Tuesday - September 11, 2007

Delusion and Ignorance

A Commentary on the Mundaka Upanishad by Swami Nirmalananda Giri

We usually think of delusion and ignorance in terms of “ordinary” life and its situations. Those who are more occupied with “spiritual” matters assume that they are beyond such, but Angiras thinks differently, and so should we.

“Finite and transient are the fruits of sacrificial rites. The deluded, who regard them as the highest good, remain subject to birth and death.” (Mundaka Upanishad 1:2:7. Swami Prabhavananda has omitted verses 1 to 6 of this section as they enumerate various technical aspects of Vedic sacrifices. Verse seven begins the philosophical exposition of the external rites.) Swami Nikhilananda translates a bit more literally: “Frail indeed are those rafts of sacrifices, therefore they are destructible. Fools who rejoice in them as the Highest Good fall victims again and again to old age and death.” “Back they must turn to the mortal pathway, subject still to birth and to dying,” (Bhagavad Gita 9:3) says the Gita on the same subject.

Karma and religion

I think just about everybody puts karma into two lumps: Good Karma and Bad Karma. But that is not very satisfactory. Karma, like all of life, has many nuances and can vary greatly. Some karma, for example, creates more karma, and some actually dissolves karma. For example, Sri Ramakrishna said that all spiritual practices are part of Karma Yoga, but they deliver us from karma. There are material, mental, and spiritual karmas. The material and mental karmas impel us to more of the same, whether good or bad. But spiritual karma enables us to rise above the material and mental planes and free ourselves from karmic bondage.

Angiras wants us to understand that religious karma is not always spiritual. This should not surprise us when we can readily see that most religion is based on material goals. “Stuff” and “happiness” just about sums up the motives of all the religions of the world, including that of modern India. As a result, most religious acts culminate in more mental and psychological involvement, not freedom. In the verses omitted by Swami Prabhavananda it is pointed out that most religion creates karma that takes us to heaven–and then dumps us back on earth when our “merit” is used up. So we end back where we started. What a gyp.

Just because a religious act is either directed toward God or offered to God does not mean it will ultimately lead to God. Usually it leads us away from God into the labyrinth of relative existence in some form or other. Since most people have been cultivating a taste for earthly things through life after life, this suits them. But it should gall us, and we should refuse the pursuit and get off the merry-go-round.

Great suffering

So there are aspects of religion we should avoid adamantly. Otherwise: “Living in the abyss of ignorance, yet wise in their own conceit, the deluded go round and round, like the blind led by the blind.” (Mundaka Upanishad 1:2:8) “They be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch,” (Matthew 15:14) said Jesus, surely having this verse in mind.

Swami Gambhirananda’s translation points out a sad aspect of all this: “Remaining within the fold of ignorance, and thinking, ‘We are ourselves wise and learned,’ the fools, while being buffeted very much, ramble about like the blind led by the blind alone.” Buffeted very much. (“Being afflicted by many ills” is the translation of Swami Nikhilananda.) How true. Promising others the cessation of all troubles and sorrows, these religious mountebanks are more afflicted than ordinary people. Whether this is from the negative karma accruing from their dishonesty or a manifestation of their own inner diseases, the result is the same.

Read more of "Delusion and Ignorance".

Wednesday - September 05, 2007

The Ways of the Wise

A Commentary on the Dhammapada–by Swami Nirmalananda Giri

Take it within

“He who drinks in the Dharma will live happily with a peaceful mind. A wise man always delights in the Dharma taught by the Aryas.” (Dhammapada 79)

Water is essential to life, possessing many aspects necessary to the maintenance of form and function. We can live a long time without food, but not without water. Dharma is equally necessary for the true life of the inmost consciousness. But both water and dharma are valueless if they are not internalized–and not drop by drop, but by continual, deep drinking. Buddha is explaining to us that we must drink up dharma as the thirsting man seizes water and drinks it with urgency and delight. Just as the most virulent poison will not harm us, or the best medicine will not cure us, if we do not swallow it, in the same way dharma will have no effect unless we make it part of our very being by taking it into our consciousness.

