SCIENCE OF MANTRA

The science of mantra is very ancient and was once widely practised in all parts of the world. Reference to mantra is found in the oldest Vedic scriptures, which are claimed to be more than 5,000 years old.

Literally, the word mantra means ‘revealed sound’. According to the ancient texts, mantra means a sound or a combination or sequences of sounds which develop spontaneously. These sounds were revealed to rishis and other pure beings in psychic states or in very deep meditation, when all consciousness of the self was lost and when nothing but inner light shone in front of them.

Mantra do not have any specific meaning. Their power is not in the words themselves, but in the sound vibrations created when the mantra is uttered verbally or when it takes form in the mind and is not expressed in the voice.

Mantra brings about state of resonance between the individual and the depths of his inner being. They allow the individual to unleash inner cosmic powers, forces and knowledge. The sound patterns of the mantra stimulate a certain effect on the mental and psychic nature of an individual. Each mantra will create, or draw out, a specific symbol within one’s psyche.

There are two important points regarding mantras that should be taken into account. Firstly, mantra should never be misunderstood to be the name of a particular god of a particular religion. There should be no conflict between your religion and mantra. Many people think they cannot repeat Om Namah Shivaya because they would be reciting the name of a Hindu god when they are Christian or Muslim.

Secondly, a mantra cannot be translated. Translation alters the sound. Even though mantras are found in Hinduism, in Buddhism, Catholicism, in Islam and among the Parsis and other religions and sects, they are never translated. If you change the succession and order of the sounds, the mantra ceases to be a mantra. If you translate the words you may have a very beautiful prayer, but not a mantra.

There are thousands of mantras, stemming from a variety of cultures, languages and religions. Some common ones are: Om, Shreem, Hreem, Kreem, Aim, Dum, Hum, Om Namah Shivaya and Om Mani Padme Hum to name just a few. Everyone has a mantra of his own, and just as your personality is the represents your outer self, similarly the mantra represents your inner personality. It is through mantra that we realize our own psychic personality and it is this personality which we really are.

In tantra there are all kinds of mantras; some are personal mantras for use in japa and other meditation practices, and some serve a specific purpose. So, before seeking a mantra it is important to know what you are seeking it for. If you are undergoing some problem in life, then the mantra you employ to get rid of it will be a temporary one, not your personal mantra. When the problem subsides, the mantra will be of no further use to you. On the other hand, if you are trying to awaken the kundalini or psychic powers, then you must have the correct personal mantra.

It is said that a child should receive his first mantra when he is eight years old. He should not practice mantra as we older people do it, but he should repeat his mantra at sunrise and sunset along with breath awareness – five minutes in the morning and five minutes in the evening. This mantra will create a reorientation in his disturbed subconscious contributed by his parents. He should receive his second mantra at marriage or when a great change in his life or a transition in his personality is taking place. This mantra should be an introduction to spiritual life, and also to responsibility and steady mindedness. When he becomes spiritual he should receive his third mantra. It will help him on the spiritual path and enable him to withdraw his mind and to switch of his consciousness from the external world to within. Hindus are given a fourth mantra at the time of death or just before. When a man’s pranas and consciousness are being withdrawn, and all the lights are being extinguished, when his consciousness is functioning only a fraction, this is the ideal time to put the fourth mantra into his ears. This mantra leads his soul to the next birth.

According to tradition, initiation into mantra is given by the guru, one’s mother or revelation. A mantra received in a deep dream or through intuition, which you constantly feel a strong attraction for, may also be taken as your mantra. A mantra can never be bought or sold. When a guru gives a mantra it is never based on a monetary transaction. A mantra obtained in such a way will never have any power.

Once you have a mantra do not change it, it is not something to play with. You can change your home, your religion, your husband or your wife, but you should not change your mantra or your guru. Both mantra and guru are symbols of your consciousness and to change them will create confusion in your psychic body. Once created, that confusion can never be corrected. Sometimes people hear about another mantra and believe it to be more powerful than their own and so they want to change. The mind can so easily influence one into rejecting his own mantra and adopting another.

The following are the only valid reasons for changing your mantra:
Your guru gives you another mantra.
For therapeutic purposes or for some specific problem you temporarily accept another mantra that has the power to help you over the obstacle. In this case the guru should give the mantra, as correct pronounciation is essential and this cannot be revealed in any book.
You realize another mantra which is so overwhelming and compelling that you know it is definitely your mantra.

When one takes a mantra, it must be accepted with absolute faith and with final decision. The mind should be fully impressed by the mantra. A mantra is absolutely personal and must be kept secret. When you keep the mantra secret, it becomes more powerful. This is true with everything. A seed will grow in the earth if it is covered, in secret, but it will never grow into a tree if it is left uncovered and exposed for all to see.

Mantras for spiritual evolution must be practiced for a set amount of time every day. If the mantra is repeated too much, it will affect the whole system, and those who are very psychic, sensitive, unstable, or subject to hallucinations, may not be prepared for that at all. If you regularly repeat the mantra for ten minutes daily, within a few days you will know if you are oversensitive and whether the mantra is impressing your mind to a larger of lesser extent.

Mantra repetition should not create tension in the mind. The mind becomes tense if there are conflicts present due to various mental obstructions. To avoid mental tension, do not try to concentrate while practicing mantra. Simply repeat the mantra as you would spontaneously carry on a conversation. If you talk and try to concentrate on how you are talking and what you are saying, tension will be created. When the mind is very distracted you should never try to concentrate. Concentration (dharana) can only come when sense withdrawal (pratyahara) has been achieved. The purpose of mantra repetition is not to develop concentration but to withdraw the senses and still the mind.

The mantra can be utilized in different ways: it can be practiced in conjunction with the breath, the psychic pathways, concentration on the eyebrow centre and so on. Mantra is a very powerful method of healing.

There are specific mantras for a wide range of ailments and complaints, but these must be given by someone well versed in the therapeutic use of sound and mantras. As well as these, there are bija mantras which anyone can self-prescribe for healing purposes. Each chakra (psychic centre in the body) has a bija mantra and if you have a physical complaint which is located in the region of one of the chakras, you can use its mantra to strengthen and heal. For example, Ram is the mantra for manipura chakra (navel centre) and if it is chanted in kirtan or repeated in japa, it will stimulate the abdominal area benefiting complaints such as peptic ulcer, constipation, diarrhoea and other digestive disorders.

The bija mantras of the main chakras are given in the following table:
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Mantras Chakra Location

(1) (2) (3)

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Lam Mooladhara Perineium
Vam Swadhisthana Base of the spine
Ram Manipura Navel centre
Yam Anahata Heartcentre
Ham Vishudhi Throat
Om Ajna Eyebrow centre
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It is the strength of the sound, the colour of the sound, the frequency, the velocity and the ‘temperature’ of the sound which are responsible for the revitalization that mantra brings. The effect of the Ram mantra on the mind is very soothing and tranquilizing; the Shiva mantra usually develops a sense of detachment, a feeling of ectasy and absolute indifference.

Every mantra has a colour, an element, a devata or a divine form and also a method of recitation. In determining an appropriate mantra, astrology is taken into account, with reference made to the science of elements, colour and the predominant guna (tamas, rajas, sattwa). According to the birth sign the major element decides the mantra.

Some mantras are for the earth element, others for water, fire, air and ether elements. Om belongs to the ether element; Ram to the fire element; Gam to the earth element; Klim to the water element and Ham to the air element. Each mantra possess two divisions – sound and form. For instance, Klim is the sound, a bija mantra, and it has an image which is revealed by a simple mantra. Klim is the bija mantra and Krishna is the mantra which exposes the form. Om is the symbolic sound of the cosmic being; Haum – Shiva, Dum - Durga; Kreem – Kali; Hreem – Mahamaya; Shreem – Lakshmi; Aim – Saraswati; Gam and Glaum – Ganesha. Om is the universal mantra and it can be used by everyone at any time without restriction as can its equivalents – Amin and Amen.

Once you have a personal mantra which has been charged by the guru, it will immediately start to change the course of your life. Naturally, this will only happen if you accept your mantra with your heart and mind and utilize it regularly. The mantra is so powerful that it will start to immediately explore the Karmas from the unconscious mind. These karmas could manifest in your moods and feelings or in your dreams which may be pleasant, or even terrifying. Whatever changes you experience will only be positive, anything unpleasant is probably only part of the temporary purification.

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Source: The Sure ways for Self-Realisation by Swamy Satyananada Saraswati of Bihar School of Yoga.

