Scouting For A Meaningful Education

                                                                                                *Saumitra Mohan

            The problem with the orthodox education system is the assembly-line production of degree and diploma holders, with no real value. The focus is always on mechanical transfer of facts and information through rote-learning. Here, the stress in more on passing an exam and scoring better marks, making the learner into a ‘Marks-ist’. The evaluation and marking pattern being variable and subjective, the outcomes never reveal the real worth and intellect of an individual. Students are made to learn such facts, information and details which often have no correlation with the requirements of a real life.

            So at the end of the day, we have individuals whose minds are cluttered with futile facts and information with no worthwhile life skills, the skills which would see them through their life. The school and university pass-outs today have prescribed testimonials, but generally find them at sea to cope up with the challenges of life. They are found cursing the Government or systemic complications for not getting them a job to eke out a living. Hence, all such youths become invalids, looking forward to be supported and spoon-fed through Welfare State handouts. It is such woolly-headed youths who often become deviants while looking for short-cuts to success.

            After all, if we are looking for a clerk with better linguistic and stenographical skills, what use is it to scout for recognized school or university graduates? Why can’t we just look forward to the actual demonstrable skills required for the job, without bothering about a formal degree? This tendency has given birth to a huge industry and network of certifying agencies and institutions all across the world, both in the private and public sector. The stress on formal education with recognized degrees and diplomas has taken the joy out of education.

            Ideally, students should be allowed to pursue education anywhere without the hierarchy and stratification reflected in the variable evaluation outcomes of individual learners in the mainstream education system. The extant evaluation scheme elevates or downgrades an individual learner. The system tars everyone with the same brush while evaluating all against the same yardstick. As all learners are different with different inherent talents and faculties, the impartation of knowledge and evaluation of progress ought to be customised according to individual requirements.

            Our education system, if anything, is making a conformist of us all. Being paleoconservative and status-quoist in nature, our education system is programmed to strengthen and reinforce the extant societal values. The learners are expected to be the carriers and pall-bearers of fossilised wisdom and knowledge. This in itself is not as bad as is the idea and expectation of passive conformism to the same. The students are not encouraged to question their instructors.

            Today, if anyone of us is asked to name a word for ‘A’, the first letter of the alphabet. Without batting an eyelid, we would all say ‘Apple’ while we could have also said ‘Aeroplane’, ‘Agra’, ‘Albert’ or any other word starting with ‘A’. But the unthinking rote-learning compulsively and unwittingly turns us into a conformist. That is how we see anything and everything around us. The learners usually accept all that is handed out, without learning to be discriminating and without learning to apply their mind to tell chaff from the grain. The written words in the book and the class room teaching become the gospel truth for them.

            It is such people who later become a liability for the society as they cannot generally differentiate between a ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ and easily yield to rabble rousers’ harangues because of which the rightist or extremist forces are on the rise worldwide. Such people don’t see any space for ‘grey’; they see everything through a binary of ‘black’ or ‘white’. Such people are easily swayed by polemical arguments of ‘we’ versus ‘them’. So, if the USA or China has ‘Nukes’, we must have it without bothering to delve into the nuances of the same to dispassionately analyse the issue to see the truth behind.

            All the problems and troubles in our day-to-day life today stem from a garbled education system. While the problems of access and outreach of education are being fixed, we still have huge issues with the quality of the same. The stress on livelihood and job-fixation has made the imparting and acquiring of education very perfunctory and monotonous. Often a learner ends up going against her instincts or innate talents because of familial or societal pressure. When a potentially good musician becomes an average engineer against his will, the fallout is dangerous. The individual remains alienated throughout his life as he never derives any pleasure from his work.

            Performance of a work sans interest, affection and devotion is a sure short recipe for a disaster waiting to happen. Factory accidents or collapse of a structure are results of such alienating education. What is more troubling is the fact that all this has long been understood and discussed with matching Govt guidelines also having been issued. However, we don’t have the corresponding executing agency to ensure effective and efficient implementation of the same. We find ourselves at sea while effecting the same because of multiple systemic constraints and complications.  

            That is why, it is high time we started talking about an alternative education system. Our present educational organization needs to be reoriented to ensure our children are able to realise themselves by fully exploring all the intrinsic talents and faculties. The mental capacities of all healthy humans the same, it is the availability of right opportunities and resources which make all the differences. Our education system should be so oriented to ensure the correct recognition of innate faculties of each individual to ensure flowering of the same, without any straitjacketing of formal education.

