you reproaching me for?"

"I'm not reproaching you. As a child, I used to believe in all the stage emotions you showed. But, when I realized it was all false, it shook me up badly. I decided I am not going to be fooled again by you."

"But, darling thats acting." She gave him her delightful and disarming smile. "I think your understanding is wrong."

"Of course you do. You dont know the difference between make believe and reality. You never stop acting. Its second nature to you. You act when there's a party here. You act to the servants, you act to father, you act to me. To me, you act the part of the fond, indulgent, celebrated mother. You don't exist, you're only the innumerable parts you've played. I've often wondered if there was ever a you or if you were never anything more than a vehicle for all these other people that you've pretended to be. When I've seen you go into an empty room I've sometimes wanted to open the door suddenly, but I've been afraid to in case I found nobody there."

She looked up at him quickly. She shivered, for what he said gave her an eerie sensation. She listened to him attentively, with a certain anxiety, for he was so serious that she felt he was expressing something that had burdened him for years. She had never in his whole life heard him talk so much.

"Do you think I am only sham?"

"Not quite. Because sham is all you are. Sham is your truth. Just as margarine is butter to people who dont know what butter is."

She had a vague feeling of guilt. "You can hardly say that your father does not exist."

"Poor father, I suppose he is good at his job. But he is not very intelligent, is he? He is busy being the handsomest man in England."

"I dont think it is very nice to speak of your dad like that."

"Have I told you something that you did not know already?"

Julia wanted to smile, but would not allow the look of somewhat pained dignity to leave her face. "Its our weakness, not our strength that endears us to those who love us," she replied.

"In what play did you say that?"

She repressed a gesture of annoyance. The words had come naturally to her lips, but as she said them she remembered that they were out of a play. Little brute! But they came in very appositely."You're hard," she said plaintively. She was beginning to feel more and more like Hamlets mother. "Don't you love me?"

"I might, if I could find you. But where are you? If one stripped you of your exhibitionism, if one took your technique away from you, if one peeled you as one peels an onion of skin after skin of pretense and insincerity, of tags of old parts and shreds of faked emotions, would one come upon a soul at last?" He looked at her with his grave eyes and he smiled a little. "I like you all right."

"Do you believe I love you?"

"In your way."

Julias face was suddenly discomposed."If only you knew tha agony I suffered when you were ill! I don't know what I should have done if you'd died!"

"You would have given a beautiful performance of a bereaved mother of her only child."

"Not nearly such a good performance as if I'd had the opportunity of rehearsing it a few times," Julia answered tartly. "You see, what you dont understand is that acting is not natural; it's art and art is something you create. Real grief is ugly; the business of the actor is to represent it not only with truth but with beauty. Its cruel to say that I am not fond of you. I'm devoted to you. You've been the only thing in my life."

"No, you were fond of me when I was a kid and you could have me photographed with you. It made a lovely picture and it was fine publicity. But, since then, you have not bothered much about me. I dont blame you. You had'not got time in your life for anyone but yourself."

Julia was beginning to grow a trifle impatient. He was getting too near to the truth for her comfort. "You forget that young things can be pretty boring."

"But then why do you pretend that you can't bear to let me out of your sight. Thats just acting too."

"You make me very unhappy. You make me feel as if I had'nt done my duty to you."

"But you have. You have done something to me for which I shall always be grateful to you. You'v left me alone."

"I don't understand what you want."

"I told you. Reality."

Contextualizing Yama and Niyama

Practitioners of yoga talk about the Yamas and Niyamas described in the yoga sutras - roughly translated as the internal and external disciplines, that are expected of an individual in order for him/her to evolve from being a ego centric person to being someone whose sense of identity involves all of creation. Some of them are ahimsa (non-violence), asteya (non-stealing), satya (truth telling), aparigraha (not wanting more than basic needs) and santosa (contentment) (the others are also pretty important but am not taking them right now because they are a little out of context, will come back to them later). Sadly, most people are content with naive interpretations of these important tenets.

Yoga practitioners speak of ahimsa all the time and may even practice it in their daily lives (in terms of their relationships with others including servants, bosses, friends and relations), but, might go ahead and work for a mining corporation which might be actively involved in sponsoring violence on tribals in order to grab hold of their land. If not, one might write software that helps these corporations accomplish their business needs. Even if none of this is true, we might consume so many products relentlessly thereby continuously pouring money into the hands of such corporations. While mining is only one instance of corporate violence, there are so many other means in which violence is unleashed on people by corporation. Does participating in all of this constitute ahimsa?

Asteya (non-stealing) and satya (truth) are great philosophies expounded by all religions and moralists. Patanjali, too, emphasizes on their importance. While, as yoga practitioners, we might be honest in our daily interactions, we might go and work in corporations that make their profits primarily through shady means, euphemistically termed managing the political climate, or might write software that help the stock markets, which no doubt are the ultimate centers of greed, falsehood, non-contentment and violence, to function. Making money through the global economy primarily means exploitation in some corner of the globe. The global economy is necessarily powered by greed and non-contentment (santosa has to necessarily be kicked out of the window before one can join the globalization bandwagon). How can hoping to make profits, careers and lives by participating (or living out of priorly made money through such means) constitute asteya or satya? While any act can be made legal by suitably passing a law through contacts with the high and the mighty, from the perspective of being morally apt, most acts of corporations come a miserable cropper. There certainly might be the occasional squeaky clean corporation (though I doubt it, being the silent beneficiary of some wrong somewhere is usually needed to make it big), they might still be promoting greed as a way of life and have to actively promote a highly environmentally unsustainable way of life so as to make profits for themselves. Would Patanjali approve of the same. I am quite confident that if he were to be alive today, he might be tempted to release Yama and Niyama v2.

