April 2, 2012
Are You Thinking Your Own Thoughts?
I just got back from a jam-packed teaching and speaking tour of India, supported in part by the Speaking Tree. As a 56-year-old western spiritual teacher who originally came to Mother India in 1984 seeking for Enlightenment, I find myself in an interesting position when I return: now I come back to share with others what India so generously shared with me. But this trip began with an unexpected rude awakening.
When I arrived to give my first talk at the Shahani Centre for Management at Bandra National College in Mumbai, I noticed that the title had been changed from “Spiritual Self-Confidence” to “Self-Confidence.” When I inquired as to why that was, my host explained that if they kept the word “spiritual” in the title, young people wouldn’t come!
Over the last five years or so during my travels through modern India, I have come to appreciate in ever-new ways the enormous pressure, stress, and tension there is on young people. These are individuals who are committed to taking full advantage of India’s dramatic leap into material abundance and a higher standard of living, along with a shift from traditional values to modern and postmodern ones.
What I found most troubling was a profound lack of autonomy, healthy curiosity, and independence in the way too many of India’s educated young adults were thinking about the human experience. My message to them was very simple: Are you thinking your own thoughts? Or are you, like too many people these days, blindly and unconsciously seeing the world through the beliefs, convictions, and assertions of others?
Young modern Indians experience enormous pressure from their families and their culture to live up to very high expectations: to work hard at school . . . so they can get good grades . . . so they can get high-paying jobs . . . so they can get married . . . and have enough money to live well . . . and afford a good education for their children. If they’re lucky, they’ll go to America, the land of milk and honey, and get even higher paying jobs. And while there’s nothing wrong with all of the above, too often what tends to be missing are higher human values and even more importantly what has always been the greatest gift of India herself to the world: spiritual ideals.
As I spoke to bright young audiences in urban centers throughout North India, I found myself telling these young people that I had originally come to India seeking for Enlightenment because I couldn’t find it at home in modern, wealthy America. I explained that her most lauded luminaries of the last 100 years, people who had influenced myself and countless others, people like Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda, Ramana Maharshi, Sri Aurobindo, and Mahatma Gandhi, were all bold individuals who bucked the status quo in order to follow their own muse. They all courageously did what too few human beings are willing to do, think for themselves about the big and important questions in human life. Who am I? Why am I here? What is the purpose of existence and what is the purpose of my existence? Without their brave and heroic spirit of independent inquiry and action, think of how much poorer we would all be.
Then once again I asked them: Are you thinking your own thoughts? Are you living your own lives?
What I call “spiritual self-confidence” comes from knowing the answer to these profound and fundamental existential questions. In order to become self-actualized human beings, ironically we have to, in our own ways, find the strength and integrity to mimic the greatest human beings who have come before us. In this case that means embracing enough independence of spirit to finally find our own authenticity and think our own thoughts. It’s not an easy thing to do. But it’s worth it. It’s more than worth it.
My concern is that in the midst of the enormous benefits of modern India’s great leap forward, she may be losing touch with her greatest gift to the world. That’s why I was imploring her young people: Do you really want to think someone else’s thoughts and live someone else’s life? Or are you willing to make the heroic effort to live your own life?
This article is part of a 5-part series about my recent trip to India. Click here to read the series.
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Andrew Cohen is a spiritual teacher, cultural visionary, founder of EnlightenNext, and the author of 
The fruit will not fall far from the tree Mr. Cohen…yes, the modern India wants to look West but our foundations are too strong to do away with. If you look at the history of Undivided India, you will see that India was attacked several times over the last thousand years starting with the Mughals in early sixteenth century to the British very recently in late eighteen hundreds. This recent attraction to the West is an attack on the culture of India metaphorically speaking. But is this the end? I think not, India has survived in the past, as it will in the coming future. Infact it will imbibe the best that the West has to offer and integrate it with what we have always had. You may have seen some wearing rose tainted glasses, but India is much more than that. Even with this new attraction, India will eventually become the very best version of what it can be !!!
Prerena
You obviously have just as much love,respect and regard for mother India as I do ; but Andrew is a very,very charitable soul and is only trying to wake up the kumbhkarna from it’s deep sleep. Omshanti & Namasteh
Hari Om Harish,
Even if there is a khumbkarna, is he in the US?
You know the story about the glass being half full or half empty. The way we see Modern India is entirely our own perception, and its what we want to see.
Regards,
Prerena
Omshanti Prerena
The whole world is in the sleep of ignorance and as Bharath (India),plays a central role in this eternal drama,souls with loving intellects for God are prompted to serve and bring Ram rajya back to our most holiest and ancient land.
Elevated souls like Andrew that take the initiative to bring benefit to this old and decayed human world tree prove the title of the incorporeal father being the world benefactor(Vishva kalankari bap).
Omshanti & Namasteh
Hari Om Harish,
First, the Ram Rajya you hope to establish in the present actually happened in the Satyug…which was at least a million years ago. In this day and age, if we all can manage to uphold high morals and principles, do good karma, and keep our own i’s dotted and t”s crossed we will come as close as we can to creating a Ram Rajya in this Kalyug era.
Second, coming back to “Are you thinking your own thoughts?,” modern India is growing, but it has done so for the last several centuries. And just like there was a Shri Ram in Ram Rajya, there was a Ravan too….but whom do we inspire to be like? Let me give you an example, a tree will accept any insecticide or fertilizer we give it, but will it forget its true nature of turning carbon dioxide to oxygen or of bearing fruits just because of the new things it has received. It wont…in fact if anything at all, the insecticides and fertilizers will make it better than it was before. And keep in mind that this tree is thousand years old…a little poison or nectar will only put a dent in its strength. Back to the passage, I would like to look up to a guru and in his/her strength to rise above the common man. Any layman can see the ugly, but only a guru shows how to see beyond it and appreciate the good that still prevails. Moksha for oneself does not come from from belittling the world.
Regards,
Prerena
But do we ever think our own thoughts? Even with some degree of evolutionary enlightenment, we have to think within the system, we are a product of our environment. I remember you even talking about this.
And also yes, I am fascinating everyday by the masses of Indian people working they way up the elevators of corporations in quest of material security, and wealth. Fascinating and ironic.
Hi Andrew,
I really feel indentified which what you said in your post.
I usually answer myself why young people refuse all spititually things
.
I have studied in a business school in Spain and I used to see these actitudes all the time with some subjets like ethics. They always say things as “it has no sense that we studied ethics, it is not useful” Because of that I felt fustration many times, and I always think the way to change it and get the way to traduce the ethics, or spiritual language to another language that they can be more confortable to transmit them the message.
In Spain, there is a NGO, “Desata tu pontencial” which do conferences to young people about this kind of themes but by a “comercial” way. Doing that, they try to achive young people increase their self-knowledge.
I really not like so much the way they work, but I am sure it works.
Maybe right now, when everybody wants to be the best, show that beeing the best is about self-knowledge as well, it is a useful way to achieve young people assist to these conferences and want to now the way to do it.
But in my opinion, that change is a superficial one, because it is only about be better in a society that demands to you that all the time. So.. I think there is an alternative way to achieve that spiritual knowledge be the spiritual values of a society. I think most of young people could be agree with that if the speech is simple and neutral. Non commercial, non spiritual. Only a human speech. When words are saying with love, everybody understand them, and everybody feel them. And may be we need to forget the way to call it, and try to get efforts in the message.
Thanks for your post again
Laura
I’m surprised that you’re surprised! …since you’re a spiritual teacher I assume you’ve been around awhile…yes? I know you can’t be thinking that simply because they come from India they have wisdom! That they’re born ‘spiritual’…
I have met more corrupt incompetant, thieving, liars, etc from/in India since the net became worldwide.
What allows you to assume it’s the parental pressure? My guess is most of India’s young are already lost. Once they get the smell of money, like the rest of the world, Everything truly spiritual gets flushed down the toilet. Greed takes over…you know that.
Interesting think piece.
Something that can be observed, is the western influence in India. It is a global community that we live in. The west, having the biggest loudspeaker to shout through, is going to touch millions without question.
Do you trust in the good nature of people or are you worrying people will fall into a more animalistic state? I feel fear in your writing. Fear of what may be. Fear that Love will not conquer ignorance…..
In regards to a lack of autonomy, etc…. One has to become submersed in a culture before deciding on what to adopt as their own and what to leave behind. In my opinion, this is what India is experiencing. A mating ritual of a sorts between East and West… The child to be born from it will be new, wonderful and containing elements of both geniuses.
Is it troubling? What is troubling amidst change? Perhaps, identities shifting? Finding new elements to identify with and experience?
Not to state the obvious, but, Change is the only constant in the Universe. Revolution or revolving occurs when change doesn’t occur or is resisted. Experiencing the same things over and over without learning the lessons presented by nature… Known also as Samsara…. Evolution takes place when one allows oneself to be vulnerable enough to accept new elements into their heart to be experienced and digested. From my standpoint, I opine that Indian culture is merely curious and enjoying in the beauty that the west offers while incorporating some of their own spice to the experience.
I ask, Is India experiencing revolution or evolution?
All must go about change or stagnation on microcosmic individual levels and macrocosmic societal levels. How, is a matter of choice.
I have travelled India and experienced it in bit of a different light. Staying with all walks of life and experiencing nothing but the Love, Goodwill and compassion of many different families. Most richly in the area of Konark, Orissa, where I found it to be a highly spiritual and most giving in every sense.
It is touching in a way that you find it worthy of concern that India is losing her culture. There is nothing to be lost and all to be gained in this situation. The glass is full. Drink from it. Enjoy in it. India’s spiritual influence is radiating worldwide just as the western influence is. Can you see their dance? Yin and Yang swirling… Provide encouragement. Dance with us. Sing with us. Fear not what may come, give fully as you are and only wonderful things will continue to grow. Balance is being found each day.
Lastly, Are you thinking your own thoughts or are you grasping at the hopes of the same ones repeating themselves in the same exact fashion into another sunset?
Are you living your own life or are you too busy worrying about what was?
Do I want to think your thoughts, or do I wish to have my own?
Omshanti &Namasteh Louis,
Fortunate and lucky souls of the land of Bharat(India) are once again making an intense effort in becoming worthy heirs to their divine birth right inheritance. This means you could be a foreigner in this birth,but only for the sake of settling your account of give and take with others,hence the reason for Andrews concern over the apparent spiritual bankruptcy of India.In essence,Andrew has a very merciful and a compassionate heart.He is concerned that this lion is no longer roaring and has instead become like a goat.