            An individual growing according to one’s true talents would not only bloom into a satisfied and successful human being, she shall also be able to contribute to the society to the fullest of her capacity. Besides, instead of forcing down one’s gullet useless information and facts, we should ensure that our children and youth have all the essential life skills as would be required to see them through their life without any crutches of governmental support. Today, most of our youths would find themselves rudderless if taken out of their comfort zone of learnt craft or skill. Our education should be such which should make a complete person of an individual. Equipped with basic life skills, as far as possible and practicable, our youths should always feel confident to survive in any situation or circumstances.

            In the fast evolving futuristic world of information technology, it has been suggested that most of the jobs shall soon be taken over by machines, robots and artificial intelligence with only certain works requiring manual labour remaining left out. Today, when we shun manual labour finding it infra dig and when we are fast becoming an indoor generation, it’s advisable that we learn the value of manual labour to remain healthy and fit, to refashion human life to better appreciate its beauty. In times to come, we shall be required to spend more time in intellectual rumination and contemplation to uplift ourselves individually and collectively. To do the same, we would require a speedier reorientation of the extant education system. We shall delay the same only at our own peril.

Being An Enlightened Selfish

                                                                                                *Saumitra Mohan

            One of the many questions asked by Yaksha to Yudhisthira, the eldest of the Pandavas, during a mythical conversation, was, ‘What is the greatest wonder’? Yudhisthira answered the same saying, “Day after day, countless creatures are dying, yet those remaining behind believe themselves to be immortal. What could be more wonderful than this?” This attitude of most of the mortals is, indeed, surprising as they assume the immortality of the corporeal form. But Hinduism and many other religionists believe ‘death’ to be just a brief pause in the continuous play of Cosmic Drama.

            Death is a truth only for the body, but definitely not for the soul. Hindus have long believed the ‘soul’ to be immortal which through millions of lives partakes in the Divine Drama. Incarnating as a living being for learning its predetermined lessons, the soul changes its physical form at regular intervals to continue its upward spiritual progression. The physical body has been compared with garments, discarded after the same become worn out, only to get embodied anew through a new birth. The death is a reality only for the physical form, not for the soul.

            So when death is ‘certain’ and promises a newer life, why do we fear it so much? Being a preordained route to newer life and body, death of an individual after a fulfilling life should actually be an occasion for celebration. Why do we feel sad when a loved one dies after a meaningful and satisfying life? Shouldn’t we rather be happy and celebrate the occasion as the departed soul moves to the next round of spiritual progression. As per most of the Hindu scriptures, our drawn-out grieving for the departed soul hinders its transmigration. The soul often finds it difficult to move on due to prolonged expression of pain and sorrow. Transmigration of a soul becomes easier if it sees its near and dear ones happy and cheerful. Many cultures across the world including India celebrate ‘death’ after a full life.

            Since all our pain is because of the corporeal form, so death immediately relieves the soul of all the suffering and anguish related to the body. As such, the soul feels extremely blissful and light when out of body unless it sees a reason for its attachment to this mortal world. And one of such reasons is said to be its body which should be immediately disposed after confirmed death. Many souls, due to their attachment to the material world, keep hovering around their mortal remains in the hope of re-entry into the same. That is why, many Hindu scriptures prescribe immediate disposal of the body. Cremation is said to be the best form of disposal as it eliminates a soul’s last hope for return to its previous frame which ceases to be worthy of carrying a life.

            But shouldn’t the untimely death of our loved ones sadden us more? As suggested above, death is nothing but a pause in the incessant play of cosmic drama. So, the untimely death of an individual is either because of its own Karma, or because of the brief role play as preordained in the overall scheme of things for settling its ‘Give and Take’ account. It could also be because of the Karma of the near and dear ones who need to derive right lessons from the premature death of an individual. The cosmic design may want the remaining relatives to go through bigger ordeals through such mishaps for preparing them for bigger role play in life or for learning a higher lesson.

            After all, higher positions, larger responsibilities and bigger success require us to go through greater ordeals and sacrifices. All beautiful creations have to go through one or the other form of agony before shaping up as something gratifying and delightful. Sometime, it could merely be a divine desire for an elevated or different role play for the soul departing early. Sooner or later, the soul moves to a newer body for a new innings. But our excessive grieving holds it up and keeps it tied to the earth. Hence, we should not continue mourning for the departed soul way beyond the last rites.

