Ranjit Kulkarni's Blog, page 13

Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda – Notes 7

My notes excerpted from the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda – Notes 7

(Notes are in the order in which they appear from Volume 1 to 9)

The whole of nature is worship of God. Wherever there is life, there is this search for freedom and that freedom is the same as God.

Blessedness, eternal peace, arising from perfect freedom, is the highest concept of religion underlying all the ideas of God in Vedanta — absolutely free Existence, not bound by anything, no change, no nature, nothing that can produce a change in Him. This same freedom is in you and in me and is the only real freedom.

God is still, established upon His own majestic changeless Self. You and I try to be one with Him, but plant ourselves upon nature, upon the trifles of daily life, on money, on fame, on human love, and all these changing forms in nature which make for bondage.

Wherever anything shines, whether it is the light in the sun or in our own consciousness, it is He.

He who gives us life is the power within us. Out of His fire comes life, and the direst death is also His power. He whose shadow is death, His shadow is immortality also.

In every being He lives, through all minds He thinks. He is self-evident, nearer unto us than ourselves. To know this is religion, is faith, and may it please the Lord to give us this faith!

“Ekam Sat Viprâ Bahudhâ Vadanti — That which exists is One; sages call It by various names.”

In all these cases where hymns were written about all these gods, the Being perceived was one and the same; it was the perceiver who made the difference. It was the hymnist, the sage, the poet, who sang in different languages and different words, the praise of one and the same Being.

We have to learn yet that all religions, under whatever name they may be called, either Hindu, Buddhist, Mohammedan, or Christian, have the same God, and he who derides any one of these derides his own God.

The cause of creation was described as will. That which existed at first became changed into will, and this will began to manifest itself as desire.

All the Vedantists agree on three points. They believe in God, in the Vedas as revealed, and in cycles.

Even so this whole universe as it exists is that Being. It is unchanged, and all the changes we see in it are only apparent. These changes are caused by Desha, Kâla and Nimitta (space, time, and causation), or, according to a higher psychological generalization, by Nâma and Rupa (name and form). It is by name and form that one thing is differentiated from another. The name and form alone cause the difference. In reality they are one and the same.

The Advaitist says, this little personalised self is the cause of all my misery. This individualised self, which makes me different from all other beings, brings hatred and jealousy and misery, struggle and all other evils. And when this idea has been got rid of, all struggle will cease, all misery vanish.

To my mind, if modern science is proving anything again and again, it is this, that we are one — mentally, spiritually, and physically. It is wrong to say we are even physically different. Supposing we are materialists, for argument’s sake, we shall have to come to this, that the whole universe is simply an ocean of matter, of which you and I are like little whirlpools. Masses of matter are coming into each whirlpool, taking the whirlpool form, and coming out as matter again.

We are absolutely one; we are physically one, we are mentally one, and as spirit, it goes without saying, that we are one, if we believe in spirit at all.

The Self is the essence of this universe, the essence of all souls; He is the essence of your own life, nay, “Thou art That”. You are one with this universe. He who says he is different from others, even by a hair’s breadth, immediately becomes miserable. Happiness belongs to him who knows this oneness, who knows he is one with this universe.

The Brahman, the God of the Vedanta, has nothing outside of Himself; nothing at all. All this indeed is He: He is in the universe: He is the universe Himself.

Out of a mass of clay a huge elephant of clay is manufactured, and out of the same clay, a little clay mouse is made. Would the clay mouse ever be able to become the clay elephant? But put them both in water and they are both clay; as clay they are both one, but as mouse and elephant there will be an eternal difference between them. The Infinite, the Impersonal, is like the clay in the example. We and the Ruler of the Universe are one, but as manifested beings, men, we are His eternal slaves, His worshippers.

Worship of the Impersonal God is through truth. And what is truth? That I am He. When I say that I am not Thou, it is untrue. When I say I am separate from you it is a lie, a terrible lie. I am one with this universe, born one. It is self evident to my senses that I am one with the universe. I am one with the air that surrounds me, one with heat, one with light, eternally one with the whole Universal Being, who is called this universe, who is mistaken for the universe, for it is He and nothing else, the eternal subject in the heart who says, “I am,” in every heart — the deathless one, the sleepless one, ever awake, the immortal, whose glory never dies, whose powers never fail. I am one with That.

Be one with the universe, be one with Him. And this Impersonal God requires no demonstrations, no proofs. He is nearer to us than even our senses, nearer to us than our own thoughts; it is in and through Him that we see and think.

From the lowest amoeba to the highest angel, He resides in every soul, and eternally declares, “I am He, I am He.”

***

The Open House: Short Story

At the open house of Vidya Niketan School, all students sat in uncomfortable silence. Most of them were with their mothers. Some of them were with their fathers. They waited for the class teacher to call them. They dreaded the impending discussion about their performance.

