A door that leads to the outside also leads to the inside. A cup is said to be either half empty or half full. Both are true, but one may be more useful than the other.If you are trying to get outside the house, the fact that the door goes outside is keenly of interest to you. If you are dying of thirst, the half cup of water is earnestly appreciated.
The famous interchange in the New Testament that begins with Jesus asking his disciples, "Who do men say I am," is like that door or that cup. Most people, whether during Jesus' life or down through the centuries, see only the man Jesus, who lived in a particular time, said specific things, and lived in Palestine under Roman occupation. Others see his form, his words, and his actions as doorways to divinity itself. I would go further and say, as I have often said, that the answer to Jesus' question to his disciples is the same for him as it is for you or me. The one disciple who answered Jesus' question correctly was, as you probably know, Peter who said, "Thou art the Christ, son of the living God."
The Hindu "bible," the Bhagavad Gita, is a conversation between Lord Krishna (the Hindu equivalent of Jesus), and Arjuna (Krishna's Peter). In both scriptural conversations ("Who do men say I am?") and the Bhagavad Gita, the master (the guru: Jesus, or Krishna) reveals his divine nature as "one with the Spirit (Father)."
The incarnate form of divinity is like that door or that cup of water. As it is Christmas, we'll stick now to the subject of Jesus. Jesus, you, and I, and metaphysically speaking, every atom of creation, are what I say, tongue-in-cheek, "bi-polar." We have a dual nature. (In fact, like the Trinity, we have a triune nature, but let's hold that thought for now.)
While Christians may insist that Jesus' claim was an exclusive one, a careful and intuitive reading of the New Testament reveals this cannot be so. For example, St. John's gospel in Chapter 1 asserts that "As many as received Him gave he the power to become the sons of God." (Note "sons" is plural.) Jesus told his disciples "these things I do (miracles etc.), greater things will you do."
For the human soul to aspire to know God directly, as a Spirit -- infinite, omnipresent, omniscient, all-pervading etc. etc. -- is a tall order. How can you love or even approach something so abstract, so beyond human comprehension? By seeing God, God-consciousness, God's goodness, wisdom, love and so on incarnate in a human being we can relate more meaningfully. Nor does such a fact demean either us or God, for the very universe itself is a manifestation of God's intention, consciousness, and goodness. Yet form (whether subtle such as various forms of energy or gross such a physical objects and human bodies), the universe also cloaks that divinity.
The world, including our bodies and acquired personality traits, dutiful activities, and desires, is both a doorway into and toward the hidden divinity, and, a door that keeps us outside and apart from that divinity. Well meaning adherents or disciples of a great teacher all too often miss the point, mistaking the form of their guru (his appearance, his words, his actions) as the essence and that essence as to be distinguished from all other forms, teachers, teachings and so on. Only true and wise disciples see through the form to the divinity which animates the form and in that broad perspective recognize the divinity in other forms, other great teachers, and, indeed, in all people and all creation.
Is Jesus Christ, however, the "only" begotten son of God? Is he somehow qualitatively different than Krishna, Buddha, and others? Is Jesus Christ, or Krishna, or Buddha direct incarnations of God: God taking on human form?
God has already taken human form in you and I! And, in all creation. This has already happened, in other words. The only greater thing that can happen is for those forms to become self-aware of that divine nature, to become as Paramhansa Yogananda and others have described it, Self-realized in our divine nature. This doesn't deny or reject our form (our human form and nature); rather, it elevates and ennobles the human body and persona to true goodness and godlike qualities.
Jesus announced that "I and my Father are One!" For this alleged blasphemy he was killed by the religious authorities for whom such a claim was the ultimate threat to their privileged lives and positions. Yet he had a body and, one presumes and can sense from reading his words and considering his actions, a personality of his very own.