Many yoga teachers talk about aparigraha (not wanting more than basic needs) but happily go and teach in rich countries or bring rich foreigners home and teach them thereby earning in a superior currency. Why not teach yoga to people from some impoverished nation like Ghana or Somalia? Why go to New Zealand and Canada and charge in USD? The local poor person does not even understand the amount being quoted. Obviously nothing wrong in teaching people from any particular country (ultimately all these national boundaries are stupid man made conceptions), it is clear that the reason most yoga teachers attract people from rich first world countries is the money. At the very least, is the money being obtained from the well to do channeled to the not so well to do? Sadly, this is mostly not the case. The institute might be functioning successfully in a hut, but the moment they make some money by teaching for money, they go and construct a building thereby getting to the cycle of needing to spend more time teaching for money. Is this aparigraha?

There is a desperately urgent need today to contextualize these high tenets of Yoga and not be satisfied with naive interpretations of them. Do we have the gumption to do so? The right action might vary for each individual but without a sincere acknowledgement of how our choices wreck havoc on other humans and the environment, right action cannot emerge. Can we contextualize our adherence to the limbs of yoga to todays day and age? Or are we going to be content with paying lip service and be comfortably ensconced in our lives and live as Neros guests?

1700000000000

The number of zeros have stunned and outraged us. Now what? Some say the corrupt should be arrested. True, the law has to take its natural course. But, will it make any change? The next person might only add a few more zeros to the already uncountably large number! We can only sigh that the system is so rotten and that they are all so pathetic. Many desperately hope for some Rang De Basanti style revolution or Mudhalvan style arrival of the deus ex machina! Obviously nothing like that is gonna happen. We also know that. I see elders throwing up their hands in despair and letting out a cry asking for the gods to intervene and transform the politicians! They are desperately concerned about the future their beloved nation and their progeny in this country. Everyone is confused why the ruling class is so rotten!

Is it really so hard to understand and to get to its root? Or is it that we have not really spent the time trying to understand why its all so wrong? How much time did we spend trying to find the perfect job / apartment / spouse? How much time have we spent in justifying our position in the hundreds of ridiculously trivial issues we have had with people around us? Have we spent even a fraction of it in trying to investigate why the politicians are like this? I mean real and true investigation and not cribbing and complaining. Is it so hard to understand the psyche of the people involved in these things? On the surface greed of politicians seem to have no end. But what is greed and what are its roots? I mean what can anyone or any family or even a whole town do with 170K crores of rupees? What is the underlying problem that manifests itself as greed? Isnt this question staring us at our face? Have we ever bothered to investigate along these lines? Or is it that the answers are so difficult to face for it also points a finger back at us? If we are genuinely / sincerely concerned about this would we still refuse to get to its root? There is no parent who will refuse to get into the root cause of the disease that is destroying the life of hir kid. Do we have that sincerity?

Its entirely an accident that Raja or anyone else accused of corruption was born in the families they were born in and exposed to the experiences they had and that we were born in our own families and exposed to our set of experiences. Our positions could have been swapped so easily. We were born in a place that provided us the means to exploit the world 'legally' and gratiate our senses and ego. Politicians have their own ways of doing the same. So what really is the difference? While many feel that it is perfectly understandable and even more ridiculously is an absolute necessity to: a.) pursue careers in order to make a name for themselves, b.) invest the inordinate amounts of money in real estate so as to 'grow' in the society, c.) feel pride at the number of people who work under them d.) feel great about the 'big' names they work with d.) Consume indiscriminately etc etc, but when the politicians do the same things in their own language, we are outraged. The stupidities we engage in or enormous. The exact same forces operate through politicians and the conditions around them make it manifest itself in the ways they do.

When such is the case, wouldnt a sincerely concerned person first clean up his/her act? Wouldnt such a person look at hirself with utter dispassion and with the sole aim of tapas or self cleansing in order to eliminate the virus from oneself that is causing havoc everywhere? The masters have always encouraged people to involve themselves in work as karma yoga and not to titillate ourselves. If one does not have the wherewithals to do so for whatever reasons, the least one was expected to do so was to unreservedly support such people - meaning just take care of their basic needs like food (the job of the house holder). But what are we up to these days? Even with 6 figure salaries per month (or three times that if earning in dollars), still we hesitate to give. Why? What are you doing with all the money that you are earning? We are happy to garland the image of Bharathiyar or Vivekananda now but we will happily let the living Bharathiyars and Vivekanandas starve! Can a society that lets it Bharathiyars and Vivekanadas be occupied with trivialities such as earning food and keeping the kid at home healthy progress? It will only encounter many such scams until its eventual annihilation. What are you going to do about it?

Finally, imo, this is the bottom line - if you are even minutely sincerely concerned about all the violence in this world (including the corruption of the politicians), you would sincerely go into yourselves and eliminate the same virus from you which is operating so destructively through the politicians!

Word Power

The deeper your silence, the more meaningful and powerful are your words!

பாரிஜாதம்

சிதரிக் கிடக்கும் பாரிஜாதம்,

கார்காலத்தின் வரவின் அடையாளம்!

Yoga for the stressed

The only real solution for the stressed is to sincerely enquire into why one is stressed and to go to its roots. All other techniques that the countless contemporary yoga schools prescribe, while temporarily useful, are ultimately futile by themselves. Further one needs to enquire who is stressed? Why is it needed to pursue a career, instead of doing that thing which is useful to society and one that brings one alive? Why is it needed to live a lifestyle that is not minimally simple? Why is it needed to put your kids into the biggest schools, instead of giving education that brings them alive and make them sensitive and compassionate human beings? Because the individuals have never seriously enquired into these, they have signed into a form of life that needs a lot of money and are forced to work their asses off. Even if office work environment is conducive, why do it if you are not interested in doing it? Baboons in a forest don't spend more than 3 hours a day getting their calories!