            In the Bhagwad Gita, Lord Krishna warns us against any attachment to the fruits of our actions as the same not only gives rise to despondency and disappointment, but also precludes our spiritual advancement. Krishna advises us to practise ‘Nishkama Karma’ (read selfless action) by deeming all our deeds as offerings to the God without any expectations for favourable outcomes. This world supposedly being a ‘School’ for learning our metaphysical lessons, life’s unexpected shocks and challenges are nothing but God’s way of testing our mettle.

            How we react to such occurrences and pick up the thread to move ahead in life is what signifies the level of our spiritual growth. Whether the same is in its infancy, childhood, youth, adolescence or reached the stage of maturity is determined by our conduct through good or bad times. We ought to learn right lessons from such apparently wrong turn of events in our life rather than cursing the Destiny for our miserable condition.

            Putatively, the soul moves through three phases after death and before the next birth. First, the soul goes into deep rest after the tiring role-play as a living being. Thereafter, it spends considerable time reviewing all its actions of the preceding life. Then, it spends time preparing for next rebirth depending on its preconceived requirements. It has been suggested that mostly, it is the soul which decides the destination of its next rebirth. The same depends on the level of its spiritual growth, though the subtle divine forces may, directly or indirectly, influence the process.

Hindu rituals like Pinddaan or the practice of setting aside food for the ancestors while eating are said to be performed with an aim to help our ancestors take a physical form as it is food which turns into body. This way, the descendants help their ancestors take a physical form early. In Hinduism, Pitra Paksha or ‘Ancestor Fortnight’ is observed annually by performing Shraaddh (read Homage) for the departed souls with a view to express our gratitude to the departed souls who brought grace, wisdom, protection and love into our lives. Doing this, we seek their blessings and pray for their salvation.

The Pitra Paksha, inter alia, is prescribed in Hindu scriptures such as the Yajur Veda, the Puranas, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Bhagwad Gita. It is also referred as ‘Shraaddh’ and ‘Tarpana’. According to the Vedic scriptures, an individual is born with three debts. The debt to God is called ‘Dev-Rin’. The debt to the sages and saints is termed ‘Rishi-Rin’. The third debt to one’s parents and ancestors is called ‘Pitra-Rin’. These three debts are not like liabilities, but are the three mortgages on one’s life. By making such an arrangement, the Hindu sages have actually attempted to create an awareness of one’s duties towards our immediate and extended family i.e. the larger society.

            Our ancestors, as our guardian angels, are said to help us in all our endeavours. So, next time you felt that some impossible work got done or something miraculous happened, your ancestors may have a role therein. However, these ancestors expect us to perform acts of kindness in their names during their ‘assumed’ annual visits to our homes in their subtle bodies during the Pitra Paksha. The most important part of the Shraadhh ceremony is feeding the ‘Brahmin’ on each day of the dark half of the Hindu month of Aashwin.

In the olden days, the Brahmins, being mostly preoccupied with acquisition and dissemination of knowledge, did not have means to make their ends meet. Hence, the need to provide for them through such rituals. However, the same no longer holds true. Today, we can feed anyone needy and poor. Christians call it ‘Charity’, Muslims know it as ‘Sadaquah’ and Buddhists know it as ‘Bhiksha’. Doing good in the name of one’s ancestors is just another way of thanking and honouring them after they are gone.

            We may ask how the graces emanating from feeding the ‘Brahmin’ reach our ancestors wherever they maybe. If human ingenuity can ensure so many scientific marvels, a superhuman agency can definitely accomplish the same for transferring the blessings. We should not forget that the subtle body (Soul, Mind and Intellect as eternal consciousness) exists even when the physical body does not. This subtle body of our ancestors receives God’s graces because of our acts of kindness (ordained as rituals) performed in their name.

            The ancestral rituals, inter alia, entail performing Puja and offering favourite dishes to the departed souls while setting aside five bites – one each for a Brahmin (read the ‘needy and impoverished’), cow, dog, crow and ants. The ‘Brahmin’ represents the departed soul. By feeding him, we satiate our ancestor. By offering food to the cow, we feed all the celestial beings and seek their blessings. Dog was the form Indra, the Hindu Lord of Heaven, took while accompanying Yudhisthira on his last journey.