Thus Paramhansa Yogananda (author of Autobiography of a Yogi), whose own followers including me, believe that he was also "one with the Father," taught that when the soul, after countless incarnations, at last achieves Self-realization, the soul retains characteristically unique traits which, in order to be incarnate at all, are both necessary and part and parcel, eternally, of the soul's Being. Oneness, in other words, does not destroy or sublimate the soul into some amorphous mass consciousness. The soul can plunge into God, swimming in Infinity, but is not destroyed and may, if called upon by other souls (not yet free in God) seeking spiritual enlightenment through the vehicle of that soul and the deep bond between them, reemerge with its unique traits as yet intact. This free soul may take physical form (then becoming an "avatar") or appear in vision, or render assistance through thought-inspirations. In this way devotees have prayed to their respective gurus for many centuries after the guru's human incarnation. In so doing, they have been uplifted, taught, and received true communion with God.
Our nature, then, is divinity in form and therefore dual (or as I like put it, "bi-polar"). But it is also triune because the bridge between these two is the vibration of God from which all forms manifest. God beyond and untouched by creation (as "the Father"), vibrates His consciousness with intention, intelligence, and love in order to "boot-up" or initialize creation. All things in form are moving on the atomic, sub-atomic, chemical and electrical levels, if not in outward appearances (think rocks or minerals). The intelligence of a star, a tree, or a human is hidden because intelligence is "no thing." But the evidence of its intelligence is the form and its functions (including self-perpetuation) that clothes (even as it cloaks) that intelligence. Trees look like trees; chickens, chickens, and so on.
This vibratory energy of creation has many names. It is chanted as Aum, Amen, Amin, Hum, or Ahunavar. It is called the Holy Ghost or the Divine Mother because being holy, pure, a virgin it is the "stem cell" vibration underlying and out which all things become differentiated and take separate form.
The divine intelligence or nature that exists in creation is the only begotten and true son of God. Like a true human son, this intelligence reflects the image of its father, having the intention and attributes of divinity, at least in latent potential. Jesus was the Christ, or anointed one, because he had realized his divinity both within his form and beyond his form in the Father. We all are Christs but we, by contrast, have not yet realized that and cannot yet demonstrate mastery over life and death itself, as Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, and Yogananda demonstrated to close disciples.
Yogananda called his mission to the world the Second Coming of Christ not because he claimed to be Jesus but because the second coming takes place in the birth of the Christ child of divine consciousness in our own heart and mind and soul.
So, will the real Christ come to Christmas? That depends on you! "Tat twam asi." "Thou art That," it says in the scriptures of India. This is who we should say we are! Who am I? I am the Christ, the son of the living God! (Then behave accordingly!) Be careful, however, for he who says he is, isn't. He who says he isn't, isn't. He who knows, knows. One should not boast nor say "I am God." Rather, "God has become this form."
With the blessings of the great ones of self-mastery, we can be guided to Self-realization. Attune yourself to them. Study their lives, teachings, and actions, and make them your own. Walk like St. Francis in the footsteps of the master and He will help you to be free as He is Now.
Meditate daily, serve selflessly, endure hardship and difficulties with equanimity and cheerfulness, and watch and wait, for, "like a thief in the night, He will come!
Christmas blessings to all, and to all, a good night!
Swami Hrimananda aka Hriman
This blog's address: https://www.Hrimananda.org! I'd like to share thoughts on meditation and its application to daily life. On Facebook I can be found as Hriman Terry McGilloway and twitter @hriman. Your comments are welcome. Use the key word search feature to find articles you might be interested in. To subscribe write to me at jivanmukta@duck.com Blessings, Nayaswami Hriman
Showing posts with label Arjuna. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arjuna. Show all posts
Friday, December 20, 2013
Monday, February 4, 2013
Essence of the Bhagavad Gita
Essence of the Bhagavad Gita
India’s most beloved scripture consists of one chapter of
the world’s longest epic story, the Mahabharata.
This chapter of some seven hundred verses is composed as a dialogue between
Lord Krishna and his disciple, Prince Arjuna. It takes place as they are sitting
in Arjuna’s chariot surveying the opposing armies: theirs, the Pandavas (think,
“good guys in white helmets”) and the Kauravas, (the quintessential “bad guys”).
Of course the scene is allegorical although the battle of
Kurukshetra is considered a historical one. The exhortation to do battle is a metaphor for the battle of life to which the soul is called in its mission
to seek freedom through reuniting its consciousness with that of its Creator.
As each culture is divinely guided to its highest potential,
it is curious to contemplate that the Hindu “Bible” is a call to war while the
Christian bible (New Testament) is a call to “turn the other cheek.” East and
West, respectively, embody certain attitudes that would do well to seek balance:
the one, perhaps too passive; the other, too aggressive.