Looking, touching, applying, or even immersing ourselves in water is useless if we do not drink it. And talking about it is the most useless of all! It is the same with dharma. That is why Saint Paul spoke of “Christ IN you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27) An external Christ is of no value whatsoever. That is why Jesus spoke of “eating” and “drinking” the “flesh” and “blood” of Christ–in other words, internalizing and absorbing Christ. It is the same with dharma.

Work on yourself; change yourself

“Irrigators channel water, fletchers shape arrows, and carpenters bend wood, but the wise discipline themselves.” (80)

Long ago I got an anthology of Buddhist texts, and among them was a life of Buddha. It opened with an account of a discussion taking place in a higher world regarding where Buddha should be born. Various heavenly beings had various recommendations, but finally a wise one said: “You do not understand: a Buddha can only be born in India.” They all agreed; and so it was. There are many reasons for that statement, and not the least is the Indian capacity to convey a tremendous amount of information in a very concise manner. And this verse is an example of that. It is a marvel. And if we follow it, we will ourselves become marvels.

Irrigators channel water. First, they find a source of water. Then they dig a channel to the place where water is needed. Finally, they remove the barrier between the water and the channel, and the water flows in and their work is done. It is hard work that demands perseverance and good engineering. Spirituality is not for lazies or dummies, excellent as Spirituality For Dummies may be. (Those who read it will no longer be dummies!)

Sri Ramakrishna speaks about it this way: “There happened to be drought in the country. All the peasants began digging channels to bring water. One of them was stubbornly determined. One day he vowed that he would go on digging a channel until it became connected with the river and water began to flow into it. He proceeded digging. The time came for his bath. The wife sent the daughter to him with oil. The daughter said, ‘Father, it is late already. Finish bathing quickly after rubbing the body with oil.’ He told her to go away for he still had work to do. It was past midday and the farmer still kept working. No thought at all of taking a bath. Then his wife came to the field and said, ‘Why haven’t you bathed as yet? The food is getting cold. You carry things too far. You may finish it tomorrow or even after taking your meal.’ Scolding, the farmer ran after her with spade in hand and said, ‘Have you no sense? There has not been any rain. There has been no farming at all. What will the children eat? You will all die of starvation. I have taken the vow that I will bring water to the field today and then worry about bath and food.’ Observing his mood the wife fled running. After a whole day’s bone-breaking labor...

Read more of "Ways of the Wise".

Thursday - August 30, 2007

The Supreme Knowledge

A Commentary on the Bhagavad Gita

“Since you accept me and do not question, now I shall tell you that innermost secret: knowledge of God which is nearer than knowing, open vision direct and instant. Understand this and be free for ever from birth and dying with all their evil.” (Bhagavad Gita 9:1)

What thrilling words! Yet they are purely wisdom, free from exaggeration or emotionality. Prabhavananda’s translation is very interpretive–though totally correct. Here is a more literal translation by Winthrop Sargeant:

“This most secret thing I shall declare to you, who do not disbelieve: knowledge and realization combined, having learned which you shall be released from evil.”

The qualities of this great knowledge should be scrutinized by us who seek for it.

Most secret

Krishna calls this knowledge, not just secret (guhya), but most secret (guhyatamam). It is knowledge hidden from all but the knowers of Brahman, yet it can be spoken about to those who are approaching that knowledge. Essentially, Krishna is going to give us the knowledge that inevitably leads to that supreme knowledge. It is most secret because it is utterly incomprehensible–hidden–to a consciousness that is not awakened and already purified to a marked degree. For regarding those not awakened and not purified it can justly be said: “they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.” (Matthew 13:13)

Disbelief

Fake religions–and fake gurus–demand “faith” in the sense of unquestioning acceptance of doctrines and dogmas. Or they require a person’s being “convinced” by accepting their intellectual arguments. Krishna is nowhere near this kind of fakery! When he says “disbelieve” he is using the word anasuyave, which means to be free of contradiction or contention in the sense of willful contrariness, what in the American south is meant by the word “cussedness.” Krishna is not blaming a sincere unacceptance of something, but rather a perversity and negativity of mind that causes a person to intentionally reject truth. It is a symptom of conscious evil, and a lot of people have it. That is why Saint Paul urged: “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief.” (Hebrews 3:12) This is not a matter of simple non-belief, as I have said. There is no wrong in not believing something, even if it comes from a limited understanding. It is the refusal to believe that is... (read more of "The Supreme Knowledge")

Wednesday - August 29, 2007

The Silly Things Religion Prescribes

In reply to someone who wrote that they are trying to keep in mind that we are ever perfect:

It is true: we are eternally perfect in our true being–even when entangled (seemingly) in ignorance. We need only recover that perfection in our consciousness. We do not need to do any of the silly things religion prescribes.