Best Regards
Harish
Hello Harish,
I do not doubt that he possesses compassion. I do however venture to say he can do better as he is playing the role of teacher in global society. I feel that all too many times, people emphasize a negative quality in a culture when there are many beautiful ones flourishing and worthy of encouragement.
What do you think a reaction from a crowd will be if one tells them they are wrong or troubling for acting in a particular fashion or trying something new to them? It is like throwing stones at a crowd hoping they will lend an already bloodied ear. Some may stay and listen, but many will not hear everything being said though pleasant it may be. I feel generalizing a crowd as he has done is an elementary mistake. Perhaps focusing on the influences could be more pointed and effective. Or how about telling a story of encouragement and triumph without trumpeting the flaws he is perceiving in another with his own flawed scope.
Not that challenging one’s views isn’t an interesting learning experience but I find it more tactful if one embodies the change and encourages the youth’s admirable qualities…..
Goats are most nimble, climb the highest mountains like divine dancers, eat grass and give milk. Lions roar well, are graceful, can instill fear and eat flesh…
I don’t understand your goat analogy in other words. Assist me in understanding it if you will please.
Lastly, why do you defend Mr. Cohen?
Namaskar,
Lou
Hello Lou,
If we do not look at each others specialities, how is this old and corrupt world ever going to become united in saying One GOD , ONE WORLD FAMILY?
With regards to the analogy , the lion represents a courageous soul that is fully established in its original religion of the self and remains unperturbed whilst sharing the ultimate truth with ease and authority. On the contrary, the goat tends to be meek and carp mey,mey,mey… which in Hindi means I the body. And so by interacting in this awareness of the body, birth is given to the evil spirits that have now made this whole human world full of peacelessness ,sorrow and a jungle full of thorns that prick each other.
Namaste, Harish
Hello Harish,
I attempted to be clear in my post that we should focus on the specialties of people. The wonderfully unique things that people can share in Love with. One must find the desire to change from within. People can find inspiration in another, but the steps must be made by the individual. Though stones may be thrown at us in the pursuit of truth, resilience is needed and the helping hands of friends and family are wonderful in assisting us to keep moving along.
Who tells you this world is old and corrupt?
Personally, when I wake each morning, the world is new and fresh. Full of new and wonderful opportunities to speak with people and share in the joy of life. The joy of being an individual amidst a singular experience some call God, some call Life while others call it the Universe. I like them all but lean towards Universe. A singular poem constantly in motion that we are all united in.
In regards to your analogy, I thank you for further explaining. I’d say that I find inspiring qualities in the goat just as you do the lion.
The goat’s authority stemming from vulnerability and surviving on craft and agility. The goat also eats regularly and doesn’t kill what it consumes when a herds numbers are in balance with the environment’s ability to survive.
The lion eats feeds upon death though it may take a life with authority. The lion also maintains a crucial balance by innately making sure the vegetation eaters do not overpopulate and kill off the grasses or the trees. Food and shelter for all.
Both creatures maintain a balance together. One is no better than the other. One does not survive without the other.
The meek shall inherit the earth.
In regards to the body… Are we not the body? It seems ignorant to not identify with the body when one is living through it. Do you tend your health? Do you eat when you are hungry? Do you not cry mey, mey, mey like a child when your heart is in pain…? when you do not have enough to eat…? or when a loved one is suffering? Do the cries mey mey mey of others inspire you to take action?
What makes a spirit evil in your eyes? Does evil truly exist or is it our perception that deceives us?
I appreciate your time and energy and do wish to listen further to what you are sharing with me. I am learning much in discussing this with you and am full of gratitude
Namasteh,
Louis
Also, in regards to the thorns, I suppose their ability to prick us depends on the clothing we wear over our hearts. I’ve found that thorns only prick me to teach me and they get especially hung up on the hardest parts of my heart. Fears, angers, hatred, jealousy, etc….
I’m thankful for the thorns
Not to say they need to be revisited once experienced, but in order to extend a hand to a brother or sister in need, one must reach a hand into the depths to assist them. Thorns will likely draw blood, but if one has been through it and paid attention to detail, then one knows how to tend the wounds.
Young people around the world today cannot help but be concerned with making a living and choosing a career path in a world facing so many issues and challenges. But perhaps by opening themselves to the deeper dimensions of their beings, they may be more courageous, compassionate and creative in the course of their life journeys.
Omshanti & Namateh Richard,
As this journey is awesome,steep and slippery,it is very necessary to have a loving intellect for the creator.
Regards
Harish
Dear Andrew: to meet a true thinker in this world is a rarity. In all honesty do you think your own students think their true thoughts ? Are you sure to think youth true thoughts ? That s a tough one. How can one be sure to he free in thinking ?
Somehow your post gives the idea that it is better on the west which is not the case.
A free thinker risks ostracism. Not understanding and acceptance. Unfortunately in our world to be part of a group one almost always has to renounce free thinking.
Omshanti & Namasteh Catherine,
I find that having pure feelings and good wishes for all souls and the five elements make me content and a worthy citizen of the world.
Warm Regards
Harish
True. But I also read the message for all of us … it just came to be formulated in this particular situation.
In any case accessing your own True Self and follow It’s Inspiration and Intuition in thought, feeling and deed is the way to happiness, fulfillment, freedom … you name it … in my opinion
p.s.: the ‘True’ was to Catherine’s contribution
Re-phrasing the above in a more positive light. I believe with all y heart in free thinking. I believe one free thought is able to change a destiny. Unfortunately, freethinking-the ideal of the Enlightenment is not lived at the moment among human communities. The balance between autonomy and communion almost always goes towards “ communion” at the expense of our absolute freedom of thinking. We are desperately in need of the next stage of human relationships, where spiritual communities will meet in groups structures based on Reason and not solely blind obedience to a Teacher or to a Gaia-principle. We need desperately to re-unite modernity and spirituality. India is at the crossing roads at the moment, and could bring so much to us by teaching us how to do what we didn’t succeed to do in four centuries : how to re-unite Spirit and Reason. How Spirit can transcend Reason without destroying it. How Reason can look up at Spirit without denying it.
Until we solve this, we are lost souls, in the West like in the East. We will not be able to have a true modern, non dual spirituality flourishing on earth.
So we count on you, Indian friends, just teach us what we have not been able to do for such a long time…
Love, C.
Omshanti & namasteh C
Your straight forwardness and humility is praise worthy. The task of putting right that which has gone wrong in this human world only belongs to the one that we are all desperately calling out for.Just as he is incognito,his ways and means are incognito. Whilst being a detached observer of his unique role,I constantly say to myself,wah my fortune wah!!!
Regards
Harish
I thought that I would post this brief bio of Dr. Swami Gitananda, recently written by his wife Ammaji. Here is an Indian man who thought his own thoughts and was a man of great spiritual confidence!!!
Blessings, Doug
I have been interested in a spiritual life since I was a very young child. The questions of “Why am I alive?” and “What is the purpose of all this?” were important to me. Those thoughts were always with me, but I had no interest in India itself. My perception of India was stereotypically American: that it was a very poor country, and as I thought the Indian exchange students that we had at our school were quite obnoxious, I had no interest there. I grew up in Minnesota, and in those days nobody there really knew what Yoga was. The only ‘alternative’ spirituality that we had available to us there was Zen Buddhism. Zen was becoming popularized at this time, especially by Alan Watts, and I became deeply interested in it and Japan also. In 1966, I took a sabbatical when I was working on my PhD and traveled through Europe for a year with a girlfriend. We went to Greece for six or seven months, and one day I picked up a ‘teach yourself’ Yoga book that contained such phrases as, “Yoga is the art of becoming conscious in every cell”, “Yoga is the science of conscious evolution”, “Yoga is an ancient science of the rishis”, and “Yoga has the technology to enlighten the soul”. All of a sudden I wanted to go to India. My girlfriend and I made our travel arrangements to go, but she said that she might turn back at some stage along the way. We had many adventures on our travels, but hen one day she woke up and said that she was not going any further. The further East we traveled, the happier I became, but the further East she got, the unhappier she became. I was happy in Greece, happier in Turkey, even happier in Iran and Afghanistan, and by the time I reached Pakistan, I was the happiest I had ever been in my life. When I finally set foot on Indian soil, I knew that I had come home. This has become a somewhat trite statement that people make, but for me it was very true. This was the place where I belonged; this was my country and my culture. I had come initially to study Yoga, but I did not go to any ashrams and I did not seek out a guru. I traveled around using my instinct, and I ended up in a small village in Andre Pradesh with a friend of mine who was in the Peace Corps. My introduction to Indian culture was living in a small remote village of a hundred people for around three months. There is a phrase in Yoga that goes, ‘When the student is ready, the guru appears’ and I had faith in this. I started reading a few books and I began to practice a few asanas and some pranayama. Again I traveled here and there; I went to Nepal, and while I was there I saw a poster that said, ‘Come to mystical Pondicherry’ and again, all the names rang a bell as I had heard about the Aurobindo Ashram previously.
So I went to Pondicherry and discovered that the Aurobindo Ashram was not for me. It reminded me of existential philosophy and the thinking that I had left behind me. I didn’t want words anymore, I wanted to have experiences. One day I walked into the ashram’s dining hall, and there was a short – I say short, but he was my height – black-haired gentleman wearing bright orange robes standing there who had the most fantastic charisma, so a friend and I started talking to him. This was my first memory of meeting Swamiji (Yogamaharishi Dr Swami Gitananda Giri).
At that time, he wanted to set up a hospital at Auroville in connection with World Health Organization, but somehow he was not convinced about their plans, so he set up his own ashram instead and gave Yoga courses. He invited me and several other young people to come and join him, which we did. There is a long story behind all of that, but that is how I came to meet Swamiji and how I found my guru. Swamiji was a very intense personality, who was known as the ‘Lion of Pondicherry’. He totally captivated me from the very beginning. He was the most ‘alive’ person I had ever met; he was conscious in every sense, he loved the world, he loved to eat, he loved to swim, and he loved to laugh. He knew everything about everything. Mostly I felt comfortable in his presence, and he was the first person in my life that I felt totally at home with. I felt totally at one, totally protected, happy, and at ease, and he was also a magnificent teacher. In those days he rented a house to teach in, and he had us all spellbound from five in the morning
till nine at night. There were many Westerners and Indians in the course and he did all the teaching himself.