The are many great themes in this wonderful scripture for the instruction of souls
in all times and places . Among
the themes in the Gita (that I will explore in a 3-week class series—see below)
are the soul’s very first encounter with suffering and good and evil. Arjuna,
seeing that the opposing forces consist of his very own cousins with whom he
was raised, questions the rightness of killing them in battle. Are they not,
his very own?
Did not Jesus ask, “Who are my family but those who walk the
path toward God with me?” The "family" may be taken literally as one’s birth family who
typically resists the effort to dedicate oneself to the search for God. Or, more deeply and more importantly, the "family" is our own subconscious material desires. The soul, upon reaching
adolescence or early adulthood, comes face to face with the need to separate
himself from his past in order to begin his spiritual journey aligning the conscious mind towards the guidance of superconscious (guru) mind. And yet, this past, these familiar traits, are my “family!”
Krishna eschews all sentimentality and urges his devotee to
take up his “bow” and fight in this just and noble cause -- the very purpose of our creation. All habits and traits which are of
the ego are never killed but their energies transmuted and sublimated into
higher forms, just as in the teaching of the law of karma and reincarnation,
the soul never dies but is simply reborn into new forms. In the wilderness and
silence of meditation, we don’t “die” but in fact are reborn into the kingdom
of the soul’s consciousness.
Our fears are groundless -- that without our past, subconscious or ego affirming traits there is no "I." But everyone must
confront this existential dilemma face-to-face.
What, then, Arjuna asks, is right action? How can you
know what is right or wrong? Outwardly it is difficult, Krishna admits, but
that action which is not in pursuit of ego-motivated results, which is offered to God in self-offering and devotion and with no thought of personal gain, will guide us to
the heights of Self-realization more surely than any other.
The grace of God and guru, the preceptor, must be sought in
silent, inner communion and in righteous outward action. In attunement with the silent flow of grace and wisdom, which like the quiet sound of oil pouring from a drum, guides our thoughts,
feelings, and actions, we will sail our raft of life toward the seemingly distant shores of freedom.
The greatest wisdom is found through the practice of yoga:
silence of mind and body in contemplation of the divine Presence. The greatest
action is that which is offered without thought of self in devotion at the feet of Infinity. The greatest
feeling is love for God and for God in all, given without condition and expressed in daily life with humility, compassion,
and the wisdom of the soul.
Krishna gives Arjuna a taste of his overarching, infinite
consciousness as Spirit but the experience proves so overwhelming that Arjuna
at last asks to see his beloved friend, Krishna, again! Thus it is that we do
best if we approach God in form: as the preceptor, or in the impersonal forms
of love, light, sound, peace, etc., or in the form of a beloved deity. The abstract thought of infinity is too much for the human mind and heart to bear, much less to love.
Much, much more wisdom is shared in the Gita: the qualities
of nature and consciousness and how to distinguish the higher from the lower,
whether in religion or in daily life.
Tuesday night, at the East West Bookshop, 7:30 p.m.,
February 5 (12, & 19th), I will share these beloved teachings
with friends. My text is Swami Kriyananda’s most inspired work, based on the
wisdom of Paramhansa Yogananda, Essence
of the Bhagavad Gita, (Crystal Clarity Publishers, Nevada City). We will
film the series and the hope is to make it available online at a future date.
Blessings to you,
Nayaswami Hriman
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
4th of July Reflections
Fourth of July for Yogis!
Which is Better: Republican or Democrat?
I would venture to say that most of us who are practitioners
and proponents of the practices and precepts of yoga are overwhelmingly
self-identified as Democrats. While yoga is all but synonymous with the
so-called “New Age” or with the “Green Movement,” yoga itself is as “old as the
hills” and teaches precepts, morals and ethics that are unquestionably traditional
(and universal). The cliché, “Even the devil quotes the scriptures,” is as true
for yoga as it is for Bible thumpers. We tend to view reality through the
filter of our own tendencies and biases, even in our search for truth.
