Being Living-beings

The Past

A look into the past reveals that Roman Church and Islam had rapid success in converting the populations of Europe, Arabia, parts of Africa, Iran, and parts of Afghanistan, devouring the indigenous cultures and misappropriating many of their traditions. They could take absolute political control of these areas within a few years time. But the story in Bharat was different. The early forays by muslim invaders into Bharat were met with by stiff resistance and they could not establish roots here despite displaying unparalleled brutality. It took them many centuries of constant attacks to gain semi-permanent politcal dominance in this land.

Although they gained political power through deception, and shrewd policies- such as by Akbar, they still were not successful in converting the people to any large extent. Even though they were making progress, the indigenous culture of dharma was strong,  and it motivated the people to resist the adharmis consisitently. When the bigotry of islamists such as Aurangazeb became excessive, they were defeated by the people of this land.

When the britishers came, the close to one millennium of slow wearing down of indian culture was begining to show some discernable results. The britishers correctly identified the prevalent traditional education system as the mainstay of cultural strength and continuity that resisted foreign influence. They went about dismantling and replacing it with western education system with appreciable results, producing brown sahibs. Yet, they were met with resistance regularly from the people inspired by bharatiya samskriti, such as Tilak, Aurobindo, Savarkar. There were also people such as Swami Dyananda Saraswati, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Swami Vivekananda, who revived the spiritual values that strengthened this culture. The cunning british then made a clever move positioning the british-influenced Gandhi, who appropriated the icons of cultural strength such as bhagavad gita and Sri Rama naam, that were vital sources of inspiration for dharmic thought, and misinterpreted them, twisting their meaning around. For half a century the british fostered Gandhi, who went on to emaciate the people of this land of their dharmik strength and vitality. Then weakened by WW II, they handed over power to the brown sahibs that they had bred. These brown sahibs then continued with all the systems created by the british for exploitation and emaciation of this land and its people; their education system continued to churn out coconuts (as defined by Richard Crasta in ‘Impressing the Whites‘).

The trend to be noted is that, the conversion of people away from dharmic thought was extremely slow in the begining, the pace has been slowly picking up over the past millennium.

The Present

The majority of people born in india today automatically grow up to be ‘coconuts’. That is not surprising, considering that the earlier generations grew up listening to stories of Ramayana, Mahabharata and puranas from their grandparents that inculcated a strong sense of dharma in them. The current generations probably hear only stories of Cindrella and red riding hood and grow up to consider Sri Krishna and Sri Hanuman as indian versions of superman and batman. The effect of this is reflected in the way even some supposed torch bearers of indian culture are now seen following the way of the westerners.

The current situation is such that the system of deracination now runs on its own steam. Earlier considerable effort needed to be put in by muslim marauders through acts of monstrous brutality to convert the people, which were met with by strong backlash from the indians. Thereafter, the british had comparatively easier time making use of the already converted people as sepoys and further creating brown sahibs, although they still had to face considerable resistance from the rest. But now, the brown sahibs and sepoys find little resistance; they only get adulation and are even considered role models. Currently, the pace of conversion is very fast, with influence of TV, Internet, prevalent ‘education’ system which has been made compulsory now, and the emerging culture of seeking employment as white collared labourers for MNCs or in companies abroad. The trend is similar to the exponential curve or the trend of compound interest.

The characteristic of an exponential curve is that at advanced stages, the growth is unfathomably phenomenal. When that stage is reached, the transformation of society would be spectacular, yet almost imperceptible to the transforming people themselves in their adharmik stupor. In structural engineering, when an object is subjected to continuously increasing external pressure, at first there may not be any discernable effect, later it starts to deform in elastic fashion, i.e., it changes shape but would return to original shape when the external force is removed. Later it reaches its limit of elasticity called yield point and starts to yield, i.e., deforms in plastic fashion, which means, some amount of deformation is permanent even if external force is removed. By and by it reaches a point, caled Ultimate Strength, beyond which even if the applied external pressure decrease, the deformation will continue to occur, ultimately leading to a point where the material ruptures completely.

bharatiya samskriti has been resisiting applied external forces for millenniums, at some stage it began to yield little by little. At present it seems that the ultimate strength point, beyond which deformation occurs with reduced external pressure, has been crossed. A pessimistic view though it may be, if the trend seen is correct, it seems like things are moving towards rupture point.

