Fragile Ego Creates Office Disharmony

                                                                                              *Saumitra Mohan

            Calling names, being a hobby with many, may be easy in India but calling by first name or surname may not be that easy, more so at our workplaces. That is why, we have devised different ingenuous ways to address each other. So, while we may address our office juniors or friends by their first name, we usually address the familiar and unfamiliar contemporaries either by prefixing or suffixing Mr/Ms or Saheb/Jee respectively , e.g. Mr. Singh, Inspector Saheb or Verma Jee. So, while we use ‘Saheb’ against the post, designation or surname, we use the honorific ‘Jee’ against the surnames or relational collective nouns. The prefixes or suffixes vary from region to region.

            However, in a punctilious society like India informed by frozen notions of social stratification, the use of such honorifics could actually be quite tricky, requiring the balancing of a trapeze-artiste. While answering a phone call, we often await the introduction of the caller before deciding on the proper appellation to address him/her. And if one is not sure, one just avoids using any honorific until one figures out the age, relations or seniority of the person.

            Often our bloated ego and resulting cerebral struggle over selection of apposite honorific creates unnecessary complications in our life. The problem gets reinforced when you are from a feudal background or have been brought up on heavy doses of feudal system of hierarchised honour. The socially established behavioural pattern in India incapacitates one from treating a fellow human being as a human, sometimes notwithstanding one’s liberal education. This seems to be a spin off from an obsolete caste system as still prevailing in our society.

            We may boast of establishing world’s oldest republic or we may be the world’s largest democracy, but when it comes to treating or addressing one another, we fight shy of any concept of equality or egalitarianism. Many friends and relatives, separated by status or occupational hierarchy, continue to be divided in mind as they insist on respect appellations even from near relatives. So, if we are supposedly superior in age, wealth, societal status, family relation or official position, we expect respectful appellation to be used while being addressed in India by Indians. Our expectations, however, varies abroad or vis a vis the foreigners.           

            Today, the superiors (in age, status or official position) are usually called by the first name in most of the Western countries or even in the corporate circles in our own country. Be it the President of the USA or the Google CEO, they are all called by first name by their colleagues, howsoever junior they may be. Indians do the same in those countries or in many corporate offices in India itself as long as they are conversing in English.             However, the moment they use their vernacular language including Hindi, they again relapse into the old hoary Indian practice of using specific appellation or honorific suiting one’s position or status.

            In fact, there is an unwritten rule regarding the use of right appellations or titles in interpersonal communication in this country. Status or respect-denoting ‘Sir’ or ‘Aap’ (respectful first person terms for elders in India) is expected to be used by the subordinates or younger relatives. Differentiated expressions of respect as determined by social stratification, thus, divide Indians and situate them at different levels even in course of interpersonal communication.

            In fact, in many services including Indian bureaucracy and uniformed services, the senior officers’ wives are also supposed to be addressed with equal or more respect than their officer husbands. The equalising appellations like ‘Bhabhiji’, as used in day to day communication, is often deemed infra dig and against the expected courtesy like we do against older or same-status neighbourhood relations. Use of such appellations against a superior’s wife is deemed a socially inappropriate behaviour while encouraging use of an appellation like ‘Madam’ or Ma’am.

            Any deviation against the set practice or custom often results in huge ego tussle among the interlocutors, thereby creating an unseemly situation in the office or even in family. Such a situation also points to the feudal character of Indian languages or dialects which have conditioned us such interpersonal malapropism.  The accompanying condescending tone or tenor of the used moniker or appellations is often tell-tale signs of one’s position in the societal pecking order.

            One has noticed another extreme in some regions of the South Indian states where even juniors or subordinates are addressed as ‘Sir’. So, while requesting for a glass of water or a cup of tea from your peon, you ask him, “Sir, would you please bring me a glass of water”. This is quite okay as you not only give respect to the subordinates, but also ensure that the work gets done efficiently as such appellations bring more cachet to his/her lowly positions.

            But in most parts of our country, especially North India, we are hugely afflicted or divided by this insurmountable ego barrier. We generally believe that those down the ladder in hierarchy, even if older in age, could be addressed by first name. While many of us address older staff members or colleagues by using the honorific of ‘Saheb’ or ‘Jee’, many call them by first name with gay abandon, often creating a heart-burn in the addressees in the process of interaction.

            The absence of any official code of conduct surrounding the use of such ‘honorific’ or respectful appellations also makes the situation murkier. One has come across many cases where the whole office ambience has got vitiated because of the disrespectful appellations used against junior colleagues, subordinates or even equals, thereby bringing the allegation of bad behaviour against the officer using the same. The same is a chronic issue with many younger officers holding higher posts.

            In the civil services, one has come across situations where younger officers, belonging to superior civil services, have insisted upon being addressed as ‘Sir’ by officials of subordinate services even when the latter is holding a higher post. Such officers themselves like to address the subordinate service officers and officials by first name even when the latter hold equivalent or superior positions. They do this because of the faster promotional prospects of the superior civil services. Some of the judges, however, are known to find ‘Sir’ infra dig; they instead prefer the more majestic ‘My Lord’ or ‘Your Honour’.

            Many junior but older colleagues don’t like to be addressed by first name and prefer the honorific of ‘Saheb’ or ‘Jee’ as customarily required by social etiquette. The same has often created very piquant situations in interpersonal relations, thereby introducing an unnecessary service rivalry or office intrigues in the whole relational dynamics. Many colleagues have often expressed annoyance at the use of appellations like ‘Bhaiya’, ‘Dada’ (both meaning elder brother) or ‘Boss’ from media-persons or extra-profession persons in course of official interactions. Again, many senior officials are known to dislike being called by first name by the strangers who are familiar with their superior status.

            We ought to be mindful so that our fragile ego does not make us isolated and a social pariah after we lose the social or official status by quirk of fate or passage of time. Respect should be commanded, not demanded as we usually do. While such an ego clash over honorific and appellation is specific to Indian milieu, we must be more respectful of people around us, junior, senior or anyone, allowing such a thing to be decided by an evolving relationship amongst interlocutors.