CAUSE AND EFFECT IN HUMAN CONDUCT

IT IS an axiom with the scientists that every effect is related to a cause. Apply this to the realm of human conduct, and there is revealed the principle of Justice. Every scientist knows (and now all men believe) that perfect harmony prevails throughout every portion of the physical universe, from the speck of dust to the greatest sun.

Everywhere there is exquisite adjustment. In the sidereal universe, with its millions of suns rolling majestically through space and carrying with them their respective systems of revolving planets, its vast nebula, its seas of meteors, and its vast army of comets traveling through illimitable space with inconceivable velocity, perfect order prevails; and again, in the natural world, with its multitudinous aspects of life, and its infinite variety of forms, there are the clearly defined limits of specific laws, through the operation of which all confusion is avoided, and unity and harmony eternally obtain. If this universal harmony could be arbitrarily broken, even in one small particular, the universe would cease to be; there could be no cosmos, but only universal chaos.

Nor can it be possible in such a universe of law that there should exist any personal power which is above, outside, and superior to, such law in the sense that it can defy it, or set it aside; for whatsoever beings exist, whether they be men or gods, they exist by virtue of such law; and the highest, best, and wisest among all beings would manifest his greater wisdom by his more complete obedience to that law which is wiser than wisdom, and than which nothing more perfect could be devised.

All things, whether visible or invisible, are subservient to, and fall within the scope of, this infinite and eternal law of causation. As all things seen obey it, so all things unseen - the thoughts and deeds of men, whether secret or open cannot escape it.

"Do right, it recompenseth; do one wrong – the equal retribution must be made." Perfect justice upholds the universe; perfect justice regulates human life and conduct. All the varying conditions of life, as they obtain in the world today, are the result of this law reacting on human conduct.

Man can (and does) choose what causes he shall set in operation, but he cannot change the nature of effects; he can decide what thoughts he shall think, and what deeds he shall do, but he has no power over the results of those thoughts and deeds; these are regulated by the overruling law. Man has all power to act, but his power ends with the act committed. The result of the act cannot be altered, annulled, or escaped; it is irrevocable.

Evil thoughts and deeds produce conditions of suffering; good thoughts and deeds determine conditions of blessedness. Thus man's power is limited to, and his blessedness or misery is determined by his own conduct. To know this truth, renders life simple, plain, and unmistakable; all the crooked paths are straightened out, the heights of wisdom are revealed, and the open door to salvation from evil and suffering is perceived and entered.

Life may be likened to a sum in arithmetic. It is bewilderingly difficult and complex to the pupil who has not yet grasped the key to its correct solution, but once this is perceived and laid hold of, it becomes as astonishingly simple as it was formerly profoundly perplexing.

Some idea of this relative simplicity and complexity of life may be grasped by fully recognizing and realizing the fact that, while there are scores, and perhaps hundreds, of ways in which a sum may be done wrong, there is only one way by which it can be done right, and that when that right way is found the pupil knows it to be the right, his perplexity vanishes, and he knows that be has mastered the problem.

It is true that the pupil, while doing his sum incorrectly, may (and frequently does) think he has done it correctly, but he is not sure; his perplexity is still there, and if he is an earnest and apt pupil, he will recognize his own error when it is pointed out by the teacher.

So in life, men may think they are living rightly while they are continuing, through ignorance, to live wrongly; but the presence of doubt, perplexity, and unhappiness are sure indications that the right way has not yet been found. There are foolish and careless pupils who would like to pass a sum as correct before they have acquired a true knowledge of figures, but the eye and skill of the teacher quickly detect and expose the fallacy.

So in life there can be no falsifying of results; the eye of the Great Law reveals and exposes. Twice five will make ten to all eternity, and no amount of ignorance, stupidity, or delusion can bring the result up to eleven. If one looks superficially at a piece of cloth, he sees it as a piece of cloth, but if he goes further and inquires into its manufacture, and examines it closely and attentively, he sees that it is composed of a combination of individual threads, and that, while all the threads are interdependent, each thread pursues its own way throughout, never becoming confused with its sister thread. It is this entire absence of confusion between the particular threads which constitutes the finished work - a piece of cloth: any inharmonious commingling of the thread would result in a bundle of waste or a useless rag.

Life is like a piece of cloth, and the threads of which it is composed are individual lives. The threads, while being interdependent, are not confounded one with the other. Each follows its own course. Each individual suffers and enjoys the consequences of his own deeds, and not of the deeds of another. The course of each is simple and definite; the whole forming a complicated, yet harmonious, combination of sequences.

There are action and reaction, deed and consequence, cause and effect, and the counterbalancing reaction, consequence, and effect is always in exact ratio with the initiatory impulse. A durable and satisfactory piece of cloth cannot be made from shoddy material, and the threads of selfish thoughts and bad deeds will not produce a useful and beautiful life - a life that will wear well, and bear close inspection.

Each man makes or mars his own life; it is not made or marred by his neighbor, or by anything external to himself. Each thought he thinks, each deed he does, is another thread - shoddy or genuine - woven into the garment of his life; and as he makes the garment so must he wear it. He is not responsible for his neighbor's deeds; he is not the custodian of his neighbor's actions; he is responsible only for his own deeds; he is the custodian of his own actions.

The "problem of evil" subsists in a man's own evil deeds, and it is solved when those deeds are purified. Says Rosseau:

"Man, seek no longer the origin of evil; thou thyself art its origin."

Effect can never be divorced from cause; it can never be of a different nature from cause. Emerson says:

"Justice is not postponed; a perfect equity adjusts the balance in all parts of life."

And there is a profound sense in which cause and effect are simultaneous, and form one perfect whole. Thus, upon the instant that a man thinks, say, a cruel thought, or does a cruel deed, that same instant he has injured his own mind; he is not the same man he was the previous instant; he is a little viler and a little more unhappy; and a number of such successive thoughts and deeds would produce a cruel and wretched man.

The same thing applies to the contrary - the thinking of a kind thought, or doing a kind deed - an immediate nobility and happiness attend it; the man is better than he was before, and a number of such deeds would produce a great and blissful soul.

Thus individual human conduct determines, by the faultless law of cause and effect, individual merit or demerit, individual greatness or meanness, individual happiness or wretchedness. What a man thinks, that he does; what he does, that he is. If be is perplexed, unhappy, restless, or wretched, let him look to himself, for there and nowhere else is the source of all his trouble.

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Source: THE MASTERY OF DESTINY By James Allen

THE WAY OF THE HEART

In undertaking a spiritual life, what matters is simple: We must make certain that our path is connected with our heart…

It is possible to speak with our heart directly. Most ancient cultures know this. We can actually converse with our heart as if it were a good friend. In modern life we have become so busy with our daily affairs and thoughts that we have forgotten this essential art of taking time to converse with our heart. When we ask it about our current path, we must look at the values we have chosen to live by. Where do we put our time, our strength, our creativity, our love? We must look at our life without sentimentality, exaggeration, or idealism. Does what we are choosing reflect what we most deeply value?

Buddhist tradition teaches its followers to regard all life as precious. The astronauts who leave the earth have also rediscovered this truth. One set of Russian cosmonauts described it in this way: ‘We brought up small fish to the space station for certain investigations. We were to be there three months. After about three weeks the fish began to die. How sorry we felt for them! What we didn’t do to try to save them! On earth we take great pleasure in fishing, but when you are alone and far away from anything terrestrial, any appearance of life is especially welcome. You see just how precious life is.” In this same spirit, one astronaut, when his capsule landed, opened the hatch to smell the moist air of earth. “I actually got down and put it to my cheek. I got down and kissed the earth.”

To see the preciousness of all things, we must bring our full attention to life. Spiritual practice can bring us to this awareness without the aid of a trip into a space. As the qualities of presence and simplicity begin to permeate more and more of our life, our inner love for the earth and all beings begins to express itself and brings our path alive.

Appreciating Moments of Goodness

To understand more deeply what evokes this sense of preciousness and how it gives meaning to a path with heart, let us work with the following meditation. In Buddhist practice, one is urged to consider how to live well by reflecting on one’s death. The traditional meditation for this purpose is to sit quietly and sense the tentativeness of life. After reading this paragraph, close your eyes and feel the mortality of this human body that you have been given. Death is certain for us – only the time of death is yet to be discovered. Imagine yourself to be at the end of your life – next week or next year or next decade, some time in the future. Now cast your memory back across your whole life and bring to mind two good deeds that you have done, two things that you did that were good. They need not be grandiose; let whatever wants to arise show itself. In picturing and remembering these good deeds, also become aware of how these memories affect your consciousness, how they transform the feelings and state of the heart and mind as you see them.