            Food is offered to ants and the crow which represents all the birds. Both, because of their dark colour, are said to absorb all negative energies. The rituals are intended for all ancestors, irrespective of when they died, benefitting even those without offspring. The rituals also serve as a psychiatric treatment to relieve us of the fear and guilt resulting from our misdemeanours against our elders, removing any preconceived ideas we may have about them. Such an institutionalised arrangement of kindness and charity, if anything, also ensure that we remain empathetic and compassionate to our fellow human and other living beings. Community congregation and ritual feast on such occasions not only reinforce the social consciousness, but also consolidate the societal bonding.

            Legend has it that when the soul of Karna, a mythical warrior in Mahabharata, transcended to heaven, he was offered gold and jewels as food. When he asked Indra for real food, he was told that there was none for him as he donated only gold all his life and never offered food to his ancestors in Shraadhha. Since Karna was unaware of his ancestors, he was allowed to return to earth for a 16-day period to make amends to perform the necessary rituals, donating food and water in their memory.

            The intervening period between death and rebirth may vary, depending on the circumstances including the time taken for clustering of all the souls with whom an individual soul needs to settle its ‘Give and Take’ account. The souls are believed to wait before rebirth till all the souls connected by mutual Karmic debt are clustered together. Early or delayed birth of a soul depends on the role being taken according to the debts and desired lessons to be learnt. More often than not, the souls, due to ignorance, end up creating more account than settling the earlier ones, thereby keeping them trapped in the unending Cosmic Drama.

            If the souls so decide, they could continue living in the ethereal world, though the same significantly slows down their spiritual progress. The disembodied souls knowing everything about the relevant rules and laws of the spiritual world, their entire conduct becomes very mechanical. However, the souls forget all about their past lives in a physical form. When embodied, they make faster spiritual progress according to the dominant impressions carved in their consciousness.

            Stuck in ‘Maya’ (read Cosmic Drama), we keep chasing a mirage. Our endless desires for false values keep us tied to the mortal world. All our works, positions, achievements and acquisitions remain meaningless if the same are not utilised as means to our upward spiritual development. All physical forms being nothing but energy in motion, we are actually incarnated ‘energy’ chasing other forms of ‘energy’. Everything around us is an evanescent myth, afforded to us by the Lord for facilitating our spiritual progression.

            This definitely does not mean that we should renounce this world. That is not the purpose of Creation. As the souls move up the spiritual stepladder only through the mediating physical forms, they are valuable. But in our bid to push ahead in life, we must not push and shove others as that spoils our ‘Karmas’. The lessons we learn through our myriad experiences and interactions in the material world help enrichment and evolution of our eternal consciousness.

            We should not be cursing the God for unpleasant experiences in our lives as the same are God’s ways to help us with our spiritual growth. The difficulties and difficult people in our lives are actually our teachers. As enlightened selfish, we should not abhor these circumstances or people as by unwittingly harming their own Karmas, they help improve ours. How we see ourselves through the same determines whether we use the opportunity for our spiritual growth or not. Ungrateful, we often curse the Almighty for our woes, forgetting to count our blessings which far outnumber our privations.

            Being blessed with God’s innumerable benedictions and being among His chosen few, we ought to give back to the underprivileged millions over whom God favoured us. We should continue doing good despite being cursed and criticised. After all, stones are thrown at the trees laden with fruits. We should not feel bad that our near and dear ones remember us only in need. Aren’t candles lighted only in darkness or an umbrella opened only in rain or sun? Deeming ourselves to be a candle or an umbrella, we should continue helping others as that is our divine duty. Being an enlightened selfish, we know that all our altruistic works add to our positive Karmas which eventually rid us from the eternal cycle of birth and death.

            We should not judge our success by our acquisitions or positions as the same are easily forgotten after our demise. How larger circle of goodness we create by dint of our superior Karmas determines our success on earth. How bigger positive impact we create on earth and how many lives we touch positively while on earth should determine our success. Lately, many in Japan, in keeping with the tenets of Zen Buddhism, are renouncing and reducing their material acquisitions to the barest minimum with a view to enhance the happiness quotient in their lives.

            We may not remember the names of Nobel laureates, Oscar winners or other super achievers, but we definitely remember the names of our loved ones. It is the latter who matter the most and add quality and meaning to our lives. So, while looking to make a living, we should look forward to make our lives meaningful and enriching without being bothered about the fripperies. Life is way much more beautiful to be squandered over meaningless trinkets and trivia. It’s a beautiful opportunity afforded by God to bask in His glory while simultaneously making spiritual progression.