            It is more than advisable to cultivate a habit of giving respect to anyone and everyone without any discrimination, but definitely to those older than us.  Being a democratic country cherishing egalitarian values of equality among all, we should stop being exercised by such issues. As a liberal, educated citizen of a democratic India, we should be more broadminded to be wasting our precious time over trifles.          

Resolving Geeta’s Apparent Contradictions

                                                                                                *Saumitra Mohan

            The Geeta has been one of the most popular religious books of the Hindus and those who have been trying to seek answers to their never-ending queries and doubts about Creation and human life. While the Geeta very cogently and effectively answers most of the questions, there are some apparent contradictions emanating from the dialogue between Lord Krishna and Arjuna, both being two of the most popular characters from the Hindu mythology, which still remain unresolved for the uninitiated.

            While talking about our eternal role-plays through continual births, Krishna elucidates through the Geeta on the purpose behind the same as the ultimate instrument of liberation from the cycle of endless birth and death. But He somewhat confuses us when He tells Arjuna, “Even though it is in touch with the material body, O Arjuna, the soul neither acts nor gets entangled. The soul does not mix with the body though situated in it”. The statement means that our physical body acts and reacts independent of the soul which can’t be true.

            The central theme running through the Geeta and other Hindu scriptures is the spiritual elevation of the soul through multiple births for deriving empirical learnings and lessons. We have known all along that it is the soul which is the creative energy animating the physical body and it is the soul which enriches and enlightens itself through numerous experiences and lessons learnt through different births. But the moment we say that the soul remains untouched and unaffected by corporeal acts, the entire purpose of life vanish. Such statements nothing but confuse an ordinary seeker.

            However, when one delves deep into the same, one does find an answer thereto. Even though seemingly contradicting our knowledge of individual soul being instrumental behind all our thoughts and deeds to learn its lessons, it is our ‘ego’ which mediates through all worldly experiences through the medium of a physical body. It is this ‘ego’ which creates multiple hurdles for itself by creation of multiple layers of ignorance, misconceptions and misunderstandings. But our ‘soul’ as part of the Supreme Soul remains ever effulgent in the blissfulness and glory of the Absolute Truth.

            The sun may get temporarily screened from the human eyes by the rain-clouds, it remains ever self-effulgent behind in its full glory. Similarly, our timeless ‘soul’, as part of the Supreme Soul, may appear to be clouded by the deep layers of ignorance due to our immersion in sensual pleasures, but the ‘soul’ remains untouched as the ever-existing entity. Our eternal consciousness as the repository of the incoming inputs and empirical wisdom gained through bodily role-plays, slowly clears the darkness of ignorance on way to the eternal soul.

            The ‘soul’ remains hidden to the ‘ego’ behind the deep jungles of our puerile desires for transient material objects. As we gradually cut through the jungle through our incremental learning, we get closer to our unadulterated, pure, all-knowing and ever blissful ‘soul’ which is nothing but an extension of the Supreme Soul. Our sundry nescience, superstitions, doubts and all types of misapprehensions remain as multiple hurdles on our way to our own ‘Soul’, the absolute self-effulgent being residing deep within us.

            Our eternal consciousness gains through our each birth by imprinting all our lessons and learnings as we get to know the eternal soul before we get eventual liberation from the cycle of birth and death. This timeless soul, even though situated within our body, remains in the background as the eternal witness of all our thoughts and deeds. The timeless ‘soul’ never gets affected by the continual transformations of body, mind or senses.

            All our thoughts, feelings and experiences are like clouds while the eternal ‘soul’ as the absolute reality remains ever unaffected, witnessing the events as a neutral referee which can never become a party to all the happenings in our life. As we realise the myth and falsehood of our material life and pick up the right lessons, we inch closer to the ever-effulgent and unblemished ‘soul’ of ours. Krishna, thus, helps us differentiate between the ‘soul’ and the ‘ego’ and warns us against mistaking the one for the other.

            Swami Abhedananda in one of his books i.e. ‘Mystery of Death’ says that the ‘soul’ being nothing but space, does not actually move and is one with the cosmos. Giving the example of a moving jar, he says that it is the jar which moves and not the space within which exists as part of the eternal continuum. Similarly, it is the body as ‘ego’ which thinks, acts, moves and experiences but our ‘soul’ remains ever unaffected and unmoved as an eternal witness to our thoughts and deeds even as we struggle to progressively reach and realise its true glory hidden behind our bodily experiences and ignorance.

            All the actions and deeds of a celebrity, a very righteous person or the most crooked person done during his/her human birth get reduced to faint or strong memories of good or bad lessons associated only with the body for all other souls to benefit from. It is the body which is remembered, but not the soul which itself rarely gets to associate with its own actions of its endless previous births as its own because of the memory disconnect. The ego enriches in the process by learning positive and negative experiences through material body’s good or bad deeds by retaining the broader spiritual impressions as imprinted on its eternal consciousness.

            It’s this differentiated learnings which reflect variously on different human beings thereby explaining the inequality and disorder in our society. Whatever very good or very bad deeds may we do, the same is forgotten through time, because the dramatis personae during and after our life also keep changing. Gradually, we keep losing people and characters in and around ourselves till we ourself kick the bucket one day. We live as if we would never die, but most of us die as if we never lived. Depending on the life we lead, some of us are consigned to the recorded history but most of us are simply forgotten. But in the ultimate analysis, nothing gets lost.

            All experiences and lessons learnt by any and every one of us during our life on earth or any other dimension or parallel universe if at all they exist, become part of the cosmic consciousness or what they also call ‘Akashik records’ through incremental learnings by helping all of us learn our lessons through each other, either empirically, mentally, spiritually, educationally or any which way. The vibrations of the good or bad thoughts and deeds help the enlightening of the gradually unfolding creative genius of the Divine Creation to live and learn in a spirit of cooperative enrichment of our divine Self and thereby that of the entire Creation.