Most of them wondered why this day existed. Some of them wondered why mothers existed. A few of them wondered why this day and their mothers existed together. Everyone sat in silence.

Varun sat with his mother on the last bench of the classroom. He was in a cheerful mood. He saw his marksheets with amusement. Despite the lowly marks he had scored, he smiled every time he showed them to his mother.

“See, I could have scored more here,” he pointed to an answer marked wrong.

“It is ok, dear. Next time be more careful,” his mother said. Varun felt better.

He fished out a chocolate from his bag. “You kept this in my bag, isn’t it?”

He gulped it down, making sure no one else in the classroom saw it.

“I never share it with anyone,” he told her. “That’s why no one sits near me, isn’t it?” he asked.

“That’s ok, dear. But you still have me. And I still have you, isn’t it?” his mother whispered in his ear, trying to cheer him up. But she saw that he was still a bit morose. So she told him a joke.

Varun laughed aloud at the joke. Everyone in the classroom looked back to see what broke the silence. They saw Varun laughing all alone and talking to no one.

***

Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda – Notes 6

My notes excerpted from the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda – Notes 6

(Notes are in the order in which they appear from Volume 1 to 9)

The Karma-Yogi asks why you require any motive to work other than the inborn love of freedom. Be beyond the common worldly motives. “To work you have the right, but not to the fruits thereof.” Man can train himself to know and to practice that, says the Karma-Yogi. When the idea of doing good becomes a part of his very being, then he will not seek for any motive outside.

So the only way is to give up all the fruits of work, to be unattached to them. Know that this world is not we, nor are we this world; that we are really not the body; that we really do not work. We are the Self, eternally at rest and at peace.

Every good work we do without any ulterior motive, instead of forging a new chain, will break one of the links in the existing chains. Every good thought that we send to the world without thinking of any return, will be stored up there and break one link in the chain, and make us purer and purer, until we become the purest of mortals.

He works best who works without any motive, neither for money, nor for fame, nor for anything else; and when a man can do that, he will be a Buddha, and out of him will come the power to work in such a manner as will transform the world. This man represents the very highest ideal of Karma-Yoga.

The idea of supernatural beings may rouse to a certain extent the power of action in man, but it also brings spiritual decay. It brings dependence; it brings fear; it brings superstition. It degenerates into a horrible belief in the natural weakness of man. There is no supernatural, says the Yogi, but there are in nature gross manifestations and subtle manifestations. The subtle are the causes, the gross the effects. The gross can be easily perceived by the senses; not so the subtle. The practice of Raja-Yoga will lead to the acquisition of the more subtle perceptions.

In the first place, all religions admit that, apart from the body which perishes, there is a certain part or something which does not change like the body, a part that is immutable, eternal, that never dies; but some of the later religions teach that although there is a part of us that never dies, it had a beginning.

But anything that has a beginning must necessarily have an end. We — the essential part of us — never had a beginning, and will never have an end. And above us all, above this eternal nature, there is another eternal Being, without end — God.

This idea of reincarnation runs parallel with the other doctrine of the eternity of the human soul. Nothing which ends at one point can be without a beginning and nothing that begins at one point can be without an end.

The doctrine of reincarnation asserts the freedom of the soul.

If I set the wheel in motion, I am responsible for the result. And if I can bring misery, I can also stop it. It necessarily follows that we are free. There is no such thing as fate. There is nothing to compel us. What we have done, that we can undo.

There is the non-dualistic stage, in which man realises that the God he has been worshipping is not only the Father in heaven, and on earth, but that “I and my Father are one.” He realises in his soul that he is God Himself, only a lower expression of Him.

All that is real in me is He; all that is real in Him is I. The gulf between God and man is thus bridged. Thus we find how, by knowing God, we find the kingdom of heaven within us.

The different stages of growth are absolutely necessary to the attainment of purity and perfection.

The masses want concrete ideas, something the senses can grasp. A man may be the greatest philosopher in the world, but a child in religion. When a man has developed a high state of spirituality he can understand that the kingdom of heaven is within him. That is the real kingdom of the mind. Thus we see that the apparent contradictions and perplexities in every religion mark but different stages of growth. And as such we have no right to blame anyone for his religion. There are stages of growth in which forms and symbols are necessary; they are the language that the souls in that stage can understand.

The next idea that I want to bring to you is that religion does not consist in doctrines or dogmas. It is not what you read, nor what dogmas you believe that is of importance, but what you realise.

We live and move in God. Creeds and sects have their parts to play, but they are for children, they last but temporarily. Books never make religions, but religions make books. We must not forget that.

The end of all religions is the realising of God in the soul. That is the one universal religion.

As soon as a man stands up and says he is right or his church is right, and all others are wrong, he is himself all wrong.

Though all religions are essentially the same, they must have the varieties of form produced by dissimilar circumstances among different nations. We must each have our own individual religion, individual so far as the externals of it go.

