Ranjit Kulkarni's Blog, page 16

The Religion of Vedanta

My notes from ‘Vedanta: Voice of Freedom” – a selected compilation from the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda.

“The Religion of Vedanta” – Chapter Highlights reproduced below:

***

Even if a book were given by God that contained all the truth about religion, it would not serve the purpose, because nobody could understand the book. Take the Bible, for instance, and all the sects that exist among the Christians. Each one puts its own interpretation upon the same text, and each says that it alone understands that text and all the rest are wrong. So with every religion. There are many sects among the Mohammedans and among the Buddhists, and hundreds among the Hindus.

Now, I bring these facts before you in order to show you that any attempt to bring all humanity to one method of thinking in spiritual things has been a failure and always will be a failure. You cannot make all conform to the same ideas. That is a fact, and I thank God that it is so.

Religion is a question of fact, not of talk. We have to analyze our own souls and find what is there. We have to understand it and realize what is understood. That is religion.

This turmoil and fight and difference in religions will cease only when we understand that religion is not in books and temples. It is in actual perception.

We often consider a man religious who can talk well. But this is not religion. “Wonderful methods of joining words, rhetorical powers, and explaining the texts of the books in various ways— these are only for the enjoyment of the learned, and are not religion.” Religion comes when that actual realization in our own souls begins.

We find that in almost every religion these are the three primary things which we have in the worship of God: forms or symbols, names, and God— men. All religions have these, but you find that they want to fight with each other. One says: “My name is the only name, my form is the only form, and my God— men are the only God— men in the world. Yours are simply myths.” These are the external forms of devotion through which man has to pass.

Religion is not in doctrines, in dogmas, nor in intellectual argumentation. It is being and becoming. It is realization.

Sense happiness is not the goal of humanity. Wisdom (jnana) is the goal of all life. We find that man enjoys his intellect more than an animal enjoys its senses. And we see that man enjoys his spiritual nature even more than his rational nature. So the highest wisdom must be this spiritual knowledge. With this knowledge will come bliss. All the things of this world are but shadows, the manifestations in the third or fourth degree, of the real Knowledge and Bliss.

If you want to be religious, enter not the gate of any organized religions. They do a hundred times more evil than good, because they stop the growth of each one’s individual development. Study everything, but keep your own seat firm. If you take my advice, do not put your neck into the trap. The moment they try to put their noose on you, get your neck out and go somewhere else. [As] the bee culling honey from many flowers remains free, not bound by any flower, be not bound…. Enter not the door of any organized religion. [Religion] is only between you and your God, and no third person must come between you.

If you and I organize, we begin to hate every person. It is better not to love, if loving only means hating others. That is not love.

Let us be no more the worshippers of creeds or sects with small, limited notions of God, but see Him in everything in the universe.

If you are knowers of God, you will everywhere find the same worship as in your own heart.

Get rid, in the first place, of all these limited ideas and see God in every person— working through all hands, walking through all feet, and eating through every mouth.

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!

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

You and I are both outlets of the same channel, and that is God; as such, your nature is God, and so is mine. You are of the nature of God by your birthright; so am I.

The sum total of this whole universe is God Himself. Is God then matter? No, certainly not, for matter is that God perceived by the five senses. That God, as perceived through the intellect, is mind; and when the Spirit sees, He is seen as Spirit. He is not matter, but whatever is real in matter is He.

So the Hindus say that this Atman is absolute and all— pervading, and therefore infinite. There cannot be two infinites, for they would limit each other and would become finite. Also, each individual soul is a part and parcel of that universal Soul, which is infinite. Therefore in injuring his neighbor, the individual actually injures himself. This is the basic metaphysical truth underlying all ethical codes.

“He who looks upon the learned brahmin, upon the cow, the elephant, the dog, or the outcast with the same eye, he indeed is the sage and the wise man. Even in this life he has conquered relative existence whose mind is firmly fixed on this sameness; for the Lord is one and the same to all, and the Lord is pure. Therefore, those who have this sameness for all and are pure are said to be living in God.” 2 This is the gist of Vedantic morality— this sameness for all.

The sign of approaching that freedom is more and more of this sameness and equality. In misery and happiness the same, in success and defeat the same— such a mind is nearing that state of freedom.

What is your life? The same struggle for freedom. Nature is trying all around to suppress us, and the soul wants to express itself. The struggle with nature is going on. Nature says, “I will conquer.” The soul says, “I must be the conqueror.” Nature says, “Wait! I will give you a little enjoyment to keep you quiet.” The soul enjoys a little, becomes deluded a moment, but the next moment it [cries for freedom again].

What is practical religion, then? To get to that state— freedom— the attainment of freedom. And this world, if it helps us on to that goal, [is] all right. If not— if it begins to bind one more layer on the thousands already there— it becomes an evil. Possessions, learning, beauty, everything else— as long as they help us to that goal, they are of practical value. When they have ceased helping us on to that goal of freedom, they are a positive danger. What is practical religion, then? Utilize the things of this world and the next just for one goal— the attainment of freedom.