When you have completed this reflection, look very carefully at the quality of these situations, at what is comprised in a moment of goodness picked out of a lifetime of words and actions. Almost everyone who is able to remember such deeds in this meditation discovers them to be remarkably simple. They are rarely the deeds one would put on a resume. For some people a moment of goodness was simple the one who they told their father before he died that they loved him, or when they flew across the country in the midst of their busy life to care for their sister’s children as she was healing from a car accident. One elementary school teacher had the simple vision of those mornings when she held the children who were crying and having a hard day. In response to this meditation someone once raised her hand, smiled and said, “On crowded streets when we get to a parking space at the same time, I always give the parking space to the other person.” That was the good deed in her life.

Another woman, a nurse in her sixties who had raised children and grandchildren and had lived a very full life, came up with this memory: She was six years old when a car broke down in front of her house, steam sprouting from under the hood. Two elderly people got out and looked at it, and one went off to the corner pay phone to call a garage. They returned to sit in the car and wait for much of the morning for a tow. As a curious six-year-old, she went out to speak to them, and after seeing them wait for a long time in a hot car, she went inside. Without even asking them, she prepared a tray of iced tea and sandwiches and carried the tray out to them on the curb.

The things that matter most in our lives are not fantastic or grand. They are the moments when we touch one another, when we are there in the most attentive or caring way. This simple and profound intimacy is the love that we all long for. These moments of touching and being touched can become a foundation for a path with heart, and they take place in the most immediate and direct way. Mother Teresa put it like this: “In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.”

Some people find this exercise very difficult. No good deeds will come to their mind, or a few may arise only to be rejected immediately because they are judged superficial or small or impure or imperfect. Does this mean that there are not even two good moments in a lifetime of one hundred thousand deeds? Hardly! We have all had many. It has another more profound meaning. It is a reflection of how hard we are on ourselves. We judge ourselves so harshly, only an Idi Amin or a Stalin would hire us to preside over their courts. Many of us discover we have little mercy for ourselves. We can hardly acknowledge that genuine love and goodness can shine freely from our hearts. Yet it does.

To live a path with heart means to live in the way shown us in this meditation, to allow the flavor of goodness to permeate our life. When we bring full attention to our acts, when we express our love and see the preciousness of life, the quality of goodness in us grows. A simple caring presence can begin to permeate more moments of our life. And so we should continually ask our own heart, What would it mean to live like this? Is the path, the way we have chosen to live our life, leading to this?

In the stress and complexity of our lives, we may forget our deepest intentions. But when people come to the end of their life and look back, the questions that they most often ask are not usually. “How much is my bank account?” or “How many books did I write?” or “What did I build?” or the like. If you have the privilege of being with a person who is aware at the time of his or her death, you find the questions such a person asks are very simple: “Did I love well?” “Did I live fully?” “Did I learn to let go?”

Letting Go

These simple questions go to the very centre of spiritual life. When we consider loving well and living fully, we can see the way our attachments and fears have limited us, and we can see the many opportunities for our hearts to open. Have we let ourselves love the people around us, our family, our community, the earth upon which we live? And, did we also learn to let go? Did we learn to live through the changes of life with grace, wisdom and compassion? Have we learned to forgive and live from the spirit of the heart instead of the spirit of judgment?

Letting go is a central theme in spiritual practice, as we see the preciousness and brevity of life. When letting go is called for, if we have not learned to do so, we suffer greatly, and when we get to the end of our life, we may have what is called a crash course. Sooner or later we have to learn to let go and allow the changing mystery of life to move through us without our fearing it, without holding and grasping.

I knew a young woman who sat with her mother during an extended bout of cancer. Part of this time and her mother was in the hospital hooked up to dozens of tubes and machines. Mother and daughter agreed that the mother did not want to die this way, and when the illness progressed, she was finally removed from all of the medical paraphernalia and allowed to go home. Her cancer progressed further. Still the mother had a hard time accepting her illness. She tried to run the household from her bed, to pay bills and oversee all the usual affairs of her life. She struggled with her physical pain, but she struggled more with her inability to let go. One day in the midst of this struggle, much sicker now and a bit confused, she called her daughter to her and said, “Daughter, dear, please now pull the plug,” and her daughter gently pointed out, “Mother you are not plugged in.” Some of us have a lot to learn about letting go.

Letting go and moving through life from one change to another brings the maturing of our spiritual being. In the end we discover that to love and let go can be the same thing. Both ways do not seek to possess. Both allow us to touch each moment of this changing life and allow us to be there fully for whatever arises next.

There is an old story about a famous rabbi living in Europe who was visited one day by a man who had traveled by ship from New York to see him. The man came to the great rabbi’s dwelling, a large house on a street in a European city, and was directed to the rabbi’s room, which was in the attic. He entered to find the master living in a room with a bed, a chair and a few books. The man had expected much more. After greetings, he asked “Rabbi, where are your things?” The rabbi asked in return, “Well, where are yours?” His visitor replied, “But Rabbi, I’m only passing through,” and the master answered, “So am I, so am I.”

The Gift of Life
To love fully and live well requires us to recognize finally that we do not possess or own anything – our homes, our cars, our loved ones, not even our own body. Spiritual joy and wisdom do not come through possession but rather through our capacity to open, to love more fully, and to more and be free in life.

This is not a lesson to be put off. One great teacher explained it this way: “The trouble with you is that you think you have time.” We don’t know how much time we have. What would it be like to live with the knowledge that this may be our last year, our last week, our last day? In the light of this question we can choose a path with heart.

Sometimes, it takes a shock to awaken us, to connect us with our path. Several years ago I was called to visit a man in a San Francisco hospital by his sister. He was in his late thirties and already rich. He had a construction company, a sailboat, a ranch, a townhouse, the works. One day when driving along in his BMW, he blacked out. Tests showed that he had a brain tumour, a melanoma, a rapid-growing kind of cancer. The doctor said, “We want to operate on you, but I must warn you that the tumour is in the speech and comprehension centre. If we remove the tumour, you may lose all your ability to read, to write, to speak, to understand any language. If we don’t operate, you probably have six more weeks to live. Please consider this. We want to operate in the morning. Let us know by then.”

I visited this man that evening. He had become very quiet and reflective. As you an imagine, he was in an extraordinary state of consciousness. Such an awakening will sometimes come from our spiritual practice, but for him it came through these exceptional circumstances. When we spoke, this man did not talk about his ranch or sailboat or his money. Where he was headed, they don’t take the currency of bank books and BMWs. All that is of value in times of great change is the currency of our heart – the ability and understanding of the heart that has grown in us.

Twenty years earlier, in the late 1960’s, this man had done a little Zen meditation, had read a bit of Alan Watts, and when he faced this moment, that is what he drew on and what he wanted to talk about: his spiritual life and understanding of birth and death. After a most heartfelt conversation, he stopped to be silent for a time and reflect. Then he turned to me and said, “I’ve had enough of talking. May be I’ve said too many words. This evening it seems so precious just to have a drink of tap water or to watch the pigeons on the windowsill of the medical centre fly off in the air. It’s magic to see a bird go through the air, I’m not finished with this life. May be I’ll just live it more silently.” So he asked to have the operation. After fourteen hours of surgery by a very fine surgeon, his sister visited him in the recovery room. He looked up at her and said, “Good morning.” They had been able to remove the tumour without losing his speech.

When he left the hospital and recovered from his cancer, his entire life changed. He still responsibly completed his business obligations, but he was no longer a workaholic. He spent more time with his family, and he became a counselor for others diagnosed with cancer and grave illnesses. He spent much of his time touching the people around him with love.

Had I met him before that evening, I might have considered him a spiritual failure because he had done a little spiritual practice and then quit completely to become a businessman. He seemed to have forgotten all of those spiritual values. But when it came down to it, when he stopped to reflect in these moments between his life and death, even the little spiritual practice he had touched became very important to him. We never know what others are learning, and we cannot judge someone’s spiritual practice quickly or easily. All we can do is look into our own hearts and ask what matters in the way that we are living, what might lead us to greater openness, honesty and a deeper capacity to love.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jack Kornfield was a trained as a Buddhist monk in Thailand, Burma, and India and has taught meditation worldwide since 1974. He is one of the key teachers to introduce Theravada Buddhist practice to the West. For many years his work has focused on integrating and bringing alive the great Eastern spiritual teachings in an accessible way for Western students and Western society. He holds a Ph.D., in clinical psychology and is the founding teacher of the Insight Meditation Society.
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Source: Excerpt from the Book on “A Path Heart” by Jack Kornfield.
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Are you stressed?