The Vedas say the whole world is a mixture of independence and dependence, of freedom and slavery, but through it all shines the soul independent, immortal, pure, perfect, holy. For if it is independent, it cannot perish, as death is but a change, and depends upon conditions; if independent, it must be perfect, for imperfection is again but a condition, and therefore dependent. And this immortal and perfect soul must be the same in the highest God as well as in the humblest man, the difference between them being only in the degree in which this soul manifests itself.

These are the three stages which every religion has taken. First we see God in the far beyond, then we come nearer to Him and give Him omnipresence so that we live in Him; and at last we recognise that we are He.

***

Drona: Virtue vs Envy

How much is a teacher responsible for shaping a student and how much of it is the student’s own making? How much does external training shape someone and how much is driven by internal traits and talent? How much of a student’s success and failure can a teacher be held accountable for?

These are questions with no easy answers in black and white. It was clear during the training period to Drona that some students shine and some don’t. Some build skills in some areas, some don’t. Some become teacher’s pets, some never gain that trust.

Arjuna was Dronacharya’s pet student – a fact that was evident to everyone, most of all to Drona himself and his son Ashwatthama too, apart from the Pandavas and Kauravas. A lot of that can be attributed to repeated instances of Arjuna passing, with flying colors, several tests that Drona subjected everyone to. Prominent among these tests was the alligator test when Drona pretended to be unable to free himself from an alligator and asked his students to rescue him. While everyone attempted to rescue Drona, there are no prizes for guessing who beat everyone to it by shooting arrows at the alligator. In another instance, Drona asked everyone to fetch him a pail of water and gave everyone vessels smaller than Ashwatthama, wanting his son to come first. Even in that case, with the help of divine weapons learnt from Drona himself, Arjuna fetched the water first on the spot. The best known instance is the one in which Drona asked all his students to shoot at a bird on a tree, and before they took a shot asked each of them what they saw. Again it was only Arjuna who gave him the answer he expected by saying that all he could see was the eye of the bird and nothing else – a story often told to students as an example of extreme concentration on the task at hand.

Dronacharya’s school, while being the training ground for all the princes, also ended up being the location where the first signs of growing animosity between the Pandavas and Kauravas were seen. One might wonder whether, for an excellent teacher like Drona, wasn’t this visible and couldn’t he have nipped it in the bud? Was he guilty, to however small an extent, of taking sides and sowing the seeds of competition and widening the chasm between the cousins? Like Drona is credited with creating a ward like Arjuna, wasn’t he responsible for the wayward Duryodhana?

These aren’t easy questions to answer but there is no doubt that teachers have some, but not entire, claim to their ward’s successes and failures. Many factors influence those, including what they were exposed to but most of all the ward’s own makeup, like those of Arjuna, Bhima, Yudhishthira and Duryodhana. Hence, to that extent, Drona’s role had its limitations, and centred around imparting skills equally without partiality, and hoping for the best outcome. Due to his consistent ability to do so, and not just for creating champions like Arjuna, Dronacharya was known as the best teacher of those times. It was a different matter that along with the virtuous Pandavas led by Yudhishthira, his wards also included the envious Kauravas, exemplified by Duryodhana. This battle of virtue and envy started from school and continued till the end of Dronacharya’s life.

The zenith of fulfillment for Dronacharya, like teachers even today, was when the students he had painstakingly trained over years were ready to graduate. Dhritarashtra acceded to Drona’s request of having a grand graduation day where all the Pandavas and Kauravas could display their skills and wow audiences with it. Citizens of Hastinapur were invited for this event hosted on a newly constructed stadium. Drona played host to the proceedings and asked his wards to demonstrate their skills as per their strengths. Yudhishthira with his spear, Bhima and Duryodhana with their maces, Arjuna with his bow and arrow were the star attractions, among many others. Things often took an ugly turn where some events became more than just friendly competition, especially with Bhima and Duryodhana with maces in hand. The audience was enthralled with the skills of Hastinapur’s princes and felt their future was in safe hands.

Little did they know, though, that the seeds of discord had already taken root and what appeared to be a harmless display of skills was also a measure of strength in their craft for serious fights and even wars in the future. This was exacerbated by an unexpected entry, or should it be called, gate crash in the event.

Towards the end of the event, a warrior entered the stadium uninvited, and requested that he be allowed to demonstrate his skills too. Technically, this was an event for the graduates of Dronacharya’s school, but the teacher was gracious enough to let him in and acceded to his request. From the first few minutes, it was clear that this gate crasher had a special talent. He then specifically asked that he be allowed to compete with Arjuna. But the other teacher Kripacharya intervened this time, and asked the ward to introduce himself, saying that competition happens between equals. That is when the visitor’s head hung in shame as he wasn’t a royal prince (so he thought then). He introduced himself as Karna, the son of Adirath, a charioteer, and given the rules that were in place, he was disallowed.