You may talk, you may struggle, you may try to do many things, but renunciation comes by itself when you have got the higher. Then the lesser falls away by itself.

I am the Spirit— the soul no instrument can pierce, no sword can cut asunder, no fire can burn, no air can dry. Unborn and uncreated, without beginning and without end, deathless, birthless, and omnipresent— that is what I am. And all misery comes just because I think this little lump of clay is myself. I am identifying myself with matter and taking all the consequences.

Practical religion is identifying myself with my Self. Stop this wrong identification!

The kingdom of heaven is within us. He is there. He is the Soul of all souls. See Him in your own soul. That is practical religion. That is freedom. Let us ask each other how much we are advanced in that— how much we are worshippers of the body, or real believers in God, the Spirit; how much we believe ourselves to be Spirit. That is selflessness. That is freedom. That is real worship. Realize yourself. That is all there is to do. Know yourself as you are— infinite Spirit. That is practical religion.

My brethren, we can no more think about anything without a mental image than we can live without breathing. By the law of association, the material image calls up the mental idea and vice versa. This is why the Hindu uses an external symbol when he worships. He will tell you that it helps to keep his mind fixed on the Being to whom he prays. He knows as well as you do that the image is not God, is not omnipresent.

“External worship, material worship,” say the Hindu scriptures, “is the lowest stage; struggling to rise high, mental prayer, is the next stage; but the highest stage is when the Lord has been realized.”

If a man can realize his divine nature with the help of an image, would it be right to call that a sin? Or, even when he has passed that stage, should he call it an error? To the Hindu, man is not traveling from error to truth, but from truth to truth— from lower to higher truth.

The Hindus have discovered that the Absolute can only be realized, or thought of, or stated, through the relative, and the images, crosses, and crescents are simply so many symbols— so many pegs to hang the spiritual ideas on. It is not that this help is necessary for everyone, but those who do not need it have no right to say that it is wrong. Nor is it compulsory in Hinduism.

***

The Law of Love

Excerpts from ‘7 Divine Laws To Awaken Your Best Self’ by Swami Mukundananda

The Law of Love – Our hearts can only be satisfied by true love, which is a deep and noble affection for the others’ happiness, without seeking personal benefit in return.

Where there is ample reason for love to be devastated, and yet it continues unabated, that is true love.

When we look to serve, we do not get heartbroken on seeing others’ weaknesses. Instead, we see it as our duty to help them overcome their frailties.

Spiritual wisdom teaches us that just like the hand is a part of the body and serves it faithfully, as tiny fragments of the Lord, it is our inherent nature to serve Him.

If we can perfect our service attitude towards God, we will then look to serve in everything we do. Even in all our relational dealing with others, we will behave in a manner that will please our Beloved Lord.

What may seem to be devotion to God is, in fact, devotion to the world because we approach God for the fulfilment of our worldly desires.

We need faith that in giving to God, we will never lose.

On asking, you get nothing. Without asking, you get priceless gems.

***

The Philosophy of Vedanta

My notes from ‘Vedanta: Voice of Freedom” – a selected compilation from the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda.

“The Philosophy of Vedanta” – Chapter Highlights reproduced below:

***

To every man this is taught: Thou art one with this Universal Being, and, as such, every soul that exists is your soul, and every body that exists is your body. And in hurting anyone, you hurt yourself. In loving anyone, you love yourself.

As soon as a current of hatred is thrown outside, whomsoever else it hurts, it also hurts yourself. And if love comes out from you, it is bound to come back to you. For I am the universe. This universe is my body. I am the Infinite, only I am not conscious of it now.

Another peculiar idea of Vedanta is that we must allow this infinite variation in religious thought and not try to bring everybody to the same opinion, because the goal is the same.

The Vedantist says that a man neither is born nor dies nor goes to heaven, and that reincarnation is really a myth with regard to the soul.

Every soul is omnipresent, so where can it come or go? These births and deaths are changes in nature which we are mistaking for changes in us.

The Vedanta system begins with tremendous pessimism and ends with real optimism. We deny the optimism of the senses but assert the real optimism of the supersensuous. That real happiness is not in the senses but above the senses, and it is in every man.

Vedanta recognizes the reasoning power of man a good deal, although it says there is something higher than intellect. But the road lies through intellect.

Vedanta teaches that nirvana can be attained here and now, that we do not have to wait for death to reach it. Nirvana is the realization of the Self.

The real individuality is that which never changes and will never change, and that is the God within us.

There are three principal variations among the Vedantists. But on one point they all agree, and that is that they all believe in God.

The first school I will tell you about is styled the dualistic school. The dualists believe that God, who is the creator of the universe and its ruler, is eternally separate from nature, eternally separate from the human soul. God is eternal, nature is eternal, and so are all souls. Nature and the souls become manifest and change, but God remains the same.

According to the dualists, again, this God is personal in that He has qualities— not that He has a body. He has human attributes. He is merciful, He is just, He is powerful, He is almighty, He can be approached, He can be prayed to, He can be loved, He loves in return, and so forth.

