Integral Yoga

Classical Integral Yoga! Unless all four are present, one cannot be said to adhere to Yoga, though the proportions may vary little! Sadly, as is popularly practiced today, all forms have become travesties of what they should be, at least in my opinion. Unless many individuals integrate all these in their lives, I do not see how our society can be peaceful, healthy and happy!

Activist vs Hoi Polloi

In the self righteousness of the 'activist' is the seed of the nonchalance of the 'hoi polloi'. In the arrogance of the 'hoi polloi' is the seed of the hurt and frustration of the 'activist'. When one sees this, shall one not commit oneself to rebel against the structures within that plays out this game?

C'est la vie!

Met a lady who is almost 80 years old today. She was complaining about her recent loss of health and the consequent hospitalization. She had to spend Rs. 15K for her treatment, which is an astronomical sum to her considering her meager and almost non-existent income. She was sad for she felt she could have bought another golden bangle for that money!

Some people love gold till they die. Some people love god all their lives. C'est la vie!

Maitri, Karuna & Mudita

A small conversation between a questioner and Nisargadatta Maharaj.

Q: I cannot fulfill my desires. I am too weak.

N: What makes you weak? What is weakness? Others fulfill their desires, why don't you?

Q: I must be lacking energy.

N: What happened to your energy? Where did it go? Did you not scatter it over so many contradictory desires and pursuits? You don't have an infinite supply of energy.

Q: Why not?

N: Your aims are so small and low. They do not call for more. Only God's energy is infinite - because he wants nothing for himself. Be like him and all your desires will be fulfilled. The higher your aims and vaster your desires, the more energy you will have for your fulfillment. Desire the good of all and the universe will work with you. But if you want your own pleasure, you must earn it the hard way. Before desiring, deserve.

Most our desires are finished with marriage and a career. No wonder, the fire within burns out and people start accumulating lot of impurities within - in the body and the mind. It is easily observable on how people put on so much weight and ego after marriage and / or after landing a good job.

Patanjali also talks about this. When one is established in friendliness, compassion and mudita (happiness on others good fortune), which means desires for the well being of all, one is powered by the divine directly.

maitri dishu balani (Yoga sutras, Vibhuti pada - 24)

When one is established in friendliness, compassion and mudita, then one is powered by great energy from within.

So then, can we hold the most noblest desire in our heart? Can we try and figure out the grand unifying theory of human suffering? Given that we humans practically have no predators, have tremendous scientific advancement to have prospered in all climatic conditions, we should have no poverty, no wars and no suffering whatsoever. But, sadly, that seems like a very far fetched ideal. Can we hold the desire in our hearts to change this mess?

This question when intensely held within with great sincerity, will naturally lead to problem of ignorance of an individuals true nature leading to the question 'Who am I?'. This will lead to Yoga, will produce individuals of the highest quality (imbued with universal love to the core) and will be the biggest force in bringing about peace in our society.

Within and Without

One of the fundamental purposes of education is to develop genuine sensitivity towards the divine. Unfortunately, modern education has no connection whatsoever with this - with its primary focus on success and accomplishments (at best that is). The only motto is to find a livelihood. A few others go beyond and that too only to the extent of finding something they like in a manner that is not necessarily connected to all of existence. Its also not fair to blame the educational systems alone for causality is an infinitely complex web. Most educational institutions merely reflect the popular ethos of the society - greed and competition. When most individuals do not recognize the divine within and without there is bound to be mayhem in the society because there is no restraint on any of the senses or the mind. But, when the sensitivity to the divine guides actions, the all round mayhem we are witnessing in our world today is bound to come down.

Divinity can be seen everywhere. One simple needs the pure heart to see that. It can be seen in the action of Immaculee Ilibagiza when she forgave the person who killer her entire family during the massive pogrom in Rwanda in 1994. It can be seen in the courage of a 24 year old named Bhagat Singh, who stood up to the death sentence of the Britishers and refused to seek pardon during the Indian independence struggle. It can se seen in the wise and deeply humble words of Ramana Maharishi when he states that he feels everyone is a maharishi and that he no different and this despite popular reverence of him as living god. Such living examples are countless though only the popular ones reside in public consciousness. It can be seen in the mysteries of the physical world where despite tremendous scientific advancements, we still do not where mass comes from (higgs boson is yet to be discovered). It can be seen in the mind boggling vastness of space. It can seen in the infinite variety of life all around us that evolution has produced.

Higgs Boson. R u thr?

Only when the heart is developed to marvel at these, only when we can sense the divinity in these things, can we at all consider the possibility of divnity within us. If not, the mind is just way too active and thus prevents the arising of the sensitivity to the divine within. The divine inside us can be sensed in pure awareness where the individual is absent. Every moment of our lives we are biased by our life story and every thought we have ever had. The moment we can go beyond all of that, the divine within can se sensed. With a little effort from there one, the divinity within can be made the centre of our lives. At that moment, the divine within and the divine without merge into one single divinity.

Education of a human being necessarily needs to concern itself intimately with this. If not, with all our abilities to blast through mountains, we will only cause total havoc like we are doing now. But, if we retain sensitivity to the divine within, then all our immense physical powers may be directed appropriately leading to widespread peace and happiness. When we recognize the importance of this, will we not try and inculcate this within us and in our kids? Will we not inspire each other to recognize the divine within and without? Will we not ask serious questions on the nature of education we are subjecting our kids to?

Desire of the Boddhisattva

Our human society, with all its intricacies, has been created by the interplay of human desires. In mathematical terms, it is the resultant vector emerging from a field of vectors where every desire of every human is a vector. These various desires of countless humans have interacted in complex ways to produce the world as it is today. Hitlers desire, obviously, was a major force that led to the second world war. Edison's desire led to the invention of the light bulb. None of these desires stand by themselves. They have been assisted and shaped by countless other desires, from within the same individual and from other individuals. It is interesting to study the characteristics of these desires. While some of the desires lead to a change in the external world, others do not. There are many factors that are involved here. The most important one is the strength and depth of the desire. Other factors would be the external situation that the individual finds hirself in, competition from other desires (from within the same individual and from others) etc.