However

Unlike material structures, that undergo permanent plastic deformation and yield to rupture inevitably, living beings have the potential to reverse the trend, not only to gain back the previous position of strength, but also to go further beyond the earlier strength. They have the ability to regenerate and rejuvenate themselves- physically, mentally and spiritually. However depraved a being may seem, s/he is always integral with brahma and have the potential to realize themselves as such. 

The question is, will indians utilise their potential, regain their dharmik consciousness and bring back rama rajya ?

The Future

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

… is yours ours to fill.

 

 

 

 

Beyond Physical

Identifying the Enemy

Who is the enemy ? Is it a person ?

Take the case of Shri Anwar Sheikh, he was brought up under the influence of islamic ideology. Inculcated with jihadi ideas, he was dangerous to other human beings who did not follow that ideology. In his youth he killed three persons in the name of islam.

Later his ideas changed, he came to question the ideology of islam, renounced it and became its critic.

It was not Anwar Sheikh the person per se that was dangerous in his early youth. It was the ideas that influenced him that made him dangerous. Anwar Sheikh of later years was a safer human being because he was not under the influence of harmful islamic ideas.

Similar case in point is that of Maharshi Valmiki who wrote Ramayana. In his youth, Ratnakara was dangerous to other humans because he believed that he is justified in robbing other people to support his family. Later he changed his views and as Maharshi Valmiki was immensely beneficial to humanity.

It is therefore the ideas that motivates and influences a person that are important, in terms of his/her effect on society, more important than the person himself.

Ideologies

Islam talks about peace and brotherhood, in Dar-Ul-Islam. Christianity claims to propagate ‘love of God’. Communism talks about ‘equality and upliftment of masses’, Capitalism talks about ‘free market, development and prosperity’.

Yet these very ideologies have been used as excuses to cause deaths of millions of people during the past two millenniums. Killing kaffirs because Allah ordained so. Killing pagans because God willed so. Killing class enemies to bring about revolution for an egalitarian state. Killing the native americans, indians and africans to free the markets and natural resources from control of primitive barbarian tribes; of late, killing vietnamese, iraqis and afghanis to bring them democracy, to civilize them.

Is it that these purported ideologies are dangerous ?

Yet, it is also fact that every muslim is not bloodthirsty towards kaffir. Every christian does not seek to kill pagans. Every communist does not call for killing class enemy. Every capitalist does not seek to usurp money and resources of others.

Therefore it is not ideology per se that is dangerous, it is the motivation that is behind which determines harmfulness or otherwise.

Motivation

What is the motivation that is behind the deaths of millions of people during past two millenniums ?

The common feature of all these killings is the motivation to expand what is considered self-interest, where self is considered in a very narrow sense identified with physical body.

A person who is indoctrinated to consider that Allah will reward him both in terrestrial life and thereafter if he kills kaffirs, is motivated to do so, in the process extending the influence of a select group of people who may be considered high priests of that ideology. Similarly, person misled to consider that he should make pagans owe allegience to an almighty entity called God, else kill them in order to gain the pleasure of that entity, is motivated to do so, again empowering and extending the influence of the group of people considered high priests of that ideology. Equally, a person brainwashed to identify himself as part of a ‘class’ and to consider others who are not part of his class as class enemies, who are to be killed off for betterment of his condition, is motivated to do the killing, in the process expanding the power and influence of a narrow group of people who are considered high priests or politburo. Likewise, person indoctrinated in a consuming culture considers the rest of creation as objects for his consumption and goes about ravaging the earth and killing people who are in the way, again, in the process expanding the power and influence of a group who are considered capital owners, who funds the endeavour.

The motivating factor that causes the killings is the selfish intent of the foot soldiers and the self-aggrandizing intent of the high priests. The ideology is mere excuse.