In one word, He is a human God, only infinitely greater than man.

The real Vedanta philosophy begins with those known as the qualified nondualists. They make the statement that the effect is never different from the cause; the effect is but the cause reproduced in another form. If the universe is the effect and God the cause, it must be God Himself— it cannot be anything but that. They start with the assertion that God is both the efficient and the material cause of the universe— that He Himself is the creator, and He Himself is the material out of which the whole of nature is projected. Now, the whole universe, according to this sect, is God Himself.

They say that these three existences— God, nature, and the soul— are one. God is, as it were, the Soul, and nature and souls are the body of God. Just as I have a body and I have a soul, so the whole universe and all souls are the body of God, and God is the Soul of all souls.

Now we come to Advaita, the last of the Vedanta schools, and, as we think, the fairest flower of philosophy and religion that any country in any age has produced, where human thought attains its highest expression and even goes beyond the mystery which seems to be impenetrable. This is the nondualistic Vedanta. It is too abstruse, too elevated, to be the religion of the masses.

What does the Advaitist declare? He says: If there is a God, that God must be both the material and the efficient cause of the universe. Not only is He the creator, but He is also the created. He Himself is this universe.

How can that be? God, the pure, the Spirit, has become the universe? Yes— apparently so. That which all ignorant people see as the universe does not really exist. What are you and I and all these things we see? Mere self— hypnotism. There is but one Existence, the Infinite, the Ever— blessed One. In that Existence we dream all these various dreams. It is the Atman, beyond all, the Infinite, beyond the known, beyond the knowable. In and through That we see the universe. It is the only reality.

What does the Advaitist preach? He dethrones all the gods that ever existed or ever will exist in the universe, and places on that throne the Self of man, the Atman, higher than the sun and the moon, higher than the heavens, greater than this great universe itself.

“I worship my Self,” says the Advaitist. “To whom shall I bow down? I salute my Self. To whom shall I go for help? Who can help me, the Infinite Being of the universe?”

The Advaitist or the qualified Advaitist does not say that dualism is wrong; it is a right view, but a lower one. It is on the way to truth; therefore let everybody work out his own vision of this universe according to his own ideas. Injure none, deny the position of none. Take a man where he stands and, if you can, lend him a helping hand and put him on a higher platform, but do not injure and do not destroy. All will come to truth in the long run.

Wonderful is the idea of the Personal God apart from nature, whom we worship and love. Sometimes this idea is very soothing. But, says Vedanta, that feeling is something like the effect that comes from an opiate. It is not natural. It brings weakness in the long run, and what this world wants today more than it ever did before is strength.

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

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. No book ever created God, but God inspired all the great books. And no book ever created a soul. We must never forget that. The end of all religions is the realization of God in the soul. That is the one universal religion.

He who only studies books for religion reminds one of the fable of the ass that carried a heavy load of sugar on its back, but did not know the sweetness of it.

***

Bheeshma: Not Just a Warrior but a Devotee

At the Rajasooya Yagna of Yudhishthira, there was a ritual to provide arghya to start the sacrifice. What that meant was that someone deserving had to be chosen, whose feet the king would wash, among other things, as a mark of obeisance and respect. Bheeshma along with Sahadeva suggested that Krishna be that person, as there was no one more deserving of that kind of glorification. The grandsire was more than just overjoyed with that prospect. In heralding this choice, he showed his devotee side, in addition to being the grand warrior patriarch.

At that time, Sisupala, from the kingdom of Chedi, strongly objected to that, and started hurling meaningless abuses at Krishna and later at Bheeshma too.

Now this also had a backstory. It turned out that many aeons ago, when the four sanat kumaras, who were the sons of Brahma, visited Lord Vishnu, the gates were guarded by two brothers, Jaya and Vijaya. They refused entry to the four brothers, and being the divine souls that they were, they cursed the two gatekeepers. Later Vishnu, while not totally negating the curses, gave them the option of redeeming themselves by one of the two options of life on earth. The first was seven lives as friends of Vishnu, and the second was three lives as enemies of Vishnu. Jaya and Vijaya chose the second, shorter version. They were therefore first reborn as Hiranyakashipu and his brother Hiranyaaksha, slain by Narasimha; later as Ravana and Kumbhakarna, slain by Ram; and finally as Sisupala and his brother, slain by Krishna. So in a sense, Sisupala’s slaying was preordained.

But one of the major abuses that Sisupala hurled was at Bheeshma, whom he insulted by saying that his vow of celibacy had no meaning as he was impotent anyway, and a coward to admit it. Bheeshma, being the warrior, was enraged by it, and was about to challenge Sisupala to a duel. But Krishna and the others calmed him and stopped him. Eventually, when Bheeshma saw Krishna get ready with his Sudarshan Chakra and warn Sisupala that his count of one hundred misdeeds (which Krishna had agreed to forgive in a promise to Sisupala’s mother) was almost full, that is when Bheeshma, realising that the Lord had other plans, rested at ease.