He could talk in such a way that you never got tired of listening to him, because he clearly had a siddhi, and he was enlightened. I do mean enlightened, because he was able to see and tap psychically into the Akashic Record. I know this, because the way he used to write was that he would dictate and I would sit at the typewriter and type. Everything came straight from his mind, and if you read his books you will be amazed at the technicality of them – the complicated names of places and teachers from all the various scriptures. This is how he always wrote, and he never used reference books. He knew everything about Islam, about Christianity and Hinduism, about the Sufis, the Jews and the Sikhs. It was simply astounding! He could talk from six in the morning till midnight and you’d never get tired of listening to him, and he would never get tired of talking. There is no other explanation except that it was a direct tap into the Akashic Record. How else would it have been possible for him to know so much without any reference books? When he gave lectures, I saw that he did not prepare notes for any of them; instead he would sit quietly and relax for 15 minutes before the class and his mind would become quiet. He would then come into the classroom and give the most incredibly technical medical, scientific, and esoteric information. Where was it coming from? There was no other explanation. This was a guru and there was no doubt about it. There was never any doubt after that. I accepted that this was my path and he was my guru, and I never looked for anything else after that. We were married one month after I joined his course. Swamiji was 30 years older than me. He was also a sannyasin, and as a swami he was not supposed to get married. It is a very complicated tradition which should be respected. Right after our marriage we spent ten days in a cave in the Himalayas near the Ganges . We did not speak one word and we didn’t eat a single thing for the entire time, and that was my honeymoon. We had to face a lot of opposition, although the marriage justified and proved itself over time. I was firstly his disciple, and secondly his wife; that was always our relationship. He lost thousands of disciples after our marriage, especially in India . He was a very popular swami at that time, holding huge satsangs in Bangalore , Hyderabad and Delhi , and was a very charismatic speaker. He was also very approachable and people flocked to him, but he lost a lot of that support.
Swamji followed the classical teachings of the Bengali Tantrics, which he learned from his guru in the guru kula. Swamiji stayed with his guru, Swami Kanakananda Brighu, from the age of ten until he was 15. He often remarked that everything he knew about Yoga he learned from his guru during the intensive training he received during those five years. The Tantric tradition is concerned with energy control and with kundalini. It is energy of the universe. We all manifest kundalini – a tiny drop of kundalini gives us light in our eyes and puts a little spring in out step. This Tantric tradition is thought to intensify or to speed up our natural evolution so that kundalini arousal can take place. This implies many holistic practices; it deals with the body in asanas, kriyas, mudras, bandhas, and many other things to strengthen and cleanse the body, to understand the body and make the body conscious, to make the body strong, to make the body light, to get energy flowing, to get blocks removed, and to stimulate blood flow. Then it deals with the mind, and there are many mental practices. We call them Jnana Yoga kriyas and Raj Yoga kriyas, and there are hundreds of them. At some stage of our evolution we may need a certain type of kriya, and at other stages we may need another type of kriya. So there are hundred of these kriyas, which could also be called mental exercises or visualizations. They deal with energy flows, the nadis, with prana, with apana, the chakras and all the elements connected to the chakras, the yantras and the mantras. Swamiji knew 120 pranayamas, of which he normally taught about 30 or 40. He taught hundreds of mudras, he taught advanced Hatha Yoga practices, in the sense that the practices involved breath control and peculiar positions of the body to rouse the kundalini. So there is a whole technique, which is very complex and even in six months of intense teaching, we cannot teach that whole technology. So for most people, the basics are enough for their lifetime. This is the huge and vast technology of Bengali Tantric Yoga and in addition to this, Swamiji taught the basic concepts of the scriptures of the Yoga Sutra, the Upanishads and the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, the basic scriptural literature of India . In addition to that, and perhaps the most important aspect of this teaching, was that he taught us how to look at ourselves. We call this svadhyaya, or self-study. Svadhyaya, which is the fourth niyama of Patanjali’s translation of the scriptures, is more importantly a study of ourselves. Who are we? Ramana Maharshi of Tiruvannamalai based his whole teaching on the svadhyaya “Who am I?” That is the basic question of svadhyaya; not in an abstract sense, but in a philosophical sense – and in a very practical sense.
I have met many of the major swamis and important religious leaders in the world, yet Swamiji was the only person that I have ever met in my life who I would consider to have had a kundalini experience. I say that about him because of the intense energy that radiated around him. One of my friends once wrote a poem in which he wrote ‘…knowing only the truth of the intensity’. It’s as if the intensity is truth and the average person cannot stand that truth because the intensity becomes a fire. Some people think of spirituality and the spiritual life as something soft, kind, loving and floating on clouds, where everyone lives happily ever after. That’s a fairytale, as gurus are never like that. If you read Indian history, the gurus are like Zen masters. They say in Zen Buddhism that ‘the mother lion teaches her cubs roughly; with one swat of her paw, she shows them how to live’. The Indian gurus taught like that, and I know enough about Indian culture now to realize why. This is a very complex and controversial subject, because everyone has the idea that you should be kind and loving and sweet to be spiritual. I can only say from my own experience that if you want to evolve quickly then sometimes it’s better to get a good swat of the guru’s paw. Swamiji used to laugh and say that “a kick on your rear can take you further than a kiss on your cheek”. He only taught us only the truth, and the truth could be very unpleasant. He would make people bear the consequences of their actions and he would not accept excuses. If I came home late from town after a class because I had a flat tire on my bike, he would not accept it. He would ask what was in my mind, what thought had created the circumstance that made me late for my duties at home? He looked behind everything. Instead of allowing us to stop at the excuse, he made us go beyond and find that phenomenon in the mind that created the situation, which did not permit us to perform our duty. So there were no excuses. I remember that many people could not accept that about Swamiji, and they misinterpreted him, but he acted with the most profound love. He had only one concern for his students, including me, and that was that he wanted our spiritual evolution. He wanted that more than anything else and if that meant giving me a scolding or really letting me have it, then he would do it. Even if he knew that I might get angry or might turn against him, it was not as important as teaching me the lesson I had to learn. This was equally true of the relationship between Swamiji and the rest of his students. The most important thing to him was that they grew spiritually. He didn’t care whether they hated him or loved him. He used to say that he taught literally thousands of useless, worthless hippies and gave them purpose and health and strength and turned their lives around. He then would kick them out and tell them to go and live like human beings, and most of them hated him for it. He showed them the truth about themselves, forced them to face it – and after seeing their true selves, they changed and transformed themselves. Their ego would not allow them to admit it so they either had to admit that they were ‘useless hippies’ and praise the guru, or deny it and hate the guru. It proved much easier to hate the guru. So there was a rough aspect to his teaching because it was so effective. I saw its transformational value and I knew what he had done for me. Of course, I was married to him but I did run away from him three times! I realized each time, and especially the last time, that if I did not return to Swamiji, I would not be able to perform even the tiniest Yoga practice that he had taught me. If I rejected him, then I would have to reject everything he had taught me also. What he had taught me was so valuable, so wonderful and so precious that I could not live without it. So I had to return to him, otherwise I could not honor the teaching.
As I grew in spiritual maturity, his teachings with me became less harsh because I had become more sensitive. Towards the end of his life, I felt that I had become extremely sensitive. According to an Indian tradition, when you realize that a student is dull, you have to hit them with a stick. If the student is only a little dull then you scold them; if the student is intelligent and sensitive, you correct them with one word, and if the student is very sensitive, then one look is enough. The way Swamiji dealt with people was always different. With some he used a softer manner and for others, a severe manner. Most spiritual seekers are not nearly as advanced as they think they are, and don’t even know themselves. They don’t know their faults, and it is very difficult to clear all that away in order to receive the teaching. Swamiji often used to say to people that they didn’t need a guru, they needed a doctor or a lawyer or a psychiatrist. He said that their problems were not spiritual problems and that they should go off and clean up their material problems before seeking the spiritual life. People came seeking spirituality thinking that there was going to be some magic answer that would solve their problems, but that was their delusion.
I wake up every morning and I am very happy to be alive, to be where I am and to be doing what I’m doing. I am happy and contented, and at the same time I feel that my consciousness is unfolding as a flower unfolds; and I feel a blossoming and moving closer to where I need to be. I would say that the journey is the goal and the goal is God-realization. It’s not as if I am suffering and one day I won’t be suffering anymore. I can say that my life is one of enjoyment, and teaching my students is my sadhana. When I’m choreographing a dance drama it is also my sadhana, when I’m writing a book it’s my sadhana, so everything is sadhana. What is sadhana? Sadhana is a Sanskrit word, which comes from ‘sat’, ultimate reality and ‘dharana’, to hold fast. So for me, sadhana is to hold tight, to concentrate on the truth. I feel that everything that I am doing is sadhana and that is my truth. Sadhana is the journey and sadhana is also the goal because at any moment I may just slip into the shining sea and that will be that. Swamiji often told us that we are never going to experience samadhi. He said that we shouldn’t even think about it because when samadhi occurs, there is no-one within the body to experience that samadhi, so you cannot actually ‘experience’ samadhi. Nobody wanted to hear that because everybody wanted to be able to experience samadhi. They imagine it to be like a LSD high, they think it’s an ecstatic orgasm that’s going to last till eternity. We cannot imagine it because there’s no one there to experience it. I read once that meditation is ‘concentrating more and more, on less and less’. I think that sadhana is the process of becoming less and less. I am at the point where I don’t feel like I am doing anything. In one way I really don’t feel like I exist. That feeling of existence is hardly there. Certainly the feeling of accomplishment is long gone. I don’t feel like I am doing anything and I don’t feel that I am anybody. This is what Swamiji has taught me and I feel that this is a good thing. I don’t feel like I am losing my personality or losing myself. It doesn’t frighten me, in fact, it fills me with joy and happiness to feel this way. That is the path that Swamiji led us on.