Consider that conservatism in its emphasis upon tradition
and the status quo represents the caution that derives from an understanding
that fundamental values never change and that change for the sake of change
often derives from restlessness and infatuation with novelty both for its own
sake and as an excuse to reject reality as it is (or at least due to ignorance,
inexperience, or rebelliousness). Conservatism in American culture emphasizes
the need and opportunity for each person to take responsibility for himself
whether in failure or success. To that end, the conservative ethos distrusts
government intervention. Of course we know that under the banner of such values
can hide selfishness, greed, and a lack of compassion by those in power and
wealth whose status is threatened by any effort on those less privileged to
assert themselves.
Democratic values emphasize individual worth, too, of
course. But here the emphasis is tempered by the inclusion of the good of all
arising from compassion and desire to share the freedom and prosperity with
those less fortunate. Such compassion is clearly a fundamental value. One of
the core differences lies in the role of government to effectuate justice and
promote freedom and prosperity. In truth the difference is more ephemeral than
real, since both political parties have initiated many government reforms,
policies, and programs to one end or another for the betterment of those less
fortunate.
Paramhansa Yogananda, the legendary master of yoga and
author of the world renowned classic, Autobiography
of a Yogi, stated he was a Republican, a member of the party of Abraham
Lincoln. He decried the seed planted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during
the Great Depression which was to sprout into what he might (had he lived
longer) have also termed the modern “Welfare State.” Every few years there’s some
movement to reform the gargantuan entitlement systems that have their origins
in FDR’s seemingly compassionate desire to create safety nets through social
security and government funded work projects.
Even the pressing issue of health care in the United States has as its core issue the tension between the need for individual initiative, participation and responsibility, and the compelling social value and obligation to help those less fortunate. A health care system that simply dispenses care without thought of individual initiative is, let’s face it, unaffordable and, given the limitations inherent in the scarcity of resources, therefore unfair, as perhaps everyone may get something but many have too little and quality suffers deplorably. By contrast, a health care system based solely on individual initiative and financial wherewithal isn’t a health care system at all and is both unfair in that many suffer needlessly when even but “reasonable” acts of sharing and compassion would alleviate much suffering.
Even the pressing issue of health care in the United States has as its core issue the tension between the need for individual initiative, participation and responsibility, and the compelling social value and obligation to help those less fortunate. A health care system that simply dispenses care without thought of individual initiative is, let’s face it, unaffordable and, given the limitations inherent in the scarcity of resources, therefore unfair, as perhaps everyone may get something but many have too little and quality suffers deplorably. By contrast, a health care system based solely on individual initiative and financial wherewithal isn’t a health care system at all and is both unfair in that many suffer needlessly when even but “reasonable” acts of sharing and compassion would alleviate much suffering.
Those who practice yoga (the term which more correctly
refers to meditation than to physical exercises) know full well that no one can
do it for you. No one can “make” you meditate or practice yoga poses. The
intention, the desire, the motivation, and, yes, the grace to practice
disciplines of bodily, mental and emotional self-control, offering the ego into
the Spirit can only come from within — just like creativity, ambition and any
number of impulses that bring health, success, and happiness to the human
spirit. At the same time, almost no one would practice yoga if others didn’t
share the art and science selflessly. This starts with the rishis and great
masters of yoga and includes many, if not most, yoga teachers who serve without
material recompense.
Jesus Christ said, as if running on the Republican ticket, “To those who have, more will be given, and to those who lack, that which they have will be taken.” Energy attracts success; lack breeds inertia. Only the spark of desire can ignite the fuel of Life Force to drive the engine of self-effort towards fulfillment and self-improvement. Government assistance can spark or enhance self-effort in one but stifle it in another. Entitlement is the necessary legal and social consequence of legislated assistance which tends to dehumanize its recipients and rob them of the opportunity of giving back or of attracting it by merit. This fact alone doesn’t necessarily mean that it isn’t the obligation of society to render aid to others in need, however.
Jesus Christ said, as if running on the Republican ticket, “To those who have, more will be given, and to those who lack, that which they have will be taken.” Energy attracts success; lack breeds inertia. Only the spark of desire can ignite the fuel of Life Force to drive the engine of self-effort towards fulfillment and self-improvement. Government assistance can spark or enhance self-effort in one but stifle it in another. Entitlement is the necessary legal and social consequence of legislated assistance which tends to dehumanize its recipients and rob them of the opportunity of giving back or of attracting it by merit. This fact alone doesn’t necessarily mean that it isn’t the obligation of society to render aid to others in need, however.