This was one of the early instances where Bheeshma as a devotee came to the fore. It does seem like he knew who Krishna was and had accepted His will. For him, devotion was, as important, if not more, than his prowess as the world’s foremost warrior.

In another instance, before the war started, it was Krishna who was the final messenger of peace to try and avert war. Bheeshma tried his best to change the minds of Duryodhana and Dhritarashtra, as he was convinced that the side that has Krishna would win. He scolded Duryodhana for his mistake of choosing Narayana Sena over Narayana, and said this visit by Krishna as the peace envoy was his last chance for redemption, before the war became inevitable. But Duryodhana made plans to capture and arrest Krishna instead. He said if Krishna was the only difference between the two sides, then by arresting him, the Kauravas could ensure that the Pandavas would be diminished and beaten. Astounded by this bizarre suggestion, Bheeshma walked out of the assembly lamenting his own failure to instil some sense in Duryodhana. In this instance too, Bheeshma’s mindset of surrender to Krishna, knowing well who he was, is evident.

Before the war began, Yudhishthira walked towards Bheeshma on the battlefield to seek his blessings, and to ask him how he can be vanquished. He knew fully well that an undefeated warrior who had beaten Parashuram, who himself had defeated the Kshatriyas twenty one times, and the warrior who had the benediction of choosing his time and place of death, was impossible to beat. Bheeshma, recognising that, blessed Yudhishthira with success, without telling him how he can be vanquished. All he said was that he would follow the rules of Kshatriya war fully and the time would come when he would lay down his arms as per the wishes of Narayana. While Yudhishthira went away not fully satisfied, Bheeshma was aware of his destiny and seemed to suggest that he was prepared for it at the hands of Amba reborn as Shikhandi as orchestrated by Krishna. His priority of being a devotee came forth even at the start of the biggest war of his life.

During the course of the war, on one of the days, Duryodhana, in despair, confessed to Bheeshma that he was astounded how despite having one and a half times the army of the Pandavas, the Kauravas were finding it so tough to overcome them. Bheeshma felt it was another chance for him to change Duryodhana’s mind. He explained to him that the Arjun Krishna pair were Nar Narayan reincarnate and their mission was to exterminate evil, and therefore it was impossible for Duryodhana and his side to win. He extolled the virtues and glories of Krishna to him, so much so that, for a while, Duryodhana started wondering if Krishna was actually God and even prayed to him, thinking that if not anything else, it might help him win.

But none of that was of any avail, as the next day Duryodhana accused Bheeshma of not fighting wholeheartedly on his side. This irated the grandsire so much that he put all his powers into five arrows, and gave a vow to Duryodhana that, with those five arrows, he will kill the five pandavas on the next day of war. Duryodhana was overjoyed with this, and knowing fully well that Bheeshma kept every vow he took, he felt the war will be over the next day and he secretly rejoiced. But that night, he got a doubt that this vow of Bheeshma may leak out via spies, and, hence, he asked Bheeshma to hand over the five arrows to him for safekeeping. Bheeshma did so to satisfy Duryodhana.

But it so happened that Krishna, being the all knowing, requested Arjuna to go to Duryodhana and ask for those arrows. There is a backstory to this in which Duryodhana had an unpaid debt towards Arjuna of some kind, as part of which he couldn’t refuse Arjuna whatever he asked for, once. Krishna used this occasion to exercise the repayment of that debt. Duryodhana therefore couldn’t refuse those five arrows that Arjuna asked for, and when he asked Arjuna how he came to know of these arrows, Arjuna told him that Krishna told him. The next day when Bheeshma asked Duryodhana for the arrows, he told Bheeshma about the happenings, hearing which Bheeshma is said to have secretly smiled, in acknowledgement of Lord Krishna’s plan to save both his devotees. On the one hand, Arjuna and the Pandavas were saved from those arrows, and on the other hand, Bheeshma was saved from the compulsion to keep his vow. That was another instance where the warrior devotee characteristics of Bheeshma could be seen.

But the epitome of the warrior devotee was still on store. Even after umpteen attempts, as the Kauravas position slid, Karna, who till Bheeshma stayed commander had vowed not to enter the battlefield, spurred Duryodhana to put him in charge. He claimed that he would finish the war immediately if put in charge. With that provocation, Duryodhana used his diplomacy to question Bheeshma’s commitment again. That is when Bheeshma vowed to finish Arjuna the following day, unless Krishna intervened with weapons in their duel. Everyone knew that Krishna had promised not to lift weapons and to play the charioteer role in this war. Duryodhana started rejoicing again. He felt the end of the war was near.

On the following day, Bheeshma rained weapons on Arjuna as if there was no tomorrow. Arjuna was unable to counter them despite his best efforts and continuous advice and manoeuvres from Krishna. It was also true that Arjuna was overcome by emotion seeing his grandsire, and may not have been at his best. Due to a combination of all factors, but primarily driven by Bheeshma’s own valour, there came a point where Arjuna was injured and in real danger of losing his life and the battle.