Now if we observe the desires of most human beings impartially, it would be fair to conclude that most of them are not deep. Most desires of most people are simply social software - starting from good marks, to good looking spouse, to well paying job, to intelligent kids, to fear and desire of opinion of others. Unfortunately, much of our society is shaped by such shallow desires. This is not to denigrate these so called 'simple' desires of the average man but to point out the unhealthiness of the same (much like how a doctor points out that eating junk food is unhealthy as it leads to obesity). When an individual is driven by these desires, there is constant drama and conflict in the individuals life caused by conflicts of these desires with the desires of others who cross hir life path and/or by the failure of these desires to materialize. This generally only leads to a negative spiral of unsatisfaction and unhappiness. The way out is to understand the nature of desire. The reason for most desires is some form of gratification, of the mind or the body. Inability to live without a certain form of gratification is commonly referred to as addiction. The most general description of the addiction of socially programmed desire is a feeling of incompletion and the need to feel complete by the arrival of something external. The more intensely an individual sees this, the more the social software will fall away. The more the social software falls away, the more the deeper wants and needs of the individual surface.

Usually, its the people with these deeper wants and needs who shape the human society at a bigger level. They tend to become the, so called, 'leaders' of the society. There are quite a few such contemporary leaders in varying disciplines today. We will have to wait for history to judge the extent to which the deeper desires of Narayanamoorthy have affected the Indian society. The impact of these deeper desires are sometimes favorable and sometimes unhealthy, unlike the desires caused by social software. At least some sections of the society will benefit in a few ways from these deeper desires.

The separation of these desires into those caused by social software and those that are deeper is obviously not black and white. The deeper ones are many times influenced, and in the worst case, even hijacked by social software. This can be seen in how people try to optimize doing what they like and at the same time attempt to maximize their income (doctors who like their job but working in high paying hospitals and software folks who like software engineering but working in high paying IT firms are two examples that come to mind immediately). The question here is obviously not about earning an income for livelhood but about continously amassing wealth (of course, there is almost no one who things (s)he is in the latter category). Most often than not, in order to satiate ones deeper desires, one needs to play with and manipulate the base desires of others. In order to run a company, it is (almost?) necessary to offer 'competitive' (euphemism for up to the mark of greed) salaries and profit by taking part in the ruthless capitalistic machine. This requirement to manipulate others ego in order to satiate ones deeper desire is the reason why many of these deeper desires also, many times, fall into the realm of egoic desires. Hence, the actual benefits accrued from actions arising out of such deeper desires are questionable.

But this need not always be the case and it may often be possible to direct these deep desires into the right path. The right path is not a collection of rules that can be specified from outside but a direction that comes from within when the ego has completely left. Such a person can then effectively let their deeper desires flower in a way that is most fulfilling to them and most useful to the world. They may even continue to work in the so called 'capitalistic machine' or any other 'machine', but their reasons will be entirely different from the usual reasons of most other individuals within the same 'machine'. Though, I suspect, it will be increasingly harder as the pressures of the machine would be immense.

Bodhisattvas Descending from Heaven. Japanese painting, c. 1300.

There are other individuals who do not fit into the above described categories. These people do not have any desires of themselves. They are perfectly content with 'what is' and have no resistance to that at any time. They are truly the people who have discovered the state of completion within and thereby are beyond the need for desires. But, they consciously retain one desire, which is the complete and total reformation of the human society. They are the Boddhisattvas (individuals in dharma megha samadhi, in yoga terms). Since this is the only desire they have, all their energies are spent towards this. Consequently, it is amongst the strongest desire a human can experience. In addition, since this desire is motivated by compassion, it is amongst the deepest desires a human may experience and the way such desires shape the world is tremendously of a different quality than how any other average human's desire may shape the world. The desire of the Boddhisattva is unchanging and unrelenting, despite intense opposition from the very society which they intend to change. All desires of other humans vary in intensity and will eventually fritter away, depending on external and internal circumstances of the human(s) hosting those desires. Only the desire of the Boddhisattva is exempt from this increase in entropy. There are no internal conflicts within the Boddhisattva. There are no external circumstances that are too much for the Boddhisattva. Under these circumstances, the desire of the Boddhisattva will remain until the desire is satisfied.

In a world shaped by varying desires, when one desire holds its position firmly and is stronger than any other desire, slowly all other desires will start to align themselves with this desire. Gradually, the strength of this group will increase and over a period of time, it is inevitable that all human desires align themselves with the desire of the Boddhisattva, though the duration this process takes may have have to be measured in evolutionary terms. The desire of the Boddhisattva outlives the physical presence of the same. According to the Hindu theory of rebirth, as long as any desire is held, rebirth is inevitable. If this is to be accepted, then the Boddhisattva will be born again until hir desire of the evolution of the human race is met! But, if rebirth theories are not to be considered, it can be clearly seen how when an individual has the meme of selfless action for the upliftment of human society with total integrity and internal peace, the meme continues to propagate effectively into other humans and thereby lives on!

So, even a single Boddhisattva is enough for social transformation. But, it may take a very long time and in the meantime many humans will have to undergo tremendous pain and sufferring. But, instead, if more and more people align themselves with the desire of the Boddhisattva, the society may transform faster and thereby a lot of unnecessary pain and suffering may be brought down. If one sees this, will one not align ones life with the desire of the Boddhisattva?

On God

It is very easy to talk about God - its existence or non-existence. Its very easy to go on lengthy homilies on the importance of believing in god. Believers can easily be tormented with fears of hell or seduced with visions of heaven. In fact, any nonsense can be said as no proof is needed to be produced.

Its also very easy to deny gods existence. Lengthy arguments can be given on why it is not proven without ever looking into the nature of the heart. The cold dryness of the mind can easily mask the warmth of the heart, even ones own heart. Its very easy to ignore the 'subject', who is giving the arguments, and go on big lectures about the absence of external proof of something for which no external proof can be given.

