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?

Experiences

The saint does not have experiences, mystical or otherwise. Its the ordinary person who has experiences. The saint simply witnesses reality!

Beggars outside HSB

Aham Vaishvanaro Bhutva

Praninaam Dehamaa Ashritaha

Prana Pana Samayuktah

Pachamyannam Chaturvidham

I stay in all living beings as ‘vaishvanaragni’ or Digestive fire and digest all four types of food

Translation of the above verse in Gita obtained from MedIndia

I have been to that particular Hotel Saravana Bhavan a host of times. I enjoy my food there almost always despite the little hurried nature of that restaurant. No complains though because the quality of the food is pretty good. Almost always, my bill is around Rs. 100. Once I pay up, i quickly leave paying little attention to the mostly naked, smeared with mud bodies right outside the hotel. Lost in my own world, Ive been paying little attention to the fact that its the same digestive fire,

vaishvanaragni,

that is in me, which krishna identifies himself with, is in those bodies too! This fact struck me with great force recently. How blind have i been to this face for so long!

While we happily feed the digestive fire in us with all the best things we can lay our hands on, when faced with responsibility of treating the digestive fires in others, the first reaction is 'do I have change'. Even if we have it, we start thinking what about the upcoming bus journey for which we may need it. Even while we are so unconcerned about the beggars hunger, if its a marriage in our house, we go about spending lakhs feeding our friends and relatives. There is a lot of pride taken on the size of the menu. What crap! Can we all change and realize that the food we take in, if we are to listen to krishna, is a divine offering. Can we realize the divine in us and see the divine in others, as either the

vaishvanaragni or otherwise?

Traffic Gita

Ya nisha sarva bhutanam tasyam jagrati samyami - Krishna in Gita

Literally, this means, while the rest of the world is asleep, the wise person is awake. Naive interpretations of this point to people who have transcended the need to sleep 6-8 hrs per day. I believe thats really silly. Such people are simply biological freaks and is no sign of any kind of spiritual evolution. In fact such abilities often hamper spiritual evolution.

I believe this actually points to how a wise person will always possess discriminative intelligence and will know right from wrong no matter how much madness there is in the rest of the society. Lets take the example of traffic in Indian cities.

Any sane person will certainly be outraged by the madness called Indian traffic. Most of us have resigned ourselves to the fate of indian traffic. Due to constant exposure to it, we have also stopped noticing the madness. Worse still, we totally partake in the madness. Can we heed to Krishnas wisdom and stay awake to this traffic madness and stop partaking in it?

Every time we drive in the indian roads:

a.) Can we yield to competing traffic / pedestrians?

b.) Can we stop at the stop sign when its red and refuse to move until its green (unless there is a real danger of being overrun by a speeding bus behind)?

c.) Can we realize the dangers of overspeeding inside the city and drive appropriately - irrespective of whether you have a powerful bike /car with disc brakes?

d.) Can we consciously try to minimize the number of times we honk?

e.) Can we stay calm and compassionate towards people who dont do this?

f.) Can we make conscious effort to avoid taking private transportation as much as possible?

It really needs a lot of svadhyaya, or self introspection, and courage to accept that we have made a mistake every time we partake in the great indian traffic madness. Most often, we justify our madness saying every one is mad. We also justify the madness saying otherwise we will never reach our destination in time. I think these are just naive excuses. Can we listen to what Krishna says when it comes to driving on Indian roads?

The I prayer

May I be contended

May I be free

May I be peaceful

May I be generous

May I be compassionate

May I live in harmony with all of creation

May I achieve completion!

- Heard it in Prof Devdas Menons class