It has well said that to feed a man who is hungry is to
allay his hunger for a few hours; to teach a man to feed himself (through a
skill, e.g.) is yet a greater gift; to open the heart and mind of another to
the power of the universe (of Spirit) is the greatest gift. Jesus Christ openly
counseled the value of compassion, of feeding the hungry, clothing the naked,
visiting the sick and imprisoned.
So, you see, it’s a spectrum that, once we exclude the
extremes of heartless insensitivity or naked greed as well as the useless bleeding
heart effort to save others from themselves (Jesus said, “The poor ye shall
have always….”) against even their own will (for which they will only “bite the
hand that feeds them”), we see that one’s attitude derives from one’s
individual temperament. Thus it is that you can be either a Republican or
Democrat in good faith, goodwill, and in good conscience as a practitioner of
yoga. I suppose it could be said the former is more masculine (emphasizing
justice) and the latter more feminine (emphasizing mercy). But of course
someone is sure to object to that analogy!
A Republican yogi might be more inclined towards valuing
self-discipline and the ten commandments of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras (the “yamas,”
rules of self-restraint, and the “niyamas,” the rules of right behavior). He might
tend to think in terms of karma and reincarnation wherein one’s past actions
lay the groundwork for one’s present circumstances and inclinations and against
which only self-effort (united to Divine grace) can lift us from the consequences
of past actions. This yogi would tend to see withdrawal from the ways of the
world and nonattachment as guiding precepts. Ego-transcendence and desirelessness
would be important values and practices. Such a one might feel in tune with
Krishna’s statement in the Bhagavad Gita that “it is better to fail in the
effort to perform one’s own dharma (duty) then to succeed in performing the
duties of another.” If this yogi becomes too focused on these values however,
he may become cold, ruthless, unfeeling, and insensitive to the needs of
others. Yogis are cautioned that without the balancing qualities of the heart the
ego becomes inflated and the yogi may be tempted to seek yogic powers rather than soul freedom in
God.
A Democratic yogi would tend to go more by heart, by
devotion, by seeing God in all. Krishna counsels us the “Gita” that a true yogi
feels the joys and sorrows of all as her own. She would understand the need to
expand her sympathies and consciousness to embrace the whole world as her own
true Self. Thus expansion of consciousness through the heart (rather than
annihilation of ego through mental effort and will power) would be the
preferred path to freedom by the Democratic yogi. She might, however, tend to
rescue others, to do things for them that they ought best to do for themselves.
She might find herself subject to mood swings, from enthusiasm and compassion
to self-doubt, depression, and self-induglence unless she is guided calmly by
reason and wisdom and avoids becoming too attached to individuals or
particulars.
Of course I am stretching a point and placing the tongue
securely in the cheekiness of the eye’s twinkle! For what unites both of these
is the wisdom to respond to life’s opportunities, challenges and perceptions
with the flow of God’s grace, whether taking the form of justice or compassion.
For a mother, too, must learn to discipline her children even as a father must,
at times, act with mercy. For in our souls we are neither mother nor father.
The middle path (which indeed is found in the spine of the yogi!) necessarily
activates wisdom, compassion, and practicality in measures appropriate to the
rising current of Life Force of our own karmic needs.
“Oh, Arjuna, be thou a yogi!” Eschew superficial
self-limiting identities such as “democrat” or “republican.” While American
culture inclines perhaps more to individual liberties and self-initiative, we
also embody a spirit of cooperation and enlightened reason, guided by God. Such
is the grace and wisdom of our founding Fathers. We have much to celebrate and
be thankful for in our heritage and culture, but also much yet to learn and much
effort needed to balance justice with mercy.
May we understand that true freedom is freedom from delusion
and is found only in the transcendent, redeeming power of Oneness in God. As
chains cannot bind the human spirit neither can personal liberties to express
desire driven likes and dislikes free the soul. Let us seek freedom of the soul
and share the bounty of our liberty with all.
Blessings to you this 4th of July!
Nayaswami Hriman
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)