One might think things would pass from here, but the astute politician that Duryodhana was, felt otherwise. His eyes and ears were alert, and sensed an opportunity. In all his years of training, he knew that if the Pandavas turned out to be a threat to his succeeding his father to the throne of Hastinapur, he had a remedy to deal with everyone, except Arjuna. And in Karna, he saw that remedy. He wanted to get Karna on his side by any means. And politicians since time immemorial have used caste as a tool to serve their needs.

With that in mind, he challenged Kripacharya. Why should birth supercede merit, he asked? He was initially told that rules are rules, and why should they be bent for some arbitrary gate crasher? When a shrewd politician is asked a question, he asks another provocative question to divert attention. It worked well for Duryodhana. He then went to the extent of bringing up the unknown birth precedents of Drona, and also raising a question mark over the strange, unexplained forest births of the Pandavas themselves.

While one may feel that merit has its place and Karna had merit, then why shouldn’t he be allowed to compete? Well, one mustn’t forget that he gate crashed in the first place. Secondly, Duryodhana wasn’t championing Karna’s cause purely due to his merit. He wanted Karna on his side to meet his ends, and this was the shrewd politician’s way.

Even if he has merit, and if we neglect his birth, he is still not a prince, thundered Bhima. He is a charioteer and let him stay in his place, he declared with arrogant disdain. That was all that Duryodhana needed to display exemplary chivalry and seal Karna’s loyalty for life. Well, he may not be a prince, but can’t you see from his skills, his looks and his demeanour, that he can’t be but a prince? Can’t you see his armour and earrings? Duryodhana publicly questioned everyone. He was playing to the gallery and knew that he had achieved two birds in one stone. I am convinced but for your sake, let me make him the king of Anga right away, he said. On the spot, to Karna’s surprise and delight, Duryodhana got some priests to coronate him as the King of Anga.

There were no loose ends left. Karna had merit and now he was a king. He could now compete with Dronacharya’s boys and especially his blue eyed boy, Arjuna. But call it fate or the hand of God, the sunset happened then, and it marked the end of the day’s proceedings, and the duel didn’t happen for now. But Karna thanked Duryodhana profusely for fighting for his rights, and bestowing him with a kingdom. With gratitude, Karna asked Duryodhana what he can do for him. And like a shrewd politician, Duryodhana replied that all he wanted was his friendship. The seed had been sown, the sapling had been planted. He knew that the time for plucking the fruits would come, but it wasn’t now.

On the graduation day of Dronacharya’s wards, the Pandavas and Kauravas, the seeds of discord were out in the open. And an apparent outsider Karna was used as a tool in that festering discord. All that the teacher could do was to see his students fight. It was a battle between virtue and envy that wouldn’t end so soon.

***

On Love

Swami Vivekananda on Love:

Love unselfishly for love’s sake.

Love, truth, and unselfishness are not merely moral figures of speech, but they form our highest ideal, because in them lies such a manifestation of power.

Every act of love brings happiness; there is no act of love which does not bring peace and blessedness as its reaction.

Duty is seldom sweet. It is only when love greases its wheels that it runs smoothly; it is a continuous friction otherwise.

Duty is sweet only through love, and love shines in freedom alone.

It is always the heart that speaks in the man of love; it discovers a greater instrument than intellect can give you, the instrument of inspiration.

So long as there is any fear in the heart, how can there be love also? Love conquers naturally all fear.

Love and do good to everybody, but do not become a slave.

Love knows no reward. Love is always for love’s sake.

None, O beloved, loves the husband for the husband’s sake, but it is for the sake of the Self who is in the husband that the husband is loved; none, O beloved, loves the wife for the wife’s sake, but it is for the sake of the Self who is in the wife that the wife is loved.

When a woman loves her husband, she does not understand that it is the divine in her husband that is the great attractive power.

Wherever there is love, wherever there is a spark of joy, know that to be a spark of His presence because He is joy, blessedness, and love itself.

The highest, most expressive, strongest, and most attractive human love is that between man and woman, and, therefore, that language was used in expressing the deepest devotion.

Love cannot come through fear, its basis is freedom.

The first test of love is that it knows no bargaining. Love is always the giver, and never the taker.

The second test is that love knows no fear.

Every time we particularise an object, we differentiate it from the Self. I am trying to love a woman; as soon as that woman is particularised, she is separated from the Atman, and my love for her will not be eternal, but will end in grief. But as soon as I see that woman as the Atman, that love becomes perfect, and will never suffer.

***

The Long Tail

I had been told to get on Facebook when I started writing. I did. I used to have an author page where I kept posting blog posts regularly at one time.

Then I was told to publish them on LinkedIn. I had never bought a book, especially fiction, after reading about it on LinkedIn. Or Facebook for that matter. But I still posted on LinkedIn.

Then they told me to get on Instagram. That lasted for less than a few months. I had more messages from book reviewers wanting to get paid for promoting my book than actual book readers. Even for an anti-social media person like me, lasting for a few months on Instagram was a surprise.