Sadly, neither group ever wants to talk about themselves and look at the so many ugly aspects of ones own lives. When one is willing and committed to eliminate all the ugliness in oneselves at every level, then an individual actually begins to evolve. Then, self righteousness and anger will subside and they will be replaced by humility and compassion. Then, this mad desire to accomplish something in this world for ones own sake will end and one will start to invest ones energies into things that are constructive and are useful for the society. Then, humans will stop forming teams of us vs them (based on any classification) and then we can perceive the whole world to be our family. Then, one will stop flirting with psychological time in terms of ambition, future plans, past regret etc and will be rooted in timelessness of the eternal present moment. Then, one may start questioning all the ugliness around us in terms of mindless destruction of wars, needless greed of our economic systems, desperate sadness of poverty, cruelty towards animals, environmental poisoning etc. Then, one will consciously attempt to step out of as many of them as is feasible, given ones social and economic context.

Only such an individual will be able to sense that part of every human which is eternally pure and free. Only then can the space of pure awareness within be realized. Without individual evolution all this will be non-understandable gibberish. But, when one sees that at least some of those who have propounded this in the past are people of the greatest integrity and are those who have contributed fantastically to human well being, one may at least be willing to explore this. When self inquiry is undertaken with this faith, the space of purity can be discovered for sure. Then, the individual starts living as the space of purity and over a course of time nothing is left in the individual except for that purity. This space of purity does not carry baggage from past. Awareness is always fresh and new and is never contaminated by the past. Any action that the individual performs is in the past and since awareness is always fresh, awareness is never touched by the consequences of actions. Thus, the purity called pure awareness is free of past actions. And that purity, my dear, is God. This state of purity, the state of pure awareness, cannot be known by the intellect. Anything that knows awareness is already awareness. Hence, to know pure awareness, only way is to be in the natural state of choiceless awareness as often as possible. And, this process is Yoga!

Puruṣa-viśesa

kleśa-karma-vipākāśayair aparāmṛṣṭaḥ puruṣa-viśesa īśvaraḥ (samādhi padaḥ, sutra 24)

That which is untouched by consequences of actions and is eternally free of impurities is God.

tapaḥ-svādhyāyeśvara-praṇidhānāni kriyā-yogaḥ (sādhana pādaḥ, sutra 1)

Self cleansing, self introspection and surrendering to the space of divinity within are the three components of Yoga.

samādhi-siddhir īśvara-praṇidhānāt (sādhana pādaḥ, sutra 45)

Higher states of consciousness, collectively called as samādhi in Yoga, is attained when surrenders to the state of divinity within.

This space of purity within is the grounding or the foundation on which ones life should be constructed. Sadly, most people do not recognize this, and instead, use their wealth, intellect, beauty, fame, family or something else as the grounding. Unfortunately, none of those is eternal and have the potential to one day collapse leading to utter desperation for the individual concerned. This space of awareness or God, is like the grounding of electrical devices. Any excess voltage can safely be discharged into the ground. When such a grounding is absent, all excess voltages will be retained and anyone who comes near gets a shock.

Many of our life situations are similar. When there is an emotional conflict with another individual, we tend to accumulate the negativity within us. The other individual also does the same. Together, the two people get into a negative spiral of continously hurting each other. But, if at least one person is firmly grounded, then all negativity can be safely discharged. Within a short period of time, the other individual will also notice this and will also find their grounding. Thus, even if one individual is grounded firmly, it may help to cleanse all other individuals who come in the vicinity of this person. Like how a single seed has the capacity to make this entire planet green, a single human being who is thoroughly grounded on God, has the capacity to transform all of humanity.

3 out of 5000 students is statistically not important

Suicide at IIT-M

"Why are you always reporting negative news about IIT Madras? We also have the maximum number of patents but you didn't report that. But you would want to report the death of 3 out of 5000 students which is statistically not important. Why don't you go to other engineering institutes and find out how many died there. Why only IIT?"

Why did Nitin Kumar Reddy die? Is it as simple as 'inability to handle pressure'? Or is it good enough to blame the rat race?

Why did the dean of students say 3 out of 5000 is statistically insignificant? Is it as simple as callous attitude? Or is it good enough to blame the media which apparently pressurized him into making such a statement?

If at all one is truly distressed by such sad events, one would dig deep into the cause of such happenings and every unquestioned assumption will be looked into.

Why is the desire for careers and big pay packets by all the educated ones around is disconnected from the suicide? Why is the callous / desensitized attitude we all show towards all the violence around us disconnected from the deans reply? How come peoples desire to buy apartment after apartment disconnected from the recent 2G scam in India? How are the million rupee marriages in India disconnected from the rat race? How is the desire to ensure ones kids go to IIT and then to Stanford disconnected from the death of Nitin Kumar? Why is the need to uphold family pride and the urge to gossip ill about others not a contributing factor? Why is our acts of pressurizing others to respect / love one unconnected? Ultimately, why is the desire to establish oneself as a separate person, disconnected from all of creation, not related to this sad event?

Only when we care enough to see the fullest extent of the causal matrix, can we notice that all the fears and desires we carry in our heads are fueling that causal matrix. And only when we act decisively to change ourselves, can we even nurse a hope of putting an end to such completely unnecessary sad events. The refusal to act despite all this is no different from the (apparent) insensitive comments of the dean.

Body is inside you!

Wise men have been telling me all along that I am not inside the body and that the body is inside me! While belief or disbelief in any such statement is nothing but an intellectual gimmick, such statements do pique ones curiosity. This immediately seems counter intuitive to commonly observed evidence. I feel conscious inside a certain body and not inside the laptop I am typing this thing out. The body I feel conscious in, is there everywhere I am. In fact, without the body I cannot get anywhere. So, this statement has always baffled me.

When analyzed without the subject, the statement by these wise men baflles logic. But, when we try to find the answer involving the subject, the individual concerned, then there is some light. We feel we are inside the body not just because we feel conscious inside it but also because we feel we can control it. We can lift the arm when we want to and move the leg when we want to and hence the thought that we control the body. In reality, there is very minimal control, if any at all. The heart functions by itself, breathing happens by itself. They do not ask for our permission. One day they will stop. Even then, they will not ask for permission. But, we still we feel we control the body. May be, but very little, if at all. We feel pain when this body is hurt. We also suffer when this body is heart (Oh my god, why did this happen to me!). When viewed from this angle of controlling, things start to take a different perspective.