       Stress and strain plague life today. Stress-related disease is reaching epidemic proportions, exacting a heavy toll on the quality of human life. Stress Management courses have mushroomed everywhere. These course trainers often remedies and solutions to stress without reaching the root of the problem. Prescribed treatments such as time management, regular exercise, healthy diet and other such disciplines may help to reduce stress in the short term. But they do not provide the real solution to the suffering masses. They have been tackling the problem from the wrong end. They believe that stress arises from external factors, environments and situations. The true key to stress management is self-management. "It is difficult to find happiness in oneself", says Arthur Schopenhauer, "but it is impossible to find it anywhere else." Yet people, continue to seek, happiness everywhere except in oneself.

THE ANATOMY OF STRESS

      Stress signifies a state of mind. Internal agitations create stress. Not external disturbances. People throughout the world live with the conviction that factors outside themselves produce stress. So they focus all their attention and correction on outer forces to correct this malady. External treatment cannot cure internal disease.

      To solve the problem of stress you must find the source. Where exactly is stress located? Once you locate it, you will know exactly how to deal with it, reduce it and ultimately get rid of it.

      Stress is said to be "Internal". Internal refers to the inner personality of a human being. Your mind and intellect together constitute your inner personality. They define your individuality. You are what you are because of your inner personality determined by the quality of mind and intellect. Your physical body is only the outer personality which serves as an equipment of action. Therefore, a study of the nature of the mind and intellect becomes most important.

      The physical body executes action. The MIND comprises impulses, feelings, emotions, likes and dislikes. The INTELLECTUAL constitutes the thinking equipment, which reasons, discriminates and judges. Your MIND and INTELLECT determine your actions. Stress arises in a person when his mind overpowers his intellect. When his desires and attachments override his intellect. When the intellect loses control over the mind's desires the person becomes disturbed. Stress is the mental agitation causes by UNFULFILLED DEIRES. Thus, a person can live stress-free by training the intellect to maintain control over the mind.

THE MIND AND ITS DEVASTATING INFLUENCE

      The mind comprises emotions. It behaves like a child. The intellect conducts itself like an adult. One cannot afford to let the mind govern the body. The mind has direction or dimension. The intellect alone can direct, govern and control the mind. If the intellect is not available for guiding it, or not powerful enough to control it, the mind can go berserk and devastate the personality. The desires of the mind overpowering a weak intellect can destroy an individual.

THE MIND PLAYS HAVOC

    The human mind can cause enormous damage to you. You must fully understand how it behaves.

      The mind has a natural tendency to ramble to stray away from any fixed point of concentration. It is prone to worry over the Past memories or to become anxious of the future results. It seldom remains in the present. Most people dissipate their lives pondering over their past and anticipating their future. Their mind remain ever agitated .

      They suffer from strain throughout their life. In striking contrast, little children, bubbling with energy, keep acting ceaselessly, the whole day. It seems paradoxical that adults, with far greater strength than children, have much less energy to act. This paradox sterns from the fact that children have no worries of the past or anxieties for the future. Children live in the present. Adults torment themselves with past thoughts and future desires.

      Another distinct property of the mind is that it produces innumerable desires. Desires breed like bacteria in a mind which lacks direction and governance of the intellect. The mind incessantly craves for whatever it does not possess. Hence, the mind is compared to fire. Fire is insatiable. Fire consumes any amount of fuel it is fed. Fire is never fulfilled. Likewise, the human mind is never satiated. It is ever infested with unfulfilled desires and riddled with anxiety.

      Still another quality of the mind is its attachment to objects and beings which it already possesses. Your mind craves for what it does not possess. The moment your mind possesses anything it cultivates attachment. Attachment is a deadly disease of the mind. People develop extreme attachment to family, to partners, to home, to wealth and to power. Thus indiscriminating attachment causes tremendous stress in their lives.

THE THREE STATES OF MIND

      When a person possess innumerable desires and attachments his mind suffers from constant agitation. It is never at rest. It remains always worried and anxious, discontented and disturbed.

      As you reduce your desires and attachments, your mind becomes more stable and less agitated. But you allow your mind's stability to be disturbed by external agents. A disturbed mind takes time to settle down.

      You ought to diagnose this aspect of the mind's nature. Changes, challenges and conflicts are all part of the world. You must look at them as a sportsman views his challenging opponent. The stiffer the competition, the greater the fun. Sometimes you win, sometimes the opponent. Take things sportingly. You then enjoy every bit of life. Life becomes a beautiful game.

      A person who frees himself entirely from desires and attachments reaches the highest state of evolution. His mind remains at complete rest -- in perfect equilibrium. Never disturbed by the world. The best and the worst of circumstances can never upset his mental peace and happiness.

DESIRES RUIN YOUR INDEPENDENCE

      Desires render a person dependent upon the world. More the desires, more the dependence. With the reduction of desires, you become more independent. Independence is the insignia of a human being. All other creatures lack this quality.

      Plants are wholly dependent upon the natural environment around them. Animals are less dependent than Plants, yet very much controlled by the environment. Only a human being can live free from the influence of an ever-changing world.

       A person infested with numerous desires need abundant material wealth to keep himself happy. As he drops his desires the need for material wealth diminishes. Thus, a person of very few desires remain content living by frugal means.

DISCIPLINE YOUR DESIRES

     The mind produces endless desires. The intellect alone can control them. When the intellect controls your desires, they become disciplined and determined. They then assume the form of an aim, ambition, aspiration a goal or an ideal in your life. If, however, the intellect loses its control over your desires, they turn into a craving, lust, greed or avarice. In that state, your mind becomes more disturbed, more stressful. Therefore, your intellect must constantly exercise its control over the endless desires projected by your mind. You will then reduce your stress and strain in life.

MODIFICATIONS OF DESIRES

     When your intellect does not exercise its control over your mind, desires develop into their different permutations. Thus, desires can take different modifications. All of them generate mental agitations causing stress in human lives. Desires are the root cause of all your troubles. You must locate and control desires at their very source. If you fail to do so, they develop to monstrous proportions. The way to control and discipline your desires is to work for a higher ideal in life. Analyse your present activities.

ASSESS THE WORLD PROPERLY

     You do not care to assess the kind of environment that you contact, the type of climate you live in, the nature of people you relate to, and so on. Because of this lack of proper assessment, you develop unreasonable expectations from your contacts. Your mind has its demands and you want the world to cater to those specified demands. You feel everybody must serve the whims and fancies of your mind. You expect everything to fit into your mental pattern. This attitude of expecting the entire world to bow down to your personal likes and dislikes is most unreasonable. Unreasonable expectations cause disappointments in your life. And disappointments cause stress.

       The solution lies in correctly analysing and assessing the people, environments and situations you face. Begin with those who are closest to you. Your immediate partners both at home and at work. Observe closely their outer conduct. Try to ascertain their inner nature. Having found that out decide whether or not you want to live with them. If you decide to continue with them, you must accept their nature and behaviour. Thereafter, its foolish and futile to grumble and complain about them. How can you expect them to be different from what they are? How can you expect a hysterical boss at the Office to be calm and composed? How can you expect a nagging wife to be sweet and docile? How can you expect your bubbling teenagers to be mature and calm? How can a mother-in-law be a mother? To whom would you attribute these 'faults'? To them who are helplessly expressing their own inner nature? Or to you who expect them to live apart from their basic nature? You are asking for the impossible. And when things do not go your way you feel disappointed. You grumble your life away. All these erroneous expectations add to your stress. So let people live their own lives! What cannot be cured must be endured.

       The lack of assessment does not stop with people only. You fail to assess other things as well. The country you live in, the community you associate with the company you work for, the climate you are placed in etc.

DO NOT REGRET THE PAST

     People feel stressed because they brood over their past. They regret---what they have done or not done, what had happened or not happened--over the past. Their minds are cluttered with memories of the past. They remain ever agitated. Spouses regret all their lives for having married. Those who chose to remain single regret their choice till the last days of their lives!

       You must realise that the past is fait accompli. To disturb your present life with past memories is tantamount to suicide. You cannot mend the moments you have already lived. You must learn to concentrate and consecrate your actions to the living present and not the dead past. Do not retrace your steps and regress to your past. Past is past. Let it die. Use your past experience only to the extent of steering your present actions. For example, your arrogant behaviour in the past has caused you endless problems. But do not dissipate your energy worrying about the past. Instead, apply your present energy to share your future.