That is why the killings never stop even if catholic christianity is replaced by protestent christianity, even if christianity is replaced by islam, even if sunni islam is replaced by shia islam, even if christianity and islam are displaced by capitalism or atheism, even if capitalism and atheism are displaced by nazism or fascism, even if capitalism and nazism are displaced by communism, even if marxism is displaced by maoism.

The different ideologies are different branches of the same tree of self-aggrandizement that draw sustenance through roots of selfish-interest.

This tree, due to its inherent nature, seek to draw the entire nourishment from the soil, leaving it barren, seek to stifle and destroy other trees around it. Each of its branches and sub branches exhibit its inherent characteristic of strife, seeking to dominate and destroy one another.

This tree grew from the seed of narrow self-interest that identify physical body as primary and everything else in relation to the body. This narrow self-identification causes the urge to seek to expand and displace others as means to compensate the resulting feeling of constriction and inadequacy.

It is therefore not the person, nor his purported ideology that is the cause of harm, it is the mindset that limit a person’s identity to physical body and consequently seek the crutch of an idea called God/ Allah/ Yahweh/ class-struggle/ socialism/ free-market/ democracy/ freedom/ secularism/ atheism/ nationalism/ racism/ development/ modernism/ globalization/ civlizing or any other such idea to alleviate the pain caused due to their own constriction of sense of self, and seek collaboration with the like-minded to bring other people under their control.

The attachment with the physical- kama, and the consequent inadequacy/insecurity generated agitation- krodha, drives the person to cause harm, like cancer cells, to the body of earth- vasudha; displacing, destroying, devouring other human beings, animals, plants, birds and Nature itself, extending their urge for voracious consumption, turning other beings coming under their influence into rapacious replicas of themselves.

According of primacy to the physical makes science of western origin come up with theories of ‘struggle for survival’ and ‘survival of the fittest’ as defining of life, thereby deprive western science and the societies influenced by it, of spiritual, intellectual and moral direction.

bharatiya samskriti

bharatiya samskriti, on the other hand, consider the entire world as family- vasudhaiva kutumbakam and consequently inspire people to grow together amicably, co-operatively, respecting each other, giving primacy to dharma– that which sustains. It guide people to consider themselves as atman and the physical body like a cloth that is discarded when it becomes old. bharatiya samskriti also inspire people to seek and realize themselves as the supreme, brahma.

Solely identifying with physical body, attaching to it and launching self-aggrandizement drive at the cost of others, is recognized as adharma, that which diminishes, and therefore, discouraged by bharatiya samskriti. People who indulge in such behavior are considered mleccha and shunned.

India Today

bhAratam came under mleccha rule intermittently during the past millennium. The effect of this on society is palpable. The mleccha coined word ‘hindu’ has been accepted as suitable identifier for themselves by many people, despite it being only an indicator of geographical identity. The mleccha attitude of considering physical body as primary identifier has been extended to mis-identify bharatiya samskriti as limited in physical-geographical terms defined by the word ‘hindu’. By identifying with the spiritually, intellectually and morally empty word ‘hindu’, people have been cut off from spiritual and moral intelligence. The effect of this is seen in the way society reacted to the burning to death of 58 ‘hindus’ in a train by a muslim mob in 2001 at Godhra, to the killing of Swami Lakshmanananda and his disciples by christians and maoists at Kandhmal in 2008 and to the bomb blasts carried out by muslims in Mumbai in 1993. The society that is supine to everyday adharma, in the form of corruption in bureacracy, in political and business field, in academe, in fact in virtually every sphere of life, reacted to these incidents, because the victims were identified as fellow ‘hindus’. This shows that the society has come to raise its voice, not to uphold dharma, but only to ensure physical safety of people considered their own. This rajasic reaction, though an improvement over tamasic passivity towards everyday adharma, is nevertheless irrational, largely mis-directed and does not provide long term solution. The mis-identification with the physical, imbibed from mleccha rulers of past, makes society blind and deaf to spiritual, intellectual, moral corruption that is fast degenerating it. This is evident from the way some ‘hindus’ attempted to justify/defend Rajasekara a.k.a Swami Nithyananda who had sexual relations with disciples; like Dhritarashtra of Hastinapuri, blind to adharma committed by kin.