Then someone said try Substack. I didn’t venture down that path.

Then e-book platforms. Amazon Kindle was a no-brainer everyone said if you want to sell books. But then why tie yourself up to just one monopolistic player? What if they change their policies and the way they pay authors? (which they did over the years, by the way, and wasn’t bad logic for an author who writes books for a living)

So I got on to Apple Books, Google Play Store, Kobo, and dozen others. There was an aggregator who did it for me.

Why am I telling you all this? And why is this post called the Long Tail?

The reason is this. I realized after doing all these experiments over a few years that none of them actually work. Not for anyone. They work for a very small percentage of people. They are the ones who are at the top 1 or 2 or 5 percent of whatever they do. Whether it is writing books, publishing posts or making music or anything else in this new, digital world. They are the short head.

For the remaining 95-99% of the people who get on to these open platforms that claim to democratize their area (which they do, to a certain extent), it simply doesn’t work. Definitely not in the proportion to the efforts involved. They are the long tail.

I am in the long tail, and so is almost everyone else you and I know. Statistically, it is impossible to plan to be in the short head. Anyone who creates anything for these open systems is statistically likely to end up in the long tail.

If that is the reality, then what should I do? I thought about it when I realized this a few years back. What are the options?

Not many. But if you have the patience, one thing is clear. Don’t shift from platform to platform. Just stick to one – any one. It won’t really matter. You can go by whatever logic makes sense to you or you can toss the coin. It is best if you own the platform. Like this website or anything where you can reach readers directly. And own all your assets. Be consistent in whatever you produce.

Think hard for yourself why you write. Or produce whatever you do. Stick to that reason. Do it for the freedom it offers without depending on middlemen (or aggregator platforms!). Perfect the craft. Produce good work, consistently. At least produce what you think is good. And hope that your work gets noticed by others.

It will, if you aren’t too keen to be in the short head, and if you are not too gullible to end up in the long tail. Every artist or creator can find his own small audience for his body of work.

***

The Science of Mind Management

Here are some excerpts from the book ‘The Science of Mind Management’ by Swami Mukundananda:

Why do we seek happiness? We souls are little drops of the ocean of infinite happiness, and hence, our natural propensity is to seek bliss. Until we get infinite happiness of God, we will not be content.

The urge for happiness is as natural to the soul as thirst is to the physical body. It is impossible to think, ‘I will not contemplate happiness anywhere.’ The simple solution then is to envision happiness in beneficial things. Cultivate virtuous desires, such as the desire for inner growth, austerity, service and sacrifice.

If we repeatedly think that happiness is in becoming wise, we will become attached to good knowledge. If we contemplate happiness in good health, we will become devoted to it.

The intellect makes decisions and the mind generates desires. For example, if the intellect decides that happiness is in ice cream, the mind hankers for it.

In other words, the intellect makes the decisions and the mind engages in Sankalp (hankering) and vikalp (aversion). Between them, the intellect’s position is of paramount importance.

Illumine your intellect with divine knowledge, then with the illumined intellect, control the unruly mind. The battle is on between the mind’s cravings and the intellect’s knowledge.

The ability of the intellect to control the mind is called Vivek (power of discernment)

The science of mind management requires us to empower the intellect with right knowledge from the scriptures and then use that illumined intellect to properly govern the mind.

The intellect is like the chariot driver, the mind the reins, and the senses are akin to horses. The intellect needs to be enriched with proper knowledge. The empowered intellect must then use the mind to rein in the senses.

Whenever we come across a gem of knowledge, whether in this book or elsewhere, we should note it down for permanency in our spiritual diary. Then we should contemplate on it deeply and repeatedly. Even one piece of knowledge, if sufficiently reflected upon, has the power to transform us eternally.

Beliefs decide our attitude towards people, objects and situations.

Beliefs forge our worldview itself. They are the lens through which we understand and perceive the world.

This completes the three-fold process to empower the intellect with divine knowledge. First, we do Shravan (hear or read the knowledge), then Manan (contemplate upon it) and then Nididhyasan (develop faith upon it, internalise it, and use it as one’s moral compass).

The tension and anxiety in our emotional being as we adjust to our continually changing environment is what we call stress. Stress develops when we are attached to a particular outcome and worried that things may not turn out as we desire.

Stress is caused by our own attachment to a particular outcome and our unwillingness to accept other possible results.

The remedy for stress is simple – give up attachment to preconceived or wishful outcomes of our efforts. Put in your best efforts without attachment to the results.

Focusing on results alone leads to a good deal of our life being experienced as drudgery, something to be endured until we achieve the summit, our goal.

When we believe that happiness can only be experienced in the future, on reaching the goal, we miss out on enjoying the journey towards it, which is in the present.

***

First Lines

50 isn’t very different from 49, I discovered the day after my 50th birthday.