           

Sanitizing India: Some Empirical Insights

                                                                                                *Saumitra Mohan

            Total sanitation is one of the biggest challenges facing the Government for a long time now. Be it the Government at the Centre or various state governments across the country, they have all tried and toyed with different ideas, schemes and programmes to fix the sundry issues surrounding the provisioning of better sanitation and hygiene services in this country. Between Total Sanitation Campaign to Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, there have been many variations of the Government’s sanitation programme.

            The upshot of this all has definitely resulted in better outcomes than was ever visible. Today, most of our educational institutions and many of the approximately 700 odd districts have been sanitized. If we go by the intent of the Government of India, in keeping with the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, then India is poised to be a fully sanitized country by 2019. However, the entire planning and investment may go down the drain if the principal stakeholders i.e. the hoi polloi are not sensitized to the imperatives of the mission to sanitize our country.

            While executing the Government’s sanitation campaign in many of the districts, varied insights regarding challenges associated with the solid and liquid waste management were gained. The field officers came across intractable obstacles, but could tackle the same due to a synergized approach of all the stakeholders. The initiative started with Government’s clear direction to ensure universal provisioning of a sanitary toilet for every household, school and ICDS centre.

            Before they set about the task, they had prolonged multi-level brainstorming sessions with all field level functionaries and stakeholders including officials, public representatives, NGOs, CBOs, media and members of the public. The relevant issues and aspects were discussed, dissected and decided at such sessions. The challenges of resources (human, material, financial) were there. The financial support was available for the identified BPL households and the APL households were supposed to fend for themselves. But practical ground realities were different because of flawed identification of beneficiaries.

            Hence, by convergence of diverse Govt funds with a dash of CSR and philanthropic support from different corners, they could resolve the problem of finances under express Govt backing for the same. But, finding finances was an easier task than finding trained masons in good numbers to construct the requisite number of toilets against all the unanticipated hazards of weather and popular resistance while also reining in the various vested interests with different axes to grind. But the biggest challenge undeniably was convincing people to use the toilets after they were constructed. It was discovered that many of these toilets were being used as animal sheds or stores for cowdung cakes and other stuffs.

            Despite a well-planned multimedia approach to sensitize and conscientize people towards the prerequisites and imperatives of sanitation and hygiene, there were always people who were resistant to the idea of using a sanitary toilet on different excuses. Many people simply did not use their toilets because they were habituated to open defecation for aeons. Some of them had amusing pretext of having trouble with bowel movements until natural surroundings incited their excretory senses. The ‘Poop in a Group’ practice also meant that people would not let go of a habit which promised them the pleasure of gossiping and personalised chitchat afforded during open defecation.

            Depending on their differentiated socio-cultural and economic backgrounds, customised plans were formulated to inform and educate them about the need and necessity of imbibing the habits of sanitation and hygiene. The notions of profanity attached to toilets at home were delicately dealt and tackled.

            Dedicated teams were formed for every small hamlet, village and ward that would hold regular meetings with the inhabitants to make a micro-plan for each of them. After the precise number of required toilets was worked out, close monitoring was ensured for construction of the same by the predetermined deadlines. During field visits, it was found that more than finances, it was a mindset embedded in hardened habits, cultural norms or ignorance which was a major stumbling block.

            The APL people who would claim to be deficient in money for constructing toilets, revealed to be having sparable money for tobacco, cigarettes, liquor, cable television and mobile phone among others. A good number of them also had TV, refrigerator, tractor, motorcycle and other material goods. So, the team members and volunteers would persuade them that they need to cut down on the seemingly unimportant expenditure to immediately construct a toilet as doing so would save them huge cash on availing medical services, not to speak of the lost wages due to loss of persondays because of poor health.

            The information about presence of faecal material in all our foods because of open defecation, our circuitous consumption of sufficient quantity of faeces via food-chain harming our health and risks of snakebites during open defecation also helped in convincing them. But where all persuasions failed, veiled threats of discontinuing govt benefits and services or threatening to arrest them for compromising public health through purported mischiefs were also resorted. Different local bodies formally resolved to this effect. Priority Cards were issued to those citizens who not only had toilets, but also used the same. Fortunately, they never had to call our bluffs (actually, they never intended to do so) as the same had the desired impact of nudging people to the perils of open defecation.

