How much choice do we have in life? How conscious are we when we act?
Let's start with the simple fact that despite good intentions, we make mistakes; we have accidents; we cause suffering, intentionally or unintentionally, whether to ourselves or others. People hurt us; things hurt us; we don't know why or what, if anything, we might have done to deserve it. "Stuff happens," in other words.
There's a lot about our world and our lives that is much, much, much bigger than we. Long before we commit a consciously and an intentionally selfish or hurtful act, there are lots of other, less conscious and less intentional acts, that cause suffering.
Read any classic novel or myth or modern drama and we see life is filled with strange twists and turns of so-called fate.
This world, we must conclude, is not of our own doing. Whoever we are and wherever we have come from or go to, the world around us imposes and impinges upon us in ways that we must simply deal with. Then there are the actions we take and initiate into the little tiny world of our lives that, to some degree, imposes and impinges upon others, or, helps and serves others or improves our own lives.
But consider how little is our impact on the world around us and, by contrast, how big the impact the world and the circumstances into which we find ourselves has upon us! It seems a bit out of proportion.
True there are giants of will power and dominion and influence who create for themselves an entire world view and reality. Yet the more self-centered are these "giants" the more their influence is soon washed away by time and opposing forces. Think of all the politicians, actors, artists that have come and gone. Few, only a few, withstand the eroding effects of time. Those whose impact is lasting are those whose imprint was far bigger than self-interest.
Like the narrow bandwidth of atmosphere that surrounds our tiny planet whirling through space, we operate in a very narrow bandwidth of freedom of choice. Most of what we do, say, like or dislike we cannot really account for logically unless it's universal like fearing death or illness or criticism or liking praise, pleasure or money. Why do you like red sports cars, or I, pistachio ice cream? Who can say?
And yet.....and yet......without human commitment to the precept that we can change our life for the better and that we are accountable for our actions, life would become unbearable. Within this narrow bandwidth of freedom, therefore, is our life, small as it may be and separate as we may view it to be from that great big, sometimes threatening world, around us.
We are confronted by the conditions in which we live, including our bodies, their age, gender, health and abilities, and we must face the conditions we ourselves have created. Complex stuff, eh and, in the the big picture, we must admit that our choices in life have been very narrow. And yet, how impactful upon our lives are those choices: who we marry; what career choices we make or accept; what addictions we fall into; what habits, good or bad. A narrow but potent bandwidth. Does not happiness, itself, exist inside a narrow bandwidth of attitude where the cup is either half empty or half full?
Consciousness itself exists in a very narrow bandwidth of self-awareness. How close to existence of non-existence do we live? My friend who was "randomly" struck by a car that jumped the curb as he was walking along the sidewalk? How many cars whiz past us......the margin of life is indeed narrow.
More than one saint has stated that the only freedom we possess is whether to turn toward God or away from God. All else is more or less the function of our past actions (aka karma). Ananda Moi Ma, the now famous woman saint of 20th century India, described our free will as the equivalent of being on a speeding train and having the choice to walk up or back inside the passenger cars while yet remaining on the speeding train.
But what does it mean to turn TOWARD or AWAY from God? "God" is a pretty BIG idea if you consider "God" deeply and if you can get past the baggage that the "poor fellow" has to carry.
Instead, let's start with something more useful. Let say that our choice is whether to respond positively, or to respond negatively, to life's circumstances.
Ok, then, what does "positive" mean? Or, "negative?" What does it mean to respond "positively" to the fact that you are born into a wealthy family? Or with excellent health? Talent? Beauty? "Positively" means expansively....unselfishly......with non-attachment....with a desire to help others.......
Let's say you are indeed born into a wealthy home, or at least one with comfort and advantages and therefore choices like education, hobbies, health, security, and also into a loving family. Do you recall the phrase (seemingly out of date), noblesse oblige? It recalls the implicit obligation that those of privilege bear to help others. (Yes, that's not really so old fashioned is it?) To see your life as a privilege and an opportunity to do something meaningful would be a good example of a positive response. A negative one would be the all too familiar one of feeling entitlement and becoming lazy, mean, or selfish as a result of your otherwise favorable birth.