Did the above line catch your attention? I just wrote it as an experiment.

When I started writing, a lot of courses told me that the first line of a story is very important. So, I cultivated this habit of noting or writing lines that sound interesting. And like so many other things, I started collecting them. I have used a few of them in my stories. But when I actually wrote them, there were no stories, only lines. So maybe some of them will appear in stories in the future.

Here are some of them that are in my collection. (Well, if you plan to write something, feel free to use them!)

The face in the mirror did not seem to be his own.

She could have been anything – a lawyer, a doctor, an accountant. But she chose to be herself.

The place was on the edge of the world where time seemed to stop and she couldn’t decide whether to jump or not.

I wish I could tell you that she survived.

49 years old and I have never been sloshed.

The wooden cabinet tilted precariously over the infant sleeping on the floor.

She knew one flashlight meant danger, two meant safety, but the guide didn’t say what three flashlights meant.

He was willing to be a winner, and that meant he was willing to cheat.

***

Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda – Notes 5

My notes excerpted from the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda – Notes 5

(Notes are in the order in which they appear from Volume 1 to 9)

Any work, any action, any thought that produces an effect is called a Karma. Thus the law of Karma means the law of causation, of inevitable cause and sequence. Wheresoever there is a cause, there an effect must be produced; this necessity cannot be resisted, and this law of Karma, according to our philosophy, is true throughout the whole universe.

The question has been raised as to from whom this universe comes, in whom it rests, and to whom it goes; and the answer has been given that from freedom it comes, in bondage it rests, and goes back into that freedom again.

“Work incessantly, but give up all attachment to work.” Do not identify yourself with anything. Hold your mind free. All this that you see, the pains and the miseries,

“Misery comes through attachment, not through work.” As soon as we identify ourselves with the work we do, we feel miserable; but if we do not identify ourselves with it, we do not feel that misery.

With the sense of possession comes selfishness, and selfishness brings on misery. Every act of selfishness or thought of selfishness makes us attached to something, and immediately we are made slaves.

So Karma-Yoga says, first destroy the tendency to project this tentacle of selfishness, and when you have the power of checking it, hold it in and do not allow the mind to get into the ways of selfishness. Then you may go out into the world and work as much as you can.

Non-attachment is the basis of all the Yogas.

Non-attachment does not mean anything that we may do in relation to our external body, it is all in the mind.

Here are the two ways of giving up all attachment. The one is for those who do not believe in God, or in any outside help. They are left to their own devices; they have simply to work with their own will, with the powers of their mind and discrimination, saying, “I must be non-attached”. For those who believe in God there is another way, which is much less difficult. They give up the fruits of work unto the Lord; they work and are never attached to the results.

Day and night let us renounce our seeming self until it becomes a habit with us to do so, until it gets into the blood, the nerves, and the brain, and the whole body is every moment obedient to this idea of self-renunciation. Go then into the midst of the battlefield, with the roaring cannon and the din of war, and you will find yourself to be free and at peace.

The only true duty is to be unattached and to work as free beings, to give up all work unto God.

Be at rest, be free, and work. This kind of freedom is a very hard thing to attain.

Whatever you have to give to the world, do give by all means, but not as a duty. Do not take any thought of that. Be not compelled. Why should you be compelled? Everything that you do under compulsion goes to build up attachment.

Seek no praise, no reward, for anything you do. No sooner do we perform a good action than we begin to desire credit for it.

The highest men do not seek to get any name or fame from their knowledge.

When our nature has yet some impurities left in it, then alone can we work. It is in the nature of work to be impelled ordinarily by motive and by attachment.

The highest men cannot work, for in them there is no attachment. Those whose whole soul is gone into the Self, those whose desires are confined in the Self, who have become ever associated with the Self, for them there is no work. Such are indeed the highest of mankind; but apart from them every one else has to work. In so working we should never think that we can help on even the least thing in this universe. We cannot. We only help ourselves in this gymnasium of the world. This is the proper attitude of work.

If we work in this way, if we always remember that our present opportunity to work thus is a privilege which has been given to us, we shall never be attached to anything.

Give up all fruits of work; do good for its own sake; then alone will come perfect non-attachment. The bonds of the heart will thus break, and we shall reap perfect freedom. This freedom is indeed the goal of Karma-Yoga.

The grandest idea in the religion of the Vedanta is that we may reach the same goal by different paths; and these paths I have generalised into four, viz those of work, love, psychology, and knowledge. But you must, at the same time, remember that these divisions are not very marked and quite exclusive of each other. Each blends into the other. But according to the type which prevails, we name the divisions.

All religions and all methods of work and worship lead us to one and the same goal. I have already tried to point out that goal. It is freedom as I understand it.

There is to be found in every religion the manifestation of this struggle towards freedom. It is the groundwork of all morality, of unselfishness, which means getting rid of the idea that men are the same as their little body.

