Watched a you tube video where a tantrik spoke of realising Shiva. Not surprised as a practising Hindu. I have blogged about the ant and the boot story many times. The ant at the foot of a man cannot picture the boot of the man or the foot of the man or the man himself or the world behind him with the size of its brain cells. If it tries to exceed the limitations of its birth/janma faculties, the brains of the ant shall burst. In order to proceed further, the ant has to grow larger brains. In short, the ant has to evolve to next state of its existence for better perception of things. But if the ant does as a lowly creature break the ceilings of perception and happens to realize the boot of the man, the foot, the man and the world beyond, then the ant in its lifetime attains Nirvana. The ant merges with the supreme Jyothi or the super or collective conscience. Indian/Hindu saints have done that for centuries: from Ramakrishna Paramahamsa to Swami Vivekananda to Vallalar. Hindu Thamizh history is full of inspiring life stories of englightened men and women: the Nayanmar and Azhwars and others. However ignorance is a bliss. If you don’t have to concern yourself like one curious ant wanting to know what is beyond your realm in your present lifestate, then it is fine. Your world begins and ends with the boot mountain and universe in front of the ant-you! Otherwise this knowledge of the nether is attainable only upon giving up your physical body – upon your passing to the other world. Why is there now a frenzy to know more about Hinduism or Buddhism. Precisely this. Dharma keyed it in where the Abrahamics failed grandly. This is what led Annie Besant and others to India – to establish the key. We still have Besant Nagar as part of Chennai. Yes, the Hindu gods are realisable with powerful chants and some relentless upasanas (meditation practices or mind exercises) as the tantrik claims. Yoga is the tool that enhances your sensory perceptions and gives you the physical and mental fitness to handle the energy of deities you worship. Its much more to do with controlling your senses that can hone your power of perception. I have watched videos in you tube of practising Christians from around the world take to Hindu ways and seek deities. As a Hindu I believe that we live in a civilization that was lost and found. The helicopter markings in Kailasa temple for landing, the flying chariot of Ravana, the missiles mentioned in Ramayana and Mahabharatha, the Ram Sethu built by Lord Ram and ‘vanara sena’ discovered under the sea between Sri Lanka and India – all these are just a few pointers unearthed that suggest at an advanced civilization that once flourished in a different plane of time that was lost to an impending apocalypse. What we have today are remnants – pieces that we picked up and try to stitch together as Dharma. While so, it was disturbing to learn of research into transcendental meditation that paves way for a higher conscience like the (hypothetic) ant, breaking the glass ceiling and realizing the galaxy beyond its original imagination. Not everything is for marketing. The greatest accomplishment of Hindu Dharma is proof that the Abrahamics have wasted thousands of years chasing the wrong rabbit! Who says deities are formless. May be that’s why you cannot see or picture your imagined/cultivated desert god! Our deities are bodied and can be realizable the way they may be pictured. The temple rituals and pujas are merely the base of the pyramid called Sanathana Dharma. It is for beginners. You don’t get stuck up at this level if you want to see the higher dimensions. Hinduism with idol worship is easily relatable to simple folks – the peasants. The idols are mere focal point of our attention. If the mullah wants to make more out of that, then it means his entire nationhood is limited to the the tattered piece of his national flag. In short, an idol is to Hinduism what a national flat is for a nation. Representative. A symbol, no more. Just as we decorate the flag and celebrate it, we celebrate idols. Some religious forms came out in denial of existing, established ways of life. That is the basis of their survival. Anyway, most of the Hindu substance was guarded as ‘rahasya’ for centuries. Now with everything being googled, there is no more such a thing as ‘rahasya mantra’ that can be administered only to worthy few. However, the tantrik held out hope. Even if the evangelists want to seek Hindu deities with diligence covertly adapting Hindu practices, the number that can make it to the gateway for enlightenment for every age stays limited and thoroughly rationed! That’s some good news. Why a Hindu. This is why. A Hindu is a rare breed. As the world wakes up to the undeniable truth, Hindu spirituality gains momentum. Many ardent practising Hindus owe our growing faith to the ‘vibes.’ Hinduism is not sold door to door like Christianity is, like Stayfree and Harpic. Neither did Hindu Dharma spread by the sword the way Islam did and does. Seekers embrace Hindu Dharma finally on questioning themselves. Self realization is possible only with a tool such as Hindu Dharma. And as the tantrik says, an authentic guru with a good lineage can lead you up there. The global stars are not in India without a reason. It takes years for someone to get to this point. Being born a Hindu, you learn it growing up. You have the advantage of playing in the homeground so there is no excuse if it don’t use it well enough. If you are born in India a Hindu, you have to make most of it or you will be squandering a birthtime opportunity. Millions in India do remain ignorant still, pre-occupied with ritualistic worship and limiting themselves to their busy ant-life gathering and saving for a rainy day. Materialism has ruined things for Hindus. Our spiritual training has to give us the mental discipline and improve our capacity for ‘out