            According to many scientific and spiritual studies, life in the cosmos may have created and recreated itself through endless cycles while benefiting from the ever existing pool of advanced knowledge and technology as ‘Akashik records’ or cosmic consciousness which we get to access depending on our evolution as a civilisation. It has also been suggested that this cosmic consciousness or Akashik record of all the cosmic experiences and knowledge actually work like the ‘digital cloud’ used today for storage of vast information and knowledge in the cyber world.

            As the human beings explore their divine consciousness and become capable of accessing the same, we have newer scientific revelations, innovations and inventions. The exploits and achievements of people like Nostradamus, the clairvoyant Bulgarian blind lady Baba Vanga and many scientists are all said to have been made possible because of their being able to tap into the infinite cosmic consciousness as the eternal repository of all the learnings and experiences including very advanced scientific knowledge and technologies.

            But one’s ordinary intelligence again stumbles when Krishna says, “You have never changed; you can never change”. Now, if we are not supposed to change, then why all this drama, plain and simple? At a time when the number of sceptics, atheists, non-believers and agnostics are increasing, what motivation remains there for indulging in virtuous and righteous acts vis a vis the allurements of sybarite and voluptuary actions? If one knows that there is no learning and evolving of our individual ‘Self’ involved, why should we feel encouraged for avoiding sins and becoming righteous?

            How can we control our restless mind to delve into regular practices to reach the deeper recesses of our eternal consciousness if we know that there is no change or advancement involved for the ‘Self’ through our endless role-plays? If we really don’t change or can never change, how come some astral beings seem to feel very blissful or some beings suffer because of their many negative thoughts and deeds as indulged by their material bodies as narrated in the accounts of Swami Abhedananda, Dr. Ian Stevenson and many others?

            The only logical explanation one could think against the same is the fact of we all being interrelated part of the same universal consciousness as delineated above which keeps us tied to the perpetual Divine Drama. Howsoever some of us or most of us may try to evolve and improve, the primordial emotions of love, hate, altruism, envy, peace, empathy, sympathy and rivalry shall be there animating the individual Self. The resulting interplay of actions and reactions shall be experienced by us as Maya (read Divine Drama) through the eternity, more so when we know the humongous size of the cosmos and the fact of its ever expanding nature.

            The universe is said to be so huge that the light and sound from some of the celestial bodies take more than hundreds of thousands of years to reach earth while there are yet billions of other celestial bodies wherefrom the same never reach us because of their unthinkable distance from us. And the universe is said to be continuously expanding. If the universe is still stretching and expanding, if there are uncountable living entities at various levels of spiritual evolution, howsoever may we change, there shall still be uncountable many who will continue learning.

            And as long as we all don’t learn our lessons, change and evolve, the divine drama as Maya would continue unfolding. As suggested above, the Supreme Soul and extended individual soul, because of its quality of remaining unaffected by bodily experiences, remain unchanged as everything is happening through it, by it and because of it. Krishna is trying to tell us here that while some of us may actually learn and evolve spiritually, the Supreme Soul as the ever existing eternal entity remains untouched and unaffected by the thoughts and deeds of the physical body.

            So, while we learn our lessons, enlighten ourself and strive for spiritual evolution, we ought to similarly strive for helping others as hatred, enmity and all sorts of negativity anywhere shall always come back to hurt us back. Thinking only of our own liberation, by keeping us selfishly fallible, keeps us tied to Maya and the material world. We can’t just sit back quietly, thinking that we have understood and provided for our Self.

            The Almighty desires all the connected but enlightened Self, as part of the Supreme Self, to come out of their own egotistic isolation of individualised blissfulness, to understand their responsibilities as more evolved and enlightened beings to reach out to those not so enlightened in the upliftment and enrichment of the creative genius which shall continue unfolding forever as Maya, zeitgeist or divine drama. The concept of Creation coming to an end, as enshrined in the Semitic religions, does not figure in various Vedantic paths to the Supreme Consciousness including Hinduism.

            The disunited and unrestrained mind, being far from wise, keeps following the call of senses and they sweep away our better judgement as cyclones drive away a boat from its designated course in the ocean. Renouncing all ‘selfish’ desires and breaking away from the ego-cage of I, Me and Mine, the wise are forever free from the multiple charms of sensual experiences and united with the Lord. Attaining the supreme state beyond the maze of transitory psychosomatic pleasures and ignorance, one graduates from death to immortality.

            It is with a view to point to our folly that Krishna says, “The real Self (read soul) of all beings, living within the body, is eternal and can’t be harmed”. So, when we curse and try to hurt others by our speech or deeds, the real Self, as an eternal and immortal being, remains untouched and unaffected. It is the material body which we see and try to hurt, but can never touch or reach the eternal Self within. It is the ‘ego’ as reflection or shadow, as opposed to the real Self, which seems affected or variable due to atmospheric or circumstantial variances, not the real Self. The murderer may think that he has killed someone or the killed may think that he has been killed, but the fact remains that it is the body which gets killed and not the eternal ‘soul’.

            The eternal Self remains unharmed and unaffected. If we can fathom this basic fact and element behind the Divine Drama, we shall cease to be inhuman or act in the mindless ways we do. There shall be no need or cause for discord or strife amongst us as seen all around, all the time. Realising the infinite nature of the cosmos and our own Self, we can all try through cooperative living to indulge in productive and enlightening deeds for further exploring and improving the creative genius of our humongous cosmos.

            Krishna always exhorts us to seek him all the time and not anyone else. At one place in the Geeta, He says, “Worship Me and not lesser Gods”. At another place, Krishna says that whatever occupies our mind at the time of our death determines the destination of the soul after death. He says, “Those who remember Me at the time of death will come to Me”. He again says, “Those who worship Me and meditate on Me constantly without any other thought, I will provide for all their needs...No one who is devoted to Me, will ever come to any harm”.

            But, does it mean that an altruistic and virtuous atheist has no chance of salvation and reaching Him? Is Krishna as Almighty trying to induce devotees into worshipping Him in exchange of spiritual temptations? Does it mean that Krishna (read Almighty) is egotistic and megalomaniac, desiring single-pointed devotion of all living beings to Himself only and no other God. But import of the same becomes clearer once we go behind the statement and explore it deeper. Krishna is actually telling us that we should all recognise the formless, eternal, omnipotent and omniscient Supreme Being of whom we are all an inalienable part including the lesser Gods.