Swamiji was always very intense personality, but in 1992, I noticed a distinct change in him as the lion became a lamb, even though he could still talk non-stop for ten to 15 hours. The extremes were present in him but he became quieter in a general sense, and he started to frighten me because his lion nature was what used to keep us all on our toes. He became much less interested in the world around him and more contemplative. He was not sick – his mind was perfectly lucid and aware – but he was withdrawing. It was clear to me that he was withdrawing from life and the image I had of him at that time was of a man walking up a mountain: we were standing at the bottom and we had to watch him walk up alone, knowing he would not come back. Swamiji then began to cut down on his food intake. He always liked his food but he was not a glutton, he was a gourmet. In November he began to eat smaller amounts of simple food, and then he only took liquids. We tried to make him eat other things but he refused by saying, “Let me do what I have to do”. He left his body on December 29th 1993. In one way he had prepared us with his gradual withdrawal so there wasn’t a shock in that sense, but there was of course an immense sadness because we loved him so much. We loved his physical body, we loved his personality and everything about him, and to know that he had gone was very sad for me.
Swamiji was a rishi who was could transform those who were able to tolerate the transformation. The modern Yoga teacher does not necessarily transform. They may make you feel happier and stronger and more flexible and they teach you asanas and pranayamas but you walk in the door one person and you walk out the door that same person. You may be happier and have a better attitude to life for some time, but that total transformation of the personality can only occur in the guru kula, when you are living right at the feet of the guru.
I love this country with such a passion and sometimes I think it was a curse that I love her so much but I have no attachment to India as a nation, or to America as a nation. I have no attachment to nation states. If you ask me who I am and where I live, I would say that I am a universal being, and I live in the universe. My culture is Indian, so citizenship for me was a symbol that this beautiful country, to whom I have given my total love, has finally accepted me. It’s not rational or logical, and I have never voted, but I belong to this land and nobody can take that away from me. I received my citizenship in 1992, and that was one of the happiest days of my life.
wow! what a story. I appreciate that she goes into some detail
of what it takes to overcome the personality, or the ego. Becoming who you are does require traversing your shadowland and that can at times be an excruciating journey!
The reason why the aspirants think warmly of “Mother India,” is that the Hindus appear to offer the ultimate ascension of human power, unto Brahman. You don’t quite separate or untangle in your minds, exactly where “you” would be then without any personal experience whatsoever, you just think about a lot of power over the world. This is a fault of worshiping Mammon, like it says in the Bible. Mammon is other humans. You fall under the sway of the senses, and believe in the power that you can see, man’s might, but God is Invisible and His power is beyond your grasp. The Lord or a true spiritual authority could appear anywhere on Earth, including South America or the Caribbean.
Omshanti Prerena
Our days of happiness are just round the corner. After the night of ignorance comes the day of knowledge and just prior to this is the dawn. The time that we are now living in is that most auspicious age and is celebrated by Hindus all over the world as deepavali. It signifies victory of good over evil and a new beginning of a life full of divine virtues.The biggest mistake of elongating the duration of each of the ages has been the cause of our downfall.It becomes very overwhelming for the intellect when we mention million years ago.
It is no longer enough to be good and do good.It is now our golden chance to go beyond being either very good or even excellent. This stage of perfection requires a qualification of having unadulterated faith and love for God,the seed of this unlimited human world tree.
As this tree is now old and decayed and it’s trunk no longer there,a sapling for the new one is being planted. Each one of us have a right to water this seed and enable a natural growth of this kalpa tree into a most beautiful fragrant sandal wood tree.
It is not a human beings task to take anyone beyond. This duty belongs only to God, who is currently waiting for us all his children with his hands wide open to receive and embrace us.
Namaste
Harish
If one has a perfectly inoffensive personality, and can orient oneself to the joy-state of the other souls, then it is possible to establish a common ecstatic field. The field has no anger, and the people enjoy cooperating and spending time together on many activities. To perceive and support the field is likely the stuff of gods and goddesses, for it has not occurred yet, even in your million years ago. The ego annihilates the field inherently. It is already ruining the field, as thoughts are generated. So I am speaking about the egoless or non-dual beings.
There is a space above the sadhus and their gurus, unexpected and denied. The space is a consequence of serious spiritual awareness beyond a few minor experiences. The space does not look like a good place, to egos, but to those who can perceive and dwell in the space, the flow of ecstasy never ceases.
The space is defined by the conquest of every dominating tendency, the ascendency of reason, control over emotion, and a direct spiritual perception where the abiding pure personality is encountered as real. The space is not conversant with the spaces of mortals. The powers of those who can dwell on this higher plane are mighty, and if these are revealed two worlds arise, like night and day by culture and custom.
Digesting Hindu knowledge in Western framework and reselling to Indians and world over is amazing phenomena in last few decades.
Some claims as original work, and some try to find roots in Judo-Christianity.
No doubt, Hindu-Rishis were genius. Plagiarizing their work and removing their references is pure cheating and misconduct in some writers’ part.
Omshanti Sunil
Even the rishis and munis declare ” neti,neti,neti”, meaning,this is not God,this is not God,this is not God. They are unable to give an accurate introduction of God and his occupation. Never the less, we should have a lot of respect and regard for them,because it is through the sanyasi religion that Bharath has been saved from total degradation.
Namasteh
Harish
Dharma has been digested by Americans with the original sources made to disappear. The Tiger digesting the Deer remains the Tiger, in fact stronger, but the Deer turns into a pile of shit. This has happened to many civilizations that were also similarly “assimilated” into Christianity and the west – but they now live in museums!
Omshanti Veda,
This is why there is a saying “history repeats itself”. Bharath will once again become the golden sparrow and a crown in the jewel. Patience is a great virtue and so we all have to ride the wave with dexterity and sweetness.
Namasteh Harish
Namaste Harish,
You got it all wrong, it’s other way. Have you read Rajiv Malhotra’s BEING DIFFERENT book. Unless we confront “western unversalism” it will digest and destroy Indian ethos and values. Need a hint: ever wondered what happened to ancient Greece? Its culture, beliefs, books? Ever thought about why so many Greek temples and buildings lie in ruins? Read the pages freetruth.50webs.org
Or see items here: http://christianizingbharatanatyam.blogspot.com/2011/09/in-houston-its-beginning-now.html
It’s too bad the ancient rishis are not here to defend themselves. Born in the West or the East today, these egoless beings might have demonstrated humanity had tied them down to ten percent of their potential, or less. Among those who believe in God, no one has doubted the religions offered genuine channels to salvation. Instead it could be the case that the religions were fit unto sinful man like a glove to keep his chilly hand cold, while the routes to the higher dharma, which look unappealing to man, were kept secret.
The Upanishads are like a burp, you know, magnificent perhaps but vague and open to selfish interpretations by egoic man. A true rishi worth his salt could generate much more discourse and make it clear humans are impossibly distant from the divine standards, even under their best efforts. Or he could manifest the higher dharma by example, acting like a divine entity under his full power. Everyone thinks a sage gathers pupils. No one thought multiple sages could create a different land.
Omshanti John,
The dimension you speak of should be our aim and objective in our spiritual endeavours and to teach and guide us to this stage is the task of the highest on high supreme teacher,whom we lovingly refer to as gyaneshvar & yogeshvar.
Namasteh
Harish
HI Harish,
You live in a different world and have very limited thought process, sharing views is fine ” Namaste Harish” but don’t impose it.
And before posting please understand the essence of the text and then share your views.
Surely that will give you a better gyan.
Do read as per suggestion above.
Namaste Margdarshi
I am deliberately limiting my thought process so as to put a full stop to negative and waste thoughts. In this way I am able to practice soulconsciouness and easily go beyond this world. Going on this true spiritual pilgrimage is the birth right of all human souls. Omshanti and namaste
Harish
The pure-souled ones move mountains. Getting up in the morning, they are aware of the potential of a common ecstatic field before generating thought, word and action. The egos by contrast, unaware of spirit, follow a private project of “mine,” and then attempt to twist thought and speech around to give an appearance of one who cares, for the sake of renown.
To the pure-souled ones, upholding the common ecstatic field is the top priority, for they know the purpose of creation is ecstatic joy. The egos by contrast annihilate the field with every negative thought or urge, greed or anger, of which they have thousands each day, attempting to repress it but also growing cantankerous against one another, from conflicting desires. Only the pure-souled are holy, because the field remains unharmed by them, and they also learn to add unto it, in profound ways.
If the pure-souled ones confront one another with no egos intervening, then the rishis can enter their forward modes, where humans kept them trapped in backward modes, ten percent or less of their potential as divine entities. To the humans it looks like nothing is occurring, but every motive is now selfless, every interaction profoundly personal and memorable. Joy and ultimate meaning are found each moment, and love is applied as a response by logic to observations about the abiding qualities of nobility.
The pure souls cooperate with each other and through the power of their selfless love and hearts filled with mercy ,they are able to uplift mankind.
For this to happen, every second of this most benevolent age has to be used in a worth while way. One second of this time has a connection with so any future births. The cross symbol in the Christian religion is a memorial of the “I” being cancelled. For us to be the conquerers of ego,we need to donate this weakness to the purifier. The reward of renouncing this is shown in the bhagvatam as the super sensuous joy of the gopis.
Not only ecstasy comes from above the senses, but an independent and original moral standard from perception of pure spirit and its properties. Knowing spirit, the rishis are able to grade the ranks of created souls, but they find these souls scattered in utter darkness, living in their senses and assigning value by comparison. These externalized minds have no internal standard, and have relied on secret work by the world-builders, that has been only partly effective because brutality can trump goodness, with just a shove.
I’m not sure I see the bridge to the egos you seem to see, because when a true authority stands up in his spiritual merits, it looks like the reverse of everything the egos hold dear, which is domination, prestige and pleasures. The ego gains its delights by posture so the others can see and believe, but the rishis who can perceive the traits of noble personality, abandon posture since the real is so obviously seen. Can an ego drive after what is not-ego? Hasn’t it always been the case that to lure them heavenward, it was necessary to put on pretend forms of ego? The full divine repels egos, for it represents the end of their cause.
Humans define virtue by a mass response. They see another human face that does not like what they are doing or saying, but also has the power to move against them, perhaps by invoking social opprobrium, or by more direct means. This is social conditioning, that has been proceeding by a type of evolution all along in history. The standards in the matrix are defined by egos striking at one another. This has been assisted by covert support by the world-builders and the Holy Spirit, that helped to twist the egos a little ways from brutal domination, into subtler and less violent forms. Easwaran was still under this spell. As he tried to discuss virtue, he only meant what the others would think.