So, in essence, we are saying we are that which control. We feel we control our minds and hence we believe we are our mind. But, most often than not, thoughts happen and really does not have any control. Try sitting silently without thinking of anything. Within few moments, you will find yourself thinking of something even without being aware of slipping into the thinking mode. This is akin to going for a bath midway while eating, after totally forgetting that one was eating! But still, we can exert some amount of influence on our minds and hence we believe we are our minds. Extending the argument further, we control the bodies and minds of our spouse, kids, parents, friends etc to some extent. So, we are concerned very much if any of that is hurt even minimally. But, we are not so concerned when a neighbour with whom we have a house boundary issue is hurt. When viewed from the perspective of control, it is clear that the sense of me is not there as control there is minimal or non-existent. When someone in a far away continent is hurt, there is little or no feeling (besides the cursory, 'how sad!').

This is were great souls, masters, mahatmas and yogis can help. They do not live as that which they control. They live as that which they love. Like how a totally unfit, obese young lad sees the ugliness of his body when he sees a totally fit guy, we can see the ugliness of our fundamental outlook to our life in the way they live. Of course, one must be willing to see the mirror that their lives hold out to us. When we notice that, then we can commit to ourselves to tranform our lives. The control outlook to life is ugly for it divides creation into that which I control and that which I do not control. It gives preferential treatment to that which it controls and thereby sowing the seeds of violence. This verily is at the root of the crisis facing the planet in all dimensions.

Living as that which we love provides the key test of sincerity. To begin with, we love everything we control. Only when there is a sincere attempt to live as that which we love, can the individual notice this. The most healthy of all foods, the breast milk of a nursing mom, when mixed with a drop of poison, becomes poison. It is no more poison mixed milk as one would never feed it to ones kid. Similarly, loving what we control is no love at all. It is simply control. Sincere exploration of ones heart will reveal the same to one. Then suddenly, one sees why love for all of creation is natural and at that very moment the transformation into an all loving being happens. Though this transformation may happen, being established there forever may need life long practice for the bad habits of the mind / body may be strong and continuous effort may be needed to keep all that at bay (even the great warrior Arjuna fell at the very moment when all his skill was needed to be in full flow). This verily is sannyasa. Not the abandonment of family / so called wordly way of life. It is loving all of creation equally like we love our family and not pushing ones family also out of the circle of ones love.

Ubuntu

One is reminded of the story in the times of Ramanuja. A wannabe yogi had deserted his/her family and had practiced severe austerities after cutting of all contact with humanity. After many years, he was disturbed as he never felt the peace that the upanishads talk about. He went to Ramanuja and asked him to shown him the route to that peace that transcends all understanding. Ramanuja told him to go and get married, for which the wannabe yogi was aghast. Ramanuja replied saying that love for humanity is the seed which when grows to its fullest extent becomes love for all of creation leading to that state of deep peace. So, its best to drop living as that which we control and instead live as that which we love. This includes people who have hurt us (physically / mentally / financially / etc..), people whom we think are responsbile for wrong doings and every other sort of person (note: loving does not mean goody goody condoning). This then gives us the chance to grow and suddenly in one fell scoop, we will recognize we love all of creation. When we live as love for all of creation, since the body is part of creation, the body then is inside us. Not the other way around.

There is no point in either believing or not believing this. Neither is there any point in being overawed by this or being irritated by such 'irrational' statements. Only when we gather the courage to explore whom we really are and have the sincerity to transform ones life from living as that which we control to that which we love, does any of this have any significance whatsoever.

Ending Needless Havoc

This is an extract from the book Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, which arguably launched the environmental movement in America. The extract is the last paragraph of the chapter Needless Havoc. This graphically describes the kind of suffering that humanity as a race is inflicting on all of life. There are certainly karmic consequences to all of this!

Incidents like the eastern Illinois spraying (discussed by her prior to this extract in the book, check out the link above to that chapter) raise a question that is not only scientific but moral. The question is whether any civilization can wage relentless war on life without destroying itself, and without losing the right to be called civilized.

These insecticides are not selective poisons; they do not single out the one species of which we desire to be rid. Each of them is used for the simple reason that it is a deadly poison. It therefore poisons all life with which it comes in contact: the cat beloved of some family, the farmer's cattle, the rabbit in the field, and the horned lark out of the sky. These creatures are innocent of any harm to man. Indeed, by their very existence they and their fellows make his life more pleasant. Yet he rewards them with a death that is not only sudden but horrible. Scientific observers at Sheldon described the symptoms of a meadowlark found near death: "Although it lacked muscular coordination and could not fly or stand, it continued to beat its wings and clutch with its toes while lying on its side. Its beak was held open and breathing was labored." Even more pitiful was the mute testimony of the dead ground squirrels, which "exhibited a characteristic attitude in death. The back was bowed, and the forelegs with the toes of the feet tightly clenched were drawn close to the thorax ... The head and neck were outstretched and the mouth often contained dirt, suggesting that the dying animal had been biting at the ground."

By acquiescing in an act that can cause such suffering to a living creature, who among us is not diminished as a human being?

Image from the book Silent Spring

Now, one may argue that the individual cant do much about the government policies immediately. True, but when one stays engaged with these issues, there certainly are openings through which one may engage with the policy makers. In addition, we may also consider the kind of impact mosquito repellants, cockroach killers etc that we regularly use in our houses have. Sadly, there are many ads that promise that even the last cockroach will be dead in the house. So much for non-violence!

Talking of mosquitoes, in an urban, especially middle-class or lower middle class and lower class urban setting, is tricky as it indeed might be a great problem. I remember reading in the book 'Autobiography of a Yogi', that Yukteshwar Giri, guru of Paramahamsa Yogananda, advised him to get rid of his mosquito consciousness, when Paramahamsa Yogananda was madly swatting all of them, while Yukteshwar Giri was peacefully sleeping even though a swarm of mosquitoes were buzzing around him. I used to wonder about that, for it defeated all my understanding. When a mosquito bites, the immediate reaction is to swat it. Its almost like dropping a hot vessel. Above all, how does one rid oneself of mosquito consciousness?

