Walk Lightly

Hari Om

'Freedays' are the 'gather our thoughts' days; Q&As; a general review of the week so far…

AHIMSA

The short 'a' sound in Sanskrit is closer to 'uh' and the longer 'a' sound is more 'aah' - so correct pronunciation is 'uhimsaah'. 

Straight away, with the English appearance of the word, we lose something of the value of the Sanskrit. The most common English explanation for this word is 'cause no harm'. That is fair enough an interpretation, but Sanskrit is one of those languages which holds value and meaning far beyond the words themselves.  

For example, the ending 'aah' indicates this word is feminine gender. Appropriate, really, when one thinks of all the ideal qualities of softness, caring, attention, serving and so on which are, traditionally, associated with a woman's role in life. (We can rant and rave about equality and equity, absolutely necessary in the modern age, but we cannot wipe out the biological imperative.) These are all implied when we use 'ahimsa'. 

The root verb for the word is 'him' - to strike. Placing the prefix 'a' negates words (mostly) in Sanskrit. Thus 'a-him' - do not strike. 'Sa' - she; pertaining to Gauri, mother of All. Mother Nature Herself. Every part of nature is included here, so it is not merely that we must not hurt each other, or other creatures, but also the environment, the very Earth which homes us.

In Hindu philosophy, this does not mean only physical harm. Speech can also cause harm. What is more, our thoughts can too. This is the part which challenges most. The minute we have a darkened thought towards another - whether or not we would ever carry it through to the physical expression - we create a potential of harm to them or the environment, but most of all to ourselves. Thinking negatively is a downer! 

It can be a hard one, a battle with every thought, but if we would call ourselves civilised, then ahimsa is a way of life to consider.

Peacability

Hari Om
'Freedays' are the 'gather our thoughts' days; Q&As; a general review of the week so far…


Yesterday, we read a paragraph of Gurudev's words on 'ahimsaa', non-violence. The key points;
• It begins at thought level
• The intellect must engage to monitor the thoughts
• Physical harm is inevitable at certain levels, but it comes down to intention… ie, thought…


The minute we have a thought which might be considered as 'uncharitable', a jealousy, a hatred, an anger, we need to have trained our intellect well enough to chip in and say "whoa, hold back there!" Whilst the harm has not extended to action - yet - it is still doing harm; mostly to our own selves and specifically, our vaasana debt. What is more, it is still sending out 'harm' to the object of focus which engendered the thought. We have a choice - continue with the folly of harm, be it in thought, word or deed, or exercise self-discipline and knock the thought down, send it away and offer up an apology.


All of this happens within us, in a matter of seconds, nano-seconds even.


Eradicate such thoughts, no matter how frequent, or how 'righteous' you feel they are. The more you do so, the easier and more natural it becomes. Eventually it is possible to be free of such thinking. Love and Love alone is what will arise, even where anger or hurt may justly have been before. There is no profit in attack, even if that attack is intended as defence.


This does not mean that one cannot be firm and stand ground where necessary. However, relationships of any sort, regardless of what maths says, are not made positive by two negativities. Make your thoughts and intentions always of Love. Peace will follow. Not always immediately, where another is part of the interaction, but follow it will. What is more, you have not compromised one of the great values of living, you have not compromised yourself, and you have not compromised your connection with The Higher.


This is ahimsaa.

Spiritual Armoury

Hari OM

'Text-days' are for delving into the words and theory of Advaita Vedanta.

TATTVABODHAH.

[You are reminded that reviewing the previous week's posts will become essential as the meanings of the Sanskrit terms may not be repeated. There may come additional or alternative meanings, but all should be noted. As study progresses, the technical terms must necessarily become 'second nature' to the student. When the Sanskrit is used, the translation will fall easily into place - or likewise, if the English is used, the Sanskrit term must easily come forwards.]

Please revisit THIS post and chant the mangala-charana. The chanting for the oncoming posts was given last week - use the TattvabodaH label to access all posts relevant to this text. We are currently studying the text on the shamaadhi-shatka sampatti. You may wish also to review the chanting of this section, which you will find here.

The last of the six inner wealths is samaadhaana.

समाधानं किम्   चित्तैकाग्रता। /samaadhaanaM kim?   cittaikaagrataa. What is samaadhaanam? It is the single-pointedness of mind. It is the placing of the mind on a place and never wavering from that.

The mind is a butterfly! Even when we say we have a goal, we are too easily distracted from the progress towards it. To remain focused, we need to have strong feeling for that goal. Such a goal has to be of primary desire to keep us working towards it.  In spirituality, the goal is "God" (heaven) if we wish to keep within the solid and "Brahman" (moksha) if we accept the non-solid. Once the goal has been determined, then, focus full attention and take no side routes!