The higher virtue knows itself as just, without reference to the thoughts of others, instead operating from awareness of pure spirit and its properties. Looking from this angle, the horror egoic parents feel when confronted with an angelic child not hiding his attributes from them is more comprehensible. They are expecting the child to be referencing their comments and actions for his moral choices, not deriving his morality from his own inner knowledge. Someone else who has inner morality will find the presence of another like that, invigorating and delightful. To egoic parents, though, it looks like the child has entered a trackless land that could be incredibly immoral, for all they can see.
Hi Andrew,
I am really surprised that You call yourself a spiritual guru and can be aggressive in your writings as if you are instructing not preaching. I was there in the presentation which you gave in India, trust me I couldn’t understand what you were speaking, either it was very high as per my intellect or you were truly unconvincing to connect to the audience. Just because you were a foreigner who wanted to share his philosophy coping the most from the Indian Vedas and Upanishads. Can you answer my query- “in which country you went and got your enlightenment ?”.
I think for every country you visit you must be having some logic to like it or dislike it, hence it is better suggested that you keep doing karma and don’t expect results. This is what we call as “Nishkarma” and every Indian practices it, as he learns this from his mothers womb, no need for any so called spiritual leader or master to coach it.
My message to you is to guide Americans only to adopt “Nishkarma” and ensuring that you do not interfere and confuse the Human beings to take to your learning’s to achieve nothing.
Have you visited Himalayas by the way! try out once you will find enlightenment.
The connection that the entire world fails to see is that God is our eternal parent and unless we become totally egoless,bodiless and viceless we are not able to sit on his heart throne. The soul of Christ established the religion of christianity by paying special attention to renouncing egoism, but the viciousness of the people full of arrogance at that time crucified Jesus. So the need of the hour is to be on constant guard and not allow any of the evil spirits to enter us. Souls that rem in busy in making this effort are the true rushis that you mention and are the knowers of the three aspects of time.
The parent model is drawn from the human realm. God is seen as the Father, who blusters loudly from a distance but does not scrutinize too closely, and may even share in some of the errors of His “children.” The right idea about God is that He is imperious, following His own wisdom, unreachable by prayer from the human plane. God is the Eternal Critic, always ready to offer words of advice, but sharing none of the errors or eccentricities of those He has created.
Did Jesus really give any useful advice? Didn’t He merely repeat the self-conceit of the egos back to them? The religions have given man the illusion he has metaphysical power, although he has none. Why didn’t Jesus introduce the idea of universal healthcare in an uncompromising way? Why did He only talk, instead of writing out his thoughts clearly through tools that were available at the time? Those parables allowed men to glorify themselves falsely, believing they had power over birth and death, although they have none.
Why did Moses give ten commandments, instead of the thousand that humanity required to steer itself straight? It hardly looks like God at all, or an inattentive God that had other things on His mind and did not bother to avail Himself of an early opportunity to educate people about resource conservation, before these had been in danger of exhaustion. The viciousness of egos, the “evil spirits,” continues to seethe hotly just below the surface of the matrix of schmoozing which is human society, preventing any and all serious guidance from the Deity.
Namaste John
Whatever has happened in the past was predestined and cannot be changed now. That was the role of those souls. It is only when everything reaches total degradation that the innocent lord,the lord of the poor comes to create heaven from hell.Just as he is incognito,his task is also incognito.
Omshanti
Harish
People are not seeking the Lord. The religions were set up to allow people to look down at the Lord and rishis. The ego is a curious character, difficult to describe. Its self-concept is of the one who experiences the senses, and its “whole world” is the local, private sense experience. The world is being destroyed as we interact, because of this limitation. No ego is able to think holistically about the whole Earth in its total time frame, or even about its whole life, that ends at death.
The ego is locked in an object-consideration of others, because it has no experience of the soul or living spirit. It is unable to notice the abiding traits of others and so it assigns them positions in its domination-field. If you cannot notice the noble traits and apply love on that basis, your social projection can only be selfish in nature. Thinking of others as desire-ones, you agree to support their desires, in order to be in control, to obtain certain behaviors.
When Lao-tse announced the Tao could not be spoken, he meant the egos literally could not be told about the higher dharma, which is based on spiritual effects rather than material effects. Only those already capable of dwelling in the higher dharma, are fit to hear about it. It is entered from those who have a superior being-state, that is not achievable by humans. You can look at it this way too. Rather than simply warning people not to believe those claiming to be Him, Jesus could have revealed His higher standards in an uncompromising way, until no ego would ever want to pretend to that.
People are calling and crying out to God. This is easily visible when there is a natural disaster or during man made wars when we hear the cries of distress of those suffering.
Then when he does incarnate on this earth,God teaches us how to become a free bird from being a jail bird.
The suffering of humans does not unite them with God. Man’s project has been one of foolishly seeking an infinite material expansion, that the Earth cannot really sustain. From the perspective of each man, only his family is seen, but the aggregate of families is exponential growth, that Malthus warned would consume any amount of available resources. As they invest in this project by private desire, humans cry out to God or other humans, whoever they think can help them continue as they had derived meaning by external comparison. In practice they believe they have God under their control, having manipulated His favorable opinion by their solemn rituals they are sure will impress anyone.
Ramakrishna referred to a class of individuals called the “ever-free,” that I think really exists and hides among the ordinary men. I think the rishis are still around, in other words, and from a pure selfless core they have expressed support of humanity’s spiritual growth in a non-pretentious manner, although all their wit and skill could not prevent the loss of the resources which steadily increases each year. Without these rishis, God’s glory cannot be seen on this planet, since in the bodies of intelligence (as opposed to the animal bodies), this consists of a higher dharma springing from awareness of pure spirit, unmingled with sense contagion, desire or lust. This is strong consciousness, while weak consciousness mainly dwells in the senses, making decisions without a higher reference point.
No one has the soul-shaking angst which would allow the Lord or a true authority to approach them directly. You say you see humans suffering, but I say it is not very deep. They are never shocked into a higher, better, or warmer system thereby, which would help to keep all physical bodies secure all the time. When the war or disaster is over they go back to business as usual, that always has its share of denying the needs of people who deserved more. A man with this raw credential, that he has a desire to engage in quality labor for the sake of the happiness of others in his community, should be enough that the system provides all the essentials of living to him. That is the right and honorable condition. Instead humans expect men to fend for themselves and their family, in competition against the rest, like they just cannot get over being tigers in the forest. But no system can ever succeed, during a population explosion.
In fact it is only because God liberates us from sorrow and bestows upon us happiness that we all have so much love for him.
His coming in the darkest night of sorrow and ignorance of this human world transforms it into day of happiness filled with wisdom. This proves that he is the creator of heaven from hell. Upon his coming he instigates the formation of rudra gyan yagya( sacrificial fire of knowledge) for the betterment of this world and it’s complete purification. Ordinary human beings that recognise him as the almighty authority follow his directions and become true raj rishis . Such fortunate souls become his right hands and help in his task of world transformation so that there is only one big family. Our interaction with others then becomes selfless as each of our actions then become based on being trustees of God the father.
The rishis do not presently recognize themselves as such, because the humans around restrict them to ten percent or less of their potential. They must keep the limited forms of human thought upon their minds, and try to express some sympathy for their egoic darkness, if they would not be brutally cut out of society and for the sake of their world-building work (like you mention, trustees of the Father). If they examine their situation, they’ll find that the sympathy is all one-sided, that their love for those around them is not returned.
I like to muse about who might be a potential rishi. I think Keith Green was a rishi, who like John the Baptist was something of a voice crying in the wilderness, and whose life also came to a violent end. He used to sing, “You put this love in my heart,” and, “We are like windows stained with the colors of the rainbow.” Now I’m listening to Charlie Hall, who seems to have had a direct personal encounter with the Lord, perhaps in ages past. He sings, “Beautiful are the words spoken to me, beautiful is the one who is speaking,” and, “Doesn’t my heart burn within me?” Those are on his “Flying into Daybreak,” CD.
I think you err, in presuming God has the power to save all people. Disease and human depravities prove that God has limits, and salvation is not guaranteed for the souls. They have their own wills, and run away too hard to be caught by Him. It is only flattery, if you try to credit God with all powers you can imagine. He is only impressed when He sees genuine affection and cooperation between the people which is both stable and has a degree of profundity, to express the magic and mystery of creation.
You may want to try to better incorporate the Hindu teaching about samskaras into your thinking, understanding the burden of these latent tendencies in the unconscious mind may be much larger than people were given to believe, by the early scriptural revelations. Looking around today, I’ve come to the conclusion that is easy to prove, that nirvikalpa samadhi itself is insufficient to purify the total soul. If the soul is truly seen, one knows one’s own limits, and is able to discriminate when superior or inferior personalities are present, including an ability to recognize the Lord, whose thoughts do not originate in a created soul.
That was the meaning, when Ramakrishna told Vivekananda, “Samadhi is a very small thing.” I think that Vivekananda was also one of the hidden rishis, but he was not revealing his full personality (which like that of all rishis is non-domineering, that seems like death to egos). The rishis have an independent morality, derived from direct spiritual knowledge. They have a high, stark, cold place from which to descend into experience of the body, so that all sense experience is correlated into personal awareness of the divine core. They appear as if behind a wall, that humans cannot penetrate. They don’t know what is going on behind the wall, why those people move and speak as they do, for the pure selfless personality is from light, and they are from darkness. The ego begins with a “mine” from raw sense perception without spiritual insight, making all others intrinsic enemies over the object-field. The rishis, like you imply here in coded script, bring all their actions into a context of spiritual growth, to which the objects are a mere backdrop. The objects men treasure, are burdens to angels.
I’m sorry, I meant to keep these comments brief. I don’t know what I am doing here. I do not mean to interrupt Andrew’s work. His motions are not consonant with mine. He takes his crowd to a place, but it is not a place I envision. I’ll only keep going here if you keep writing, Harish, since I have been feeling a little bored and this helps remind me the world may yet have unheralded possibilities.
Namaste John
It is not long before the entire world will say,he is the one,he is the one…
As omnipotent, he has the power to transform this old world into a new one,hell into heaven and a brothel into a temple.
Through his accurate remembrance we are able to incinerate the burden of the alloy of sins accumulated over so many births as well as the vicious sankaras that do not belong to us. Whilst attaining perfection in this manner,we send out good vibrations to the world and this is what makes us his serviceable children,worthy of his unlimited and imperishable inheritance.