Solution

Spreading the bharatiya samskriti, that considers every being of the world as family, that considers the self not merely limited to physical body nor in time, but as imperishable atman and capable of realizing brahma, the samskriti that considers both the male and the female as equally respect-worthy and essential, integral part of creation, that inspires people to see beyond the physical, beyond words- beyond nama-rupa, and discern the essence ; spreading this samskriti is essential to bring harmony and balance to world. Real peace-love-equality-freedom will result only when that happens.

Meanwhile see beyond appearances, beyond the facade, beyond the name, beyond words, beyond ‘religion’, beyond the purported ideology, beyond the apparent actions and see the atman behind the body, the motivation that drives the person. Does the person seek to discern dharma and uphold it like Sri Rama did, or does s/he identify with physical body and seek to self-aggrandize, like Ravana (who was very accomplished and staunch devotee of Shiva), more concerned with kith and kin, ‘achievements’, ‘ideology’, legacy, good name, than dharma ?

Ramayana in the mind

There is a demon abroad roaming human consciousness.

The first known victim of this demon was the Adam of Eden. He became a victim when he identified with his personal self and sought to acquire fruits for personal indulgence.

Cut to Indian context, in bhagavad gita Sri Krishna advised Arjuna to actualise karma without seeking fruits of his actions.

In western mythology, their version of Sri Krishna bhagavan, God, is supposed to have similarly advised Adam not to seek to enjoy fruits. While Arjuna of bhArata proceeded to actualise karma without seeking fruits of actions, Adam proceeded to grab the fruit seeking to indulge his personal self, with the result that Adam and all his descendants have been descending ever since, literally as well as metaphorically.

Many indians, taking cue from Sri Krishna’s advise, identified themselves as integral part of the brahmAnDh and actualised karma without seeking to indulge in fruits thereof and realised brahma.

Sri Buddha, deprived of spiritual exposure in his childhood by an insistent father, in adulthood began seeking the root of existence and found it by sublimating his personal self. So did Mahavira and millions of others.

The air of India is permeated with dharma consciousness, the effect of dharmic thoughts of millions of brahma-jnAnis who travelled on this land. This pervading dharmic consciousness prompts people with diverse levels of knoweldge and awareness to seek and attain brahma-jnAna. The momentum built up by such dharma-oriented acts and identification with the brahmAnDh , rather than individual self, inspires people to realise brahma in diverse ways- through intuitive wisdom, through bhakti, through karma, through art, sculpture, dance, music, yoga, even in sex.

Indians traditionally subsumed their personal identity with the rta of the brahmAnDh and ascended spiritually. Their motto, so to speak, was – lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu and concept of vasudaiva kutumbakam.
According to their inclination, some realised brahma through spiritual enquiry and imparted their knowledge to society. Some others attained brahma-jnAna by upholding dharma and administering society conscientiously without indulging themselves. Those talented in handling objects produced food and other materials for the society and realised brahma in their acts of creation. Those inclined towards emulating personalities identified those who served society selflessly and emulated them, helping the brahmanas, kshatriyas and vyshyas in benefiting society, actualised karma and realised brahma in selfless service to society.

The awareness about each being being an integral part of the brahmAnDh pervaded the mindscape of indians and rta was sustained by the people through karmic actualisation.

However, over the years, change started to occur with increasing influence of people from outside, such as the yavanas and others of mleccha lands.

Society is sustained by dharma and the khsatriyas are the upholders of dharma by talent and inclination. So, when the kshatriyas start to slip in upholding dharma, the effects have wide ramifications and society begins to suffer.