            He clearly declaims in the Geeta that wherever we find strength, beauty or spiritual power, we may be sure that these have sprung from a spark of His essence. So, all the righteous and virtuous people, whether they believe in the Supreme Lord or not, are sure to receive his benedictions because the beauty of their real ‘Self’ is nothing but a reflection of the glory of the Supreme Soul. The Supreme Soul can never be tainted or prejudiced as it dwells in every creature, enters into the entire cosmos and support the same from within. As such all of them have assured care and blessings of the Supreme Consciousness.

            By recognising the Supreme Consciousness within and without in every expression of the Creation, we can understand the basic unity in the cosmos which would take away a lot of abnormality and negativity from our midst, thereby bringing eternal peace and happiness in our life. The lesser Gods are nothing but representations of our endless material desires, representing one or the other aspect of our various sensual wishes and weaknesses. E.g. Indra is associated with water and material pleasures, Lakshmi with wealth, Saraswati with wisdom and so on. That’s why, He says, “Those who worship Gods go to the Gods. But my devotees come to Me”.

            It means that worshipping lesser Gods associated with particular material pleasure, we remain stuck in Maya for realising the same. As long as we have a desire belonging to lower plane, we shall remain pulled and tied to the same thereby inhibiting our upward rise spiritually. For reaching the higher plane of higher souls ruled by the Supreme Soul, we need to shed the load of our material desires. If we wish to go farther and higher, we need to travel light, with least of desires as may weigh us down.

            Krishna wants us to remain focused in the Supreme Consciousness of his infinite genius to contribute to the same by desiring the really desirable through Nishkam Karma rather than getting moved and affected by the material pleasures which bring in its wake all the deformities and ugliness in our lives. Krishna further says, “You have the right to work, but never to the fruits of work”. But Nishkam Karma itself is something problematic, expecting us to indulge in various activities without any expectations. This appears as something impossible in the self-centred and egotistic world that we inhabit.

            If all become selfless, there shall be no motivation and inspiration left for any progress and development in the material world. The Divine Drama, as visualised by the Supreme Being, itself would come to an end. But given the size of the cosmos and given the differentiated levels of spiritual evolution, there shall always be only finite number of souls capable of indulging in Nishkam Karma to evolve spiritually to join the privileged ranks of higher souls to help and guide those no so enlightened.

            The lesser our desires and needs, the more liberated and independent we are. Dissatisfaction though is the source of all progress, but it is attachment to the fruits of action which is the cause of all our pain. The Geeta says that ‘anyone who enjoys things given by the Gods without offering selfless acts in return is a thief’. If people around us are unhappy, we shall be unhappy too because we are all interconnected. Sorrow anywhere outside us shall come back to haunt us. Happiness is a basic human nature.

            As long as we derive happiness from external objects, we shall remain unhappy because the objects deriving pleasure and derived from – both are temporary. Once we learn to be unattached to the fruits of action, through self-realisation, we shall learn to enjoy the eternal bliss and happiness as may not be conditional upon our sensual experiences. Such realised souls, therefore, play a higher role in the Divine Drama while also moving up the ladder of spiritual enlightenment to eventually merge with the Divine Consciousness.

            But reading the Geeta and Krishna’s exhortations therein, sometime it appears that He is urging us to become invalid and worthless when he says that those who are always focused on Him, those who are beyond envy, hatred, enmity, greed, lust and other vices, those who are bereft of any material desire and always desire Him shall attain Him and be merged with Him. Isn’t He telling us that those who become practically useless in the physical world for carrying out any of the productive and useful exercise would come and merge with Him and enjoy the eternal bliss and benediction?

            Isn’t He rewarding the invalids and unsuccessful by promising them eternal bliss, while not recognising the labours of those motivated to actively further His glory and grandeur through their myriad successes in this world? It is with this in view that Protestant Christianity suggests that Almighty’s blessing is always supposed to be with those ‘chosen few’ who have proven their worth through their creative spirits and hard work by becoming successful in the chosen field. This has been beautifully portrayed by the famous social scientist Max Weber in his book, ‘Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism’ where he credits the success of Western capitalism to the religious ideas of groups like Calvinists.

            It may appear to us that Krishna is suggesting us to become invalid by becoming focus on Him all the time. But actually He is suggesting that by indulging in Nishkam Karma and by remaining unattached to the fruits of our action, we are freed from the cycle of infinite births and deaths. Thus, we get eventually liberated from the dichotomy of pain and pleasure, cold and heat, love and hatred and all such human emotions which bring us cyclical pain and suffering and keep us mired in Maya.

            According to Krishna, the higher souls can get liberated from the cycle of birth and death to bask in the eternal blissfulness of His creative genius. Such people, according to Krishna, are wise enough to see ‘themselves in all and all in themselves’. Renouncing every selfish desire, they are neither agitated by grief nor hanker after pleasure. They are free from lust, fear and anger. They are neither elated by good fortune nor depressed by the bad ones. Seeing the highest goal, they live in wisdom subduing their sense cravings and keep their mind ever absorbed in Him.

            According to Krishna, when one keeps thinking about sense objects, the ensuing desires breed attachment and further desires. The resulting lust for possessions leads one to passion and anger, thereby clouding our judgement. Reaching this state, one becomes incapable of learning from one’s experiences and mistakes. Losing the discretion to choose between wise and unwise, our life becomes an utter waste. But when we learn to move amidst the world of senses, free from attachment and aversion, we soon experience the eternal peace which ends all sorrows and sufferings.

            Our will is the only friend and enemy of the Self. Selfish desires lead us to unquenchable fire for self-gratification as our enemy. Selfish desire is found in the senses, mind and intellect, misleading them and burying the judgement and wisdom in delusion. Controlling our senses, we can control this enemy, the perpetual destroyer of knowledge and self-realisation. Krishna is merely saying that whatever we do, we should make the same as an offering to Him rather than being stuck in the quagmire of Maya and its sundry allurements. Thus, we will be emancipated from the bondage of Karma and from its results, both painful and pleasurable.