I dont claim to understand it now totally, but I feel I have a window into it. Typically we are trained by society and by ourselves to treat the mosquito as an alien invador who is out to destroy us and so we swat it with all our might, the moment one of them lands on us. Needless to say, the little creature goes through great pain as its puny body gets crushed under the tremendous force of our hands. Instead of this view against the mosquitoes, if we can develop some stillness within us and compassion towards the mosquito, we will not be jolted into swatting it. Instead, we can simply flick it from our body. There are millions of them around us, that swatting or flicking really makes no difference to the probability of we being bitten again (I understand this might be extremely difficult when a swarm of them attacks one or ones little kids at home. Despite that, this a worthy goal to be pursued). Such simple day to day acts help us develop the vitally needed inner stillness and also stokes the divine flame of compassion within us!

Only when the vast majority of us are immersed in such compassion, will the needeless havoc portrayed by Rachel Carson can be brought to a halt.

Yoga via Responsibility

This is a long (crazily?) email that I wrote to a bunch of friends. Please read and give feedback if interested!

Yoga as a form of self-empowerment (physical / physiological / mental / spiritual) is fantastic and is definitely needed for most people but I disagree with any style of Yoga where responsibility towards the society and the world at large is not center stage, especially for the privileged ones of the society. Modern day yoga gurus talk about yoga only as a form of self-empowerment. This easily leads many to disassociate themselves from the way they live their lives. They are happy to do their practice (whatever that is, non-practice inclusive) but never think of questioning and getting to the root of this world in crisis. This, I feel, is shirking of ones dharma. For the educated and the well off, spirituality will have to be centered around their responsibilities towards the world in crisis and not anyhow else. Let me explain.

Spiritual minded people never tire of saying that the world is a very connected place. I would like to elaborate. The world is a connected place not just in its well-being, but also in its ill-being. As I use electricity to type this write up out, I am responsible for many forms of violence around the world that are inextricably connected with the generation of electricity. There is lot of evidence available in the Internet for the person who is interested, hence Ill only briefly touch upon it. All ways of power generation have their share of violence - destruction of pristine forests and the lives of tribals in the case of hydroelectric power, threat of nuclear radiation leak and problems of waste storage plague nuclear energy, destruction of landscape in coal mining and serious health disorders for the miners plague coal energy. The list is endless and the point of this mail is not to list all of them. Instead, it is to point out how we are all interconnected in the ill-being of the world. Similar is the case with oil consumption. I would offer that all of us have a role to play in the continuance of many violent regimes around the world, for it is the presence of those regimes that guarantee us supply us oil and natural gas, without which neither would we have food nor medicine (food and medicine production these days are heavily dependent on petroleum energy). It may very well be argued that one can do precious little onself about these autocratic regimes. But, the point is about taking up responsibility and not about action. Right action will automatically emerge when one is reponsible. People these days do readily accept that we need to minimize our consumption of energy, as they are available in limited quantities. This may be a good enough responsibility for the average person (say a clerk in a government office) in the country, but this may not be true for most of us who are more directly responsible for driving the world in terms of its modern day lifestyles.

As engineers and managers, many of us design systems that form the center pieces of many social and economic systems. This is where things get a lot dicey. There is no one correct opinion here. Problems usually arise because people cling to one position and prefer to ram it in, which obviously is not on. Despite there being many valid positions, all positions will have valid points. In my opinion, one will be able to discover the truth for oneself only when one takes up total responsibility for the entirety of what we do. Consider the case of a terminally ill person in the family. Despite us knowing that treatment is of no use, we continuously try to do what best we can do. Despite there being many options in front of us, we continuously try to figure out the most appropriate one. All of this stems from the responsibility we take up for the situation. Similarly, if we take up responsibility for the well being of the world, responsibility for ending of violence, we will certainly cut through the differing perspectives and do the best that one may do for the well being of the world. Without this, minds of people are often only filled with ways and means to maximize oneself - whether through money, or career, or fame or something else. People also falsely interpret this as their karma or duty. I personally cannot imagine a duty that does not involve responsibility towards the world, though the form it takes for different people may vary. For someone it may be to step out of systems they perceive as violent, for another it may be to use the money they earn to set things right and for someone else it could be something else totally different (which my limited world view may not be able to imagine). Sadly, this may appear as a boring life to people as we are all trained to think responsibility is stuff to be done away with as soon as possible so that we may go and entertain ourselves. Nothing wrong in entertainment of course. But, living ones life for entertainment is like living so that one may continually taste a sweet every day. In my opinion such a life is meaningless and is a wasted life. The chance of attaining fulfillment in life would have been completely forfeited by the individual.

Coming back to our livelihoods as educated people, the money we earn is inextricably linked to companies making money on the stock market (either directly or indirectly), which primarily is run on greed. Yes, there may be a few exceptions (I would love to know them, as I dont know of any at this point), but primarily stock market is a place to make money without any responsibility (eg: bhopal gas tragedy, those who made money when Union Carbide's stock was high, have no responsibility in the disaster that ensued). Most people seldom think of these issues. I feel everyone needs to strongly consider if they really want to be part of such a system and contribute their time towards this and not merely make decision on the money they get or that they like doing their job. One needs to have a solid dharmic reason to do so (and there may be so). Even if one has one, one may have to continuously evaluate it with regards to changing situations of the world. I dont think its a good enough excuse to say I like doing it. I may love doing math, but if the only use the math I solve is to enable some military equipment manufacturer (in which case it would have been funded by such an organization), then one needs to really think about ones responsibilities towards the earth and whether one is really doing the activity to maximize well being. Our body naturally is repelled by many forms of food (as an inbuilt biological defense against consuming unwholesome foods), but we regularly masquerade all that by applying many forms of masala on the food. I feel much of the work that is done by the intelligentsia of the world today is like that - by successfully disconnecting themselves from the complete picture and being satisfied with the fact that they enjoy doing whatever that is that they are doing. Many computer scientists who worked for IBM during the second world war, may have been happy with what they were doing, but in the larger picture, the technology was being supplied to Hitler. The trained and educated folks, in my opinion, working for big corporations need to take responsibility for this (obviously, the watchman at a corporation does not have the same share of responsibility). Similar is the case with a cricketer or an actor or an ad-film maker (the challenges and questions they may have to consider will of course vary, but the spirit of it will be the same). Given that almost all engineering disciplines are strongly interconnected, its not just the mining engineer who needs to consider his responsibility towards working for a mining company which unleashes violence on tribals, the software engineer who writes sotware that runs the stock market, where this company thrives are also equally responsibile. So is the case with chartered accountant who handles the aforementioned companies accounts.