            Morning and Evening Surveillance Committees were formed to guard against deviations. Teams would visit pre-identified public places of open defecation during reported defecation hours (generally early morning) to buttonhole these people. Members would often hide in ambush to discourage the open defecators when the latter changed their timing due to persistent nagging of the surveillance teams. Different team leaders used different approaches including whistling at the open defecators, engaging them in prolonged dialogue when they had the utmost morning pressure to perform (read defecate), requesting them to cover their poop with earth to prevent possible infections, team members often covering the poop on refusal to shame them, offering them flowers as a mark of ‘Gandhigiri’, publicly hanging the photographs of people using sanitary toilets and honouring such people.

            Children were sensitized to persuade their parents regarding the advisability of having a sanitary toilet at home. Women were sensitized to convince their husbands to do the same because of the indignity of defecating in the open and reported offences committed during the wee hours of open defecation. There were inspiring stories where many women sold their jewelleries to construct toilets, girls refusing marriage into households without a sanitary toilet or children asking for toilets instead of new clothes during festivals. A huge festivity and celebration marked the sanitization of every Gram Panchayat, Block, Municipal body, or district as the same symbolised an enormous accomplishment.

            Even though many districts of our country have so far been sanitized (West Bengal leading the way with more than two third of the state fully sanitized), there are still many others who need to go all the way. Besides, even the fully sanitised districts need to remain vigilant against the habits of relapse for want of surveillance. A well-planned sanitation and hygiene programme not only results in drastic reduction in health budget of individual households, but also helps reduce morbidity and mortality. One just hopes that all the stakeholders would soon realize the need of purging our country of the curse and disgrace of open defecation.

Life is a Crucible for Spiritual Progression

                                                                                    *Saumitra Mohan

            Many of us remain very discontented and disgruntled, whining about everyone and everything around us. Incapable of exploring their own immanent potential and savouring the splendour of a human life, they are busy cribbing and crabbing about anything and everything. Such people don’t spare even the Almighty, cursing Him for all the mess in their personal and public life. Such people remain blind to all the good things around them. But as Mother Teresa said, “If you judge people, you have no time to love them”. The truth is if we start looking for joy around us, we would have no time for negativity in our life. So, instead of finding others’ foibles, we should start counting our blessings.

            As they say, life is like ice. We should enjoy it before it melts. But most of us seldom feel joyful and fulfilled by worrying about inconsequential stuffs, thereby sapping peace and pleasure out of our life. Our condition could be related to the story of the indigent man who complained to Swami Vivekananda about the miseries of his life. After his interaction with the Swami, the man was convinced of his riches compared to others. Swami had offered him millions of rupees for parting with different parts of his body which the latter outright refused. As someone said, ‘I was unhappy because I did not have shoes till I met someone who did not have legs’.

            Have we ever paused to notice as to how many bounties the God has blessed us with and how many of our wishes have been granted by Him? Notwithstanding many positive things happening in our life, we stay dissatisfied for the wishes not granted or for the things not available. Mind you, we have our plans but the Lord has His own plans. If things happen our way, we should be happy. But if they don’t happen our way, we should be happier because they are happening God’s way.

            We generally don’t appreciate that the life we lead is much more blessed than million others’. After all, don’t we all have many of life’s goodies including parents, siblings, family, children, friends, relatives, country, education, bank balance, house, cars, good health, wealth et al? We often take these benedictions of life for granted coming as part of a package with the human life. But that is not really the case. There are hapless millions who can only dream about the things we take for granted. Being God’s chosen ones for being endowed with these bounties, are we not duty-bound to care for others over whom we were preferred?

            There are millions of people amidst us who don’t have any or many of these things and who would love to live a normal life with basic creature comforts we take for granted. There are people who are born orphans, have no family or no nationality (read refugees), have never been to a school, who find it difficult to make their ends meet, who are suffering from various ailments or are troubled by the chronic illnesses of their near and dear ones, who are deformed or are born with missing limbs. So, before cursing our situations or moping about our privations, we should count all our blessings we take for granted.

            We often come across people who don’t like their colleagues, neighbours, spouses, children, relatives or the leaders. If you don’t like some, there would definitely be some who despise you no end. Please remember that this is a mortal world and not the Heaven where things are perfect. If we were perfect beings without any folly or foibles, we would not have been born into this world. Our very presence on earth means that we are still not liberated from the divine drama because of our myriad imperfections. Being the fellow passengers on the Spaceship Earth, all the people around us are likewise imperfect in their own ways, born here to get over their imperfections in their onward spiritual march.