Karma-Yoga is the attaining through unselfish work of that freedom which is the goal of all human nature. Every selfish action, therefore, retards our reaching the goal, and every unselfish action takes us towards the goal; that is why the only definition that can be given of morality is this: That which is selfish is immoral, and that which is unselfish is moral.

Karma-Yoga, therefore, is a system of ethics and religion intended to attain freedom through unselfishness, and by good works. The Karma-Yogi need not believe in any doctrine whatever. He may not believe even in God, may not ask what his soul is, nor think of any metaphysical speculation. He has got his own special aim of realising selflessness; and he has to work it out himself. Every moment of his life must be realisation, because he has to solve by mere work, without the help of doctrine or theory, the very same problem to which the Jnâni applies his reason and inspiration and the Bhakta his love.

***

 

The Guide: Short Story

“Liberation is what we call it, Sir. They had the cheek to called it invasion!” Manoj Kumar, the guide said.

He broke into his characteristic loud guffaw that reverberated in the empty surroundings. I watched him shake his head in disbelief as if he had lived the history.

“A small request for help turned out to be such a big mistake. It took more than 400 years after that to drive them out of here,” Manoj continued. He watched the Arabian Sea as if in nostalgia and regret.

Nikhil and I were in Diu fort. It was an impressive fort in the small town steeped in Portuguese history on the western tip of India. Our guide Manoj was a dishevelled man, in his late fifties, with a weeklong stubble and a wrinkled shirt. He dragged his slippers around the monument with us. With a carefree laughter and happy-go-lucky demeanour, he made the history come alive.

“You mean, the Portuguese ruled Diu for 400 years?” I asked.

“Yes, Sir.. five or six generations of them, over a 100 governors and viceroys. More years than the Mughals or the British ruled India. This Nuno was a very dangerous man,” Manoj Kumar explained.

“Nuno?” Nikhil asked.

“Nuno Da Cunha. He was in charge of Portuguese territory in India then.. In 1535,” Manoj said, with a reminiscent look in his eyes. He looked like he had a clear vision of that year from a past life.

Nikhil and I waited for him to continue.

“Nuno had attacked Diu twice before…umm.. in 1531, he tried.. Before him also, they had attacked.. and failed. You know, they wanted this port for their spice trade,” he explained.

“Hmm.. But then what happened in 1535?” I asked.

“1535.. Yes, It was a bad year for Diu,” Manoj said, shaking his head. “See, Sir – what happened was that.. Humayun – you must have heard of him?” he said, twisting his neck from the fort towards us.

“The Mughal Emperor?” Nikhil asked.

“Yes, Sir.. See – he decided to attack Diu.. and our Sultan.. Bahadur Shah..”

“Bahadur Shah..?”

“Yes. Sir.. not the Mughal.. he was a local king. Sultan Bahadur Shah. He panicked. After all, Diu is so small. Only 50 or 100 square kilometre at that time.. I don’t blame him for it..”

Manoj sounded like a historian in guide garb.

“Anyone would have panicked..” Nikhil added, spicing things up a bit.

“Yes. Sir.. But he made the mistake of asking Nuno for help,” Manoj said. He referred to the Portuguese general like an old enemy of his family. “And Nuno screwed him.. very badly.. money and power drives the world crazy, isn’t it? Today.. and Even at that time.. what else to expect? Humayun on one side, Nuno on the other.. our Sultan signed Diu up.. only to save us.. his own people of Diu,” Manoj explained.

I sensed a touch of melancholy in his voice.

“I see.. what did he sign up for?” I asked this time.

“Sir.. I don’t know if he even read what he was signing!” Manoj Kumar broke out into his loud laugh out of the blue. “He let them build a fort for their trade and save Diu in return.. But over time, this Nuno and his people…,” Manoj came back to his bête noire again. “..they made the fort so strong.. that when Sultan realised their intentions, it was too late. He attacked them to reclaim Diu, and they killed him too….” Manoj said.

He enacted a dreary silence that made us feel the treachery and the pain in his heart. For a moment, Nikhil and I wondered if we should put a consoling hand on his shoulder. But after the brief silence, he restarted his act.

“And then.. then they ruled this place for 400 years.. and they didn’t leave even after 1947! Can you believe it? Even after 1947! What cheek!” Manoj Kumar said, again breaking into another big laugh. He switched between silent pain and garrulous laughter with ease. He was as good as a seasoned actor in a three-act play.

“Really? They didn’t leave in 1947?” both Nikhil and I asked in unison.

“Yes, Sir.. India had to send their army and air force.. some ten years or.. umm.. was it thirteen years.. after independence..,“ he said, with a questioning eye staring into blank space. The guide who remembered 1535 like it was yesterday forgot the year of Diu’s annexation to India.

“And you know what?” Manoj said with a twitching eye and a tough face, now swelling in pride.

“What?” I asked.