Understanding ‘Absolute Reality’ for ‘Absolute Happiness’

                                                                    *Saumitra Mohan

            The objective reality including our life and cognate experiences, as we see it, is not the actually the ‘true’ reality, variable and mutable as it is. Beyond and above this is the ‘Absolute Reality’ which is constant and not changeable. This Absolute Reality is untouched by our thoughts and deeds. It is also unaffected by Karmic fruits, the eternal Hindu law of causation, signifying that all our actions, good or bad, in the phenomenal world has matching consequences. We can’t get away from those inexorable Karmic comeuppances howsoever may we strive.

            Our sensual perceptions and responses are always predicated upon one or the other suitable stimuli existing in our ecosystem. Ontologically, the entire life on earth is conditional upon satisfaction of multiple factors. As we know, the life on this planet would have been impossible but for the presence of some very essential conditions including gravity, distance from sun and moon or the desired balance amongst different celestial bodies vis a vis our earth.

            All the incidents and events occurring in a human life are reliant on something external to us. Be it our birth, upbringing, eating, dating, mating, trading, enjoyment, emotional outpourings or a happening social life are all dependent upon things, actors or stimuli subsisting outside us. Pleasure is related to existence of pain, kindness is related to cruelty as darkness means absence of light. All human experiences similarly emanate from their complementing comparisons with the opposites. It is within such realm of relative dichotomy that all our quotidian experiences transpire and nothing here is absolutely permanent and unchangeable.

            The absolute reality, however, is actually noumenal, beyond the realm of time and space. As long as we are bound in time and space, we keep engrossed in the phenomenal world, reacting to the calls of our fickle and temporal senses. Emancipated from time and space, if we can move from phenomenal to the noumenal, we could actually experience the ‘Absolute Reality’ whose perception is not conditional upon any dyadic comparison. Such a reality is without any beginning or end and is variously called including an omnipotent God or the omniscient Supreme Being.

            It is for the realisation of this anonymous and infinite ‘Absolute’ that people try to lead a righteous life, undertake all the hardships, make all the sacrifices, rituals and penances. As all our desires spring from our attachments to the splendour of infinite reality, their fulfilment depends upon the knowledge of the same ‘Absolute Reality’. Nothing else could satisfy our cerebral and spiritual desires.

            Happiness is not same as pleasure. Transient as they are, sensual pleasures make us unhappy once they cease. The unhappiness comes less because of the cessation of the pleasures than because of our incapacity to understand the true nature of the same. Chasing chaemirical phantoms of material pleasures, we don’t pause to ask us a few questions including ‘who are we’, ‘what are we’, ‘why have we come to this world’, ‘where are we going’ and ‘what are we trying to accomplish through our innumerable thoughts and deeds’.

            It is the knowledge of the eternal truth and Absolute Reality which can actually fulfil our desire for eternal happiness in search whereof we keep running hither and thither like the proverbial musk deer, without realising that the same lies right within our own ‘Self’. The true happiness and blessedness come to those who bask in the glory of absolute harmony, tranquillity and serenity of mind. So long as we are troubled by our attachments to the myriad ephemeral attractions of the material world, we can never experience the bliss of eternal happiness.

            Once we learn to still our mind through meditative practices in the true knowledge of His glory, we can recognize the divinity behind our own Self thereby freeing ourselves from all desires.  It is then that we attain everlasting contentment of our enlightened desires. As an inalienable spark off the Absolute Reality, we often materialise as an individual soul, ego, actor, thinker or doer whose true nature is indistinguishable from the absolute reality. Suffering no sense of emptiness, such souls are believed to go to the abode of wisdom and love after their death. Retaining their individuality and consciousness, they inhabit a perpetually blissful state.

            We generally take a soul’s mutable manifestation through a physical body, its attendant relations, actions and reactions as the only true reality which is false. The physical body itself has no meaning and is animated by the ‘soul’, as our true Self and an extension of the Supreme Reality. The multiple changes our physical bodies undergo during its life, the numerous experiences including its duties, joys, sorrows and sufferings never affect the ‘soul’ which is eternal and undying.

            Biologically, all the particles, atoms and molecules of our body are changed and renewed every seventh year, but the ‘soul’ is not subject to any such change. From childhood to teenage to adolescence to youth to old age to death, our body undergoes many changes thereby signifying its mythical character. Notwithstanding our knowledge of the same, we spend more time attending to the ephemeral physical body than the eternal ‘soul’, something which has been and shall be there with us through eternity. Our real ‘Self’ is as eternal and constant as the universe and its laws.

            Our ‘soul’, being beyond the reach of the powers which cause change, growth, decay and death, is imperishable. As the study of science tells us, an atom is something indestructible. By destroying the physical body, we only destroy its form but the constituent particles of the matter forming the physical body can’t be destroyed and exist through eternity. So, nothing ever gets destroyed and lost in the eternal process of creation and destruction. The freed particles join the eternal pool of basic elements of nature and help in the formation of newer forms, both animate and inanimate.

            If objective atoms and particles of a material object are indestructible, how can the subjective creative consciousness inside the matter be ever destroyed. It is here that we know the limitations of science. Dealing only with the realm of sense perceptions, science can’t explain the mystery of the ‘Self’ which is the creative genius behind all objective reality and could only be understood philosophically.  

            The real knowledge as the timeless Supreme Consciousness behind the external forces impacting all the living and non-living objects in the universe can never be destroyed. It is not a piece of matter, but is the basis and source of all knowledge. As all the knowledge in the world has no meaning until we know the same. Similarly, to know the changeable and unchangeable world beyond our sense perceptions, we must delve deep within. We would then discover ourselves as part of the all knowing ‘Super Consciousness’.

            We need to understand that ours is not the only realm with life or consciousness. There are spiritual realms where we exist without a physical body. They may be imperceptible through physical senses, but could be very well perceived and cognized via spiritual senses which need rigorous spiritual practices to be developed. There have been several proofs and objective research to prove the existence of ‘soul’ or ‘consciousness’. The seekers and explorers have found many ways including séances to communicate with the same.