Simply speaking, all of these life style choices (career, big apartments, vacations abroad, shopping, loud marriages, being a success in society etc) are simply satisfying the mental construct called ego, which is simply an illusion and not the real you. Naturally, if one spends ones life working for mental constructs and not the real me, there will always be boredom, emptiness and suffering of various form leading to stress and depression. Will feeding a photo of us rid us of hunger? Why not understand this and undertake the real solution? It needs a little courage and sincere effort initially but very soon it becomes effortless. If not, one is continuously pushed towards more and more separation from the rest of creation - leading to more and more stress and loss of sensitiveness to the situations of others. This loss of sensitivity is probably the greatest of all suffering and it furthers the vicious cycle!

Lot of schools of yoga conduct special camps for the stressed corporate executives and their ilk. There are many websites that offer countless solutions. But, all of them only want to treat the stressed corporate executive but not question why is he/she stressed. Either they don't understand the real problem or don't want to disturb their source of income seriously.

While practicing long exhalation and asanas are useful temporary solutions, refusing to go deeper than that is simply refusing to treat the root cause! How long are we going to not acknowledge to ourselves the white elephant in us - the ego and its demands on our lives endlessly causing us to be stressed and causing others to be too!

श्वास

दीर्घ: सूक्ष्म: श्वास:

Breath needs to be long and subtle!

To enquire into reality

To make an accurate measurement, the instrument must be free from zero bias. Similarly to enquire into reality, ones mind must be free from bias (religion, gurus, caste, language, nationality, family, friends, ego, profession etc etc)!

If not, one has to live with the version of reality that the mind projects to oneself. Sadly people take this seriously only when the version of reality that their mind projects becomes unbearable for them. Even then, the moment it becomes slightly more bearable, the enquiry drops!

Purusa and wisdom

"Prakrti ajñani,

Cittah alpa jñani kincit kālam,

Purusasya sarvajñani sadājñatāh!" - Krishnamacarya

Matter is without wisdom,

Mind has limited wisdom for brief durations,

Awareness has supreme wisdom forever!

Nandri to stranger

Was running real hard with full intensity at 10PM on a chilly winter night to catch a bus, but just missed it. Just as I gave up and kicked the road in frustration, a good samaritan stopped his bike on his own accord and gave me a lift and helped me get till the point that bus would have taken me to! A big Nandri to the stranger! Reminded of the quote from Alchemist!

Destruction

Destruction is dissolution into the sea of potentiality!

Who am I

Can I be what I love, instead of what I own or control?

நிஷ்காம்ய கர்மம்

செய்க செய்க நிஷ்காம்ய கர்மம்,
செய்யற்க செய்யற்க ஏனையவை!
இல்லையேல்,
பெறுவீர் பெறுவீர் தீரா நோய்,
காலனுன் காலம் முடிக்கும் வரை!

Unconscious

Why do I still host the unconscious?

5 steps

Maitri, Karuna, Mudita, Prem, Ahimsa!

Problems

You desire a solution

For problem Y

You desire, struggle and suffer

as solutions are limited

But there is a solution

for the problem of you being person X

For whom problem Y exists

and a million other problems

You are bound to being person X

who is bound to problem Y

along with a million others

You want freedom for person X

Why not want your own freedom?

Find who person X is

Answer points at who you are!

See that answer

See it clearly

Live that answer

Freedom ensues!

Spirituality Reader

A friend wanted suggestions on interesting books of various genres to read that point towards the need for / explain spirituality. I prepared a list of modern day books (means I did not include many of the classics that were written millennia ago) that helped me. Here it is, in no particular order:

1.) Case against the global economy and for a turn towards the local - edited by Jerry Mander

2.) Everyone loves a good drought - P. Sainath

3.) Confronting Consumption - MIT Press

4.) Ishmael - Daniel Quinn

5.) Hind Swaraj - M.K. Gandhi

6.) Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh - Helena Norberg Hodge

7.) Power of Now - Eckhart Tolle

8.) One straw revolution - Masanobu Fukoka

9.) Economy of permanence - J.C. Kumarappa

10.) Happiness hypothesis - Jonathan Haidt

11.) Happiness - Mathew Ricard

12.) Dialogue with death - Eknath Eshwaran

13.) Think on these things - J. Krishnamurthi

14.) Freedom from the known - J. Krishnamurthi

15.) One minute wisdom, One minute nonsense - Anthony de Mello

16.) Song of the bird, Prayer of the frog - Anthony de Mello

17.) Call to love - Anthony de Mello

18.) Stop sleep walking through life - Devdas Menon

19.) Flow - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

20.) Leadership and self deception - Arbinger Institute

21.) Anatomy of peace - Arbinger institute

22.) Tao of Physics - Fritjof Capra

23.) Synthesis of Yoga - Aurobindo

24.) Elephant whisperer - Anthony Lawrence

25.) Gorillas in the mist - Dian Fossey

26.) Legacy of Luna - Julia Hill

27.) A new earth - Eckhart Tolle

28.) Small is beautiful - E.F. Schumacher

29.) The Razors edge - Somerset Maugham

30.) Jonathan Livingston Seagull - Richard Bach

31.) Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse

32.) Prophet - Kahlil Gibran

33.) Awakening of Intelligence - J. Krishnamurthi

34.) Left to Tell - Immaculee Ilibagiza

35.) Peace is every step - Thich Nhat Hanh

36.) Summerhill - A.S. Neill

37.) Madman - Kahlil Gibran

38.) Animal Farm - George Orwell

39.) Guru Vachaka Kovai - Muruganar

40.) Ancestors Tale - Richard Dawkins

41.) Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

42.) Karma Yoga / Gnana Yoga - Swami Vivekananda

43.) Talks with Sri Ramana Maharishi - Munagala Venkataramiah

வழியொன்று அருளாயோ

உழன்றும் உணராமல் - எங்கும்

சுழலும் மனதை கரைத்து

உண்மை துளியும் அறியாமல் - தமக்கே

பொய்யுறைக்கும் புத்தியைத் திருத்தி,

ஆதவனை பல கோடியாண்டுகளாய் - உழலாமல்

சுழலும் புவியைப் போலவும்,

நன்மை தீமை உண்மை அறிந்தும் - மழலையைப்

போல் சிரிக்கும் ஞானியை போலவும் வாழ,

திக்கின்றி திசையின்றி திரியும் - இவனுக்கு

வழியொன்று அருளாயோ,

சான்றோர் மட்டும் அறியும் - புறச்

சான்றிதழ் ஏதுமில்லாதவனே!