Thus "toward" God can begin with the concept of expanding one's awareness to include the needs of others. Call this, therefore, an expansive response. A selfish response would be contractive, meaning ego-centric, selfish, or self-absorbed.
Faced with disease or illness, a positive response would be to be calm; to have faith in the ultimate goodness and value of the inherent lessons of one's challenges; to think even first of others, than of yourself; to affirm your love for God.
[It should be pointed out also, as I have in other articles, that acting or responding positively is not sufficient for those seeking eternal freedom in God. The latter is a far bigger subject and is one derived from faith and intuition (or, more commonly, starts at least from belief). "Virtue may be its own reward" but in the teachings of "Sanaatan Dharma" good karma that derives from the sense of personal doership (ego) is insufficient to win freedom for the soul. For that, "yagya," or personal self-offering with devotion to God (inter alia) is necessary.]
The line between passive acceptance and a dynamic outpouring of energy to confront challenging circumstances may seem obvious but it's ultimately a matter of expansive or contractive. Acceptance can be expansive if it's calm, joyful and even-minded, and, willing to do what is needed; it is contractive if submissive and fatalistic. Dynamic energy can be contractive if ego-active and ego-protective but expansive if joyful, enthusiastic, creative and without rancor or pride.
Our real choice is remain "in the Self," untouched by outer circumstances. This, more correctly, defines a saint but it is a goal brought steadily into manifestation by the practice of meditation, the company of others of like mind, and the spiritual power of grace born of our attunement with a true "son of God."
"The only way out is IN." This is our real choice, for "tat twam asi," -- "Thou art THAT (Spirit)."
Swami Hrimananda
Showing posts with label Ananda Moi Ma. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ananda Moi Ma. Show all posts
Monday, October 17, 2016
Monday, July 18, 2011
Return to India - Final Chapter - Calcutta
Gita and I only had two full days in Calcutta and we sought to make the best use of them we could. I am eager to complete this blog series and so will do my best to keep this brief.
Calcutta and the state of Bengal occupy a unique place in the awakening of modern India. I will not say more than that except to say that not only did there occur an extraordinary spiritual revolution but other revolutions from Bengal as well. More can be found from the history books than from me on this fascinating subject.
On our first day, Saturday, July 9, we first visited the home of Yogananda's boyhood companion, Tuli Bose. The home is now occupied by Hassi: the widow of Tulsi's son, Debi Mukherjee. Debi was a young boy or man when Paramhansa Yogananda returned to India in 1935-6 and has written of that visit in his own collection of stories. Hassi was in the womb of her mother at that time and was blessed by Yogananda. She spoke to him years later by phone after Yogananda had returned to his headquarters in Los Angeles.
Hassi is a devotee and very wise soul. She has greeted and hosted innumerable Ananda and other visitors to her home. Ananda members have assisted her in repairing and improving her simple home which no street map, no Google map will ever reveal but which is right around the corner from Yogananda's boyhood home at 4 Gurpar Road in an older section of Calcutta.
I can't vouch entirely for my notes or my memory or the language translation of our meeting but I will do my best to convey what I learned and experienced there. Yogananda, before leaving for America in 1920, and for some period of time (unknown but presumably before leaving Calcutta to start the school for boys that he founded in the state of Bihar), conducted weekly satsangs (spiritual gatherings) in this tiny home. I believe those satsangs were held on Thursday nights.
Among the spiritual stars who visited the home (and sometimes together, though which ones at the same time, I am not clear and their generations don't all exactly coincide) include: Sharda Devi, widow of Sri Ramakrishna, who conducted Durga puja there; Swami Vivekananda, most famous disciple of Ramakrishna (who visited America twice in the 1890's); Lahiri Mahasaya; Swami Sri Yukteswar, Paramhansa Yogananda, Ananda Moyi Ma, and Swami Atmananda (disciple of Yogananda), along with of course, Tuli Bose.
Just to be present there in the midst of such a place was indescribable. The home is as simple and unseen as a certain manger in Palestine. How many avatars can you fit in a 10' by 10' room? Can anyone imagine such an extraordinary "satsang" or a more blessed temple - yet one that will never impress the worldly man for its grand size and beauty?