It was at that time that Krishna got off the chariot and lifted a wheel in his fingers like the Sudarshan Chakra. He charged towards Bheeshma and gave his verdict on him. He said that it is due to you that this war happened. As the royal patriarch serving the throne, it was your duty to show the rulers of Hastinapur the right path, but you have failed in that. On seeing the Lord himself pick up weapons against His promise, Bheeshma felt that there could be nothing better for him than to welcome death at the hands of the Lord. He had no problems in admitting that he had failed in his duty, if that was the will of the Lord. He kept his weapons down and bowed in obeisance.

Meanwhile, Arjuna dragged Krishna back and urged him to not break his promise as it would be a disgrace for him. Eventually Krishna didn’t use weapons but this episode displayed a couple of things. One is that Krishna was willing to go to any extent to protect his devotee Arjuna. And second is that a devotee like Bheeshma could happily play the role of an antagonist in this entire episode. It is said to demonstrate that even a mighty warrior and intense devotee like Bheeshma could end up on the losing side, if Krishna was not on his side. Moreover, it showed that, for Bheeshma, playing that role to let the Lord demonstrate this, it was both a matter of destiny and immense fortune. It turned out to be the epitome of his life, in his roles as a warrior and a devotee, in both of which Bheeshma showed that he was, perhaps, unmatched.

***

What is Vedanta?

My notes from ‘Vedanta: Voice of Freedom” – a selected compilation from the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda.

‘What is Vedanta’ Chapter Highlights reproduced below:

***

Just as creation is infinite and eternal, without beginning and without end, so is the knowledge of God without beginning and without end. And this knowledge is what is meant by the Vedas (Vid to know). The mass of knowledge called Vedanta was discovered by personages called rishis, and the rishi is defined as a mantradrashta, a seer of thought— not that the thought was his own.

This mass of writing, the Vedas, is divided principally into two parts, the karma kanda and the jnana kanda— the work portion and the knowledge portion, the ceremonial and the spiritual.

The main ideas of the karma kanda, which consists of the duties of man, the duties of the student, of the householder, of the recluse, and the various duties of the different stations of life, are followed more or less down to the present day. But the spiritual portion of our religion is in the second part, the jnana kanda, the Vedanta, the end of the Vedas— the gist, the goal of the Vedas.

The essence of the knowledge of the Vedas was called by the name Vedanta, which comprises the Upanishads. And all the sects of India— Dualists, Qualified— Monists, Monists, or the Shaivites, Vaishnavites, Shaktas, Sauras, Ganapatyas, each one that dares to come within the fold of Hinduism— must acknowledge the Upanishads of the Vedas.

Just as the law of gravitation existed before its discovery and would exist if all humanity forgot it, so is it with the laws that govern the spiritual world. The moral, ethical, and spiritual relations between soul and soul and between individual spirits and the Father of all spirits were there before their discovery and would remain even if we forgot them.

Until the truth has come through one who has had realization, from one who has perceived it himself, it cannot become fruitful. Books cannot give it. Argument cannot establish it. Truth comes unto him who knows the secret of it.

After you have received it, be quiet. Be not ruffled by vain argument. Come to your own realization. You alone can do it.

Be pure, be calm. The mind when ruffled cannot reflect the Lord.

The human soul is eternal and immortal, perfect and infinite, and death means only a change of center from one body to another. The present is determined by our past actions, and the future by the present. The soul will go on evolving up or reverting back, from birth to birth and death to death.

Come up, O lions, and shake off the delusion that you are sheep. You are souls immortal, spirits free, blest, and eternal. You are not matter, you are not bodies. Matter is your servant, not you the servant of matter.

To be more free is the goal of all our efforts, for only in perfect freedom can there be perfection. This effort to attain freedom underlies all forms of worship, whether we know it or not.

Anything that makes you weak physically, intellectually, and spiritually, reject as poison.

Man is an infinite circle whose circumference is nowhere, but whose center is located in one spot; and God is an infinite circle whose circumference is nowhere, but whose center is everywhere. He works through all hands, sees through all eyes, walks on all feet, breathes through all bodies, lives in all life, speaks through every mouth, and thinks through every brain. Man can become like God and acquire control over the whole universe if he multiplies infinitely his center of self— consciousness.

***

Mrs R and Dash

Mrs R stepped out and, with her, followed the dog that she had named Dash because he ran so fast. Mrs R stepped out of the apartment gate. That is because she remembered that her son had told her that the community had prohibited feeding stray dogs within its compound.

“Come Dash,” Mrs R said, holding her crumpled hand out with the leftover rice of yesterday.

“Time for breakfast,” she said when she stopped near the corner outside their gate. The dog wagged its tail and lapped up the rice from Mrs R’s hand. “I will get you some bread next week.”

Mrs R saw Dr K on the way back.

“Hello Dr K,” Mrs R greeted her.