            If we can realize our divinity as an extension of the Supreme Consciousness, we can be liberated from our worldly sorrows and sufferings. Our sufferings spring from ignorance of the eternal truth behind Creation. However, knowledge of the same could bring us eternal happiness. Salvation, as we know it, does not mean life in heaven after death. Salvation could be attained in this earthly life also through attainment of true knowledge and realisation of the ‘Absolute Reality’ which is eternal and constant.             

In Search of Our Own Heaven

                                                                                    *Saumitra Mohan

            The idea of heaven has often inspired the thoughts and deeds of human beings since time immemorial. However, most of us have only surmised about the same, having as many conceptions thereof as there are faiths and beliefs. Accordingly, the Hindu sages, through deep explorations, have suggested their own thesis on the same. Accordingly, there are supposed to be as many heavens as there are thoughts and desires, often customised according to one’s faith. As all of us think, feel and cognize differently, we have different conceptions of heaven.

            Varying according to religions and nations, there are said to be separate heavens for Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Red Indians, Chinese, Jews and so on. This is made possible because sharing life’s experiences with the same set of people during our present or past lives, we generate our ‘Give and Take’ account against the self-same people depending upon our identifications. Our thoughts, desires and ambitions also hover around experiences featuring the people with whom we spend most of our time and life’s events. Hence, people of a faith or nationality are said to congregate together even in the afterlife though not necessarily, as a person of a particular faith or nationality could very well identify with a faith or nationality altogether different.

            The Zoroastrian heaven is visualised as the realm of eternal pleasure as do all Semitic religions including Christianity, Judaism and Islam. The Vedantic religion (read Hinduism), as in foregoing paragraph, believes in the multiplicity of heavens and hells, determined as they are by our differing desires and deeds. Different desires take us to corresponding heavens. If our earthly desires can’t be fulfilled elsewhere, we must return here to undergo relevant experiences. Many of these religions believe continuation of the delectable phenomenal life into heaven through the aid of resurrected bodies, an idea disputed by Hinduism.

            Thus, all our ideas about multiple heavens are nothing but analogous projections of our varying thoughts and desires. Our thoughts are so powerful that whatever we think can be made real because of generation of suitable vibrations as per the ‘Law of Attraction’. The same happens during our dreams which appear real while we watch them. It only shows that reality is relative as also proven by Quantum Physics i.e. the observer can change the observation. Deficient of the perception of sense-beings, the mythical material world vanishes immediately on closure of our eyes. Strangely, whatever sense objects we glimpse in a subconscious state (REM sleep) vanish during a dreamless sleep. We may see similar things, but not necessarily the same things because of our differing thought patterns.

            Bound in time and space, our physical bodies are subject to death, decay, change and causation. It is the subtle spiritual bodies which continue post death, but that is also changeable as one can’t continue in the heaven or astral/causal bodies endlessly. As there are limits to our good thoughts and deeds, so are there limits to their fruits as beautifully narrated through the dialogue between Nachiketa and Yama, the Hindu God of Death in Katha Upanishad. Like our money deposited in a bank account, we are said to stay and enjoy the pleasures of heaven only as long as our good Karma deposits allow after which are supposed to take birth in a suitable realm (read earth or any planet with potential life) for undergoing newer experiences and learning newer lessons.

            Eternal heaven is an impossibility according to Hinduism. The heavenly pleasures, therefore, are not supposed to be eternal as their cause i.e. our good thoughts and deeds are bound in time and space. The highest of our pleasure on this earth lasts for a very short time when we compare the same to our timeless existence in the cosmos. Pleasures to be pleasures must be necessarily fleeting. No sense pleasure can continue forever. If we continue laughing indefinitely, we may even die.

            Pleasures are dependent upon comparisons and vary spatio-temporally from person to person. How can we know that the celestial pleasures are worthwhile unless we compare them with pleasures on earth or elsewhere? The chocolates and ice-cream which pleased us in childhood lose their charm in older age. Even if you love them in old age, they would lose their pleasing quality if we continue consuming the same indefinitely and in fact, the resulting experience would start turning into a suffering.

            But our happiness on earth is always accompanied by pain and suffering. A wise man, obviously, would like to follow the path which is away from duality of sensual pleasure and pain unless you enjoy the routine rotational experiences of the same. The wise usually pursue the ‘absolute goodness’ which brings perpetual happiness, independent of sense gratifications. As celestial pleasures are also said to be dependent on senses and sense organs of our astral bodies, they too don’t last longer and are equally accompanied by sufferings. However, the pain and suffering in heaven are supposed to be finer in nature compared to their earthly mutants.

            Our endless desires would drive us crazy if we were to live alone in the wilderness. We would be pulled back to the multiple charms of societal living. That’s why the seekers and seers have advised against the ‘heaven-fixation’ for the seekers of highest happiness and bliss. This highest happiness lies in the attainment of the wisdom which emancipates us from our material desires by slackening our attachment to this gross body and related sensual pleasures. The boundless human nature can’t continue in the same state for long and keeps stretching itself to newer spaces. Hence, newer births and desires for newer experiences afforded by the infinite genius of Cosmic Drama.

            Accompanying our pleasures, there are sufferings and misfortunes which most of us would wish to shun. But actually our misfortunes bring out wonderful awakening of our real Self, thereby helping our spiritual evolution. Without them, we could not learn anything from our transitory earthly experiences. Enriching our mind and broadening our vision, our sufferings make us wiser, maturer and a seeker of the Absolute Truth.

            But we can’t realise this Absolute Truth or Happiness as long as we are trapped in the cycle of birth and death owing to our attachment to the sensual pleasures. The same makes us into sinners and we are born again and again till we become perfected. Unless and until all our material desires are satisfied, we can’t have the longing for the Absolute Truth. Once awakened, this longing can’t die out. It only grows stronger and stronger until the same is realised. That is why, we need to realise our immortal Self through practices of Yoga and meditation. The realisation of this Absolute Truth is more of a mental state where you go beyond the carnal attachments or desires to the heavenly pleasure or learn the felicity to inhabit the realm of pleasure and pain without any discrimination or discomfort.