பட்டினத்தார் பாடல்

கவர்பிளந்த மரத்துளையில் கால் நுழைத்துக் கொண்டே,

ஆப்பதனை அசைத்து விட்ட குரங்கதனைப் போல,

அகப்பட்டீர் கிடந்துழல அகப்பட்டீரே!

Like the monkey which got its leg in the place of

the cork that held two parts of a split tree branche in place

you've gotten yourself trapped, oh my boy, you've gotten yourself trapped!

Nothing in the last two thousand years!

As part of the selection process in my first job, I had to participate in a group discussion whose topic of discussion was 'why was the light bulb not invented in India'? I don't quite remember what transpired in the discussion, but I do remember one of the lines I said - 'What useful thing was invented in India in the last two thousand years for us to worry about the light bulb?' The answer, then, mostly came out of the 15+ years of western schooling. Despite the intense schooling I went through, I remember still feeling a tinge of sadness as I uttered those words then.

Why work on inventing toys?

After lots of study and personal realizations, I can now state confidently what many of the best minds in India have been doing traditionally - they became monks. This is not the monkhood of self deprivation and self torture, but the monkhood born out of recognition of the need of freedom and peace and the absolute pointlessness of the egoic ways of living. The best minds out here saw clearly the stupidity of spending your time inventing new objects when the need of the hour is evolution in consciousness. Of what use it is to invent toys when our minds are clearly insane? Of what use it is to have bigger buildings and wider roads when our ability to empathize, ability to love and ability to build a peaceful society are taking a nosedive (are in fact almost non existent)? They saw clearly that the root cause of all human suffering is that almost all human individuals function out of a false identity about themselves - that they are their ego and that the psychological demands of it dictate the course of their life (personal accomplishments / ambitions, endless obsession about praise / criticism, fear of death etc..). The best minds here then went about trying to do what best can be done to change this - to evolve. When compared with the courage and audaciousness of such an attempt, what a trifle all the material inventions turn out to be? Not to disregard them, but, honestly, there is no comparison even.

The best minds became monks!

Cut to the modern day world, and the best minds in India go to IIT / IIM and go around making / selling products that promise happiness to people in various ways. Absolutely ludicrous! Its even more ludicrous that they dont even realize that they are doing all of this to enhance their own image in the eyes of others and themselves (in terms of ambition, long term plan, future security etc). The stupidity of such a life is the first lesson people were taught in the anicent days, the first lesson in Brahma Vidya, that happiness does not come from outside. This is the sad state today - wastage of human capital. Not everyone may be doing this but, at best, those who are not involved in making big money, may be studying, say, biological evolution in a university lab. The best minds are needed to assist the evolution of human race primarily - the evolution from the point where most individuals live a ego centric life to the point where most individuals possess an identity that encompasses all of creation. All else is secondary. That of course is the reason why nothing material got invented out here in the last two thousand years. People were busy trying to cut through the forces that prevent them and others from evolving. This is not to claim that they were successful, but to point what they were occupied with. When Buddha attained enlightenment, the kingdom was still available for him to take up. But, he did not become a king. He did not feel he could contribute towards the eradication of suffering as a king. Instead, it was obvious to him that the work needed was on evolution of consciousness and not on roads and dams. People misunderstand this wrongly that because he had renounced the world, he could not become a king again!

They worked to assist the evolution of the human race.

Can we see this? Can we see the absolute primacy of awakening? Of course not to take pride in claiming that my nation is great. That is too silly. When one awakens, where is the question of 'my nation', as there is no 'me' in the first place? There are no boundaries. When the sun is shining brightly, why worry about light bulbs? Can we see this?

Effortless life

Rain descends in glory,

The dance of life flourishes,

In effortlessness and joy!

Courage vs Absence of Fear

Courage and absence of fear at first glance seem to be the same thing. But are they really?

Courage is the feeling - 'I can do it'. Its like, I am strong enough to deal with the situation. I am confident of coming out successful. I can deal with the challenges. All these and many more are attributes generally associated with courage. The commonality in all of these is the 'I', more than anything else. The commonality is the illusion of the separate person, the ego, who can deal with things.

Tiananmen tank man - courage or absence of fear?

On the other hand, absence of fear comes from a deep understanding that the infinitely complex causal web is responsible for things. Though we execute our dharma, all our actions comes out of the understanding that the result is not totally under our control. Hence, there is acceptance that the result may not necessarily happen in a way that we might want it to, but still, best possible action is taken at all times. It needs complete absence of fear to be able to live that way!

Not for nothing, the great tamil poet Bharathiyar sang,

அச்சமென்ப தில்லையே அச்சமென்ப தில்லையே

No fear, No fear, let us not fear at all.

He did NOT sing,

துணிவுண்டு துணிவுண்டு துணிவென்பதுண்டே!

Have courage, have courage, I do have courage!

I think there is a deep meaning to it. While courage might be a good weapon to have to deal with sticky situations on a very short term basis, it is no long term solution. Actions motivated by illusion of separation can ultimately not heal as the suffering itself was originally caused by the illusion of separation.

In Yoga terms, courage comes about due to asmitā, or false identity. On the other hand, absence of fear, which springs forth from the destruction of the me, comes about after complete surrender of the individual to the state of pure consciousness within - the state of īśvara pranidhānā! The two are indeed poles apart!

Credit

Do not credit partha for what Parthasarathy does!

வையகம்

மோனத்திருக்குதடி இந்த வையகம் மூழ்கித் துயிலினிலே!