“Aren’t you the daughter of Mrs D?” Mrs R asked the young doctor. She still remembered the wholehearted talk that Dr K had with her son two months back. Mrs R got a nagging feeling it was about her. Dr K nodded. “Count the steps from the gate to your house today, Aunty,” she told her.

Mrs R nodded with a cheerful smile and started counting her steps on her way back. But she lost count just before she entered the lift.

The following week Mrs R got some bread to feed Dash.

“I have got you bread today,” Mrs R said with a smile. Dash wagged his tail in delight. But the security guard reminded Mrs R that she has to feed the dog outside the community gate. Mrs R slammed her forehead. She put one foot after another and walked to the concrete road outside the gate of the community. Dash followed her for the bread.

On the way back, Mrs R saw Dr K again near the community gate.

“You are late today, Aunty,” she said. Mrs R looked at her wrist, but the watch was missing.

“It is lunch time for Dash. And for you, too,” Dr K added. Mrs R looked at the sky. Indeed the sun was shining bright almost over her head. She wondered why she got late today.

“Yes,” she smiled awkwardly at Dr K.

“Watch your feet when you are walking. See whether the toes land first or is it the heel,” Dr K said.

Mrs R grinned blankly and started walking back from the community gate to her house. She kept count and saw her feet whenever she could. It was the toes first mostly or was it the heel?

Many days of June passed, and it started raining. Mrs R stepped out one morning when the sky was clear with the rice in her hand.

“Where is that dog?” she asked the security guard as she stepped out of the community.

“Which dog? The brown or the black one?” he asked.

“I can’t recollect if it was brown or black. It was called…well.. I forget his name,” she replied.

She walked till the corner outside her community gate, but the dog wasn’t there. She left the rice there on the road. Dr K saw her again on the way back.

“Hello, how are you, Aunty?” she asked.

“Hello,” she replied. She didn’t smile back. Mrs R started counting her steps on her way back.

“Was she the daughter of Mrs G or was she the daughter-in-law of Mrs D?” she thought to herself.

“How is your mother-in-law?” she asked, making a guess.

“Well.. umm.. she is ok, Aunty,” Dr K replied. “Take care of yourself, Aunty. I will call your son.”

June turned to July. July to August and then September.

Dash became that dog downstairs.

A few days later he became that hungry animal outside the gate.

Dr K became the daughter of someone, and then that doctor on the walk, and later that woman who spoke to me.

When October arose, Dash waited every morning for food, but Mrs R never came.

Dr K knew why.

***

Vedanta and Vivekananda

My notes from ‘Vedanta: Voice of Freedom” – a selected compilation from the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda.

Highlights reproduced below:

***

In nondualistic Vedanta, Brahman is the Ultimate Reality, ExistenceKnowledge— Bliss Absolute. The world is shown to be nothing but name and form, all of which is apparent, not real, having only a relative existence. But from the absolute standpoint, everything is Brahman— one without a second. The individual soul is nothing but Brahman. Name and form evolve and dissolve, but the Self, the real nature of every being, is immortal and unchanging. After realizing one’s identity with Brahman through meditation, a person then sees Brahman, or God, in everything.

Vivekananda learned from his Master the synthesis of knowledge and devotion, the harmony of religions, the true purport of the scriptures, and the worship of God in man.

The first step in getting strength is to uphold the Upanishads, and believe: “I am the Soul.” “Me the sword cannot cut; nor weapons pierce; me the fire cannot burn; me the air cannot dry; I am the Omnipotent, I am the Omniscient.” So repeat these blessed, saving words. Do not say we are weak; we can do anything and everything. We all have the same glorious soul. Let us believe in it.

As he continued his travels, his teaching, his observations, writing, and meditation, Vivekananda’s belief in the effectiveness of Vedanta grew. He saw it not as a mere religion or philosophy, but rather as a means by which science and religion could become reconciled, and material prosperity and spirituality blended. He noticed how the East was strong in noble religious and spiritual traditions even though it suffered from grinding poverty, while the West, for all its technological advancements and affluence, suffered from spiritual poverty.

It was his experience that an ideal character could be formed by combining the four yogas— the paths of action, knowledge, devotion, and meditation— and he trained the monks accordingly.

***

The Law of Sublimation

Excerpts from ‘7 Divine Laws To Awaken Your Best Self’ by Swami Mukundananda

The Law of Sublimation – The sovereign recipe for purifying the mind and its thoughts is to dovetail it towards the Supreme through bhakti.

Offer all actions and emotions to the Lord. Even desire, anger and pride should be directed to Him.

The bottom line is that belief in God requires faith. Existence of God cannot be proven with 100 percent accuracy and facts.

The Supreme Divine Entity possesses innumerable contradictory attributes at the same time.

Knowledge engenders reverence for Him but not intimate loving devotion.

We will develop love fo God by establishing our loving relationship with Him. To do this, we must repeatedly think, ‘He is mine and I am His.’

The moment our intellect decides ‘This person is mine’, the mind develops love. Similarly, when we decide that our eternal relationship is with God, we will experience loving sentiments for Him.