“In two days.. only two days,” he said, with two fingers on his right hand raised above. “In two days, our defence forces drove them out.. Finally after 400 years, we avenged Nuno’s betrayal, and Diu became part of India,” he said. He walked in front of us with a sudden spring in his step.

With history lessons over, he then went on to explain the various artefacts in the fort.

We walked with him past the cannons, the mortars, the moat, and the bastions. We passed them as if they were not remains from the past but witnesses of history. He acted out how the soldiers loaded the guns on the bastions. He made a big sound to show how the cannons blasted off shells. He explained how the fort saw off many attacks in the 1600s, including a very close one from the Turks.

It was a pleasure to see a guide who brought history alive. In a place like Diu, not on the tourist map, it was a surprise. For a man who hadn’t seen tourists for a long time, it was amazing. And for someone old and in penury, it was astonishing.

He stopped at important points and ordered us to click photographs as if it was our duty. He clicked our photos by telling us where to pose and how.

When he came closer to show me the photos on the phone, I stepped back a bit. He reeked of alcohol. His teeth had brown stains. Up close, his crumpled cheeks made him look older than he was.

While walking on the steep horseways, he acted like a soldier with tick tock of the animals’ foot. We reached the topmost point of the fort which had lighthouse which was still intact. He told us how ships looked for it from sea for direction. He snapped pictures of us, in the fading sunlight, with the fort and the sea in the background from the top.

When we climbed down, he showed us some old prisons that India had built in the fort. “Sir, but due to pandemic, they moved the prisoners to other jails in India,” he said, and we nodded.

On the way back, he took a turn before the gate. He took us to the small jetty from where the expanse of the Arabian Sea and the setting sun made beautiful viewing.

After we finished clicking a few more snaps, I asked Manoj, “What else do we do here now?”

He listed out some temples and some beaches but said there is nothing as significant as the fort. For a moment, I wondered if we should take him along as a guide but decided against it.

“So, how long was the fort closed for tourists due to the pandemic?” I asked him as we walked outside the gate and towards the parking lot.

“More than one year, Sir..,” he replied. He grinned without reason.

“So what did you do then?” I enquired.

“Nothing Sir.. Only enjoy!!” he said. He broke into a booming laugh again. “Eat, sleep, be merry. What else?”

His laugh surprised me. I looked at Nikhil. It confounded him too. We expected a sober, even a miserable reaction from him. With no income, we expected him to complain about the situation. Nothing like that happened.

“How long have you been here?” Nikhil asked him.

“Thirty years, Sir.. At Diu fort,” he said. “Ten years ago, they posted me at the churches. But I told my boss that I love the fort, it is best for me and came back in three years,” he said. He broke into a loud laugh again for no obvious reason.

We asked him to take a couple of pictures for us with the fort in the background. When he came closer to show us the snaps, again I sensed the smell of alcohol. Nikhil stole a glance at me. At first, we had decided to tip him well, due to his dramatic narration. No doubt he made our hour worthwhile. But we thought it might be best to avoid it. He would splurge it anyway on drink, we felt.

“How much are your charges?” I asked him, before getting ready to leave.

“319 Rupees,” he said. The odd number surprised me. But before a frown settled on my forehead, Manoj Kumar got a card out of his pocket. It had his ID and a list of numbers.

“Rates fixed by the government, Sir,” he said, and showed us the card.

When I handed him a crisp 500 rupees note, he said he didn’t have change.

“No tourists Sir. You are the first after one year,” he said with another laugh.

Nikhil and I checked our wallets for change but didn’t find any.

“Sir, you can transfer to this number.. 7509..43..54..21,” he said.

I asked him to repeat it and completed the transfer. At the last moment, I added another fifty to his 319 rupees.

“Check if you got it,” I told him.

“I don’t have the phone, Sir. I will check when I go home,” he said, with his uncanny smile again.

“Why? What’s the point of not carrying your phone?” I asked him, teasing him for what I thought was his drunken forgetfulness.

“Sir, I sold my phone off, because of pandemic.. Now I got one at home – which I gave to my son, so he can attend college.. Everything online, nowadays,” he said. I stayed silent but he broke out into his loud belly laugh again.

“But don’t worry, Sir.. I will call you in the evening, and confirm,” he added.

I stopped short in my step while walking to the car. Nikhil opened the door and got in to the driver’s seat.

“Do you live nearby?” he asked. “We can drop you if you want.”

“Sir, I used to.. but it got washed away after the cyclone this year.. umm.. government gave a makeshift place a bit away.., what to do?” he said, pointing in the direction behind us. “Don’t worry Sir, everything is close by in Diu. I will walk,” the old man said. Then he  cackled aloud again.

Nikhil didn’t pursue him any further. He sat in the car with a heavy heart. I put on maps for directions to our beach hotel without a word.

In the rear-view mirror, I saw the guide remove a bottle from his pocket. He turned back in the direction of the fort taking a few tottering steps.

***