Some of the issues that we may have to consider are whether the system improves well being of people on a whole. If not, is it absolutely needed right now for we have no alternative. For eg, many organic farmers are of the view that chemical fertilizers are absolutely not needed but, many farmers having been used to chemical fertilizers may not have the skills to farm without them. So, such fertilizers may be needed at this point. Considering these and many such factors one may have to look within to discover if one has a dharmic reason to particiapte in the institution one works in. It may also be worthy to consider that ancient indian civilization, which was organized around establishing peace in the society, never went the technological route. Another factor is to see that most of the developments through modern science and technology have been motivated by corporate profits and / or military needs. I am of the opinion that things that come about with a wrong motivattion are unlikely to contribute to social peace, unless it goes through a major purifying process.

I do totally agree that its not easily possible for many people to look at the larger picture, especially when there are hungry kids at home. I totally agree with that. I completely realize that what I have presented here is objective reality as I see, plus my own subjective view points. Despite that, I would like to argue, there are lots of pros in what I say. One needs to consider them deeply, take total responsibility for the well being of all creation, look at the personal responsibilities and take an enlightened decision. This in my opinion is true spirituality, for here, the entirety of ones life reflects the fact that all life is connected. The Buddha is not regarded as the highest flowering of human consciousness, not just because he accomplished something special, but because he took responsibility for the well being of all of creation. And this, in my opinion is spiritual progress. One also needs to guard against the tendency to be a hippy and chuck all institutions because its fashionable and then abuse people within social/economic/political systems that one does not like. Changes can be brought about from within as much as from outside. But, it is possible that some institutions are so corrupt, that tearing them down may be the only option (I feel there are a few of them in todays world in whose existence many of us play an active role in). Only when one takes up total responsibility one will have the courage to see it, for many times, if ones livelihood or lives achievement is interconnected with the system, we may not have the courage to consider that option seriously.

An asana teacher, gets the student to do as much asana as he or she can do but not more. The limit is strictly observed but is constantly pushed forward. Similar is the case with responsibility. It should be taken up as per ones capability. Anything more may destroy us and is counter productive. But, within our limits, one needs to maximise what one can. Responsibility lies in the heart and that in no way depends on external reality. The external action one may take does, of course, and that is for each individual to decide for himself / herself. Again, the example of a terminally ill dear one is a good analogy. What we may do actually, depends on very many factors, but in our heart, because of the total responsibility we have taken, we go the full distance. This development of the heart is spirituality and this is what seems to be the shortest route to spiritual evolution and this is what I refer to as Yoga via Responsibility.

The yoga of responsibility naturally pulls in all other forms of yoga. It has no differences with any other form of yoga or any form of spirituality or science. It is happy to incorporate all of them so as to take ones life on more responsible paths. When one is established in responsibility, one quickly realizes ones lack of spiritual maturity and realizes that it has been the single biggest collective disease of humanity, thereby developing the wisdom (gnana) / devotion (bhakthi) / right action (karma) / personal empowerment (raja) to take up more and more responsibility. This may not be a new concept and may have been elucidated by many past spiritual masters. I am simply trying to contextualize this, as I see it, to the 21st century educated person. Fifty years ago in India, one may have needed to evaluate ones participation in the social system of caste and today it is something different, depending on where one lives in India.

Environmental degradation of every aspect of the biosphere, food systems being poisoned with chemicals of every kind, educational system being used to produce people who can only think and that too without their hearts, corporations working ruthlessly to make money without any scruples, people dividing each other based on so many categories and many other issues plague our world. Some of these systems have their uses too, of course. I would like to reiterate here that this write up is not debate for or against organic food, or for or against modern ideas of growth and development though I may have touched upon these subjects. The point is to raise awareness about these issues and request the reader to take up responsibility for many of these issues that are so pertient to our lives and figure out how one is going to respond to them skillfully. This very process of sincere responsibility for the well being of the world will naturally lead to one spiritual evolution. In fact, for a person who is totally established in that state, even ones own spiritual evolution would not matter so much! Only responsibility for the world will remain. This in my opinion is (or at least is close to) the exalted state of consciousness, which the incomparable Patanjali, refers to as dharma mega samadhi!

Purpose of Yoga

The frogs do not have to worry about Yoga. Neither do the eagles have to. But, the ancient seers found it necessary for humans to. The only reason I am able to conceive of is that humans, as a society, stand a chance of living in a fashion that is free of violence and is full of peace. But it is no mean task, for, though we stand a chance, the forces of nature bind us strongly. Unless a significant majority of humans free ourselves from the bindings of the material manifestations of nature (which includes ones own mind), peace in human society will be a distant dream. This freeing up of oneself in all aspects is Yoga and in its essence it is an attempt to directing the natural process of evolution. This peace cannot be achieved without inner and outer development, for one cannot exist for long without the other. This directing of our energies towards peace is the fundamental and only purpose of Yoga. Towards this, individuals, who are the basic building blocks of society need to be educated to find that space of purity within, the space within, where there is neither birth nor death, neither past nor future, and to let skillful action emerge from that space in order to bring about a peaceful society.

While this is the singular unifying philosophy, the modus operandi varies tremendously with different people. The process of going towards this varies with individuals and their natural capabilities and inclinations. Towards this, the so called various branches of yoga have emerged. While superficially they appear different, they cannot really be classified into different schools as all of their purposes is the same. The purpose of eating is a valuable analogy. There really is one purpose for it - to nourish body, mind and soul. But, depending on the individual, the actual kind of food varies. But, by and large, all individuals need some of all kinds of food though proportions may vary. Some of the popular branches are:

• Karma Yoga - Here, one works on the external world (non-egoically and dharmically) and through which evolve themselves.
• Gnana Yoga - Here, one understands human nature and by using wisdom and intellectual understanding, one evolves and also assists others.
• Bhakthi Yoga - Through devotion to the supreme, one can discover the space of divinity within and also hold that space for others to easily join them there.
• Raja Yoga - For those who are on the path of self empowerment of every aspect of them - mind, body, intellect and the soul.
• Other esoteric disciplines (Hatha / Kundalini / etc) - They work on the body mind connection. The mind affects the body and the body affects the mind. These other disciplines work on this connetion to bring about a transformation in the individual.

