Hari
OM
Story-day is for cultural exploration, puraanas and
parables and finding out about leading lights in spiritual philosophy.
The essay which comes next in regard to transcending
the swings of mood is a lengthy one from our very own Gurudev, Sw.
Chinmayananda. For our purposes here, a summary of salient points will be
attempted. It was written well over a quarter century ago, but remains fresh.
Nations
which consider themselves the vanguard of civilisation are assiduously
applyiing their scientific knowledge to make life more glorious and happy. The
truimphs of technology have been marvellous and spectacular. Yet still, there
is no peace or (general) happiness. The disaster of scientific knowledge
divorced from moral principles has become a grave menace to the world. The
stupendous folly is that the champions of materialism thoughtlessly conclude
that the happiness of Man can be substantially increased by a steady
improvement in worldly comforts. Yet the best of dinners served is but a bitter
suffering to one who is running a temperature; however good a meal, if one is
unwell it might be indigestible, therefore no happiness from enjoyment of the
dinner can be attained.
To
make individuals healthier in themselves so that they may come to lead a happier
life is the task of philosophy and religion - they provide the substance for
anyone to 'tune themselves' to a life more content. Philosophy rehabilitates
the personality whilst religion reorientates one to live in harmony regardless
of what life brings.
Function
of Religion.
Religion
possesses two important limbs - its philosophy and its ritualistic injunctions.
Mere ritualism bereft of philosophy is little more than superstition; while bare philosophy
without some ritualistic application holds no proofs and is therefore
tantamount to madness. Religion reinforces the external practice of the
philosophical tenets; together they bring out the meaning, significance and
purpose of life. A universal renaissance of religion would be a wholesome
corrective to errors and follies of a materialistic civilisation that has
exalted knowledge and power and ignored the saving wisdom of the spirit.
The
panacea for the miseries of the world is to be found in the discipline of a
truly religious and philosophic practice in daily life. While the modern
scientist in their preoccupation with the tangible realities shut their eyes to
the intangible reality, the Rsis (the ancient scientists of life) in all their
comprehensive vision, encompassed the permanent and impermanent, the tangible
and intangible, in the varied landscape of life.
They found that life is nothing but a series of continuous experiences. An
experience, therefore, becomes a unit of life, just like a brick in a wall; the
strength or weakness of a wall depends upon the quality and the texture of the
bricks used in its construction… from this we can construe that if the units of
life are a stream of happy events, life is considered to be happy, and likewise
if they are a stream of pain or suffering, life is perceived thusly. The
conclusion of the Rsis therefore, was the solution to the problems of life lay
in streamlining the experiences - and the method for this is to be found as the
content of all religions.
What
is Peace?
Materialism
is wonderful, no doubt, but it burdens man with an endless anxiety and craving
to possess more and more, to acquire, and aggrandize and to live with slavish attachment and longing. In
this, one's powers are laid waste. We all want nothing but unadulterated,
unbroken, absolute joy and peace; but sensual objects have a false glitter of
joy about them. It is impermanent and dissatisfying in the long term. We have
to keep topping up the joy factor with ever more acquisition.
What
then is this thing called peace? Surely we must realise that it is not about
any external thing, or else that would have taken effect by now! Peace is
essentially a consequence of deep personal enquiry, it is subjective. By peace,
we mean a mental condition in the subject, lived by him or her and recognised
as a state of sorrowless silence deep within the being. Thus, enquiry as to
peace can only truly be conducted by looking within ourselves and observing the
happenings and occurrence and the mental conditions which arise from the
experiencing. Self-analysis and introspection are extremely important for the
person who truly seeks peace.
Desire…
Is
the driving force to our everyday. It provides the motivation to act in the
world, to acquire, to travel, work and, indeed, to improve. In everything which
takes us through a day there is a desire behind it. This can be as simple as
the desire to look out the window in the morning and decide what to wear all
they way up to setting goals to be aimed for over a period of months or years.
Desire
is the seed deep within us which comes from our inherent tendencies (vaasanas);
from that seed comes the sprouting of thought, then thought connects to another
thought and we have the thinking which constitutes mind; mind left unchecked is
rampant and all sorts of mayhem ensues! It constantly seeks joy by looking
outwards, by assessing the biological feedbacks as joy and happiness, mistaking
them for actual contentment. Mind, the breeding ground of desires, the
dung-heap of contending thoughts, has the ability to become the castle of true
joy… provided we can still it and take charge.
Culturing
the mind.
Each
and every philosophy worth knowing about advocates the focusing of the mind,
keeping it from rushing hither and tither. Eastern religions in particular
encourage the practice of 'mind taming', mainly through meditative processes.
Conversely, materialists believe that by fanning up their desires and
satisfying only those, they are living a happy life. Modern civilisation based
upon industrialisation and large-scale production, is attempting to step up
desires and to an extent has succeeded in that the average man has a million
times the desire today that his ancestors of only a hundred years ago had. It's
a consumerist society now. Use it up and throw it away. The 'prophets of
profit' appear to rule the world. Unlike them, the Rsis did not conceive of an
increase in happiness as being based on the numerator of how much is owned or
can be consumed, but rather on the quality of the experience of any given
thing. One who is in a constant state of desire can never know contentment.
It
is not that the conveniences and easing of difficulties brought about by modern
living is to be condemned; but our attitude to it and the effect it exerts upon
us as a society is a dangerous and slippery slope. The only way to fix this is
to centre oneself in a constant factor; an unchanging reality which stabilises
life and enables to enjoy the impermanent without losing contact with the
permanent.
Determining
False and Real…
[in
this section, Gurudev lays out the basic premise of Advaita Vedanta, using
examples of the snake and the rope, which are propounded elsewhere in this
blog, so we will leave this essay here.]