Just as Andrew has a speciality,so you too have the speciality of love for the truth as it is. And to continue having a spiritual dialogue means to chase away.
Lastly John, be rest assured that you are using your time in a worth while way.
Remember where we are, Harish. Andrew does not acknowledge the Lord in a special way. He tolerates such talk, but like the other gurus he has little comment about the singular response of Christians and Hindus to an expectation of one divine Avatar ruling over all. I think Andrew teaches that Jesus was just an early enlightened figure, and not very bright at that! According to his doctrines, the old figures are now transcended by today’s gurus. There aren’t millions of people singing hymns about Andrew, at least yet!
You repeat the old line from the Bible, that every eye will see, and every knee will bow. That ideal has had a deep impact on the egoic mentality. I too used to think it might occur this way, but the ideal presumes humans staring at the Lord and responding to Him directly would be a good thing, and I doubt this. It depends on the degree of separation. It could be the case, that egos operating under their greatest powers, would be so indescribably foul to the living Lord, He could not bear to be with them. The Christians presume their presence to be a manifest good, but they do not seriously acknowledge the inner depravity, or understand the Lord might prefer grander company, as it is among the angels of Heaven.
If your self-image is of a desire-one, then you see only desire-ones, as you look at others. The Christians therefore see Jesus as a desire-one, and by this they believe they have placated Him with their somber ceremonies. They do not see the Lord as an opponent, but believe He will support them each in their private desires, as they have declared standards of goodness for themselves. The only thing which would satisfy them is one “private Lord” for each, validating all their desires, but they would still be in conflict with other humans, by the very nature of selfish desire. They cast hymns into the air above their heads, but by this “the Lord” is twisted around to be what they want, that is not a real entity. Each has a “mental idol,” in other words, and the Lord smashes those.
Hey, if what you say really happens, if the whole world is transformed into an image of the divine overnight, who am I to complain about it? I don’t stand in the way of any such thing, but the true divine standards are incredibly high, radically unlike anything seen on this planet before, so you don’t have a valid comparison available. The pure virtues were never declared in the religions. One of these is the human-busting true friendliness. In this, one is able to recognize the intrinsic and noble traits of others, and apply a chaste but powerful affection on this basis. Humans do not truly like one another, and also lack likable qualities. This is why communitarian efforts among them have failed. Jesus told men to love one another, even as He had loved them. But He did not clarify this meant tremendous order in the soul, to recognize what is truly good in another person, and total control over the emotions, to apply them after the rational faculty had done its work, to support what is objectively good.
It would be great if a True God descended, whose omnipotent power could transform all sinners into saints. You speak about the burdens of past births, but like everyone today you are not counting past solar cycles, nor are you looking forward to the five billion years remaining on Earth, and solar cycles after that. I’m expecting more drama than you suppose, as those who are arising from the animals go on clinging to their heritage, driving them towards money and the family, and away from selfless love and community. Even if you could drag those people over into a good appearance, they can only get this by repression, since transformation is the work of thousands or millions of lifetimes. You could gain a cold obedience, but the heart of warmth is beyond their powers and awareness. The inertia is immense in the souls, and it is likely their mental machinery would literally shut down, under a pure selfless scenario. They need to keep reaching out for selfish ends, because they have no experience of spirit, to appreciate its joys and growth.
If the creatures only improve slowly in quality of being, you cannot have “one world,” as they have already demonstrated their divisive tendencies, which are native to their condition. The ego only has an external perception, with no experience of spirit. Therefore much or most of its opinion is generated only to be different from the other people that it perceives, not from accurate reflections on objective good. When the egos have attempted communes, they begin grinding on one another after a few months, for this reason, and then they eventually break apart, each telling himself, “It is for the best.”
In order to have a truly flavorful or colorful world, the individual entities require greater powers, so that they can come independently to similar conclusions about community life. They also require immense creative power, to generate exciting and wonderful interactions without any trace of greed or anger ever tainting the daily situation. You speak of Heaven in one breath with a brothel, but I think there is a greater separation, that may end up infinite in extent. Show me those amazing powerful people, capable of rejoicing in cooperative efforts and spending much time together in nightly recreation, then you can have your Heaven on Earth. They just don’t stand up on their own, you know. There is no option for rapid change, malevolence and torpor are native traits of ego, and so there are demons as well as angels in the world God has made. The demons are brought into a better surface manifestation through religion, but they lack the inner standard of morality which powerful beings possess. If you can transform them, though, I won’t stop you.
Just one more paragraph, then I’ll shut up for today. I am suspecting your vision of an overnight transformation, is a reflection of the rishis awakening to their fuller potencies, and then building a separate society from that of the humans, that is totally selfless to the extent it is then like we have two planets with separate races, not just one, with one race in the human bodies. If this is to occur, when the rishis recognize the Lord it is likely to be highly covert, so that the humans do not see the faces of devotion, that might cause them to confuse the Lord with a dominating priest, guru, or other of the local authorities they prefer. I think the rishis are so good, humans could not distinguish one from the Lord, but also that the selfless traits are noxious to humans, looking like the reverse of their hopes and dreams. Seeing a mighty rishi in full public view, as may already be occurring in certain places, the humans would say, “Anywhere but there.” The glorious attributes have depths, that only another person with such depths will be able to perceive.
Namaste John
Just as me and you are children of God, so too is Andrew and his facility to gather souls with a very loving intellect for God is being utilised in a worth while way, so rather than being tolerant,it is his virtue of cooperation that we should admire.
Each one of us is on a journey and so we are all number wise in our efforts as well as our rewards. Religious founder souls came at their own time and established respective religions. Each religion then went through it’s phase of being pure,mediocre and then totally impure. It is only at the very fag end of this world wheel drama cycle that e father of all religious founder souls aswell as all the souls of the world incarnates and begins to put right what has gone wrong.
Through his guidance and sustenance we once again become deities from ordinary human beings. He enables us to conquer the vices and become worthy heirs of the kingdom that the highest on high God establishes. The memorial of this is in each of the holy scriptures and I know that in Hindi,they refer to this is paradise as dwaraka or vaikunth.
So now we have to decide which family we want to belong to. On one side is the divine family,whose members are virtuous and on the other side is the devilish community.
In a nut shell , to experience God as he is,we first need to be obedient children of his. This means,hear no evil,do no evil,see no evil and speak no evil. By observing this fast, we too allow ourselves to be his instruments in his incognito task of world transformation through self tranasformation.
Ves
Harish, in general the divine personages hidden among the humans do not carry with them an adequate idea about the depravity of the ego, which literally has no scruples. All the ego’s moral appearance is externally derived, for it has no experience of pure spirit and its properties. Egoic consciousness is also reactionary. The egos bounce off one another and the material plane, and generate a system that is actually closed to the higher truths, although they flatter themselves as being open-minded. This is what I’ve called the matrix, after Keanu’s film. The people dwelling in the matrix are smooth to one another, but vicious against genuine personality. The “forward modes” of the rishis require support and responsiveness, but humans force everything to their level by ridicule and worse tricks. The ego literally sees only itself, and its project is domination of all local sense objects, which includes the people–for it has no experience of living spirit.
I think we’re living on borrowed time, here on Andrew’s blog. My feeling is that we’ve overstepped our welcome, and it is only a short time until some action is taken. Andrew wrote in this post that he wanted to see some more world-shaking, from original thinkers. But I think that voice comes from inside the matrix, and the separation of Heaven from hell runs deep, into the field of gurus who only confront one another, not the true divine. What has gone before is a very little thing. It is fascinating enough for those with egos, a kick-start on their sadhanas, but it is incredibly distant from the Heart of God, which is warm but completely above material reaction. One can speak endlessly about cooperation and love, but unless that Heart is there, there can be no final success. But the path to the Heart is steep and long, and the result too high to be described to those below. Words are just little fragments, a thin veil upon the real being.
If you talk about it, they won’t understand it. If they see it, they won’t like it. What is pure repels that which is impure, like oil from water. Andrew has actually codified one of the worst aspects of egoism, in his doctrine of creative tension. What he is citing, is the ego’s general tendency to seek sensible difference, in pursuit of a self-sense (for it has no experience of a personality from above the senses, the abiding or intrinsic traits). Creative tension is going to destroy any community. I think only the pure souls will be able to coexist in more or less complete agreement about the fundamental decisions about daily living, and that to see this will frustrate egos endlessly. The rishis don’t find their personalities in sensible distinction. They will say, “We do things this way, it is the best way,” with no division between them. It is not because they have a common mind, which is another misleading teaching of Andrew’s, but because they stand stalwart and independent, coming to similar conclusions from logical minds. See, logic sounds cold to egos, but the highest life begins with the rational faculty. Love is added unto it by power, so that the truth is supported by emotional warmth. You love for a reason, but humans call love irrational. For them it is generally grasping, as they treat one another as desire-ones, and call it love to accommodate or support one another’s desires. Perhaps there is a real personality there, but it is buried beneath thick layers of desire, until it cannot be seen.
The world is not looking for a critic, when it looks for God. The sadhus are not looking for someone who is very different from them, when they look for an authority. This is the ego perpetuating itself, feeling inclined toward those who are similar, and disinclined against those who are very different. However, the high divine must be radically different. My point these days is that it is too different. It looks like the reverse of a happy state, to the egos. You can only live by the divine standard when you have substantial ecstasy from above the senses, and can perceive the intrinsic and noble traits of those around you. Then you can rejoice with their joy, instead of grinding unhappily over it. This allows unity between people, and for divine persons the community would be the first choice for a living situation. They have powerful minds, and want to use that power to form intense and profound mental models for many others, hundreds or thousands, whom they meet frequently. But you cannot have greed or anger anywhere nearby.
Jesus said He would return in power and glory, but the world is not expecting the rapid appearance of a different order of being. The world believes it has captured God, but this is only because the religious revelations were given from a mouth half closed, telling sly lies that would make the divine appear compatible with egos, in order to motivate them to give their best and help to form the externalized moral standards which they require if they are to rise above bestial manifestations (not all of them have succeeded in this). Every mind must be in enmity against the Creator, until it rises to purity and awareness of spirit above the senses, establishing order in the soul and a pristine incorruptible logic. With egos reason rises only high enough to suit its selfish purposes; these are enacted first, then the rational faculty covers the tracks and offers up excuses, laden with fallacies.