Undivided mind

Undivided mind - A beautiful article on the basics of spirituality

Some excerpts:

Externally we see the earth’s environment eroding before our eyes, the population soaring, and our natural resources diminishing. We see unparalleled greed and anger forming greater divisions within an evershrinking planet. At a time when the world pleads for kindness and compassion, we see cultures continuing their ancient bickering while forgetting their shared heritage.

Internally our problems continue as well. We hurt, and we do not understand why. Fear, desire, and grief fill our life. Our psychological sophistication should solve our problems, but therapies and self-improvement methods do not seem to diminish our isolation and separation. We would like to feel compassion for all beings, but our own problems are so demanding that we have little time to include others in our heart. We try to compensate for these shortcomings with more socially engaged activities, but we find that our motivation is often based in righteousness, which further divides the world.

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“You are like a man holding a flashlight, trying to run beyond its beam. The view you are holding…is undermining your intent.”

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Suddenly the Buddha is found in the middle of relationships, work, and family, within all activities, reactions, thoughts, and emotional responses. Nothing is outside Now, because no boundary is drawn to separate Now from then. The message of the Buddha is equally relevant in all locations and at all times. Until this is fully realized and until there is no movement to escape this environment for a better spiritual setting, we will continue to suffer.

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Spiritual forms and rituals can be very helpful in focusing our intention and providing a doorway to the sacredness of all life. They can awaken a sensitivity of heart and allow our mind to become quiet. Forms and rituals become a problem when they stop representing a gateway into oneself and become an exclusive presentation of the sacred, such as the belief that the only way to commune with God is by going to church or taking a walk in nature, or that the only way to meditate is to be alone in quiet surroundings. When we think of rituals and forms as the only way to access the sacred, the rest of our life is placed on spiritual hold.

Sachin vs Ponting

A constant time pass conversation in cricketing circles - who is better, 'Sachin or Ponting'? Who is the more complete cricketer? Reasonable arguments are put forth on either side of the debate. Some people pitch in and say that the comparison has to be normalized, meaning we should adjust for the fact that we are not comparing homogenous entities. The usual ones are about the pressure of billion people that Sachin had and that Ponting never got to face the mightiest bowling attack (the austrialin bowling attack) of the era in intenational matches etc. The arguments for normalization are quite valid and certainly have to be looked into. But, the question that arises is that were does one draw the line of normalization when comparing. May be one person got so much better training and exposure from younger days. May be one person did not have to deal with pathetic sports administrators. Its important to investigate this to arrive at the truth.

Typically, motives for comparing two people are appreciation of the better person for it is assumed that they are totally responsible for how good they are in whatever they do and that they are role models for others to emulate. The same goes for critisizing the worser person. But how much are they actually responsible for their states?

Some peoples bodies are born with certain abilities. Same goes to our minds. Now, how does one normalize for that? This may sound absurd, for typically physical and mental possibilites are taken as given and then the individuals effort in maximizing it is what people want to compare. But, its not so absurd because ultimately, the physical and mental possibilites one is born with sets limits. Similarly, it might be purely accidental (like a interested cousin) that one got interested in cricket at an earlier age than the other and hence had a better head start. Someones family conditions may have been suitable for the development of a cricketer at the right age. The list is endless. If we try to list down all the reasons that are responsible, in whatever degree, to why something happened then what we get is the causal web for that event.

The point I am coming to is that this causal web is infinitely complex. People almost always forget it and happily indulge in praise for accomplishing something or get lost in the depths of despair when something does not work out. While there may be no immediately perceptible reason for why the causal web is the way it is, the fact is that it is. It makes complete sense to see this and truly realize the infinite nature of the complex web for otherwise we will only be holding on to partial truths. The fact that you met your would be spouse sometime ago and convinced him / her to marry you would not have been possible without an asteroid killing the dinosaurs at precisely the moment it did (ten minutes later might mean that the mammal from which you or your spouse descended might have been eaten by a dinosaur before it got a chance to reproduce). At first glance this may seem absurd, but I would request you to reflect upon this deeply and patiently. No doubt the individual also contributed to the marriage but the amount of that is so miniscule when compared to how the cosmos set it up is incredibly small. Similar is the case of a divorce or a bad marriage. So, though the causal web is co-created by us with the cosmos, we seldom step back to understand the contribution of all of cosmos.

When one reflects upon this deeply and can see how every event in his/her life has been set up by the infinitely complex causal web constructed by the cosmos, or in hindu terminology - by the leela of god, it immediately dawns on us that the sense of doership is false and hence there is no attachment to praise or abuse. It goes even deeper - there is no binding happiness or agony over how things turn out. At all times, we may play along with the game, as per dharma, and rest in deep peace in the knowledge that the infinite causal web is responsible for how things turn out and not oneself. When we see this truly, we understand that the person who is causing / caused us to suffer was also set up that way by the causal web and immediately the anger vanishes and compassion towards that person springs forth.

This perhaps is the central message of the Gita as expounded by, arguably, its most famous phrase

Karmanyeva adhikaraste ma phaleshu kadachana

Concern yourself with right action and not about its consequences.

So, coming back to the Sachin vs Ponting debate, what we typically refer to as Sachin or Ponting are merely processes that have been set up by this infinitely complex causal web. The individuals at the point have certainly contributed to the processes. But their contribution is limited when compared against the contribution of the causal web to these processes. So comparing the two is like comparing the height of two waves in the sea. The contribution of the wave is limited when you contrast it with the contribution of the ocean / sun / moon / all of cosmos!

Why compare wave heights. Look at the ocean.

When the individual can step back from the process without identifying with it and can witness it happening, that is when true awakening happens. May this dawn upon the process that wrote this and the process that is reading this!

Hidden stuff

Hidden inside all of our actions is expectation,

Hidden inside expectation is ego,

Hidden inside ego is suffering!