The first benefit of attaching the mind to God is that by absorbing the mind in the all-pure Lord, the mind gets purified as well.

The second benefit is that our lower nature – desire, anger, greed and pride – gets sublimated in devotion.

The third benefit is that when we have love for God, we automatically start doing everything for his pleasure. This results in Karm yoga.

In Karm yoga, the intention behind every work gets purified. ‘How can my actions be pleasing to the Lord?’ That purity of intention makes the most significant difference in our life.

The understanding of the principle of karma yoga empowers us to grow from within to become a better person. You continue to perform your worldly duties but the intention becomes divine.

The fourth benefit is that since the results of our efforts are for the pleasure of the Supreme, we not attached to them. This sense of detachment from results frees us from stress, anxiety, tension and fear.

The fifth benefit of attaching the mind to God is that our self-identity gets transformed. We see ourselves as fragments of the divine.

The sixth benefit is that our perspective towards others changes. We see everyone with who we interact as divine (fragments of God) and as a result, we maintain a healthy attitude towards them.

The seventh benefit is that when we keep God in our consciousness, we realise that His grace makes all things possible.

The eighth benefit of attaching the mind to God is that the goal of human life is God-realisation. When we become karma yogis, we move towards the supreme goal of life, together with doing our worldly duties.

We want others to act in certain ways, and when they do not, we feel we have the right to become upset. In this way, unfulfilled expectations strain relationships.

If our expectations were genuinely selfless, their unfulfillment would not have upset us.

***

Freedom

Freedom: Chapter excerpts from Karma Yoga – from the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda Vol 1. Excerpts reproduced below:

***

“Work incessantly, but give up all attachment to work.” Do not identify yourself with anything. Hold your mind free.

“Misery comes through attachment, not through work.”

This “I and mine” causes the whole misery. With the sense of possession comes selfishness, and selfishness brings on misery.

Never say “mine”. Whenever we say a thing is “mine”, misery will immediately come. Do not even say “my child” in your mind. Possess the child, but do not say “mine”. If you do, then will come the misery. Do not say “my house,” do not say “my body”. The whole difficulty is there. The body is neither yours, nor mine, nor anybody’s. These bodies are coming and going by the laws of nature, but we are free, standing as witness.

Non- attachment does not mean anything that we may do in relation to our external body, it is all in the mind. The binding link of “I and mine” is in the mind. If we have not this link with the body and with the things of the senses, we are non- attached, wherever and whatever we may be.

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. Whatever they see, feel, hear, or do, is for Him. For whatever good work we may do, let us not claim any praise or benefit. It is the Lord’s; give up the fruits unto Him. Let us stand aside and think that we are only servants obeying the Lord, our Master, and that every impulse for action comes from Him every moment. Whatever thou worshippest, whatever thou perceivest, whatever thou doest, give up all unto Him and be at rest. Let us be at peace, perfect peace, with ourselves, and give up our whole body and mind and everything as an eternal sacrifice unto the Lord.

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.

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.

Freedom is the one goal of all nature, sentient or insentient; and consciously or unconsciously, everything is struggling towards that goal.

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.

***

Bheeshma: A Life by Proxy: Ruler, Father, and Devotee?

The fact of the matter was that with the three children still in their infancy, Bheeshma ruled the kingdom for all of those years by proxy. In the process, he expanded it beyond measure, so that when the sons of Vichitravirya came of age, they had a ready kingdom to rule over. The ruler by proxy had made sure of that.

At the same time, Bheeshma was also their father by proxy. Though technically an elder step brother to Vichitravirya, the age difference ensured that he was even more than a father that Pandu, Dhritarashtra and Vidur never had. Hence the father by proxy also ensured that the marriages of Dhritarashtra to the princess Gandhari (daughter of Gandhari, said to be present day Kandahar), and of Pandu to the princess Pritha (called Kunti because she was brought up by Kuntibhoj, a close friend of her and Vasudeva’s father Shoorsen) and princess Madri (sister of King Shalya) were done properly as per warrior customs.

There is a subplot in how the seeds of discontent were sown in the marriage of Gandhari and Dhritarashtra, unknown to Bheeshma, but indirectly by him. It is said that the alliance was arranged between Gandhari and the eldest son of the royal family of Hastinapur. With that in mind, Gandhari along with her brother Shakuni (sent as a permanent envoy for his sister) made their way to Hastinapur assuming that the eldest son is the heir apparent to the throne. Perhaps due to lack of sufficient due diligence, they were, therefore, surprised to see that the first son was blind, and it was the second son who was the real heir to the throne. In some versions, Shakuni even tried to get Gandhari married to Pandu, but Bheeshma refused saying that the elder will be the first to get married. Gandhari accepted it as her destiny without any compunction but Shakuni didn’t. It was an unhealed sore wound that festered in his evil heart. It was perhaps then that he decided to ensure that his sister’s children should inherit the throne, by hook or by crook. Bheeshma neglected this threat as a minor inconvenience at that time, but one must say that it turned out to be a big pain going forward.