Ultimately, since the purpose of yoga is one, all practitioners should necessarily try to incorporate the best practices from all the disciplines into their lives. An item when cooked in different houses will have the various ingredients in different proportions. But, ultimately all of them need to use all the ingredients. Similarly, Yoga is much larger than any one of the ingredients.

There is an urgent need to go beyond these superficial and narrow definitions of Yoga (yoga for fitness / weight loss etc) and really look at it the largest perspective of Yoga and align ourselves with it. In my opinion, unless this grand unifying purpose is discovered and deeply imbibed in our lives, it is not Yoga.

PS: A small write up I wrote as part of an assignment in my yoga teacher training course (slightly differs from the original)

Why public transportation?

The most important reason why we should use public transportation is that it provides ample opportunities to be in touch with the sensitive parts of us. The countless beggars on Indian streets have mostly become mosquitoes to be swatted away by us, except for the occasional nonchalant flinging of a coin. When we use private transportation, we hardly come in any close proximity with them except for the occasional troublesome rendezvous at traffic signals. But, when we use public transportation, we have lot of opportunities to look at them into their eyes. It helps one tremendously to reflect upon the nature of reality they are witnessing and one cant but feel lucky about all the wonderful luxuries one takes so much for granted. This provides ample opportunities to develop the sensitive part of us, our hearts, for without such a well developed spiritual heart, we are as good as a corpse. When this heart develops, even a little, we start asking vitally important questions such as why there are so many underprivileged people in our society. These questions will come from our heart and we will hold ourselves accountable. We will ask ourselves about when was the last time we gave a starving urchin Rs. 100?

It also helps us to notice the state of vast majority of us. While taking personal transportation, we are mostly concerned with the chatter in our heads, almost totally in an unaware fashion. But, when we travel by public transportation, we come in touch with the external chatter that is going on all around us. The triviality and banality of most of these conversations becomes such a stark reality that we just cant escape them. What more, a little bit of honesty can immediately showcase to us how we also indulge in such banal discussions all the time. This can be a great transformative process. Another fantastic thing one notices is how people so desperately try to avoid eye contact in the buses. Why are we all so insecure? Why do we wear so many masks? Why are children able to look straight into the eye? There is benefit even in not listening to the rest. If we do get a seat, we can sit silently with our eyes closed but awake for the entire journey and that in itself is a fantastic meditative experience.

Coming to the yucky parta, public transportation in India is indeed over-crowded. Smelly arm pits and posionous gases, going by the name of perfumes and deodrants, will certainly make a big onslaught on our olfactory system. Not to mention the glares of fellow passengers when we stamp their feet accidentally. Nevertheless, its a fantastically transformative process to observe how our minds react everytime we are subject to even one such minor inconvenience. Most people who can avoid public transportation justify it to themselves on how inconvenient it is. But we fail to recollect that inconvenience is really a learned habit and can be unlearned easily (remember, for the ambanis, anything less than Antilia may be inconvenient).

Try this as often as possible!

Besides all these personal benefits, not to mention the lessening of personal stress due to cessation of driving in this mad Indian traffic, humanity as a whole stands to gain tremendously every time we take public transportation. Our precariouus civilization is totally dependent on oil and its supply is fast running out. When oil actually runs out, there is bound to be a period of total chaos, for we are dependent on everything from food to medicine on oil. Thereby it is extremely important to minimize its consumption thereby buying time for a more gradual shift into another way of living. In the meantime, it is very important for us to explore alternative lifestyles and livelihoods that are lighter on the planet, in terms of oil consumption and the concomitant pollution, and that are less violent by not supporting violent regimes around the globe even inadvertently (we do have a little bit share in the responsibility for autocratic and violent regimes in gulf countries as our oil guzzling life styles supply the oxygen to these regimes). In addition, one also contributes to the lessening of congestion of the roads in our cities. There are certainly such fantastic advantages to taking public transportation.

I totally understand that this is the perspective of a young and reasonably fit adult male in the Indian society who has the luxury of taking private transportation at will and whose livelihood does not depend on taking private transportation. The feeble and women certainly totally dont have it easy in Indian roads, especially in public modes of transport. Obviously, I am not suggesting everyone should immediately adopt what I am suggesting. The problem is primarily in our hearts as we dont take up responsibility for all of creation. When that changes, external change will commence as soon as possible, subject to external realities of course. The choices may appear hard and totally nonsensical at the outset. But, all transformative processes are like that. Consider the case of pregnancy. Its a lot of hard work for the woman - cutting away from favorite foods, lot of physical pain, many nights lost sleep, dependency on others etc. While a woman may crib at these things, a mother will not. When the woman looks at her kid smiling, all these troubles vanish into thin air. These difficulties are simply minor irritants along the path of the tranformation of a woman into a mother. Similarly, there may be irritants along the path of spiritual evolution, but for the individual who sees the worth in it, they will all be trivial. A simple change of taking public transportation can thus tremendously assist the all important transformation towards completion!

Babies and Masks

Most of us love playing with kids. The innocent and cute smile puts us totally at ease and helps reduce our stresses. We are happy to be in their company. Some rationalize this cuteness of the babies as an evolutionary trait acquired by kids in order to be nourished better by the adults around them. Plausible. But this statement would need more rigorous analysis.

What is important to note is that kids, at least really young ones, do not judge us and thats what I feel makes us attracted to them. To me, this seems to be the main reason why many adults are at ease kids and not any evolutionary trait that helps their survival. They do not care about our jobs, social status, sexual orientations and all such crap that usually separates one human from another. This absolute lack of judgement puts us at ease. Have you ever noticed this?