Undeveloped Mind

‎"Just as rain breaks through an ill-thatched house, so passion penetrates an undeveloped mind." - Buddha

via: Without bounds

விழித்துக்கொண்ட கொக்கு

விழித்துக் கொண்டோர் அறிவிலர் என்றெண்ணி பஜ்ஜி வாங்கவும் வேண்டா - மடைத் தலையில் ஓடுமீன் ஓட அஹிம்சையை எண்ணி பசித்திருக்குமாம் விழித்துக்கொண்ட கொக்கு!

Important questions in spirituality

It is popularly recognized that the question 'Who Am I?' is one of the most important questions in spirituality. I agree. I also believe that the the question 'What is the grand unifying theory of human suffering?' is equally important.

The "Intelligence" way to awakening

Intelligence, the analytical intelligence, that helps people get noble prizes or set up multi billion dollar corporations is obviously a very powerful tool. Sadly, people almost always use it for their own narrow selves. Thats why, though extremely intelligent, when faced with issues in personal relationships (at office or home), they are unable to understand the basics of suffering in a relationship and when hit, just cant seem to heal the problem.

Usually, its only intense suffering that leads to awakening. When ones life collapses in front of ones own eyes, one starts to question what had one been doing all along and sees the stupidity of assuming the events that happen in ones life to be ones life itself. Then, the change of perception starts to happen - from living a life centered around ones own future, happiness etc, the individual moves towards universal identification and love and therein finds permanent happiness and fulfillment. Unfortunately, suffering seems to be the preferred route to awakening to most of humanity.

Grand unified theory of suffering

But, thankfully, alternatives exist - and one such alternative is the route of intelligence to awakening. Like how darwin painstakingly figured out the grand unifying theory of evolution, if we truly commit ourselves to it, we will also be able to figure out the grand unifying theory of human suffering, just as the Buddha did it. For this, one has to employ ones intelligence in the service of universal compassion. When one can genuinely work on this with total and whole hearted commitment, one can understand the causes of all the violence and immense suffering that humanity has unleashed upon itself. Then, if we find those dark forces within us and if we are motivated by purely not wanting to partake in the madness of violence around us, total awakening becomes a possibility. All other reasons for ones own awakening will be a form of egoic reason and hence will ultimately be futile as awakening itself is about transcending the narrow identification of the ego.

Can we figure out the grand unifying theory of human suffering - not as an intellectual idea that came about in a discussion or from a book or from some guru, but by personally witnessing it?

Samadhi in Yoga

Samādhi is a foundational concept in Yoga and defines the fundamental way the interactions of a yogi differs from the interactions of an average person. Patanjali defines many different categories of samādhi but the general idea is given in this sutra

tad evārtha-mātra-nirbhāsaṃ svarūpa-śūnyam iva samādhiḥ

In an interaction of an individual, when only the essential nature of the object with which the interaction happens shines through and it appears as if the individual's self is absent, then the individual is said to be in a state of samādhi.

Usual commentaries about this talk about a state of intense concentration where the individual is so totally focussed at the job at hand where it appears as if the psychological person (which is the sum total of past experiences and ones response to them) doing the task is absent. Sports persons and artists report this state often and it is referred to as the state of flow in western psychology. In a flow state, the activity takes prime importance and not the doer of the activity. This interpretation is certainly not incorrect, but this is only one interpretation of samādhi and probably not the most important one.

I feel there is a more important interpretation of samādhi. Its important to note these words: svarūpa-śūnyam iva. It means, 'as if the self is absent'. The easiest place to witness the self is in relationships. The moment there is anything else but pure love in a relationship, it automatically implies the presence of the self in that interaction. Hence, it becomes very easy to spot the self. When an individual can interact with another person without his / her self influencing the interaction, then that automatically becomes a state of samādhi. Being able to achieve this kind of samādhi is far more important than that of flow as this directly leads to more loving relationships and more peace and harmony in society. This is not to denigrate the flow type samādhi, but to emphasize the importance of samādhi in relationships. Similarly absence of self in ones occupation is also very important. Most often, the occupation is done for the sake of pride and status and instead of the importance and social relevance of the occupation one pursues in life.

Samādhi is an experience and an individual who is consistently able to maintain the state of samadhi in all of his/her interactions (relationships, occupations etc), can be said to have transformed their consciousness from one of the smaller self, the ego, to that of the higher, universally inclusive self. This transformation, I believe, is referred to as Yoga.

Invitation to Commune

This is a mail I sent to a bunch of friends. This invitation to open to all you readers too! :)

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Hello everyone,

I am writing to you all to express a strong intention in me to interact with you all more regularly on a much deeper basis. With our busy lives, we seldom get time to interact with each other on a level which is more than small talk (though deep interactions do happen in small pockets here and there). While I totally enjoy the fun part and certainly want that to continue, I also believe that in the long run, if we are really sincere about establishing meaningful and deep relationships, we need to open up to each other more and for that we will have to often have conversations / interactions that are so much more deeper than small talk, which usually hovers around movies or complaints about road / weather / politics / bosses or ipods and other gadgets, and other forms of frivolous fun.

In addition, I believe it is vitally important to take ourselves and our lives so much more seriously and have a vision for ourselves (beyond having family / apartments / careers / fun). I believe only through such sincere efforts, which is not easy, can we find meaning and purpose in life to keep us going in an increasingly maddening, fragmented and violent society. I strongly believe that such a sincere attempt in consciously evolving towards a universally inclusive higher self is true religious practice. While it is great to have fun in the short term, if our lives lack meaning in the long run, we are going to end up living one long dreary life, running from one job to another, one relationship to another etc, leading to all sorts of complications / drama / violence for ourselves, for people around us and for society as a whole. This is an arduous task primarily because the conventional norm in the society just does not let it happen. Having lived in the society in a fairly unconscious manner for such a long time, many of its stifling practices and beliefs have found its way into us too. Only when we acknowledge this to ourselves can we begin to change. This really requires us to understand that we are not perfect and that we need to change and many times at fundamental levels and not be satisfied with looking to change by merely saying, Ill eat healthy food and do more exercise. While these might also be important, I believe the kind of transformation that needs to happen so as to enable us to have deep inner peace and live harmoniously with all of creation is far far more deeper.