            Once we feel it deep within our soul, we become free from the fear of death, from a fickle mind, from ephemeral physical body and from all fleeting sense perceptions. To attain this, our heart, soul and intellect need to be purified through a realized Master. The mortals, thus, rising beyond the limits of mortality enter the abode of immortality where there is no death, has lasting joy and bliss. Strangely, that immortal being is right within us all which can only be realised through deep Yogic and meditative practices. We may realise our true immortal nature and the ‘Absolute Truth’ on earth itself without waiting for the death to destroy our physical shell.

Managing Our Insecurities and Inferiorities

                                                                                                *Saumitra Mohan

            At times, many of us are quite vile and vicious with those around us. Varied experiences give rise to varied emotions. When happy and secure, we convey uplifting feelings and emotions. When unhappy and miserable, we become mean and nasty. This is quite common and natural. As contact with fire or electric current teaches us against nearing the same unsafely, similarly unpleasant experiences emanating from negative actions and expressions educate us against the advisability of harbouring the same.

             The problem arises when churlishness become our second nature without us even realising the same. Many of us start deriving sadistic pleasure from hurting and harming others. Why do we do so? What do we gain from such behaviour? We seldom realise how much we damage our own cause by indulging and feeding our baser Self. Our much desirable spiritual evolution is seriously impeded because of the same.

            We may justify such nasty behaviour for mending others’ mistakes. Many believe it to be their duty to correct anyone and everyone around them by teaching them a lesson, by giving them a piece of their mind or by outright ill-treating them. Raising our hackles or humiliating people is often deemed the right response vis a vis people we assume to be in the wrong. While one may be right about educating some people, but there are saner ways to do it without rubbing people the wrong way.

            More often than not, it is less of our lofty desire to help and guide others by such despicable conduct than our own subconscious insecurities and inferiority complex masquerading as superiority complex placing our wicked self in command. It is our deeply-ingrained insecurities and inferiority complex which goad us into hurting and harming people around us including our friends, relatives, colleagues or complete strangers. In course of time, the body language, tone and tenor of our speech also start reflecting the negativity in our personality.

            It is very common for us to like or dislike someone during our interactions with him/her. Often these negative-minded people try to obstruct or harm those whose life they control, command or influence directly or indirectly without realising that we can’t change anyone’s destiny. In fact, often our negative behaviour acts as a catalyst and anneals the resolve of those at the receiving end of nastiness.

            The people displaying such malice and viciousness could be our parents, teachers, professors, superiors, employers, friends, children or relatives. These people often exhibit a schizophrenic personality. They would get angry, churlish or rude with those in a disadvantageous power relation, but are at the best of their behaviour with those placed high in the pecking order. Like a chameleon, they can alter their behaviour, body language and verbal deliveries such that it is often difficult to figure out that the two are the same person.

            Many of us keep up with our nastiness or abusive behaviour till it is too late for them to take any corrective action as by then these people are left sulking in solitude, inhibiting their own spiritual growth. The Hindu sages, however, feel that such people are very important for their interlocutors. First, the presence of these people could be seen as the consequence of our own Karma (read deeds) in this or previous lives. Second, these people are required in our life for learning right lessons for moving ahead and for our spiritual growth. They provide the fire wherein our individuality burn to become pure like gold.

            Deriving right lessons, we learn not to be malicious with others either in language or in our conduct. We learn to cultivate qualities like patience, forbearance, fortitude, humility anger-management, stress management, empathy, sympathy and team spirit, thereby learning to pull along with all kinds of people in our life. So, instead of cursing such people, we should be thankful to them for providing us learning opportunities for growing spiritually.

            Mind you, had we been perfect, we would not have been sent to this imperfect world. We are living in an imperfect world, with imperfect people as an imperfect living being. So, while someone loses an opportunity for growing up, we should not lose ours. As Confucius said, “Don’t do unto others what you don’t want others do unto you”. What is unfortunate is the fact that often these Shylocks and Jeremiahs discern and discover the value of people only after their departure.

            We are usually busy finding faults and mistreating people while they are around. But we miss them badly after they are gone, from our life or from this world. Our own abusive and foul misconduct make us very lonely in life because people start avoiding and evading us. The bad behaviour also affects us when we feel helpless in our old age or during our difficult, trying times as we find none by our side. But as they say, the morning sun has to shine if we are experiencing the dark night of failures.

            We only need to learn, unlearn, relearn and rediscover ourselves during such period rather than becoming very demanding, juvenile and bitter. Many children have complained of oppressive parents and their sky-high expectations in old age often bordering on selfishness, without bothering or caring for their children or appreciating their problems. While such parents need to be more understanding and realistic in their expectations, the children also need to be sympathetic to their parents’ old age needs.

            Often we are so engrossed in our world that we stop caring for our parents or elders beyond meeting their physical and material needs. Their emotional and psychological needs are left unattended. We should not be ungrateful to our parents, remembering that we were also the same in our childhood. If they tolerated us and our wayward ways, we must do the same. Such difficult times and abusive behavioural relationship are often an opportunity in character building for us.

            That, however, should never mean that we should accept such abuses or ill-treatment from others if the same is unjustified, unreasonable or outright illegal. We need to find a way out of such abusive relationships without hurting or compromising our eternal interests i.e. our spiritual growth. Encouraging abuse of power, abusive people or their tyrannical behaviour has been compared with a ‘sin’ and must not be tolerated beyond a point. All our relationships are learning opportunities for both the parties.

            Both need to learn from each other. The abusive person also needs to be told the truth or get a feedback through our own discrete behaviour to help him/her learn right lessons while we learn ours to come out stronger from such abusive power relations. The truth is when we see the ‘Self in others and others in Self’, we derive real joy. As Henry David Thoreau said, ‘It is not what you look at that matters, but what you see’. We shall not grow as long as we don’t get others’ care and attention. It is the same for those around us.