1) We need not “please” God, because it is simply not God’s nature to be either pleased or displeased. Only ego-bound beings engage in such duality.

2) We need not “serve” God, because God needs nothing.

3) We need not worship God because such an act is simply impossible, considering our nature and God’s nature.

4) We cannot “praise” God because we don’t know what we are talking about.

5) We cannot “love” God because God is beyond being related to as an object.

6) We cannot even think about God, because God is beyond all thought or concept.

BUT: We CAN know that we and God are ONE. And that is all that is needed–ever.

There is a foolish theism and a wise theism. The Gita and Upanishads present the wise theism. The rest we can forget about. As Krishna says to Arjuna: “Be a yogi.”

Monday - August 27, 2007

The Universal Standard of the Upanishads

For centuries there has been the misperception that the teachings of the upanishads are somehow the property of monastics–that monastics are at the top of the spiritual hierarchy in Indian spiritual tradition. NOT SO. Not one sage mentioned in the upanishads was monastic, nor was a single author of the scriptures listed in the foregoing paragraph a monastic. Sanatana Dharma is founded upon the vision of the rishis–none of whom were monastics. Sanatana Dharma propounds four ways of life that are fitting for seekers after liberation. Only one is that of the totally committed monastic. It is certainly true that through the centuries monastics have been a major factor in the propagation of dharma, that the three schools of Vedanta were formulated definitively by monastics. Shankara, whose commentaries are mentioned also in the foregoing list of philosophical works, was a monk of monks.

 Nevertheless, the life of the rishis, who were married and “in the world,” is the norm of Sanatana Dharma. Any philosophy incompatible with that is not dharma. At the same time, this also means that there is no room for spiritually lazy (and cowardly) people who try to shirk or shrug off their spiritual obligations by saying: “that is for you monks.” They do not want to be thought second-class citizens, but they want to live in a second-class manner and leave the complete fulfilling of dharma to the monks. Shame! There is only one spiritual life: the Yoga Life. Whatever the conditions or circumstances, all are obliged to be yogis. Otherwise their dharma is a sham, whether monastic or non-monastic.

 What does “the thread of progeny” have to do with this? The clear implication is that a Sanatana Dharmi (one who follows Sanatana Dharma) is duty-bound to marry, have children, and raise those children to also follow dharma–and yoga. The exceptions are those that become monastics from their youth or who have some impediment to leading a normal married life. “Footloose and fancy free” is not the way of the rishis. To see this for yourself, read The Grihya Sutras, translated by Hermann Oldenberg (volumes 29 and 30 in the Sacred Books of the East series). There you will see that Sanatana Dharmis are directed to have children, along with instructions on how to preserve brahmacharya in marriage (!). These are not the rules for monks, nor were they written by monks, as is clear. Behold for yourself how high the ideal is for ALL Sanatana Dharmis, whatever their stage of life (ashrama). Those who do not want to bother should leave dharma alone and join some cheap religion that lets them do as they please. There is a lot of it about.

Read more about the Upanishads.

Sunday - June 17, 2007

Yoga: Practice and Philosophy

Yoga is not just a practice. Hinduism embraces six systems of philosophy, one of which is Yoga. The basic text of the Yoga philosophy–Yoga Darshana–is the Yoga Sutras (also called Yoga Darshana), the oldest known writing on the subject of yoga, written by the sage Patanjali, a yogi of ancient India. Further, the Yoga Philosophy is based on the philosophical system known as Sankhya, whose originator was the sage Kapila. Sankhya is the original Vedic philosophy, endorsed by Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita. (Gita 2:39; 3:3,5; 18:13,19. Also, the second chapter of the Gita is entitled: Sankhya Yoga.) The Ramakrishna-Vedanta Wordbook says: “Sankhya postulates two ultimate realities, Purusha and Prakriti. Declaring that the cause of suffering is man’s identification of Purusha with Prakriti and its products, Sankhya teaches that liberation and true knowledge are attained in the supreme consciousness, where such identification ceases and Purusha is realized as existing independently in its transcendental nature.” It is not surprising, then, that Yoga is based on Sankhya.