Towards this common goal of finding fulfillment / completion in life and to live a totally peaceful and harmonious life, we can all get together and engage with each other and try and find motivation and inspiration to deal with our own dark sides. Of course, only when we are able to establish a lot of good will and trust amongst us, will we be comfortable mutually to open up to each other - to open up our dark sides (fear / desire / anger / pain / lust / jealousy / hatred / whatever) in particular and to receive constructive support / criticism regarding the same. Most of the time, most of us run away from our own dark sides and escape into a million different activities - which could be books for some, loud fun for some, sex for some, apathetic silence for some or career / money pursuits for some or fantasizing about the future for some (there are countless other escapes). We have all ran away from our dark sides so much that, we have totally forgotten their existence. We have all started wearing masks after masks (eg: successful person / intellectual / beautiful person / failure in life / failure in marriage / rich person / accomplished person / god seeker / atheist) over our faces that we hardly know our true face anymore. The masks may temporarily hide the dark side, but the dark side will obviously show up in other forms. It needs courage to see it and acknowledge its presence. Having people who have also recognized their own dark selves and are sincerely attempting to deal with it around if really helpful and if they are also people with whom we can connect, it helps tremendously. While at the beginning this does seem like a daunting and impossible task, I do believe that if we can sincerely attempt at dealing with it and transcending our smaller self completely, the transformation in us is certain to happen. I am reminded of the story of the sincere sparrow from Ramana. So, kindly take this request seriously and lets attempt to meet and evolve together towards more meaning in life.

I consider myself extremely lucky to have met so many wonderful people and that too with so many of you in such close geographical proximity. It would be really fantastic to engage with all of you and continuously go deeper without setting any arbitrary limits on how deep we can get in our relationships. Some of what I have written here may be totally unintelligible jargon for some, trivial for some and meaningful for some. I kindly request you to step back from whatever is your instinctive reaction to this and get back to me when you can respond more consciously, in an effort to engage / evolve more meaningfully from here on.

A few of us in this mailing list know of the saturday meetings that a bunch of us are trying to get to happen here in Chennai every saturday. The main purpose of it is to create a space to assist this evolution in us. But, many of our schedules are quite orthogonal to other's and hence it simply might not be possible for all of us to get together at the same time. The geographical spread of the city also does not make it easy either. But, this need not prevent different groups of people from meeting regularly and continuing the process of personal evolution and establishing deep relationships. This calls for a lot of commitment and awareness. The so called 'saturday' meetings need not actually happen on saturdays either :). It could also happen on other days. There could also be parallel meetings in different places! The few meetings we have had, tended to be more on the talking side and it has its pros and cons. With more people coming in, we could have have more variety of ways to engage with each other - yoga / dance / healthy cooking / gardening / food distribution / beach cleaning / drama / movie screening etc.

Once people get back to me about this mail, Ill try and set up a google groups through which all those who are interested can communicate. Though the mailing-list, might be a very handy tool, I would like to reiterate, there is nothing like the real thing - one on one personal interactions. If you dont really resonate with what I have written here, firstly thanks for reading through and secondly, do let me know and Ill immediately take you off the mailing list and prevent you from being spammed. Also, please feel free to add anyone whom you know whom you think would be interested in this. Ill send out a mail later on regarding tmrws meeting. Though some of you whom I have mailed are not even in the country (and some not in the city), I feel it is still possible for us to engage each other positively through whatever electronic means available! It would be great to have your inputs too! :)

Tata and thx for reading through such a lengthy mail!

Partha

Ahimsa paramo dharmah

Southern suburbs of Chennai woke up to the grisly news of double death at a religious place there.

Briefly, a robber came in in to the Mutt in the wee hours of Sunday and murdered a woman who raised an alarm regarding the robbers presence. The robber, who was wielding a knife, was later overpowered, and, according to the news report above, was beaten up by the other people present there to the extent that he was struggling for life by the time the cops arrived. He later died at a local hospital.

Such needless violence is really sad. While the use of force might have been needed to overpower the robber who was threatening violence, the needless beating him up to death is really sad. True religion is only about spreading unconditional love and ahimsa. Beating up of a person to death, and that too after overpowering him is simply uncalled for. This is the sad state of most religious institutions, no matter which religion. They exist purely as a form of entertainment. Most of them seem to have no clue about ahimsa or non-violence being the highest truth.

Can we all change this? Can we recognize every single part of us that is violent and eliminate all of them, instead of being lost in all kinds of crazy practices in the name of religion, no matter which religion it is that we are brought up to believe?

The Yogic Pledge

I know that I stand to gain tremendously by my adherence to this ancient and revered discipline of yoga. I solemnly pledge that Ill put all of that to the best use of all of creation!

Ullavaru Shivaalaya Maadvuvaru

Thanks to Pooja for introducing me to this beautiful poem in Kannada by Basavanna!

Ullavaru Shivalayava Maaduvaru

Naaneena Maadali Badavanayya.

Enna Kaale Kamba, dehave Degula

SHira Honna Kalashavayya.

Koodlasangamadeva, Kelaya

Stahvarakkalivuntu, Jangamakkalivilla

The rich

Will make temples for Shiva.

What shall i,

A poor man,

Do?

My legs are pillars,

The body the shrine,

The head a cupola

Of Gold.

Listen, O lord of the meeting rivers,

Things standing shall fall,

But the moving ever shall stay

Mwami Shimirwa

Desperately struggling for words and adjectives! Tears rolled down my eyes quite a few times as I read this book! What a story!!!!

Been dazed for a long time after reading this book. Unable to bring myself to reality!

Some links to get the context:

Rwandan Genocide - Estimated that about 800,000 (thats eight hundred thousand) people slaughtered to death during a period of 100 days

Left to Tell - The story of a lady, narrated in first person, who survived it all hiding inside the toilet of a pastor along with 7 other women for about 3 months! At the end of it all, she looks at a killer of her family and tells him that she forgives him and has no hatred for him!