One of the early indian kings to have fallen victim to the demon of self-indulgence and self-aggrandizement is Ashoka. His surrender to insatiable appetite for power and glory drove him to kill his siblings, grab power and attack neighbouring kingdoms, killing millions of people. After he had brought under his control most parts of india and neighbouring areas he claimed to have adopted the teachings of Sri Buddha. However, instead of following the footsteps of Sri Buddha, who relinquished his kingdom in search of spiritual quest, Ashoka continued to hold on to his throne until death by old age parted him from it. During his reign he erected self-glorifying edicts in stone all across the land, subordinated the spiritual aspect of Buddha’s teachings and instead fostered pacifist sociological aspects among the people which was beneficial for administration. The tendency to kill did not leave him till the end and he killed one of his younger wifes during his last years.

These self-aggrandizing acts by a raja was detrimental to society. It paved way for waning of dharma in society and increase in interactions with adharmic elements from outside.

Those areas bordering bhArata, such as Afghanistan, Baluchistan on which Ashoka’s diluted version of buddhism was proselytized, later fell easy victims to the rapacity of islamic invaders and helped form a base point for the launch of regular attacks on India throughout over thousand years.

In the western sphere, the descend started by Adam’s succumbing to the demon exerted influence over people through the ages and gathered speed with the rise of imperialistic Rome. The successive aggrandizing drives by roman emperors lead up to a critical stage where the drive to self-aggrandizement took on a transformation. This was ironically catalysed by the spiritual teachings of a person called Jesus.

Jesus spread spirituality among the poor folks who were at the receiving end of roman aggrandization. His ideas continued to flourish even after his death at the hands of romans.

Roman emperor Constantine, seeing the spread of spiritual thoughts among the masses, and the increasing respect for a person killed by the romans, recognized the shift in society taking it towards simple living and spiritual thoughts of Jesus and towards self-sufficiency, thus slipping away from roman control. Taking cue from Ashoka, and going one step ahead, Constantine with help of likewise shrewd brains, cunningly appropriated jesus’ teachings, twisted the spiritual, simple-living values of it, in its stead established a hierarchical church as a middle man between the Jesus’s teachings and the people. Then, colluding with the church continued his imperialistic ambitions. This set the trend for many subsequent years when the church and the king supported each other, mutually bestowing divine powers to rule over people on religious and material matters respectively, as a cover for their self-gratification drives.

This justification of self-aggrandizing behaviour citing divine sanction was taken further by one arab native of Mecca. William Muir, who specialised in the history of that time, describes the life of this person thus- “in the Meccan period of (his) life there certainly can be traced no personal ends or unworthy motives,“. However, in Medina “temporal power, aggrandisement, and self-gratification mingled rapidly with the grand object of the Prophet’s life, and they were sought and attained by just the same instrumentality“. Sigismund Koelle finds “the key to the first period of his life in Khadija, his first wife,” after whose death he became prey to his “evil passions”.

The power structure established by this person exported arab imperialism over distant lands through bloody campaigns running for centuries. It exerted its influence over millions of people over millennia, subduing their innate intelligence and wisdom, turning some of them into helpless victims- mainly the women, while some others actively indulged in the self-gratifying avenues provided by this system.

The demon had found more opportunities to establish its power over humanity.

The demon thus gathering strength, generated multiple heads, that of protestant, catholic, orthodox christianity and sunni and shia islam. The demons’ reach also extended all over the world through colonization of all continents.

Colonization, the deliberate destruction of indigenous civilizations and massacre of native population was later ironically called civilization!

The victims of the demon’s influence are uniformly characterized by their ignorance of their own incongruencies and inherent contradictary stands. Under the demons’ s influence, they are blinded to righteousness and reason and engage in self-perpetuating self-gratification drive.

After hijacking religion and politico-administrative space, the demon enlarged its reach by grabbing commercial mindscape through dogmas of capitalism and communism. It later reared new heads in socio-political sphere, the more prominent ones being Nazism and Fascism, to continue to expand its influence while maintaining its characteristic drive towards self-aggrandizement. The conflict intrinsic to the inherently aggressive heads caused them to fight each other, some of them severing some others in the process.