Read the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali translated by Raghavan Iyer.
Read Raghavan Iyer's Commentary on the Yoga Sutras.

Wednesday - June 13, 2007

Twelve Pointers for Maintaining Brahmacharya (Celibacy)

Occasionally I receive letters from spiritual aspirants asking me for advice on the subject of brahmacharya. The following are pointers which are essential for the establishment of brahmacharya.

1) Daily meditation and constant japa is the essential foundation of brahmacharya. The japa and meditation of Om cause the subtle forces known as prana to rise upward. Those who become adept in these spiritual practices will become “urdhvareta yogis”–those in whom the sexual energies flow upward and become transmuted into spiritual energies.

2) Satsanga, the company of holy people–or at least those who are aspiring to holiness–is extremely helpful in the maintenance of brahmacharya. If you know like-minded people, then meet with them regularly for spiritual study and conversation. It is not uncommon among both Hindus and Buddhists for spiritual aspirants to meet daily for meditation.

If you do not know any other spiritual aspirants–and this is not uncommon here in the West–then keep satsanga with saints and masters by reading their lives and teachings and keeping their pictures in your home. Holy images of divine forms are also beneficial.

Every day listen to spiritual music. Such music should be soothing and reflective–not the raucous banging and clanging that many shallow and worldly Christians and Hindus like. It is good to listen to devotional music, but shun merely emotional music, for it is linked to lower desires, no matter how “holy” the words.

3) Avoid asatsanga–the company of the unholy and the worldly–in the form of people who have no interest in spiritual life, as well as books, magazines, television, radio, and motion pictures that are centered on material consciousness. Absolutely avoid those things who deal with the subject of sex or depict sexually suggestive (or outright) matters or images.

4) Avoid casual association with members of the opposite sex. Never be socially alone with a member of the opposite sex. This is an absolute. Make no exceptions based on seemingly spiritual character, age, or intention. When an older woman tells you that she is your “mother” run away! The same thing applies when a man tells a woman that he is her “father.” This goes on in both India and America, including close–and private–association of men with female gurus and of women with male gurus. No one knows what impulses carried over from previous lives–many even from centuries past–are lying not far beneath the surface of the conscious mind, waiting to manifest. “Spiritual” friendships with members of the opposite sex are doors to disaster. I have seen it over and over. Even in my early teen years I watched “spiritual” associations inevitably turn into sexual associations. And that had usually been the intention from the first moment. If what I have said does not convince you, at least I have discharged my responsibility.

Read the rest of Twelve Pointers for Maintaining Brahmacharya (Celibacy).

Saturday - April 07, 2007

Prana: Its History and Nature

 A Prashna Upanishad Commentary–by Swami Nirmalananda Giri

Sanatana Dharma is not a “shut up and believe and obey” religion. Those who follow the Eternal Dharma must gain the fullest knowledge of how things work, for without that knowledge mastery will be impossible. And mastery is the result of evolution. Prana, the universal life force, must be known about and mastered. So:

Conscious being

“When it was the turn of Kousalya, he put this question: “Master, of what is Prana born; how does he enter the body; how does he live there after dividing himself; how does he go out; how does he experience what is outside; and how does he hold together the body, the senses, and the mind?” (Prashna Upanishad 3:1)

All these questions are going to be answered subsequently, so the only important point is the referring to prana as a conscious being–which it is because it is the life of Brahman and therefore is Brahman. The fact that everything is conscious is unique to the teachings of Sanatana Dharma. Science considers itself extremely bold in cautiously approaching this concept and tentatively postulating it. Those in the West who bravely make the statement as evident fact are those whose thinking has–at least in its ancestry–been derived from the wisdom of India.