If you want to see the egos nearby, then here are some signs. One of the most telling things, showing the ego is involved in a project of domination, is that they only allow you to rise to a certain level of joy; the ego even tries to control the joy-state of those around it. It wants you to have some happiness, but only enough to allow it to feel validated in its desires. This is egoic “compassion,” reaching out to especially miserable ones. But if you show any sign of ecstatic exuberance it is immediately crushed by ridicule and a thousand other devious channels. If you look too happy the ego strikes you down, since it conceives of itself as the only one, the center of its sense experience, to which the others are competitors over the object-field. It is jealous of the joy of others, as it conceives happiness is to be found in the object-field, where it also conceives the others to be rooting around. If you are too exuberant, the ego calls you an “obstreperous object.”
Then if you believe in the goodness of mankind, you have to show me their entertainment beyond violence. Every novel, every movie ever made, presumes there will be jealousy, hatred, and other foul motives. Humans may cease from external violence, but they like to read about it. I asked someone what type of movies he likes to watch and he answered, “Anything with explosions.” He doesn’t think about the mayhem of explosions against human flesh, or the anguish of victims maimed, that must be endured for a lifetime. Another one, that is pretty funny, is that you won’t find any depictions in novels or cinema of a happy marriage! The approach has been that it is thrilling to engage in the romance before marriage, but after that a cliff is encountered, that no one finds entertaining. Probably this is why Shakespeare chose to have Romeo and Juliet, expire.
The richest zones of creativity have to exist after violence is no longer in the mind, but humanity has not made it to square one in this regard, nor are they tending that direction. You cannot just be an ecstatically happy person, there has always got to be someone sticking it to you. But it is not right to take a private happiness. Really the heart should thrill to see ecstatic others, and to see a successful community filled with such people. I’m calling for the establishment of the common ecstatic field, but the ego inherently annihilates that field in the very germ of its thinking. Only if the rishis are free from seeing greed or anger around themselves for many months or years, can they enter their forward modes and the field rise to its more powerful manifestations. If there is a bridge from that to the egos, I don’t know what it is.
Namasteh John
I think we have served our purpose here if people get inspired to let go of egoism. Your realisation of how egoism is an obstacle in spirituality is worth under lining. In addition to remaining free from anger and greed,it is also vitally important to remain free from lust as this is the biggest enemy of human beings.
So the connection between being victorious in conquering the ego and defeat is renounciation of all the vices by establishing in the original religion of the soul. Through continued effort over a long time of period,success is guarnteed and this is how we are able to transform ourselves from being mere mortals to angels.
Nicely put, except I’d say greed is the root samskara, of which lust is a component. Then, anger arises over frustrated greed, and fear arises when anger fails and it is seen nothing can be done to achieve the desire.
It may be that more instruction can be given over how to recognize and tame the samskaras, but this activity is not compatible with the full divine life of the pure souls. They have to bend over and try to understand what it is like to have a sock over your head, which diminishes the current of bliss that is their ordinary lifestyle.
The sadhus do not know they have samskaras. Eknath Easwaran, despite going through nirvikalpa samadhi, could not recognize he had purified just a few percent of the vast unconscious mind. The scriptures derided the pursuit of pleasure and renown, but failed to mention that domination over others is also a form of pleasure, and this fills the lives of the gurus. To retreat from domination is not easy.
The priests and gurus give the people more of what they want, a chance for humans to write their own story between themselves. Does any of them have the actual authority of heaven? I don’t think so.
The mother of all vices is the ghost of bodiconsciouness and can easily and naturally tamed by going back to the basics. The first chapter of Srimad bhagvad Gita deals with this very well. Here the almighty authority explains to all of us his children the immortal nature of the soul and how not to be attacked by the five evil spirits i.e lust,anger,greed,attachment and ego. Notice how lust is placed first as it is the most dangerous off all.
In an incognito way,as gelded of God the father, angels are performing the elevated task of transforming this old and impure world into a new pure world. This is why they have shown angels as always flying , their feet never touch the ground or mud of bodiconsciouness. They remain flying with the wings of zeal n enthusiasm and fuel of purity.
Priests and gurus are playing their own predestined roles in this unlimited
world drama cycle. It is not their part to be spiritual guides to the lost
souls. This task only belongs to the elevated souls like dadichi Rishi who sacrifice completely and remain right hands of the incorporeal supreme father.
Finally, I am pleased to let you know that as our spiritual father,God has brought heaven on the palm of his hands and giving it to those that are his heirs.
Harish
You speak of lust as most dangerous in practice, but I was speaking of origins in primal consciousness, where the raw awareness without experience of spirit first encounters the senses, and says, “Mine.” From there it next classifies the objects, calling some more desirable than others, beginning its game of amazing complexity until it looks nearly rational as it stands there greedily, in the nest of its desires. Actually if you reverse the list from the Bhagavatam here, it correlates more with my description of development, with attachment being the first motion of ego upon encountering the senses, then a desire for more objects gives rise to greed. Lust has sometimes destabilized the human communitarian efforts, but usually it is plain dislike and incompatibilities to arise as each jockeys, without any experience of spirit, for a self-idea based on sensible distinction. That’s some justification for anger coming first in the reversed list, although the point is debatable and both anger and lust cause great trouble in human affairs.
The conflicts between egos arise often because of a felt-need to establish individuality, where the intrinsic or abiding traits of personality have not been seen. Let’s start at the top, with the samadhi-gurus. You will notice the actual teachings of Andrew, Da Free John, Osho and Easwaran differ in irreconcilable ways. If they are all enlightened, still their teachings are not compatible, for instance where Da Free John pegs himself as the sole Avatar, or where Andrew has avoided discussing bhakti or devotion to God, that was central to Easwaran’s teaching. There are many other points of incompatibility between these equally qualified gurus, and they have not themselves noticed or addressed these incompatibilities. That they are unable to grade their students accurately as for spiritual progress, is another sign they are not pure enough yet to establish individuality on the basis of the intrinsic traits of personality. Easwaran considered Gandhi enlightened, for instance, although Gandhi was unable to give the same signs of genuine Atman-experience, Easwaran himself gave. He was enlightened, but he could not yet list or notice the specific signs of enlightenment even in himself.
Your discourse is very pleasing here. Another important aspect of an externalized mind is insolence. Without experience before birth, the entity obtains a self-sense that is the one who experiences the senses. Humans seem to have set this aside easily by forming an idea of a body and of a bag of gas (soul), which they then conceive as separable. But body consciousness is far deeper, meaning the one who experiences the senses. If you truly perceive the soul, then you fear its loss, not only at the death of the body but in eternity at the hand of God. This is why the Bible said fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. At that stage, where a person has soul-shaking angst, the approach of the Lord or a true authority is very easy and straightforward. He or she listens with great sympathy, hoping the promise of eternal continuance to be real (rather than insolently, feeling foolishly confident the body is a secure enough platform from which to strike out at voices that it can only see as attempting to get famous and dominate the world). It is this insolence which has always prevented the Avatar from giving direct and specific guidance to humanity, and keeps the rishis hidden in the shadows. They don’t think they are in need. They believe they are in the powerful position, thinking rich debate can be shoving another aside.
Easwaran said much about body consciousness, presuming he had transcended it as he would describe his body like a coat that he wore. But I say at root he thought about a body, and a bag of gas (soul) that could be separated from it, because the usual signs of transcending body consciousness were not seen in his life. He was not even aware of death. Such awareness does not come until the soul is clearly seen. None of these egos really believes they are going to die, because all they know is sense experience, whose beginnings they have forgotten and whose end they cannot imagine. This is something very hard to understand about the egos, for they learn to speak as if by authority over death. Their insolence on the approach of a true authority, proves they are not aware of the dangers to the soul. This is the persecution of the saints referred to by Jesus and many other authorities down the ages.
If the soul is well and truly seen, then the existence of an external Creator is known by firsthand experience, for there are many spiritual organs in the subtle body, which the person learns they did not craft themselves. Therefore as the current gurus proceed in their purification, a time comes when they begin announcing they know there is an external God with certainty, even without any contact with the Avatar or a rishi, as we’ve been phrasing it. At the same time the person gains sufficient power and discrimination of the mind, that he can behold and form patterns to remember the intrinsic or deeper traits of personality, in himself and those around. From this too, he can grade accurately the souls around himself, to know if he is in the presence of an inferior personality whom he might help, or a superior personality to whom he should look up for further guidance. Swedenborg discussed this, talking about the various circles of angels in Heaven, which after many solar cycles in rapid development in the disembodied state, can be so far apart that the motivations are incomprehensible, between the circles. But if there were “descended masters” on Earth, they could come easily to acceptable standards to support community living, which is the first thought of the powerful souls.
The world’s spiritual scene is notoriously devoid of the discussion of mechanisms, what exactly spirit is, how it perceives and acts. This is because such knowledge is yet beyond their spiritual attainment. If you give a description, furthermore, they are only going to be able to form mental models of what occurs in the realm of pure spirit from objects they have perceived with the senses. That original awareness is the core of what sets angels apart from men, and this is really what is meant by “spiritual knowledge.” If you have immediate knowledge of the effects on spirit, a new set of motives and actions comes to you gradually, that is radically unlike the motions of egos clawing their way across the sense plane. As part of purification you obtain the “perfectly inoffensive personality,” that never falls into irrational anger or any greed. From there the “new man” is constructed over vast time, as Jesus said.
See, all of this information could have been expressed at any time in history by those who know. It was not. Instead simplistic revelations descended so that the egos could think of themselves as on a par with the divine beings. This brings out their best behavior generally, though their ideas of God are closely linked with thoughts of the parents from childhood, who hovered over them trying to tame the ego’s raw grab with deference to the other egos, preparatory to entering the matrix. But I think the ego is going to hate what the pure state looks like, if it is ever seen on this planet. These are the people who never get angry or greedy, and prove their ascension over body-consciousness every day by living lightly on the resources and keeping all objects as a mere backdrop to the spiritual drama, that thrills them endlessly.