            Life actually comes as a package. If there are many pleasant things, there have got to be many hideous and morbid things also. We got to accept them cheerfully as we should all the difficulties and problems. All such things together provide the template for testing our mettle for chiselling away our imperfections to enable us to gradually merge with the Supreme Being. So, all the dramatis personae in our life are inalienable part of the cosmic drama with whom we share the ‘Give and Take’ account generated through present or past lives as per our Karmas. It is completely up to us to make the best of an unpromising situation. If we don’t like the lemon, we had better make the lemonade out of it.

            So whether you like it or not, the so-called crooked and difficult people would always be there in our life as direct or indirect educators to put us through an ordeal to learn different lessons for further progression of our souls. If we don’t like the people around us, we had better go and stay in a jungle or kick the bucket to meet our Maker instead of staying in a society. There would be none to disturb us there, though there is no guarantee of the same. After all, there are supposedly more rabid creatures in jungles or more insufferable spirits in the after-world.

            Trying to have a world completely customised to our likings is like running our race all alone or a race on our terms. This is nothing, but a chimera which does not subsist in reality. Life would actually turn out to be very ‘boring’ if something like that ever happens. The graveyard is full of people who believed themselves to be very important and indispensable in their times, but were instantly replaced by others and soon forgotten. We ought to make the hay while the sun shines, but we often end up wasting our time and opportunity by engaging in acts which impede our spiritual growth than furthering it.

            If one notices, one would find that most of our problems with others arise more because of our misplaced assumptions about others’ thoughts, plans or feelings. More often than not, we presume things and attribute motives to the actions of people in our lives, thereby making our lives hellish. We are often disturbed with others’ achievements or perturbed with their ‘presumed’ plans rather than focusing on the development of our ‘Self’, something which would help us in this or next world. Splurging our energies on machinations, resentments or negative thoughts about others doesn’t get us anywhere as we can never snatch someone’s just desserts.

            We need to look beyond our mundane existence to find out the whys and wherefores of the transcendental scheme of things behind the cosmic drama. We should realize that with some understanding and maturity, we can all succeed and achieve together. We shall actually make faster and superior progress as a civilisation if we learn to love and value each other as we all are different, endowed with different capacities. There is enough in the huge multiverses for each of us. We merely need to identify our hidden talents and assigned roles to play the same successfully in a spirit of peaceful coexistence. As we are not going to last here eternally, we should concentrate on improving our scores in God’s ‘Scorecard’ otherwise we would remain condemned to this mortal world forever.

Rebirth and Our Spiritual Evolution

                                                          *Dr. Saumitra Mohan

            Birth and death have been perennial subjects of human interest with varying perspectives and expostulations in different religions. Many of them believe the next birth to be linked to our actions in extant life. However, there still remain many issues relating to birth and death which continue to remain abstruse and beyond human ken. Hinduism, of all the faiths, has the most hoary and elaborate discourse on the same.

            Many of us have often wondered, if a ‘soul’ is eternal and immortal, then how the human population is growing. There are various explanations for the same. The number of souls maybe constant, but according to some, the explanation for increasing human population lies in depleting biotic and genetic diversity. So, if crass animal instincts and brute nature are perceived among humans, the rationalization may lie in declining population of other creatures.

            We generally presume our earth to be the only inhabited planet, but there could be myriad other planets, celestial bodies and dimensions buzzing with life in this vast cosmos. Souls from those planets or dimensions could also be transmigrating to our planet, thereby adding to our number. Many mystics have explicated the multiplication of a soul through the simile of a perennially ‘burning fire’ whereby you can light countless candles or lamps from the one already blazing.

            Rebirth in Hinduism is a reigning and running theme through all its scriptures and sects as in many other religions. That rebirth is a fact, has long been proven through objectively recorded research and empirical studies as available in public domain in the form of various books, documentaries and movies. YouTube and cyber world are replete with stories and proofs from across the globe which testify to the rebirth phenomenon.

            So, every animate and inanimate object which comes into this world, being forms of energy, has to undergo the continual process of creation and destruction, changing its form in the ongoing play of Divine Drama called ‘Maya’. An organic entity usually gets destroyed faster than the inorganic objects. That being so, why are we so frantically running after the putative values that we ourselves create? Notwithstanding being aware of the ephemerality of our life, we voluntarily remain sucked in the acquisitive rat race beyond our needs, only to lose an opportunity to invest prudently in our spiritual evolution.