The worthy questioner

“To which the sage replied: Kousalya, you ask very difficult questions; but since you are a sincere seeker after the truth of Brahman, I must answer.” (Prashna Upanishad 3:2) This I have seen for myself in India. The great saints just will not bother with the idly curious and the hopelessly shallow. But they will gladly speak with those who are seeking the knowledge of Reality.

Once I made the mistake of taking a Western spiritual wanderer to meet Maitri Devi, a beloved saint in New Delhi. When he told her he wanted to ask a question she replied in Hindi: “I do not speak English.” When he asked if someone could translate his questions she again responded: “I do not speak English.” So I said to him quietly: “Tell me your question and I will ask it.” For quite some time he would softly tell me his questions and I would ask them–in English!–and she would readily answer through a translator. I appreciated her kindness to me, but I also decided to never again bother her with roamabouts. Other saints I met would do the same–some more diplomatically, others not so tactful.

We should learn from this and question ourselves as to why we “seek” and even why we study: To eventually reach the knowledge of God, or just to cram more ideas in our head to show how “wise” we are? Yogananda often spoke of those who had “spiritual indigestion” from cramming useless philosophy into their minds.

But Kousalya is a worthy questioner, so the sage replies:

Prana in us

“Prana is born of the Self. Like a man and his shadow, the Self and Prana are inseparable. Prana enters the body at birth, that the desires of the mind, continuing from past lives, may be fulfilled.” (Prashna Upanishad 3:3)

Just as the cosmos is an extension of the Consciousness that is Brahman, in the same way our individual prana is an extension of our Self (atman). It is inseparable from the Self because it is the Self. This is the authentic non-duality (advaita) of the upanishads, not a negation or denial of either Prakriti or prana. Seeing them as separate from Spirit, and therefore dual, is the error–not acknowledging their intimate reality.

Prana provides the continuity between our present and past lives–both minds and bodies. It is also the force that enables the continuation of our evolution from past lives, carries us through this present life and through future ones as well. Prana truly is Life itself.

This verse also tells us that karma is a matter of the mind, and not some external force. Change the mind and you change the karma–or even dissolve it. It need never extend into our external existence. “Working out karma” is not a compelling necessity. We are never slaves to karma. We are its creators and its masters, at least potentially. But we have forgotten that fact and lost control of our karma. It must be regained if we would be free.

Its “associates”

“As a king employs officials to rule over different portions of his kingdom, so Prana associates with himself four other Pranas, each a portion of himself and each assigned a separate function.” (Prashna Upanishad 3:4) We usually speak of “five pranas,” but there is really only pure Prana and its four modalities. Their functions will be outlined, but first here is the definition of Prana found in our Brief Sanskrit Glossary:

Prana: Vital energy; life-breath; life-force. In the human body the prana is divided into five forms: 1) Prana: the prana that moves upward; 2) Apana: The prana that moves downward, producing the excretory functions in general. 3) Vyana: The prana that holds prana and apana together and produces circulation in the body. 4) Samana: The prana the carries the grosser material of food to the apana and brings the subtler material to each limb; the general force of digestion. 4) Udana: The prana which brings up or carries down what has been drunk or eaten; the general force of assimilation.

If this is kept in mind the following will be more comprehensible and meaningful.

“The Prana himself dwells in eye, ear, mouth, and nose; the Apana, which is the second Prana, rules the organs of excretion and generation; the Samana, which is the third Prana, inhabits the navel and governs digestion and assimilation.

“The Self dwells in the lotus of the heart, whence radiate a hundred and one nerves [nadis]. From each of these proceed one hundred others, which are smaller, and from each of these, again, seventy-two thousand others, which are smaller still. In all these moves the Vyana, which is the fourth Prana.

“And then at the moment of death, through the nerve in the center of the spine, the Udana, which is the fifth Prana, leads the virtuous man upward to higher birth, the sinful man downward to lower birth, and the man who is both virtuous and sinful to rebirth in the world of men.” (Prashna Upanishad 3:5-7)

Read more of Prana: Its History and Nature–A Commentary on the Prashna Upanishad.