Among a tiny sampling of the relics gathered there are an iron trident once possessed by Babaji, given to Lahiri, given to Sri Yukteswar, given to Yogananda, who left it there with Tulsi! The deerskin "asan" (meditation seat) of Sri Yukteswar; the tiger skin asan of Yogananda's; and a clay statute of goddess Kali that materialized in Yogananda's palm while meditating at the nearby Dakshineswar Temple (home to Ramakrishna in the prior century). Gita and I meditated there for a little and had the opportunity to visit with Hassi for some time. She's getting up in years and asked for prayers for an upcoming cataract surgery on July 30 and again later in the Fall 2011.
Around the corner we visited with Sarita Ghosh whose husband Sonat, is the living descendant of Yogananda's artist-brother, Sananda. When we arrived, two other pilgrims were visiting. (There's a steady stream of pilgrims coming to Gurpar Road). She toured us showing us the room in which Babaji appeared to Yogananda after a long night of intense prayer asking for tangible blessings upon his journey to America (in 1920). She showed us the room which had once been Yogananda's father's bedroom and where Yogananda as boy, after his mother's passing, had slept also. It was filled with wonderful photos including the original photo, touched up with color (as was the custom then) by Sananda of Rabindranath Tagore. This "painting" is now famous and hangs there in the room as does what might be (I'm not really sure) the original painting by Sananda of Babaji, among other things I failed to catalogue. (Tagore once visited there, perhaps to approve the painting.)
Upstairs we meditated in Yogananda's "attic room" - the scene of many meditations and experiences, including the window from which he dropped his bundle of items on his failed attempt to escape to the Himalayas (as recounted in his autobiography). Sigh, what can one say about such a visit except that I shall treasure it always.
The following day we visited Serampore, where Swami Sri Yukteswar (Yogananda's guru) lived and had his ashram. Ishan, son of Durlov Ghosh (living descendant of Yogananda's eldest brother, Ananta), hosted us. We went first to Rai Ghat where Sri Yukteswar (and Yogananda) would bathe daily in the mornings and where Sri Yukteswar encountered Babaji under the still living banyan tree when Babaji came to bless Yukteswar upon completion of the book Babaji commissioned Yutkeswar to write ("The Holy Science").
It was a very hot and sticky day and the ghat was filled with teenagers but Gita and I sat briefly in meditation, hoping to draw the blessings that should surely remain in the ether with gathering of three avatars (egads!), including the incomparable Babaji.
Wending our way through the narrow lanes of Serampore we then visited Sri Yukteswar's ashram. It is inhabited by two or three families: descendants of Sri Yukteswar (he had a daughter, though no one seems to know anything about her and her offspring). Recently, we were told, it was decided not to allow visitors into the home and into Sri Yukteswar's rooms for visits and meditation. Gita, and many others I know, have done so in past years but it was not to be so for me.
Instead we were allowed into an adjacent YSS shrine and offered meditation seats. Notwithstanding my disappointment, I had a very deep meditation in the shrine. It's built in what had been an extension of the original courtyard and from its steps one could see the courtyard balcony where the door to Sri Yukteswar's room was.
I hope someday YSS, at least, can obtain the ownership and can repair and restore the aging and now decrepit building for a shrine for generations to come. While they tend to be as much gatekeepers as preservers, someone, at least needs to do this. I don't know the relationship between the families and YSS. It's probably somewhat tentative and uneasy, I'm guessing.
We then had lunch with the Ghosh family in the home nearby that Ananda members helped the family acquire when their grandmother, Mira, was in desperate need some years ago. The family is very grateful and very sweet.
On our way back to our hotel we visited Dakshineswar Temple. The grand and beautiful temple (though now aging but relatively new, only 150 or so years old, built by a devotee-disciple of Sri Ramakrishna) was home to the lila (life) of Ramakrishna. Yogananda too had many deep experiences at the temple as he relates in "Autobiography of a Yogi." We got in line to pay our respects and view the famous Kali statue (the lines allow for a brief two-second glance) and then meditated in the adjacent portico where Yogananda had an experience in cosmic consciousness.