PS: Title in Kinyarwanda means “Thank you God for love beyond our understanding”

PPS: Thanks Anupama for introducing me to this book. Though I've seen the movie 'Hotel Rwanda' this was a wholly new perspective!

Passages about life and death

Passage about life and death as heard today in a class by Prof Devdas Menon

When were you born? Most of us would say the date that is on our birth certificates. That is for practical purposes, but can we truly make sense of reality based with these documents? Where were you one day before the date on your birth certificate? No, this is not some esoteric stuff full of impressive incomprehensibility. Read on!

One day before the date you were born, you were a fetus inside your moms womb. What about a few months before - a smaller fetus. Going back, you were a single celled version of yourself. What about before that? At that point, you were in the form of a potential for yourselves inside the sperm and ova of your parents. That potential has now taken form in the form of you.

If we continue to go back, where was that potential inside your parents before they themselves were born? This potential has existed always and will always exists. You are simply a form that has potential has taken for a very brief period of time. So, the individual simply is a process that is continuously changing. While there might be a clear starting and ending point for a particular form that process may take, the process itself has no starting or ending! Sadly, most of us are totally unaware of this and are totally lost in the celebration of the start of a form the process takes and equally lost in grief at the end of the form that process had temporarily taken.

Passage about life and death - quote from memory - from the book 'Peace is every step' by Thich Nhat Hanh

I once asked a leaf if it is scared that all the other leaves in the tree are falling. The leaf smiled gently at me. It then said that all its life, it had contributed strongly to the well being of the tree. By now, it said, I have contributed my maximum and have nothing much to give. So, I live primarily through the tree and not through the left over form that is hanging precariously from the branch. It further said it is good for the leaf to now fall so that processes in the soil can utilize what is left over and put them to use for the well being of the tree. When the next gust of autumn wind came along, the tree waved me a good bye and happily left its temporary home!

Pratipakṣa bhāvanam

How often we get lost in the only way of thinking we can muster? How often our conditioning prevents us from even acknowledging the existence of other perspectives? Very often, for most of us. We quickly rush to conclude that we are right and that our emotional reaction (anger / sadness etc) to the reality on ground is totally justified. Awakening is the process of 'seeing' the mechanical nature of this kind of behavior of us.

What are we awake to? We are simply awake to our own conditioning. We first acknowledge that our perspective is limited and that it simply may be wrong or be a fragment of the truth. When one is awake to this possibility, one can be aware of ones mind going down that route for the umpteenth time. Then, the individual is ready to beat the conditioning. The only way to beat the conditioning is to be totally aware of our own patterns of thinking and to acknowledge from the core of our heart that our perspective is conditioned. Then, we should consciously take every possible perspective of the situation. Patanjali calls it 'Pratipakṣa bhāvanam'. In the second chapter of yoga sutras, he says,

vitarka-bādane pratipakṣa bhāvanam

Wrong actions, based out of untruth, can be neutralized by taking every possible perspective.

This idea is found in many cultures. Thirumoolar, too, has written about it.

நடுவுநின் றார்க்கன்றி ஞானமும் இல்லை

நடுவுநின் றார்க்கு நரகமும் இல்லை

நடுவுநின் றார்நல்ல தேவரும் ஆவர்

நடுவுநின் றார்வழி நானும்நின் றேனே.

There is no better wisdom than taking the middle path,

Takers of middle path do not suffer,

Many who take the middle path are gods,

I too follow the middle path!

It is such a simple and basic piece of wisdom that it is astounding how often well grown mature adults fail on this count. The sad thing is, even when they fail, people do not know they have failed in living up to this basic piece of wisdom. Its a sad reflection of our education system which results in most of knowing the Newtons three laws of motion by heart but very few know, let alone practice, such basic piece of wisdom. Knowing and living this can go a long way in improving the consciousness level of our society thereby directly leading to long lasting peace!

Of course, some perspectives are plainly wrong. Like if someone opines that the earth is flat and is supported on the back of turtles, we simply have to reject this. But, many times, especially in issues of relationships, there are often many fragments of truth. When we consciously see every perspective, then suddenly we see the elephant, the big picture, and at that point, we will be able to witness reality in all of its glory!

While initially taking every possible perspective is hard, with effort the difficulty reduces. Initially, when we are totally identified with our own perspective, with intention and sincerity we can force ourselves to take other perspectives. Its useful at this stage to have a wise person around to gently introduce other perspectives. It may also be useful if there is someone whom we like with the alternate perspectives. Its also useful to remind ourselves of Krishnamurthis words constantly - 'truth is not a matter to be decided by any individuals opinions'. Slowly, after some time the requirement for effort reduces and eventually, one day, taking every possible perspective may become effortless. At that point, the ego simply does not matter to the individual and there is no effort whatsoever in not listening to it. In fact, holding on to the ego could very well become effort then. Ones the freedom of the absence of ego is tasted, very few individuals would want to get back to the old ways. Patanjali describes this pithily in this sutra, again in chapter 2 of yoga sutras,

prayatna ṡaitilyānanta samāpattibhyām

With effort, the knots release and gradually in effortlessness one merges with the endless

Again, thirumoolar echoes similar sentiments,

செயலற் றிருக்கச் சிவானந்த மாகும்

செயலற் றிருப்பார் சிவயோகம் தேடார்

செயலற் றிருப்பார் செகத்தோடுங் கூடார்

செயலற் றிருப்பார்க்கே செய்தியுண் டாமே

Resting in effortlessness is being suffused in grace,

Effortless people don't try to reach Sivas abode,

Effortless people dont conform with the world,

Only effortless people hear the good news!

Can we all see how our perspective is so limited most times and consciously try to take every available perspective, no matter how much another perspective threatens the emotional security our own perspective provides us?