Thus we find, if we take overview of the 'six jewels', that we have a process of detachment followed by attachment.  Shama, dama, uparati and titiksha all help us to detach from the material world and shraddha and samaadhaana re-attach us, but to the spiritual and higher state of being. What? If the point of Vedanta is to release all of Maya, then why some attachment now? !

Here we find the methodology of the novice and moderate student who must still rely on what is provided by Maya in order to climb to the goal. It would be a very rare individual indeed who could simply jump from being a low human thing into the status of God-hood! It is a process. Detach each and every day a little more from the material world and to do this, to steady the ship so to speak, attach to the 'captain' (Guru) and the 'hull' (scripture) and traverse samsaara with courage and determination.

Thus we find six small gems contained within the third of the chatushtaya. Why like this? Why not just make them individual and have ten spiritual disciplines?

If put as ten, then the inclination would be to 'tick them off' as if the list was ordered thus.  However, these six are so closely inter-related and inter-dependent, that they are really not able to be separated. Rather think of them as six sides of the one thing, which is to self-contain and self-manage. Each assists the other so very closely, they are like the bricks in the wall of a fortress. Think of them thus.  That these spiritual 'walls' protect us from the ravages of the transactional life. If one of the bricks is damaged or absent, the fortress is greatly weakened. Therefore we must work on all of these as a single unit.  This is why they are clubbed together in one item.

The same cannot be said with regard to the first two of the chatushtaya; viveka and vairaagya. Without viveka there can be no proper vairaagya. Vairaagya without viveka is dry, misguided, cold. In fact there is no vairaagya without viveka. To simply hold the world at bay and the nose aloof is nothing more than disdain. Vairaagya alone means that one has gone through the first process of discrimination, noting how the world is filled with nonsense and deceit and traps for the unsuspecting and only then can one withdraw, with knowledge and understanding, into true vairaagya. Vairaagya still holds warmth and compassion inspite of the world. Disdain holds no warmth and is against the world. Vairaagya is courage and aids us in making clear decisions and dropping away the excess trappings of modern life. Disdain is fearful and continues to make ego-based decisions.

In the third step, the shamaadhi-shatka sampatti, we find a group of inner actions which nourish and support our vairaagya. It can seem that in utilising these six alone, much can be gained.  This is true. However, they are not likely to enter our life, our 'ken', unless we have first adopted true viveka and, subsequently, vairaagya. It is really only within the greater withdrawal from transactional mayhem that we have an inner atmosphere conducive to the nurture of these jewels.

There is an assessment which can be done (this is applied to all texts in Sanskritam) whereby we look at the हेतु /hetu (direct cause),  स्वरूप /svaroopa (the benefit, the common theme), कार्य /kaarya (the effect associated) and अवधि /avadhi (conclusion). For the sampatti how are these applied?

• Hetu - यम /yama and नियम /niyama… the don'ts and do's…(see below)
• Svaroopa - a mind tamed (चित्त निरोद /chitta niroda)

• Karya - the mind decreases its activity and reduces in extrovertedness

• Avadhi - the world of objects, starting at our own physical level, starts to fade the more we move towards Brahman.

The 'don’t's' (yama) are अहिंसा /ahimsaa - cause no harm, सत्य /satya - truth at all levels (ie no falsehoods), अस्तेय /asteya - no theft,  ब्रह्मचर्य /brahmacharya - keeping 'continence', which is not simply sexual abstinence, but also proprietous behaviour at all levels, अपरिग्रहः /aparigrahaH - no possessivness, non-grasping.

The 'do's' (niyama) are सौच /saucha - purity, cleanliness in body, mind and intellect, संतोष /santosha - contentment, तपः /tapaH - austerity, स्वध्याय /swadhyaaya - spiritual study, ईश्वर प्रणिधान /iishwara pranidhaana - offering all actions and ourselves to the Lord.

So if the six are so interconnected, why are they ordered amongst themselves the way they are?  Why shama is first? Earlier it was said to think of the six together as a fortress - but now think of them as your armoury and purpose viz;-

Shama = sword

Dama = shield

Uparama = visor

Titiksha = body armour

Shraddha = the 'noble steed'

Samaadhaana = the 'noble cause'

SAADHANA

Think deeply on this for the next week - giving full mananam. Check out the logic. Find out your doubts. Voice them in the comments box of via the private contacts box.

Top Values

Hari Om 

Each 'Choose-day' we will investigate the process by which we can reassess our activity and interaction with the world of plurality and become more congruent within our personality.

KINDLE LIFE. We continue exploring points raised by HH Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda-ji in the publication of this name. Remember, you can purchase, (very economically!), the book from  Chinmaya Mission Publications or if you prefer, the Amazon Link. Thus you can read Gurudev's words directly and bring your own voice to the discussion.