Then we meditated in the bedroom (now a museum and shrine) of Ramakrishna after touring the temple grounds. The visit was far more uplifting than I would have thought, given the Sunday-afternoon crowds of families and sightseers. The Temple is along the river (Ganges, though it's called the Hoogley or something like that), and adjacent to one of the bridges that cross the river from which we came from Serampore (which is on the opposite side of the river from downtown Calcutta and upstream).
That's as much as I feel to share on this part. The description I’ve given belies the blessings I feel, however, and leave it to my readers to allow me that inner beatitude as a sacred trust in my heart. As some of my readers are my close friends and fellow disciples, it remains a question "How has this changed your life?" "What personal insights might you have had."
That's as much as I feel to share on this part. The description I’ve given belies the blessings I feel, however, and leave it to my readers to allow me that inner beatitude as a sacred trust in my heart. As some of my readers are my close friends and fellow disciples, it remains a question "How has this changed your life?" "What personal insights might you have had."
I don't feel this blog is the place for such personal reflections except to say “Yes!”
Blessings, and thus ends our journey and pilgrimage,
Hriman
Calcutta and the state of Bengal occupy a unique place in the awakening of modern India. I will not say more than that except to say that not only did there occur an extraordinary spiritual revolution but other revolutions from Bengal as well. More can be found from the history books than from me on this fascinating subject.
On our first day, Saturday, July 9, we first visited the home of Yogananda's boyhood companion, Tuli Bose. The home is now occupied by Hassi: the widow of Tulsi's son, Debi Mukherjee. Debi was a young boy or man when Paramhansa Yogananda returned to India in 1935-6 and has written of that visit in his own collection of stories. Hassi was in the womb of her mother at that time and was blessed by Yogananda. She spoke to him years later by phone after Yogananda had returned to his headquarters in Los Angeles.
Hassi is a devotee and very wise soul. She has greeted and hosted innumerable Ananda and other visitors to her home. Ananda members have assisted her in repairing and improving her simple home which no street map, no Google map will ever reveal but which is right around the corner from Yogananda's boyhood home at 4 Gurpar Road in an older section of Calcutta.
I can't vouch entirely for my notes or my memory or the language translation of our meeting but I will do my best to convey what I learned and experienced there. Yogananda, before leaving for America in 1920, and for some period of time (unknown but presumably before leaving Calcutta to start the school for boys that he founded in the state of Bihar), conducted weekly satsangs (spiritual gatherings) in this tiny home. I believe those satsangs were held on Thursday nights.
Among the spiritual stars who visited the home (and sometimes together, though which ones at the same time, I am not clear and their generations don't all exactly coincide) include: Sharda Devi, widow of Sri Ramakrishna, who conducted Durga puja there; Swami Vivekananda, most famous disciple of Ramakrishna (who visited America twice in the 1890's); Lahiri Mahasaya; Swami Sri Yukteswar, Paramhansa Yogananda, Ananda Moyi Ma, and Swami Atmananda (disciple of Yogananda), along with of course, Tuli Bose.
Just to be present there in the midst of such a place was indescribable. The home is as simple and unseen as a certain manger in Palestine. How many avatars can you fit in a 10' by 10' room? Can anyone imagine such an extraordinary "satsang" or a more blessed temple - yet one that will never impress the worldly man for its grand size and beauty?
Among a tiny sampling of the relics gathered there are an iron trident once possessed by Babaji, given to Lahiri, given to Sri Yukteswar, given to Yogananda, who left it there with Tulsi! The deerskin "asan" (meditation seat) of Sri Yukteswar; the tiger skin asan of Yogananda's; and a clay statute of goddess Kali that materialized in Yogananda's palm while meditating at the nearby Dakshineswar Temple (home to Ramakrishna in the prior century). Gita and I meditated there for a little and had the opportunity to visit with Hassi for some time. She's getting up in years and asked for prayers for an upcoming cataract surgery on July 30 and again later in the Fall 2011.