To give a little sign of what this is like before I stop pontificating for today, among the pure beings giving presents is like shooting missiles. The egos give their presents, you know, with an idea of return, either in gratitude but more often another gift. They’ve gotten bored with the senses, and found a clever way to feel surprised, while still accumulating their object-pile. But the pure beings live in a profound consideration of one another’s personalities in their intrinsic or real traits, so to perceive a present coming from one of them is very disturbing. You think, “He wants me to go away, he doesn’t like me being around,” or, “This must be some kind of bribe, he wants a nod of the head to validate him.” To the rishis, the possession of an object the others cannot too possess, is deeply antisocial, a rude slap in the face of the potential for a happy world. But see, the humans BEGIN their thinking, with this desire.
But it goes farther, because in the true non-possession or aparigraha, all objects are seen as types of burdens, not anything like treasures. This has immediate and drastic consequences in a group living situation. The people are almost pushing the objects into one another laps, for their mind and life is in the spirit, and they are then able to use material objects lightly and wisely, without burdening the resources. To go farther still, money, that has always been at the root of human civilization from the days of bartering in the village market, is highly unfriendly and exploitive. You are really treating the person like an object of conquest if you say, “I have a house, you cannot live in it unless you give me some cash,” or, “I have grown food, I’ll watch you starve first, unless you can find that green paper.” Then, the egos honor those who have obtained this paper, as the wealthy are able to dominate the object-field. They do not count the qualities of personality, or who is ready to make a contribution by quality labor without reference to his cash-accumulation potential (that tends to be very slight in the best people). Let me make it clear this is all practical and immediate, I’m talking about supermarkets and mortgages. Exchange is one of the foundational dualities, governing egoic thought and action. To challenge this duality has not been feasible in history, due to a violent reaction. But you only think about exchange, if you have not seen the living personality. If you perceive that, your inner life is rich, and money becomes like a degrading insult, a part of the mundane material plane hurled violently into the ecstatic field you had perceived, like mud in the face, or a cumbersome weight tied around your ankle, the old “ball and chain” by which prisoners were once held captive.
Every scene and second of this eternal world drama cycle is
Fixed. So we cannot complain or blame anyone or any guru for not teaching accurate spiritual knowledge. This task only belongs to the supreme father,the supreme soul,the supreme teacher. This highest on high knowledge that gives is not in any of the scriptures. This is why there is a saying “God your ways and means are unique”.
Through his teachings that we imbibe in our practical lives,we become karma yogis,meaning we do the actions with our hands whilst our intellect remains in connection with him. In this way,the reward of each action becomes non binding and we begin to free ourselves from the account of give and take with others.in other words,our actions become benevolent and charitable. This automatically brings into our awareness a vision of brotherhood thus cancelling the notion of profit and loss in terms of finance. Here the currency of exchange is each ones speciality. And this is what we call heaven. A place of peace,prosperity and purity.
To be a resident of heaven,each godly student has to pass with honours in the God fatherly university that he himself has established.
I found a song by Charlie hall that seems like it could only emerge from a mind well-versed in aparigraha, non-possession. He sings,
On a more humorous note, Elvis sang in his move, “Clambake” (1967).
In the same movie he also sang, “Better just a shack where two people care, than a house that has everything, everything but love.”
In another song by Charlie Hall, his mind shows traces of awareness of the common ecstatic field that can be established between entities incapable of greed or anger. See, the very concept of kindness is from duality, since it presumes unkindness was possible. If unkindness is not possible, then kindness is the normal condition, unworthy of remark. But the kindness from spirit will look cold and harsh to egos, because the non-dual minds no longer think about giving and taking. As the egos attempt to think about selflessness, they simply reverse the duality, if the ego is called greedy while always taking, perhaps it can be non-greedy if it gives more. The more powerful souls are always shining with beneficence, as you hint here. They think neither of giving nor receiving, only about the state of the whole, finding their joys in knowing they are contributing to spiritual bliss.
In another song I mentioned before, Charlie sings, “The power of your words are filled with grace and mercy, let them fall on my ears, and break my stony heart.” When you write that the world drama is “fixed,” you mean that the ego is literally unstoppable in its vanity and pride. The angelic beings or rishis, however, are flexible and able to move in great independence from the matrix by which the egos seek to stabilize one another, through repression. In Keanu’s film, the character Neo is given a choice of a red pill or a blue pill. If he chooses the blue, he remains asleep in the matrix, if he chooses the red he wakes up and must face the agonies of separation from the other sleeping yet dangerous characters. The ego is incredible in its ability to ignore what is real, in favor of its ideas that it can dominate the material plane, by merely dominating the few nearby figures. I am unfortunately confident in this, so confident that the fuller truths of what lies outside the matrix can even be revealed, but those inside the matrix never notice. You need experience, before you can comprehend, so the “red pill” must represent a reawakening of those who are not really slumbering, but had been engaged in temporary missions. It is likely to be a harrowing experience, as you start to look around yourself and see that the others slumber and cannot be awakened. Those minds are lodged in total darkness, doing dark deeds, nor do they know their evil. See, brutality does not know itself as such. Each man believes himself to be good and justified, in every action of his! So an unusual proof arises, that I call the “proof by brutality.” You tell a man in various ways that you believe his thinking is brutal, with a logical case at the ready in case he is responsive. Instead he demonstrates his brutality, growing enraged and cursing, saying, “Who the heck are you calling brutal! I’ll slug you, watch out!” This is one of the more humorous ways to demonstrate the separation of the egos from what lies above them. The proof can be engaged subtly too, avoiding a direct confrontation. Say something small, just a little different from the norm, and watch the anger that seethes just below the surface of the ego. It lives by enforcing desire. Its thinking is merely an excuse for this underlying act.
The new age enlightenment in the West which Andrew’s book is based on
Evolutionary Enlightenment. And the Traditional Enlightenment which is still practiced in the East complement one another as they are the two
sides of the coin. The Yin and Yang and the two halfs make up the whole in nature and the Universe. One half is Incomplete without the other.This is a Universal Law and Truth. One cannot function without the other in the physical Universe. Evolutionary Impulse which is the spiritual sound that created the Physical Universe keeps everything in creative motion. It is often called the cosmic hum or AUM. The Ancient Traditional Eastern enlightenment or opposite side of the coin, is the Evolutionary Impulse at rest in the timeless formless state before the Universe was born or the spiritual light or Void. Together with the Evolutionary Impulse in motion and creation make up the whole or One. “IT” or Evolutionary Impulse desires perfection and “IT” is evolving through us and with our participation, to create Balance Harmony and perfection. Namaste John
Namaste John
Up until now whilst on the path of Bhakti, we have been singing the songs of praise of God, but now he himself sings the songs of praise of his serviceable children and says wah my children wah!!
He says this because it is only a few of the very,very few that recognise him the way he is. As the supreme father,he bestows upon us our birth right inheritance of peace and happiness. As the supreme teacher he teaches us how to become self soverigns and as the supreme guide he guarantees to give us all liberation and liberation in life(salvation). So he is all three in one,our parent,teacher and guide.
At a time of unlimited sorrow and peacelessness, he incarnates and begins the task of world renewal and the souls that help in this task are his serviceable children. And it is only because he comes in the land of Bharat that there is saying that the sun rises in the east. Because he is the sun of knowledge, he is able to finish the darkness of ignorance in the same land that once used to be called “the golden sparrow”. In fact as a memorial to this event, Hindus all over the world celebrate the festival of Shivratri. His coming rejuvenates us with light and might and we once again become peven more elevated than the deities.
In essence aum means I m a soul, a being of light. By emerging this truth in our consciousness repeatedly, we are able to experience our authentic self and finish or even burn all our weaknesses especially ego.
In this way we become like him.
Omshanti Harish
Namasti Harish
My Inner being resonates to the wisdom and truth in your words .
The Mayan culture predicted a new enlightened era or shift of consciousness, and I believe that it will not be the end of the world,but the end of an old cycle and the start of a new enlightened one. For those of us who are ready for this shift it will be a golden opportunity for enlightenment. This is not to say that there will not be any natural and man made disasters. We will unfortunately still have them, untill mankind changes his/her destructive ways. It is up to us as awakened souls to be of service “in any way we can” to the Inhabitants of this troubled World of Global unrest, before we destroy our selves and the Planet. Mankind seems to be hellbent on destruction. Anyone who cares about the future of all the Inhabitants of Mother Earth and It’s Ecosystem, are concerned at the way things are going. The great Ascended Masters and Avatars who walked the earth hundreds of years ago “Christ, Buddah, Krishna and Babaji” to name a few, left their place of bliss and came to earth for one reason.To spiritually awaken mankind so that we would love one another as God loves us “Unconditionally”,and live in balance and harmony with our fellow human beings and other living creatures, instead of creating a path of death and destruction along the long pathway of life.They came to help and heal us with miracles and spread cosmic consciousness to the ones who were ready or ripe to recieve it , so that they would ” through the Creator” spread cosmic consciousness to their fellow man/woman. We need the help of these great Ascended Masters and Avatars who are God’s willing servants, to assist us and to avert more trouble and disasters on this allready fragile planet that has been our life support system for eons. With the help of the awakened ones amongst us we can succseed .The World and all It’s inhabitants need Tender Loving Care now, and for the sake of our descendants and the future generations of all living things whether it be Human Animal Vegetable or Mineral. Mother Earth is a living Being that God put here for us to evolve. If we destroy her, we destroy ourselves Namaste John
Namaste John
This is all the magic of the one that gets things done through others. The credit belongs to him as these are not my words nor my wisdom. He is carrying out his work in an incognito way. All we can do is to remain ever ready. Your impressions or sankaras of this most auspicious confluenc age are very strong and are beginning to emerge once again and it is because of this that you are dancing internally. This is perhaps best dipicted in the Bhagvatam in the episode of Raas lila.
As you rightly point out, natural calamities and scientists are doing their work in cleansing the world,but whilst they are busy in bringing about the destruction of the world, we need to remain busy in accumulating our imperishable income through the power of silence and contentment.
As success is merged in performing actions through the right method, it is now the auspicious time to see and do what the true children of God do.
So my divine brother John, are you ready to take the high jump?
Omshanti
Harish
Namasti Harish You bet Blessings John
Namaste John
This determination of yours is going to take you a long way in your journey.
I find the journey really awesome and I would be most honoured if you shared with me your experiences as and when you can. The details of the nearest airport to where you reside can be obtained from googling bkwsu.
Bon voyage
Harish
We are spirit having a physical experience
Wonderful post however , I was wanting to know if you could write a litte more on this subject? I’d be very grateful if you could elaborate a little bit further. Cheers!|