Continuing with our basics chapters out of the Kindle Life text, we reach chapter thirteen. Gurudev has titled this FUNDAMENTALS OF LIVING. This post opens with a full quote of the first paragraph in this chapter.

There is nothing wrong with our times. it is a wonderful era of glorious achievements.  Yet man, sitting in the midst of plenty and prosperity, is undergoing stress and strain and can find no peace or happiness in life.  The religious masters studied this sad paradox and discovered that man's mental make-up was the cause of all trouble. They also provided a remedy by prescribing certain fundamental values and virtues of life. These, when practiced and lived, enable man to master his mind and mastery of the mind is mastery of the world.

Quite the closing statement there! The more we learn of Vedantic principles and techniques, the rationale behind them, the more the truth of such a claim becomes apparent. Understand, too, that master of the world here in now way related to domination of the material world, but the conquering of the inner world and thus the improvement of relationship with the external, whereby it no longer holds sway over our concept of happiness.

The values and rules mentioned are the essential qualities that all Mankind would recognise, no matter the geographical or cultural background point of reference. It was mentioned in yesterday's discussion on the bindu of OM that virtually all cultures utilise the concept of a 'singularity', from which all emerges and returns, but that the interpretation of it varied.  The same holds true here.  The basic values are the same, but their interpretation and utilisation may vary according to need of age, place and the type of community to which they are being applied.   

Whilst there are undoubted cultural differences, when peeled back to absolute basics of what constitutes 'decent behaviour' we find three things; each individual is expected to engender a level of self-control (brahmachaarya), to cause no harm if at all possible (ahimsaa), and to exercise fullest honesty (satyam). Note that each of the disciplines mentioned pertain to each of the physical, mental (emotional) and intellectual components of our being.

Traditionally, even cultures which must necessarily use slaughter in order to feed themselves, have developed a level of minimum harm, taking only what is required and ensuring due reverence and full use; (think of the thankfulness of the Native American 'brave' to the spirit of his prey as an example).

Things go wrong, both at individual and societal level, when the physical aspect becomes dominant; when the desire for sense gratification takes hold. When we live only to satisfy all our varied sensory desires, we lose ourselves in passion and we spiral down into our animal nature, leaving behind any semblance of rational thinking and behaviour. Justifications, excuses, lies, avoidance - all are used to cover up the lack of moral fibre. We see example of this all around us in the 21st Century; mass media ensures inundation of the senses, retail constantly puts out lures, expectation of "want it and want it now" is so much a part of society, and to stand immune against the onslaught requires considered inner resolve. The 'medicine' according to Vedanta is brahmachaarya.

This is to live with self-control. It means knowing that we exist in a physical structure which has needs to be met; it means attending to needs, permitting a moderate level of enjoyment.  It does NOT mean total denial (as has often been wrongly interpreted). The world is there for our enjoyment and when done with appropriate consideration, with moderation, it brings rewards.  All that is required, in this 'prescription' is the we know our senses for what they are and that we ensure we are master of them rather than them becoming our masters. Here again the text is quoted directly;

Enjoy the world but let not the world enjoy you. You may eat food, let not the food eat you.  You may drink, but let not the drink drink you.

A common misconception is that self-control pertains to total abstinence from sex.  Spiritual students are called 'brahmachaarins' and certainly the expectation is of celibacy for them. In the general populace, however, this would be wrong. Brahmachaarya can most certainly mean celibacy, but more correctly it means to retain mastery of self in all things - so, for example, to talk too much, to listen to radio or watch television to excess or to consume more than is required for body to function would be to break brahachaarya. In falling short of this standard, a person becomes enslaved to the senses, to the environment and its events.

Ahimsaa is another of the human disciplines which gets misinterpreted.  It does not mean 'non-killing' or 'non-injury' at the physical level.  Certainly wherever possible these are to be avoided. However, there are circumstances which may arise in which we may have to undertake an apparently cruel act in order to actually serve love and compassion - a prime example of this would be the putting of an animal out of misery if it has become sick or injured beyond our ability to heal it. Ahimsaa, then must be understood as a discipline at mental level, for it means 'non-harm' by intention. When the intention is sent out into physical application, it is brahmachaarya which monitors it. Conversely, when engaged physically, we must not lose sight of our intention. Pure intention of love and kindness, even when requiring an apparently cruel act will not reflect negatively on the karma account of the individual.

The third discipline is satyam. Truthfulness seems like a given. It is an extremely difficult element to apply. One can live honestly in terms of the external world, but for satyam to be implemented as it ought, it means to be honest down to the very essence of one's being. Living up to the desirable ideals at all levels is one of the greatest challenges for any human being. This gets the shortest paragraph...only because each must take this into themselves.  No words can expand on this - each must search within.  Do you meet your own measure?