            Like Captain Kirk in ‘Star Trek: The Beginning’, “We should no longer work for the material acquisitions. We ought to now be engaged in bettering the human race”. It’s high time that we, as a species, should start working on improving our capacities, consciousness and soul because it is this which goes with us into the next life. Our behavioural traits, our evolved psyche and our learnings as inscribed in our eternal consciousness (sometime referred as ‘Akashik Records’), all travel to the next life.

            The different rebirth stories, as recounted by the re-born individuals, however, disprove the concept of ‘Heaven and Hell’ as we have known them. All religions have used the conception of ‘Heaven and Hell’ as an instrument to threaten and frighten the lesser mortals into submission and subordination. Many souls, whatever their Karmas, are known to have been born immediately after their death or have remembered being in their ‘causal’ or ‘astral’ bodies for a while before choosing to be reborn. Mostly, humans are born as humans only as none of the rebirth stories has pointed to an intervening animal birth though the same could not be ruled out a la Bodhisattva tales. No divine intermediation towards their rebirth has been narrated by these people though mythologies say otherwise.

            The idea of heaven and hell, actually, appears related more to the level of spiritual evolution which gives pain or pleasure to a being, either in this or next life or in the interregnum. The rebirth choice of an individual seems correlated to the spiritual progression of the individual concerned. Depending on the level of spiritual evolution, it is the individual who is supposed to choose his/her rebirth destination. The unfulfilled desires (Vasanas) and the carried-forward evolved predilections predispose or attract the soul to a particular family for learning the lessons it wants to learn for further advancement of its consciousness.

The dominant cerebral and psychic patterns could actually be traced to the past experiences of a particular soul. The same could be understood through the differential behavioural and cognitive mellowness of the children born of same parents in similar circumstances. Still, some children display particularised qualities and geniuses, different from their siblings. The ‘déjà vu’ feeling we have for certain things or persons, the natural feelings of likes and dislikes, are all said to be a carryover from the past lives. Dr. Brian Weiss, a past-life regression therapist, has treated and cured many of his patients by linking present ailments to one of the previous births.

            Many mystics and researchers have pointed to the ability of many evolved souls to communicate telepathically or teleport themselves to distant locations in a jiffy. Our mind is said to be very powerful and we still have not been able to utilise a substantial part thereof. As we, through constant meditational practices and control, become capable of exploring and harnessing its unfathomable potential (remember the movie ‘Matrix’), we shall soon be able to get to the higher domains of human and cosmic evolution.

            The unfulfilled desires, hatred, sorrow, pain, pleasure, envy, greed, compassion and other such deportment and demeanour of an individual determine the heaven or hell-like experience of the individual at any stage. So, at the end of the day, it is an individual who actually chooses her heaven or hell. More than actual travails and tribulations, as depicted in Hindu scripture ‘Garuda Purana’, the ‘Heaven’ and ‘Hell’ are essentially experienced in our minds by dint of our own Karmas. ‘The Gita’ says that we should be dispassionately attending to our assigned duties without being attached to the fruits thereof. Only then can we elevate our souls to eventually merge with the Almighty.

            Mind you, the Kauravas, despite being on the wrong side of the Divine Drama, made it to the heaven while all the Pandavas except Yudhisthira ended up in hell, the explanation being that the former died while doing their duties while the Pandavas suffered in purgatory because of their different personal foibles. We should understand our part in the Divine Drama and play our role diligently and honestly with the sole purpose of our spiritual progression.

             In our affection and attachment with the mundane aspects of human life, we continue to behave like ordinary creatures, still fighting for survival. We should actually be striving to add more and more uplifting qualities to our eternal consciousness by utilising the multiple birth opportunities. The vastness of the cosmos indicates that there is enough for everyone and that those with evolved consciousness need to go beyond the ordinary and mundane to explore the unknown terrains of their consciousness and celestial multiverses. The faster we evolve spiritually, the better for us all.

            When spiritually we all belong to the same Supreme Consciousness, we need not perceive our existence separate from other living beings including humans. It is this differentiation of ‘me’ versus ‘they’ that create all the chaos and tension in our day-to-day life. We can’t remain happy if million others of our ilks remain miserable. Through corporate, cooperative and harmonious coexistence, we can all evolve together and faster for better evolution of the human race and our cosmos.