            All our independence is relative, but the truth is right from our birth till our death, we remain dependent on others for all our needs. That is how the creation is made where everything and everyone is linked to everything and everyone else. So, it is advisable for us that we treat everyone around us with respect and dignity as this is how we can move up the spiritual ladder otherwise we shall remain stuck in the mirage of chasing temporal lies and myths.

Discovering the Immanent Unity in Creation

                                                                                              *Saumitra Mohan

            Right since our inception into this world, we remain fascinated by the mundane attractions. Goaded by endless desires, we keep chasing sundry objects pleasing our senses. And as long we are chasing the senses, we have wool pulled over our eyes thereby incapacitating us to indulge in more uplifting pursuits as would earn us eternal bliss. Our higher Self gets obscured when we try to gratify our animal spirits which only gets more whetted and stimulated with each pandering of the senses.

            In a humdrum human life, an ordinary person usually starts thinking of God when s/he gets old or is faced with insurmountable difficulties. Reaching on the wrong side of life, we become more God-fearing. Our interest in religion and spiritualism often grow after we are past an active life. As we approach death, the various scruples and apprehensions about afterlife move us into increased religiosity.

            Many of us find it infra dig, ridiculous or against our rational, educated grooming to accept the existence of a Supreme Being which might have created all of us. Many of us, however, want evidence of His existence notwithstanding the same being there all around us, in the multi-splendoured expressions of His genius. As per ‘ex nihilo nihil fit’ thesis propounded by Parmenides, ‘there is no break in-between a world that did not exist and one that did, since it could not be created ex nihilo in the first place’. This rationalises the subsistence of a spirit world, beyond the world of senses.

            Logically and scientifically, all expressions of Creation being diverse arrangements of energy, the interrelatedness of different aspects of the cosmos is long proven by Quantum Mechanics. Days are not far when things like afterlife, rebirth, existence of parallel universe, extra-sensory dimensions and time travel are proven and widely accepted. Being long discussed, debated and explored, there have been myriad stories, proofs and mysteries related thereto adumbrating at the immense potential and possibilities of cosmic consciousness.

            Scientifically, the day is not far when time travel and visit to parallel universe would be a reality. The Stories of the Russian boy Boriska, the American time traveller John Titor, the mysterious man from ‘Taured’ (a country said to be situated in parallel universe) and various other incidents point to the possibilities of the same. The enormous explorations and available proofs on rebirth and afterlife should encourage us into further investigation.

            If souls were to be mortal and rebirth was to be a lie, there would be no need for the human beings for becoming moral and virtuous. If human life were to be a one-off, zero-sum game, we would have all the reasons to sow all our wild oats, without caring for any rules and laws of communal life. There would be a complete chaos and anarchy all around. The phenomenon of rebirth and afterlife, by keeping us on the straight and narrow, actually keep us motivated for being good and righteous.

            Writings and works of spiritual scholars including Swami Abhedananda and Ian Stevenson have talked extensively about it. But all these discoveries have not come to the fore on their own and have postulated the existence of an inquisitive mind delving deep into the recesses of human consciousness to come out with all the scientific discoveries and inventions made so far. After all, it is Newton who discovered gravity and not vice versa.

            If we were unconscious, the material world would be meaningless without our perception. The inanimate and unconscious have no value in absence of those with consciousness and power of perception. It is the latter which makes the former relevant and meaningful. Still we keep running after the inanimate and unconscious at the expense of the animate and conscious human relations and values. The truth remains that finite and material things can’t satisfy the human beings as our basic nature is infinite and non-material. As such, it is always advisable that we keep stretching our imagination, breaching newer boundaries of our consciousness.

            But we can’t do the same unless and until we get away from the material desires as infinite desires hold our genius to concentrate one-pointedly on the higher and loftier dimensions of cosmic realities including our own spiritual growth. We can’t be coming to this world again and again for no reason. There has to be a higher logic and rationale behind the same which is the elevation and unification of the differentiated souls with the undifferentiated Supreme Soul to explore and savour the profound beauty of the cosmos. The differentiated consciousness of seemingly dissimilar living beings has to slowly uplift itself from its primordial attachment to the sensory attractions to get merged as the undifferentiated consciousness.

            Can we believe that what our few senses register embraces the whole of reality? Different living beings have different capacities that others don’t have. A dog can’t see all the colours that a human can or a human can’t hear the sounds that some animals can. The reality we see exists within our consciousness, not outside. We experience the properties of our own nervous system. If we don’t like a thing, it is not others’ problem but that of our nervous system.

            It is we who are responsible for all our hatred, envy, greed, lust and other negative emotions as they arise from the various chemical changes in our nervous system, depending on the level of our consciousness. As we are the cause behind their generation, we can very well restrain and pacify the same through regular practice and training. If we can comprehend and appreciate the interconnectedness of all within the cosmos, many of humanity’s problems could be taken care of.

            Without mutual reaction and sensory feedback, nothing in the cosmos has any existential value. We don’t exist if others don’t take notice of our existence or recognise our individuality. And howsoever may we try, we can’t lead an isolated, independent, self-contained and solitary life away from other living beings of Creation. This is because our individual spiritual growth is predicated on our collective schooling in company of other creatures to learn and teach certain lessons to feel fulfilled and complete.           This being the case, we can’t be at war with each other or other aspects of nature. The destruction of any facet of nature or other living beings including humans means our own destruction as we are all homeostatically connected. The universe is existent or non-existent depending on our relative sense of understanding and vision.                        

            If people around us are unhappy, we shall be unhappy too because we are all interrelated, giving and deriving sustenance to one another. Sorrow anywhere outside us shall come back to haunt us. Happiness is a basic human nature. The Geeta rightly says that ‘anyone who enjoys things given by the Gods without offering selfless acts in return is a ‘thief’.  It is, therefore, advisable that we keep sharing and caring for each other including other aspects of Divine Creation.

            As long as we derive happiness from external objects, we shall remain unhappy because the objects deriving pleasure and derived from – both are temporary. So, let’s discover our humanity within to elevate the humanity without to eventually unite with the Cosmic Consciousness.