Pandu turned out to be quite an ambitious and skilled ruler. Bheeshma might have deservedly felt proud on seeing his achievements that expanded the kingdom. He might have thought that his time to rest at ease was close when he saw Pandu challenge kingdoms far and wide and expand the boundaries of Hastinapur. But that feeling of relief, if at all, was short-lived. That was because despite all the royal fame and riches at his disposal, Pandu was inclined towards a life of renunciation. He requested Bheeshma for permission to retire to the forests along with his wives and children, and appointed Dhritarashtra to rule on his behalf. It was another surprise development, and it left Bheeshma again in a position to step forward to take care of Hastinapur and its throne. Given Dhritarashtra’s blindness, for all practical purposes, Bheeshma became the ruler by proxy again, while also remaining the chief protector of the King of Hastinapur, who himself was ruler by proxy for his brother.

There is no doubt that Bheeshma might not have envisaged such circumstances when he took the vow of celibacy and loyalty to the King of Hastinapur. There was, of course, more to come which he might not have anticipated then too. The real Mahabharata had just begun.

It turned out that with Pandu and his branch of the family out of the picture, it became more and more apparent that Hastinapur would be ruled by Dhritarashtra and his sons. While Dhritarashtra may have ruled by proxy for a few years, there was no attempt to stop the sense of entitlement that kept growing in Duryodhana. In fact, led by Shakuni but resisted by Bheeshma, it only increased, far beyond what Bheeshma thought possible, to an eventual point of being irreparable.

It would be an interesting thought experiment to wonder whether Bheeshma could have stopped this, not after Dhritarashtra took over but even before. Like it happened when Vichitravirya passed away, when Pandu went to the forests, leaving Bheeshma with a blind replacement, the throne of Hastinapur might have been there for the taking for Bheeshma again. There was no question of anyone challenging a warrior like him, and one might argue that it might have been good for Hastinapur too had he taken over even then. But Bheeshma’s has been a life of sacrifice, a life dedicated to the vows of celibacy and loyalty to the throne without usurping it. Once again, that character came to the fore. He therefore remained a ruler by proxy, and protector and father by proxy for three generations viz. Shantanu’s sons, then Vichitravirya’s sons and eventually to Pandu’s and Dhritarashtra’s sons too. The story of Mahabharata more or less runs in parallel to the story of Bheeshma’s life, therefore.

The story then proceeds further. Pandu became a forced celibate due to the curse of sage Kindam, to which he eventually succumbs to, again highlighting the enormity of Bheeshma’s vow of celibacy and the stringent adherence to it. During this period, Dhritarashtra, though blind but with Bheeshma’s rule by proxy, runs Hastinapur in relative peace. In fact, he turns out to be not such a bad king, but a lousy father – a conflict he didn’t overcome till the end.

The return of Pandu’s wife Kunti and children many years after going to the forest due to the untimely demise of Pandu might have, therefore, been a shock to Dhritarashtra’s side of the family. But even more shocking might have been the warm welcome that Bheeshma gave them, purely on grounds of doing the right thing. In his mind, they were welcome co-owners while for Duryodhana they were unwelcome guests in his territory. The antics of Shakuni and Duryodhana thereafter are well known, which Bheeshma, despite his professed loyalty to Hastinapur, often objected to on grounds of being wrong. But he realised how bad things had come down to, only when Kunti and the Pandavas were thought to have perished in the fire of Varnavrat. It was an open secret that it was an act of arson by Duryodhana with the tacit permission of Dhritarashtra. When the Pandavas were discovered to be alive later, Bheeshma’s lone voice of dissent ensured that Dhritarashtra gave them their share of the kingdom, though unfair in the form of Khandav prastha, a largely inhabited forest.

On many instances during this tumultuous period, Bheeshma played the role of ruler and father by proxy, trying his best to inculcate some sense into Dhritarashtra and his part of the family, but always bound by the vow to serve them, as they were the ones who sat on the throne. These were most amply on display during Yudhisthira’s Rajasuyayagna, the infamous game of dice, Draupadi’s disrobing, and even in the battle of Virata at the end of the Pandavas’ incognito period. On all occasions, Bheeshma found himself in circumstances where his heart was on one side, but his head was bound by his vows of celibacy and loyalty to the throne of Hastinapur. His was a life truly of proxy as a ruler and a father, where the letter and spirit were often in conflict with each other. And it was often the letter that won the day.

But another interesting and often overlooked aspect of Bheeshma’s life of proxy has been his role of a devotee by proxy. At a literary level, while his character is as perfect a depiction of dharma as one could find anywhere, at a spiritual level, Bheeshma is also as perfect a depiction of devotion as one could find.

How is that, one may ask?

Well, it all starts with his deciding to worship Krishna at Yudhisthira’s Rajasooya Yagna as the only person worthy of worship and it ends with his laying down arms and indeed, choosing death, in the final battle of his life on seeing Krishna taking up arms to protect Arjuna. More on that up next.

***