What this demon feeds on becomes a part of it. When it fed on indian culture and traditions, those being spiritually oriented pursuits, the demon could not digest much. However, whatever little it digested became a part of it, although, very different from its other heads due to the spiritual nature of indian culture from which it had taken form. This difference makes the new head called Hinduism stand out from the others. This new head is not self-aggrandizing to the extent the others are, it does not seek to enlarge its influence, it is not inherently aggressive. It retains much of its spiritual core that characterised indian culture from which it emerged. As to be expected, anyone who displays different characteristics from what is accepted as common, is looked upon with suspicion and sometimes attacked. Amidst the other rapacious heads of the demon, the new head is naturally singled out for attack. Being easy prey, due to inherent non-aggressive tendencies, it becomes the pastime for other heads to attack it.

This is the story so far. Whether the new head of the demon will be able to withstand the various attacks from different directions, whether it will be able to prevail over the other aggressive heads or whether the new head, in its intent to survive, loses its spiritual roots and emulates the other heads, are open to question.

The demon, acting through afflicted individuals or communities or nations, appropriates and assimilates everything it lays its hands on on its unbridled drive to enlarge itself. When it encounters good nurturing concepts in its victims, that are at contradiction with its inherent nature, it takes that from its vanquished victims and later transforms that concept and uses it as a shield, as a cover for its rapacious heads. Thus peace, love, science, rationality, logic, equality; everything loses their essence and becomes a tool in the demon’s hands. They are then apportioned between the diferent heads to give them a sense of respectability. The demon then uses these covers to fool its victims with sense of respectability. Its further acts of selfishness are later justified using these covers. These tools add to the demon’s repertoire which includes the claims to divine sanction that was used to justify its gratification drives earlier.

Despite the aura of respectability and sense of justice that the demon strives to create, it still remains a demon, driven by its insatiable drive to self-aggrandizement, towards self-gratification at the cost of everything.

What is of essence is that a human being realises itself when it goes beyond the clutches of the demon. It is then that it realises itself to be brahma.

The demon is a creation of man, created when he identifies himself as a limited individual self, and with that identification, seeks to enlarge himself. This contradictory state that that human being finds himself in, creates strain and instability within him, which he seeks to circumvent by identifying himself with a group of like people having a socio-political goal and/or claiming connection to divine power, thus seeking to enlarge his reach.

Vanquishing of the demon is necessary for the sustaining of rta, for the prosperity of living beings, for sustenance of nature, for life of bhumi devi, for dharma.

In the puranas, whenever the weight of demons increased on earth, daeivika quality was generated to destroy the demon and to sustain rta.

It maybe time for Sri Rama to take birth again, in the minds of people. For ramayana to play in their minds, for destruction of the multiheaded demon Ravana who has appropriated their sense of identity, to re-join their sense of identity with righteousness.

Their sense of identity got separated from righteousness when, enamoured with the illusionary nature of perception, they sought to capture the illusion, with the aim of indulging in it. In that state of befuddlement they rejected their protecting sense of loyalty towards righteousness and further succumbing to illusionary perception, lost themselves to aggrandizement and gratification. Once they fell to aggrandizement and gratification, even the effect of age old bhAratiya parampara could not rescue them.

Right now many are like the Sita of ashoka vana, surrounded by materialistic wealth, yet separated from their sense of righteousness, pining for it; while the multiple headed demon cajoles and tempts them with more materialistic wealth for abandoning the seeking of sense of righteousness altogether. Many people have succumbed and lost their identity to this materialistic self-aggrandizing demon.

For those who haven’t done so yet, ramayana provides glimpses to –
– arrange for their sense of righteousness to meet with bhakti and sthirata, allegiance and perseverence of action
– get their sense of righteousness to vanquish impetousness that otherwise would displace sthirata
– get their bhakti to realise its strength and to seek and meet their sense of identity, to assure themselves that righteousness with perseverence will rescue them from the demon’s control.
– build a bridge over vacilitating thoughts that protects the abode of the demon, through actions under the direction of sthirata
– have their sense of righteousness fight the aggrandizing multi-headed demon
– first kill the demon’s brother- the tendency towards indulgence
– next, let loyalty to righteousness kill the demon’s progeny- loud voice, eagerness to show off
– then let righteousness kill the demon himself, targetting its source of life- the insatiable greed for power and control.

Thus ramayana plays out in the minds of people.