Notice how one is at ease when one plays with a child. Notice how one sings without any inhibitions? Notice how one does not worry about ones social / economic status? This is a valuable exercise as it helps us uncover all the masks we wear. When we interact with adults, all these masks appear. Imagine falling in front of a child. We will mostly join the laughter with the child. On the other hand, imagine falling in front of an adult. We usually make a fuss about how the heavens conspired to make us fall or we try to avoid eye contact with anyone and rush from that place (have you noticed this when someone falls from their bike on the road?).

Similar is the case with the master or even pets. With the master there need be no inhibitions as the master is completely non-judgmental (thats why true masters are tough to come by). Interacting with the master and analyzing the differences in us when we have similar interactions with others clearly demonstrates to us the masks we wear.

May we all find a master or a baby or at least a pet, and use those interactions to discover and later uncover all the masks that we wear!

Direct Perception

'Direct perception' is the act of perceiving something directly i.e. without any intermediary lenses. This implies that when perception is not direct but is through intermediate lenses, it is not perception of reality but is perception of a function of reality. For e.g., if someone criticizes us, instead of either accepting or refuting it merely on the basis of facts, we get angry or feel depressed. Thus we perceive the criticism as an attack on our ego. Thus, we perceive the criticism through the lens of our ego thereby making it indirect perception. There are so many verses in the yoga sutras that point at this. Krishnamurthi, one of the most exalted thinkers of the twentieth century, spoke about this again and again. Entire branches of zen buddhism are devoted to this. Why? What are the factors that prevent direct perception? What happens when direct perception does not happen? Lets dig deeper.

There are many external and internal factors that prevent direct perception. On a foggy wintry morning, we cannot clearly perceive what lies ahead. Is this what is being referred to? Well, trivially this is also connected to direct perception. But, in reality, we cannot do too much about these things. Ultimately we can only perceive information that reaches us. May be technology can help us in overcoming some or even many physical limitations. For a moment lets set aside all limitations of technology and assume that we somehow have the capability to overcome all physical limitations thereby eliminating external factors from affecting perception. Would we then be able to do direct perception? The answer, according to yoga or any other eastern philosophy, is a resounding no.

The principal reason for this is the corruption of the mind. Whatever we perceive has to necessarily pass through the mind. If the mind alters the information that passes through it, then the perceiver will not perceive reality. For e.g, the numbing poverty in India. We look at so many lepers / beggars on the road. We hardly feel anything for them. If they approach us for some alms, we usually shrug them off while a person from a first world country may be moved at the plight of the child. The difference is not that they are more compassionate than Indians but one of direct perception. There are so many of them that it is demanding to respond calmly to each one of them. But, the fact is that our past history of seeing many of them conditions our present when we are dealing with a beggar. Thus, our perception of the beggar in this moment is done through the lens of our past encounters. This imperfect perception necessarily leads to insensitivity which is one of the most intense forms of suffering.

Consider this conversation between two friends, Mr.Gogo and Mr.Popo. GoGo has a hearing machine that changes everything that is told to him into something totally different.

PoPo: You have bananas in your ears.

GoGo: Yup, I like hot lemon flavoured chinese soup.

PoPo: Are you mad? I said, you have bananas in your ears.

GoGo: What, there are martians on Anna salai? You must be kidding!

PoPo: Why are you blabbering nonsense?

GoGo: Yup, I am going to a concert today.

On many occasions, something similar happens with all of us. While reality is one thing, our mind makes it appear to us as something totally different. For e.g., the same event is viewed differently by a communist, in another way by a hindu and in a totally different way by a scientist. For e.g., look at the Kumbh Mela - a divine event for a hindu, an interesting agglomeration of primates in massive numbers for a scientist, and an utter waste of time and resources for a communist.

Why is there this difference? If everyone concerned has all the needed information, then the only difference is their minds and hence its their minds that make things appear differently. Most individuals have minds that are biased in certain directions. A hindu wants to interpret things that favor hir belief, a christian hir own and so on. Naturally, none of them actually discover the truth for a mind that is priorly biased in a certain direction can never arrive at the truth. A weighing machine that has a zero error can never measure accurately.

Ramana, the great seer!

Thus, direct perception is that perception that is not corrupted by any prior biases of the mind. The above examples of biases, namely communism or hinduism are all a manifestation of a root bias. This root bias is explained in many ways by different people. It may be explained through ego, or the sense of me that is different from the rest of creation. This makes a hindu feel he/she is different from a muslim (imagine the violence parents unleash on kids when they marry a person of another religion). It may also be explained in terms of memory. We constantly react and respond to memory. If two of us have a fight today evening, neither of us are free to give each other a warm hug in the morning, thereby we do not perceive that moment directly and instead we perceive it through the lens of yesterdays fight. When this bias leaves the individual, the mind is cleansed of all impurities and direct perception becomes a reality. Patanjali points at this in many ways:

a.) smrtiparisuddhau svarupa sunya iva arthamatranirbhasa nirvitarka - (Samadhi pada: 43)

When memory is cleansed, it is as if the sense of self has left us and this state is called nirvitarka samadhi. The sense of self is the major reason for prevention of direct perception. Thus, when memory is cleansed, direct perception becomes possible.

b.) rtambhara tatra prajnya - (Samadhi pada: 48)

People who have reached the highest state, are continuously in touch with absolute reality. This means, all of their perception is direct for absolute reality can never be known through any other form.

c.) pratyaksa anumana agamah pramanani - (Samadhi pada: 7)

Pratyaksha (direct perception), inference and reference are ways of obtaining right knowledge. Patanjali places direct perception at the top of the three ways of obtaining right knowledge. The other two forms may be used to understand that our normal means of understanding are actually flawed. Direct perception is eventually the only way of arriving at the truth. No scriptures or vedas, which are simply references, can actually help us discover the truth.

To conclude, only direct perception puts us in touch with reality. A kiss from ones beloved cannot be received via a messenger. It necessarily needs to be direct. So is perception of reality. If we cannot perceive reality directly, then we live our lives in falsehood and thereby cause suffering to us and people around us. And in order to perceive directly, we need to have a relentless quest for truth and must be willing to set aside all our preconceived notions and our own built up sense of image of ourselves.

PS: This was a write up I prepared as part of a presentation on Direct Perception in my yoga class.

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!

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!