DO NOT HAND ON FUTURE HOPES

     Besides worrying about the past, people commit another grave mistake of living on future hopes. They focus their thoughts on the unborn future. They seldom live in the present reality. Your craving for future gains prevent you from enjoying whatever you do have in the present. You place hope in the future. Thus, throughout your lifespan you merely entertain and accumulate multifold desires. You procrastinate your actual enjoyment. Consequently, you experience a great deal of mental agitation and stress. The key to life: Focus your attention on the present. Count your blessings. Compare your state to those who possess far less than you …."I had no shoes and complained until I met a man who had no feet." Be satisfied with and learn to enjoy whatever you are provided now. While you "enjoy" present possessions you may plan and programme to achieve greater heights of prosperity. To find satisfaction and enjoyment in the present lot does not mean developing complacency. You must revel in the present and aspire for the highest.

      Talk to the man owning a scooter. He scrumbles too, believing that his happiness will be complete when he purchases a small car. Hopes never end. None finds satisfaction in one's own possessions. Each of them merely craves for greater prosperity. Do not fall into the snares of future prospects. Learn to be content with your present lot and then plan to go higher.

      Learn to be content with your present lot and then plan to go higher.

REDUCE YOUR EGO

     Ego is self-consciousness. It is part of your subtle body which constitutes your inner personality. When you consider yourself distinct and separate from others, you are said to be "egoistic." As long as you have an ego your mind will be disturbed. You will be under stress. Reduce your ego, you become free from mental agitation. Ego manifests in three distinct ways:

1. I am supreme.
2. I alone exist
3. I-am-the doer

       In the first case person believes himself superior to one and all. He has no regard or respect for others', knowledge and experience. Extreme pride and vanity consume any trace of mental peace within him. Such a person's mind will ever be disturbed.

       In the second phase, a person live selfishly centering every interest towards his own welfare. Such a gross, selfish and self-centred attitude produces mental agitation and suffering. In the entire world you will not find a selfish, self-centred, person peaceful and happy. Conversely, you will never find an unselfish person mentally agitated and unhappy.

       In the third phase, a person with this egoistic concept takes his duties as a burden upon his shoulders. He becomes attached and excited about his obligations to the world. He hurries and worries about his work. Your foremost obligation in life should be to merely do whatever you ought to do. That is the beginning and end of all your obligations. You need not brood over or worry about your self-created duties and responsibilities. Your real duty in life is to keep yourself mentally self-sufficient, self-poised and self-pleased.

AVOID COMPLEXES

 
   Most people suffer from complexes. They have either an inferiority or a superiority complex. Rarely indeed do you find a person free from both. Why do you feel yourself inferior or superior to others? Why do you have to compare yourself with others? Why do you not just be yourself? Learn this lesson from nature. Does the tortoise feel itself superior or inferior to a hare? Or the hare feel the same way? Every animal on earth is proud of just being itself. Man alone compares, compares and compares, causing his own suffering.

      You are capable of knowing yourself more than anyone else. Others can only surmise upto a point. Who will know all about you? Your possessions and person, your wealth and vigour, your character and conduct, your emotions and feelings, your thoughts and ideas. You alone qualify to be your own judge. None else. And yet you care so much for the opinion of others. You get flattered when someone puts you higher than where you are. You feel dejected when another condemns you to a lower status. What a strain you go through balancing yourself between the immature opinions and indiscriminate comments of every Tom, Dick and Harry!

THE MOUNTAIN AND THE SQUIRREL

The mountain and the squirrel
Had a quarrel,
And the former called the latter "Little prig."
Bun replied,
"You are doubtless very big:
But all sorts of things and wealthier
Must be taken in together
To make up a year
And a sphere.
And I think it no disgrace
To occupy my place.
If I'm not so large as you,
You are not so small as I,
And not half so spry:
I'll not deny you make
A very pretty squirrel track.
Talents differ; all is well and wisely put;
If I cannot carry forests on my back,
Neither can you crack a nut."

-- R.W. Emerson

      The above simple poem entitled "The Mountain and the Squirrel" points out this weakness of complexes among human beings. The mountain had a quarrel with the squirrel. They called each other names. The mountain bragged about its bigness. That it carried forests on its back. The squirrel admitted its smallness and countered brilliantly, "But you cannot crack a nut". The poem makes it clear that everyone has place in this world. None more important and none else. All beings and things in this world are like spokes in a wheel and God the hub holding everything together.

       The ignorant do not visualise the human race as a heterogeneous variety of personalities. Much less do they realise that every person's nature is best suited for his own evolution. You must understand your present personality and position in life is ideal for your self-development. Not recognising this great gift of nature you compare with others and suffer from complexes. You are not any less or more important than others in this world. You have a part to play in your life. Identify your part and play it well. Your present state and stature is most conducive for your growth. Realise that. Make use of your own talents to discover inner peace and happiness.

HOW TO ELIMINATE STRESS

   
       The subject matter, upto this point laid the accent on reduction of stress. This is because people need to reduce stress before they attempt its elimination, stress reduction is more practical than its elimination. To eliminate stress completely you need to put in enormous effort. The following section explains this process. You can eradicate stress completely only by realising your supreme Self, by knowledge of Self. As long as you remain ignorant of the self, you will entertain desires. Unfulfilled desires cause stress. Just as on waking up from a dream, the knowledge of the waking state eliminates all desires and consequent stress of the dreamer and the world. The dreamer becomes fully liberated from the thraldom of the dream world only on reaching the waking. Similarly, you will gain absolute liberation from this world through Self-realisation alone.

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Source: Article by Swami A.Parthasarathy, India.
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Sense-objects a Trap: Man Bound.

Adi Sankara, author, is very appropriately reminded of the various examples provided by nature where certain species meet their death due to extreme attachment to one or the other of the five senses in the following Verse:


The deer, the elephant, the moth, the fish
And the honey-bee—these five are annihilated
because of their salvery to one or the other of the
senses such as sound etc., through their own
attachment. What then is the condition of a man
who is attached to all these five?

- Verse 76: Vivekachoodamani.

COMMENTARY

The deer is always fascinated by melodious sound and the deer hunter signs to charm the deer. Attracted by the melody of sound, the deer has no awareness of the danger it is in, and turns in the direction of the music; the hunter soon makes it his target. The elephants, especially in the matting season, become extremely attached to the sense of touch; rubbing against each other and walking without caution, they fall into the pits got ready to catch them. The moth is enchanted by form and attracted by the brilliance of the flame. It flutters towards it with an agonizing impatience and gets burnt. The fish, ravenously hungry at all times, in its gluttony, swallows the bait, is caught and thus meets its end in the stomach of fish-eaters. The poor honey-bee, attracted by the fragrant smell of flowers, pursues its industrious vocation, collects honey from the flowers and hoards it in its hive, until at last, heartless man set fire to the hive in order to loot the honey-wealth of the bee.

Thus, the author gives us five typical examples wherein each has met its doom because of its attachment to one or the other of the five senses. Most dramatic it becomes when the author concludes with the exclamation, “What then is in store for man who is attached to all these five?”

When a man of ignorance, having neither discrimination nor detachment, vulgarly runs after sense-objects for his temporary nerve-ticklings, he becomes a sad victim of his delusion, and meets a calamitous end for he has allowed himself to be bound by the five strong ropes.


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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Reverentially called Bhagavatpada Acharya (The teacher at the feet of Lord) and Adi Sankara (roughly "the first Sankara"), Sankara (approximately 788-820 CE) was the most famous Advaita philosopher who had a profound influence on the growth of Hinduism through his non-dualistic philosophy. He advocated the greatness and importance of the important Hindu scripture known as the Vedas (most particularly on the Upanishads, also known as Vedanta)and gave new life to Hinduism when it was suffering due to the increasing influence of Buddhism. He was born in Kaladi, a small village in Kerala, India. His teachers include Gaudapada and Govinda. Reverentially called Bhagavatpada Acharya (The teacher at the feet of Lord) and Adi Sankara (roughly "the first Sankara"), Sankara (approximately 788-820 CE) was the most famous Advaita philosopher who had a profound influence on the growth of Hinduism through his non-dualistic philosophy. He advocated the greatness and importance of the important Hindu scripture known as the Vedas (most particularly on the Upanishads, also known as Vedanta)and gave new life to Hinduism when it was suffering due to the increasing influence of Buddhism. He was born in Kaladi, a small village in Kerala, India. His teachers include Gaudapada and Govinda.
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Source:
Excerpt from the Talks on Sankara’s Vivekachoodamani by Swami Chinmayananda.