Around the corner we visited with Sarita Ghosh whose husband Sonat, is the living descendant of Yogananda's artist-brother, Sananda. When we arrived, two other pilgrims were visiting. (There's a steady stream of pilgrims coming to Gurpar Road). She toured us showing us the room in which Babaji appeared to Yogananda after a long night of intense prayer asking for tangible blessings upon his journey to America (in 1920). She showed us the room which had once been Yogananda's father's bedroom and where Yogananda as boy, after his mother's passing, had slept also. It was filled with wonderful photos including the original photo, touched up with color (as was the custom then) by Sananda of Rabindranath Tagore. This "painting" is now famous and hangs there in the room as does what might be (I'm not really sure) the original painting by Sananda of Babaji, among other things I failed to catalogue. (Tagore once visited there, perhaps to approve the painting.)
Upstairs we meditated in Yogananda's "attic room" - the scene of many meditations and experiences, including the window from which he dropped his bundle of items on his failed attempt to escape to the Himalayas (as recounted in his autobiography). Sigh, what can one say about such a visit except that I shall treasure it always.
The following day we visited Serampore, where Swami Sri Yukteswar (Yogananda's guru) lived and had his ashram. Ishan, son of Durlov Ghosh (living descendant of Yogananda's eldest brother, Ananta), hosted us. We went first to Rai Ghat where Sri Yukteswar (and Yogananda) would bathe daily in the mornings and where Sri Yukteswar encountered Babaji under the still living banyan tree when Babaji came to bless Yukteswar upon completion of the book Babaji commissioned Yutkeswar to write ("The Holy Science").
It was a very hot and sticky day and the ghat was filled with teenagers but Gita and I sat briefly in meditation, hoping to draw the blessings that should surely remain in the ether with gathering of three avatars (egads!), including the incomparable Babaji.
Wending our way through the narrow lanes of Serampore we then visited Sri Yukteswar's ashram. It is inhabited by two or three families: descendants of Sri Yukteswar (he had a daughter, though no one seems to know anything about her and her offspring). Recently, we were told, it was decided not to allow visitors into the home and into Sri Yukteswar's rooms for visits and meditation. Gita, and many others I know, have done so in past years but it was not to be so for me.
Instead we were allowed into an adjacent YSS shrine and offered meditation seats. Notwithstanding my disappointment, I had a very deep meditation in the shrine. It's built in what had been an extension of the original courtyard and from its steps one could see the courtyard balcony where the door to Sri Yukteswar's room was.
I hope someday YSS, at least, can obtain the ownership and can repair and restore the aging and now decrepit building for a shrine for generations to come. While they tend to be as much gatekeepers as preservers, someone, at least needs to do this. I don't know the relationship between the families and YSS. It's probably somewhat tentative and uneasy, I'm guessing.
We then had lunch with the Ghosh family in the home nearby that Ananda members helped the family acquire when their grandmother, Mira, was in desperate need some years ago. The family is very grateful and very sweet.
On our way back to our hotel we visited Dakshineswar Temple. The grand and beautiful temple (though now aging but relatively new, only 150 or so years old, built by a devotee-disciple of Sri Ramakrishna) was home to the lila (life) of Ramakrishna. Yogananda too had many deep experiences at the temple as he relates in "Autobiography of a Yogi." We got in line to pay our respects and view the famous Kali statue (the lines allow for a brief two-second glance) and then meditated in the adjacent portico where Yogananda had an experience in cosmic consciousness.
Then we meditated in the bedroom (now a museum and shrine) of Ramakrishna after touring the temple grounds. The visit was far more uplifting than I would have thought, given the Sunday-afternoon crowds of families and sightseers. The Temple is along the river (Ganges, though it's called the Hoogley or something like that), and adjacent to one of the bridges that cross the river from which we came from Serampore (which is on the opposite side of the river from downtown Calcutta and upstream).
That's as much as I feel to share on this part. The description I’ve given belies the blessings I feel, however, and leave it to my readers to allow me that inner beatitude as a sacred trust in my heart. As some of my readers are my close friends and fellow disciples, it remains a question "How has this changed your life?" "What personal insights might you have had."
That's as much as I feel to share on this part. The description I’ve given belies the blessings I feel, however, and leave it to my readers to allow me that inner beatitude as a sacred trust in my heart. As some of my readers are my close friends and fellow disciples, it remains a question "How has this changed your life?" "What personal insights might you have had."
I don't feel this blog is the place for such personal reflections except to say “Yes!”
Blessings, and thus ends our journey and pilgrimage,
Hriman
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