DRAGONFLY

At the bottom of a quiet pond lived a little colony of water bugs. They were a happy colony, living far from the sun. They did notice that every once in a while one from their colony seemed to lose interest in going about with his friends, and clinging to a lily stalk, he gradually moved out of sight and was seen no more. “Look!” said one of the water bugs to others. “One from our colony is climbing up the lily stalk. Where do you think she’s going? Wasn’t she happy here? Where do you suppose she went?” No one had an answer. Finally one of the water bugs spoke up, “I Have an idea. The next one of us to climb up the lily stalk must promise to come back and tell the rest of us where he went and why.”

As providence would have it, the very water bug who had suggested the plan found himself climbing up the lily stalk. Up, and up and up he went. Before he knew what was happening, he had broken through the surface of the water and fallen onto a broad lily pad above. When he opened his eyes, he couldn’t believe what he saw. A startling change had come over his old body. His movements revealed four silver wings and a long tail. Even as he struggled, he felt an impulse to move his wings. The warmth of the sun soon dried the moisture from his new body. He moved his wings again and suddenly found himself above the water. He had become a dragonfly.

Swooping and dipping in great curves, he flew through the air. He felt exhilarated in the new atmosphere. Every now and then, the new dragonfly landed happily on a lily pad to rest. It was then that he chanced to look below, at the bottom of the pond. He was right above his old friends, the water bugs! Then the dragonfly remembered the promise. Without thinking, he dived down. He hit the surface of the water and bounced away. He winged off happily into his wonderful new world of sun and air. After experiencing the freedom of his new surroundings for some time, he again landed to rest on the lily pad, of course, having realized….. “If I had not chosen to outgrow the colony of water bugs, to which I was so attached, I would ever become a dragonfly. Now that I have become a dragonfly, even if I want, I can never go back to where I came from. Even if I somehow manage to go back, the colony of water bugs – my old friends – will no longer be able to recognize me in new form…. they won’t understand me. I have to wait till one of them also becomes a dragonfly, for, only then will they understand what has happened to me.”


COMMENTS:

The law of life is ‘When the lower is pushed, the higher delights’. When the body is pushed beyond its perceived limits the mind delights. When the body tells you ‘I can’t walk one more block. I can’t run another lap. I can trek no more,’ and then when it is pushed beyond its perceived limits and when it walks that additional block, runs another lap and treks further – the mind delights. Against the pleading of your body when you do a few more push- ups or few more reps of the bicep curls or another dozen squats – the mind delights. When the lower – the body is pushed, the higher – the mind delights.”

Struggle, suffering, challenges, testing period, tough times – in fact, all these are vocabulary of a man who is seeing only the lower being pushed without recognizing how the higher delights in the process. You are saying the caterpillar is being pushed. I am saying the butterfly is born. Every time man is pushed and got delights… for, it is through this push, man is created. Align yourself to this spiritual truth and so much of your life will change.

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Source: Excerpt from the article published in “Frozen Thoughts” April 2008.

CONVERSATIONS ON CONSCIOUS IMMORTALITY with Ramana Maharishi

CONVERSATIONS ON CONSCIOUS IMMORTALITY
WITH RAMANA MAHARISHI
Recorded by Paul Brunton and
Munagala Venkataramiah

Question: We grieve when a person whom we love dies. Shall we avoid such grief by either loving all alike or by not loving at all?

Answer: If one person dies there is grief for the other person who still lives. The way to get rid of grief is not to live. Kill the one who grieves. Who will then remain to suffer? The ego must die. That is the only way. The two alternatives amount to the same state. When all is the Self, who is there to be loved or hated?
There is a class of people who want to know all about the future and past births, but they ignore the present. The load from the past is the present misery. Why recall the past, it is a waste of time.
The Self is the electric dynamo, the mind is the contact switchboard, while the body is the lamp. When the karma hour comes to give death, the mind switches off the current and withdraws the light-life from the body. Both mind and vitality are manifestations of the supreme life force, the Self.

Question: What happens to an individual after death?

Answer: Engage yourself in the living present. The future will take care of itself. Do not worry about the future. The state before creation and the process of creation are dealt with in the scriptures in order that you may know the present. Because you say you are born, therefore talk about it.
What is birth? Is it of the “I-thought” or of the body? Is “I” separate from the body or identical? How did this “I-thought” arise” Is the “I-thought” your nature? Or is something else your nature?
The “I” of the wise man includes the body but he does not identify himself with the body. For there cannot be anything apart from “I” for him. If the body falls, there is no loss for the “I”. “I” remains the same. If the body feels dead, let it raise the question. Being inert, it cannot “I”. “I” never dies and dos not ask. Who then dies? Who aks?

Question: From where does the ego arise?

Answer: Soul, mind, ego are mere words. There are no true entities of the kind. Consciousness is the only truth. Forgetfulness of your real nature is the real death; remembrance of it is the true birth. It puts an end to successive births. Yours is the eternal life. How does the desire for eternal life arise? Because the present state is unbearable. Why? Because it is not your true nature. Had it been your real nature, there would be no desire to agitate you. How does the present state differ from your real nature? You are spirit in truth.
Troubles arise because we consider ourselves limited. The idea is wrong. In sleep there was no world, no ego, and no trouble. Something wakes up from that happy state and says “I”. To that ego the world appears. It is the rise of the ego that is the cause of the trouble. Let him trace the ego to its source and he will reach that undifferentiated Source, a state that is sleepless sleep. The Self is ever there; wisdom only appears to dawn, though it is but natural.

Question: Are ego and Self the same?

Answer: Self can be without the ego, but the ego cannot be without the Self. Egos are like bubbles in the ocean. Impurities and worldly attachments affect only the ego; the Self remains pure and unaffected. All these are only mental concepts. You are now identifying yourself with a wrong “I” which the “I-thought.” This “I-thought” rises and sinks whereas the true significance of “I” cannot do so. There cannot be a break in your being. The father of your personal “I” is the real “I,” God. Try to find out the source of the individual “I” and then you will reach the other “I.” When the individual goes, the desire also go.

True Self-Reliance
Question: I was once very self-reliant I fear in old age that people will laugh at me?

Answer: Even when you said you were self-reliant, it was not so—you were ego-reliant. Instead of this, if you let go of ego, you will get real Self-reliance. Your pride was merely pride of ego. As long as you identify yourself with the ego, you will recognize others as individuals also, then there is room for pride. Let that drop and you drop others’ ego as well and so there is no more room for pride. As long as there is the sense of separation, there will be afflicting thoughts. If the original source is regained and the sense of separation is put to an end, then there is peace.

Consider what happens when a stone is thrown up. It leaves its source, is projected up, tries to come down, and is always in motion until it regains its source where it is at rest. Similarly the waters of the ocean evaporate, form clouds that are moved by winds, condense into water, and falls as rain. The water rolls down the hill in streams and rivers until it reaches its original, source the ocean. After reaching there it is at peace.

So you see where there is sense of separateness from the source there is agitation and movement until the sense of separateness is lost. So it is with yourself. Now that you identify yourself with the body, you think that you are separate. Before this false identify ceases, you must regain your source, then you can be happy.

Gold is not an ornament but the ornament is nothing but gold. Whatever shape the ornament may assume and however different the shapes of the ornaments are, there is only one reality, which is gold. Similarly with the bodies and the Self, the Reality is the Self. To identify ourselves with the body and to seek happiness is like attempting to ford to take a lake on the back of an alligator. The body identity is due to extroversion and the wandering of the mind. To continue in that state will only keep one in an endless tangle and there will be no peace. Seek your source, merge in the Self and remain as one.

Rebirth really means discontent with the present state and a desire to be born where there will be discontent. Birth, being of the body, cannot affect the Self. The Self remains ever, even after the body perishes. The discontent is due to the wrong identity of the eternal Self with the perishable body. The body is a necessary adjunct of the ego. If the ego is killed the eternal Self is revealed in all its glory…

A wise man crushes the ego at its source. It rises again and again, for him as well as for the ignorant, impelled by nature, which is prarbdha. Both in the ignorant and the wise the ego sprouts up, but with this difference; the former ego is quite ignorant of its source, or is not aware of its deep sleep in the dream and wakeful states. On the contrary, a wise man enjoys his transcendental experience with this ego, keeping his attention always on its source. His ego is not dangerous; it is only the ash-skeleton of a burnt rope. Even though it possess a form; it is ineffective. By constantly keeping our focus on our source, our ego is dissolved.

The Nature of the Ego
Question: How is realization made possible?

Answer: There is the absolute Self from which a spark proceeds as from fire. The spark is called ego. In the case of the ignorant it identifies itself with some object simultaneously with its rise. It cannot remain independent of such association. This association is ignorance whose destruction is the object of our efforts. If ego’s objectifying tendency is filled, it remains pure and merges in its source. We can separate ourselves from that which is external but not from that which is one with us. Therefore, ego is not one with the body. This must be realized in the waking state.
The quest of “Who am I” is the axe to cut of the ego. The intellect always seeks to have external knowledge, leaving knowledge of its own origin. The mind is only the identity of the Self with the body. It is false ego that is created; it creates false phenomena in its turn, and appears to move in them. If the false identity vanishes, the Reality becomes apparent. This does not mean that Reality is not even now. It is always there eternally the same.

Question: How to get rid of egoism?

Answer: If you see what the ego really is, that is enough to get rid of it. It is the ego that makes efforts to get rid of itself, so how can it die? If ego is to go, then something else must slay it. Will it ever consent to commit suicide? So first realize that is the true nature of the ego and it will go of its own accord. Examine the nature of ego. That is the process of realization. If one sees what one’s real nature is, then one will get rid of ego. Until then our efforts are just like chasing our own shadow; the more we advance, the more distant is the shadow. If we leave our own Self, then the ego will manifest itself. If we seek our true nature, then ego dies. If we are in our own Reality, then we need not trouble about the ego.
Seek your source. Find out from where the thought of “I” springs. What object can we be surer of and know more certainly than our Self? This is direct experience and cannot further be described. If the present “I” goes, it, the mind, is known for what it is—a myth. What remains is the pure Self. In deep sleep the Self exists without perception of body and world, then happiness reigns.

Question: You say that we shall find the divine centre inside us. If each individual has a centre are there then millions of divine centers?

Answer: There is only one Center to which there is no circumference. Dive deep within and find it. Meditating on Him or on the Seer, the Self, there is a mental vibration “I” to which all are reduced. Tracing the source of “I”, the primal “I” alone remains and It is inexpressible.

Question: Is there not an unchanging Self and a changing self?

Answer: Changefulness is mere thought. All thought rise after the arising of the “I-thought.” See to whom these thoughts arise. Then you transcend them and they subside. That is to say, tracing the source of the “I-thought,” you realize the perfect “I”. “I” is the name of the Self……

Seek the True Self
Question: Is it possible to know the after-death state of a person?

Answer: It is possible, but why try to know it?

Question: Because I consider my son’s death to be real from my level of understanding.

Answer: The birth of the “I-thought” is the son’s birth; its death is the person’s death. After “I-thought” has arisen, the wrong identity with the body arises. Thinking yourself as the body, you give false values to others and identify them with bodies. Did you think of your son before his birth? Only as you are thinking of him, he is your son. Where has he gone? He has gone to the source from which he sprang. He is one with you. As long as you are, he is there too.
See the real Self and this confusion with the body will vanish. You are eternal, and others will be found to be eternal. Until this truth is realized there will always be this grief due to wrong identity. Birth, death and rebirth should only make you investigate the question and find out that there are no births or rebirths, they relate to the body and not to the Self.

Question: What happens to the created ego after the body dies?

Answer: Ego is “I-thought”. In its subtle form, it remains a thought whereas in its gross aspect, it embraces mind, senses and body. They disappear in deep slumber along with the ego. Still the Self is there. Similarly it will be in death. Ego is not an entity independent of the Self in order that it might be created or destroyed by itself. It functions as an instrument of the Self and periodically ceases to function, that is, it appears and disappears as birth and death.

Question: I want to find the real “I” and always be effortlessly in touch.

Answer: It is enough that you give up the individual “I” and no effort will be reduced to gain the real “I”. Do not think that there is any such difference between you and the Self; then surrender yourself to Him, merge yourself in Him. There should be no reservations, as you cannot cheat God.

Question: What about after death?

Answer: Inquire first who or what it is that is born. It is the body not you. Why trouble about things beyond you such as death when your Self is here and present?

Question: How long does one stay in other worlds between births an deaths?

Answer: The Sense of time is relative. In a dream you may live a whole day’s events in a couple of hours. In the subtle body of the death world you may do the same and live like what seems a thousand years, although by our time it may be only a hundred years.
Do we fear sleep? Sleep is temporary death. Death is a longer sleep. Why should you want continuance of the bodily shackles? Find out your undying Self and be immortal.
As long as you identify yourself with the gross body, thoughts materialized as gross manifestations must be real to you. Having existed here it certainly survives death. Hence under these circumstances the other world exists. On the other hand, consider that the one reality is the Self from whom has sprung the ego. The ego loses sight of the Self and identifies itself with the body, which results in ignorance and misery. The life-current [the Self] has passed through innumerable incarnations, births and deaths, but is still unaffected. There is no reason to mourn. The mind is of the ego, and the ego rises from the Self.
The sacred bull [Nandi] in India represents the ego, Jiva. It is always shown in our temples facing God with a flat circular stone in front of it. This stone altar is where sacrifices are offered and it all symbolizes that the ego must be sacrificed and must be turned towards the inner God.

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Source:
Excerpt from the Mananam Series Book on “The Sages Speak About Life & Death”.

INTELLECT VERSUS INTELLIGENCE

The crux of the problem that humanity faces today is the failure to distinguish the intellect from intelligence. Even the educated are ignorant of the exact nature of the intellect. Much less do they realise the importance of its role in human life. And educators the world over have been focusing all their attention and effort in merely building intelligence. They have invested little thought or effort in developing the intellect. Consequently the human intellect remains completely neglected.

Intellect is Not Intelligence
Intelligence is built in an individual by gaining information, knowledge from external sources. From teachers and textbooks, from schools and universities and other information bureaux. Using those sources you become informed, knowledgeable, even brilliant in one or more subjects that you take up. Just think for a while. Try to understand what you have achieved. The intelligence that you have gained provides you with the means to make a living. No more. All creatures, save humans, need no education to make living. The carnivores and herbivores are naturally provided with this expertise. So are birds in the sky or fishes in the ocean. The human species alone requires some form of education to sustain itself. With knowledge acquired from external sources you only come up to the level of animals. Education has deteriorated to such an extent.

Distinct and different from intelligence is the intellect. Any amount of intelligence gained cannot per se build your intellect. Intelligence is acquired by you from external agencies much like data fed into a computer. All the information stored in a computer does not enable it to function independently. It cannot use that knowledge on its own. Likewise, you cannot use the knowledge gained without the help of your intellect. You need the intellect to think, plan and programme your life with the available knowledge. In the case of all other species save human, they are provided with a built-in-programme of life. Their lifestyle is fixed. They cannot live apart from their inherent nature. So they do not need to plan and programme their lives. They can do without an intellect to guide them moment to moment.

The intellect is the faculty to think, to reason, to judge, to decide on the pros and cons of life. The capacity to question, enquire and not to take anything for granted. You will have to develop your intellect all by yourself. No external agencies can achieve that for you. Do not blindly follow the line of your predecessors. Instead, build the strength of your own intellect. You can achieve that by using your ability to think, to reason, to question everything you meet in life. Do not accept anything which does not admit logic or reason. The constant exercise of thinking, reasoning, question all through your life would strengthen your intellect. Galilei Galileo, often referred to as the father of modern astronomy, wondered why humans have discarded this wondrous faculty they possess: I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect has intended their use.

Intelligence Does not Develop Intellect
The capacity to absorb fresh knowledge is called udana in Sanskrit terms. This capacity is maximum at infancy. And it diminishes gradually as you grow older. In the passage of life this process of absorption helps you gain information, knowledge, intelligence. But the intelligence acquired does not make you think freely, originally, reason independently. Udana will not build the intellect. There is no cause and effect relationship between intelligence and intellect. Ironically, the entire focus throughout the world is to gain intelligence while the intellect remains poor as ever, undeveloped. Today it is all intelligence, no intellect.

That explains why out of millions of doctors turned out by medical schools only a few have proved to be outstanding, extraordinary in their research and findings. Who have discovered life-saving drugs or subtle techniques to transplant organs in a human body. So too out of countless engineers graduated from engineering schools only a few have produced wonders like the Panama Canal, Golden Gate Bridge or Euro Channel Tunnel. In the field of law again there are but a few prodigious lawyers who overshadow even the most reputed ones. The difference arises in the strength of intellect in the former which he latter, possessing abundant knowledge of law, lacks. To cite an example: In Chennai, India over seventy years back, the High Court was deciding a famous case on forgery. The defending lawyer defending the accused made an elaborated presentation covering practically all points of law. And when the opponent layer’s turn came up, he requested the judge to merely put up the original document against the light.

He beseeched, “Do you see a watermark in the document, my Lord?”
The justice cooperated, “Yes, I do see an elephant watermark.”
The lawyer rejoined, “This paper was manufactured in 1932.”
And the original document was dated 1930! Of course, he had earlier obtained the proof of it.

The above observations demonstrate the power of a developed intellect vis-à-vis intelligence, a mere stockpile of knowledge. All the intelligence that people carry without the intellect to apply it in life tantamounts to gold bars on a mule’s back. Again intellect, the steering wheel which controls and directs it. You will do well to make sure you have a power steering!

The faculty to think, to reason is a human prerogative. All other beings lack this faculty since they do not possess an intellect. The intellect renders a human being the chef d’ouevre of creation. But the world is unaware of this unique status. And people do not care to develop this life-sustaining, life-surpassing equipment, the intellect.

Also you fail to realise that thinking, reasoning is skilled work. That you need to learn and practice. Like playing the violin or golf. You believe that thinking is a natural process like seeing, hearing or breathing. That you can think clearly, precisely without putting in the necessary effort on your part. You must understand that to develop the faculty of thinking, reasoning you need to devote as much time and effort to it as you would to learning any other art or skill.

Need to Develop Intellect
For a long period of time there has been no awareness or endeavour by humans to develop the art of thinking. As a result the lives of people are based on groundless beliefs. And their beliefs rest on some absurd superstitions. Or mere assertions which bear no proof. And now they find it difficult to question their veracity.

Following this trend humanity has reached a perilous state. People must wake up. Realise the emergent need to develop, strengthen the intellect. The process of thinking should have started from an early age. Having failed to do so, at least start the process now. Develop the art of thinking. Follow it up with the study of the impeccable truths of life. Delve deep into the truths. Accept those that appeal to logic and reason. Apply them in practical living. Adopt this procedure all through life. It will enable you to build your intellect. Nobel laureate Albert Einstein has observed: Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.

Humans need a strong intellect to exercise the right choice of action in life. The world presents endless trials and tribulations. The human species alone is provided with an intellect to fight against and surmount mundane challenges. All other species, devoid of intellect, are helpless victims of the rigours of the external world. A powerful intellect helps humans overpower these onslaughts. But the role of the human intellect does not end there. Far above its suzerainty in the world the intellect has the unique capacity to even transcend the world and reach the ultimate state of spiritual Enlightenment. No other creature save humans can conceive, much less achieve that exalted state. You must make good use of the intellect to attain this very purpose of human birth.

Unaware of the dire need to build the intellect, people entertain themselves with merely reading others’ periodicals and publications. They indulge in the mere length of study. Just poring over pages of literature apathetic towards the message therein or its deeper implications if any. Rare indeed are the ones who go into the depth of study. Thus little is assimilated, absorbed by the readers. People have been mere educated robots for generations. And have been traversing through life without knowing the meaning and purpose of it. Like mariners who sail through the seven seas without fathoming the depth below. But the rare one who cares to know, drops the plumb line anywhere and instantly finds the depth. So too, one must use the intellect to go into the depth of one’s life to claim to be truly educated. It is the vertical and not the horizontal line of study that matters in life. Herbert Spencer, a thinker and write, was one such truly educated luminary. Someone had asked him if he was a voracious reader. He instantly quipped: No sir, if I were as big a reader as others, I would have been as big an ignoramus as others.

The world abounds in personalities with one-sided development. Intelligence and no intellect. An example of one such person suffering from this human imbalance is a renowned scientist. He is an alcoholic and his liver is damaged. He is extremely short tempered and his blood pressure has shot up. And he is stressed, unable to face even the petty challenges of the world. Just reflect over his state. Analyse his personality carefully. He is brilliant scientist with profound knowledge of his subject. He has acquired abundant intelligence but never cared to develop his intellect. His intellect has always remained weak. It lacks the strength to handle the multifarious demands of the mind. His mind craves for alcohol. His intellect is not powerful enough to control the nagging desire. So too his mind raves in foul temper. His poor intellect is unable to control its ravings. And when his mind is humiliated, strained and stressed by the problems confronting it, his frail intellect looks on helplessly.

On the contrary, there are luminaries possessing awesome intellects which hold their minds under perfect control. Some of them possess no academic qualification but academies are built around them.

Educational institutions therefore need to maintain an equable balance between acquisition of intelligence and developing an intellect.

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Source:
From the Book on “THE FALL OF THE HUMAN INTELLECT” by A. Parthasarathy.

VEGETARIANISM

The greatness and dignity of human beings is their ability to sacrifice their lives for others.
- Swami Tejomayananda

A question often asked by people concerns vegetarianism and non-vegetarianism. This is a relevant topic because it involves the value of ahimsa, which is an important aspect of sanatana dharma.What is the position of manu smrti on the question of eating meat? The general commandment given (called a samanya) is: "Do not eat meat." There are a number of reasons why this injunction is given. One is from the spiritual standpoint, that there is one Self or one Life that pulsates in all beings; since all beings want to live happily in this world, we do not have the moral right to take away a life or to cause any unhappiness or sorrow to others. This is a simple dharma, to understand.The second reason is that the greatness and dignity of human beings is their ability to sacrifice their lives for others. The person, who sacrifices his comforts or wealth, his happiness, or even his life, in order to protect, sustain, and help others, is considered great. Therefore, we are cutting the very root of the glory of human life and degrading ourselves.
In recent times, several organisations have been formed to protect wild life and forestry. A movement of this kind is necessary nowadays because there are so many greedy and cruel people who are concerned only with their own acquisitions and pleasure and are ready to destroy anything for their own sake. Human beings should sacrifice for others, not sacrifice others for their own personal comforts, pleasures of other pursuits.

A third reason for not eating meat is given with respect to an argument put forth by some non-­vegetarians. If all beings have life and vegetarians kill and eat plant life, why should we not eat animals also? However this argument is really a fallacious one, for if we extend this reasoning a little further, we would then be asking why we cannot eat human beings also. If it is necessary to destroy life no matter what we eat, then why is there a shortage of food? But, of course, everyone would reply, "Oh, that is horrible! How can you say that?" No one will agree with the argument when it is taken that far.Even though there is-life in all beings, in both vegetable and animal kingdoms, there are degrees of evolution and of the manifestation of intelligence. The degree of feeling and understanding, of mental and physical pain, is much less developed in plant-life as compared to animal-life. According to our dharma sastra, the purpose of human life is to know the Truth. In order to know the Truth we must sustain our lives, but it needs to be done with proper discrimination.When a patient goes to a doctor, the doctor will try to treat the patient with as little medicine as possible and without an operation. However, if an operation is necessary, the doctor performs it, generally with anesthesia, so as to give the least amount of pain and discomfort to the patient.

In the same way, although life must be sustained with life, it should be done by causing the least pain and disturbance to nature. This means that even when eating vegetarian food we should eat,moderately and with discrimination. Even from an anatomical point of view, the body structure of a carnivorous animal is meant for eating meat whereas the human body is not. From a medical standpoint also, many people today are advised to reduce their fat and cholesterol intake, which generally means the reduction of red meat in the diet. It is needless to explain here that not only meat-eating, but excessive eating of any kind is not good for physical health.

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(Courtesy: Mananam - Hindu Culture Part II, Vol. XV, No.1, January 1993)

THE BREATH

Discover inner space by creating gaps in the stream of thinking. Without those gaps, your thinking becomes repetitive, uninspired, devoid of any creative spark, which is how it still is for most people on the planet. You don’t need to be concerned with the duration of those gaps. A few seconds is good enough. Gradually, they will lengthen by themselves, without any effort on your part. More important than their length is to bring them in frequently so that your daily activities and your stream of thinking becomes interspersed with space.

Being aware of your breathing takes attention away from thinking and creates space. It is one way of generating consciousness. Although the fullness of consciousness is already there as the unmanifested, we are here to bring consciousness into this dimension.

The fact that breath has no form is one of the reason why breath awareness is an extremely effective way of bringing space into your life, of generating consciousness.

Being aware of your breath forces you into the present moment—the key to all inner transformation. Whenever you are conscious of the breath, you are absolutely present. You may also notice that you cannot think and be aware of your breathing. Conscious breathing stops your mind. But far from being in a trance or half asleep, you are fully awake and highly alert. You are not falling below thinking, but risking above it. And if you look more closely, you will find that those two things—coming fully into the present moment and ceasing thinking without loss of consciousness—are actually one and the same: the arising of space consciousness.

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Source:
From the Book on “A NEW EARTH – Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose” by ECKART TOLLE.