of box’ thinking. Like the physical body can be trained to be fit, the mind can be trained to go beyond its limited faculties. Only sages and saints train themselves systematically to ‘realize the truth’ in their own lifetimes. How many of us have we laughed at the meditating Sadhus with the anthills growing around them (most as seen in old Tamil flicks). How many times have we poked fun of those who take ‘sanyas’ – the celibacy vows to become hermits. So if you are a non believer or an Abrahamic, do not force yourself. You are the ant that cannot imagine more than that level. You belong in the physical, tangible world. You need logic and reasoning and scientific proofs without which you can never see beyond the boot – to the hovering man or the world behind him. So the first obstacle in the thought process you have to do away with when it comes to finetuning your conscience is: dispensing with the sense of logic and be open enough to receive ‘vibes’ that may be illogical. Under other circumstances, only substances can give you the same result with hallucination or hypnosis. I am talking about the level of conscience that is realizable without substance use or abuse when you transcend realms. Not even those ants like me who know of the ceiling but who can do nothing about it can make a difference. Sadly for those like me, the inability looms like a tragedy as we realize we shall have to be reborn a thousand times to nurture a superior mind and break the birth cycle. By superior mind I do not refer to the scientific or engineering or money making business mind. By superior mind, I am referring to the ant brain that can break ceilings in its own lifetime and can transcend in to the other world. So as of now we are resigned to this state of existence nevertheless we try! Not adding fresh Karma to the load we already carry has a role to play in our punar janams (rebirths). Sometimes I wonder why are we Hindus so complicated. Why can’t we have simple food like the pizza or bread. Why should even our cuisine be so complex with so much of grinding and powdering and deepfrying and shallow roasting and masalas (spices) and lentils and a stunning range of veggies and food grains. But isn’t ours the best palate in the world. Exiting a world cup soccer match in Qatar via a mall, I looked around for restaurant table. The Indian Tandoor had a hundred plus waiting crowd comprising of multiple nationalities (that would have taken them hours before being served) whereas every other restaurant such as European, Chinese, Turkish, Arab etc., had table to spare. Why are our clothes so indigenous. That six yard unstitched piece of cloth that goes for a sari. That four yard unstitched white piece of cotton clothing that goes for dhoti for men. Would they ever dissappear from the face of the world? Why do we have our traditional native classical/folky music to dance to art and literary forms. What about our grand granite temple complexes? Why cannot we be so easily anglicized the way the Filipinos or even the Chinese are. In a similar way is fashioned the Hindu spirituality. It has labyrinths you have to traverse before you could get to the core. If you have to be discouraged by the skin and the pulp, you will never get to see the seed. The more materialistic you are, the farther you move away from the quiet world of inner awakening. As I said, some of us got the message but we have no way of going in there. We cannot figure out but we try to give our best. To those who haven’t a clue, its going to take that much longer to realize what is what.
Tag: hindu spirituality
Decoding Dharma 4: – Jeev Samadhi when fully awake
Hindu by default. Vegetarian by default.
But why do I always be wanna be reborn a Hindu. This is merely my simple ingestion of the essence of Dharma. I may or may not be right. (I think I have a long long way to go through many multiple janams before hoping for an elimination from the birth cycle). Practising Hindus must be aware how we seek liberation (Mukthi) from this vicious circle of birth and death (which is the illusion or Maya) in our Prarthana before blending with the One Collective Consciousness.
……https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHqRJRV-0Ds…..
I have tried not to attach the You tube link in this post considering the sensitivity of the topic. Please copy and paste or search You tube for ‘buddhist monk or thai monk attaining jeev samadhi or leaving body.’
Just watched a video of a Buddhist monk in Thailand attain Jeev Samadhi when fully awake. I have blogged on this earlier. This kind of taking leave is possible only for Hindu/Buddhist/Jain monks of the Dharmic nature.
Where others fail and why is Hindu Dharma scientific. Because, only we speak of a higher consciousness that we regard as the nether. If we do not evolve as humans to this state of consciousness, we may get propelled into the birth cycle again and again. We may take a thousand janams and still be not rid of the birth and rebirth cycles. For Hindus, this emancipation is entirely a mind factor. This is the ultimate state of Nirvana or Moksha whatever name you may call it by. What we see in temples is for those at the base of the pyramid who have limited thought process to imagine anything beyond. As we may reach the upper echelons of our consciousness, we may start leaving rituals entirely behind. Some of my friends do follow parallel paths in search of this elusive truth or wisdom.
(You may ask about those folds where rituals are non-existent or minimal. Absence of rituals is no guarantee to enlightenment. Contrary to the belief of many, ritual processes enable us and prepare us for the next stages of consciousness. Yoga and Meditation may be effective tools for attaining the discipline for both mind and body control. Which is why the Christian Yoga that dispenses with Om Mantra may not serve purpose. Synchronization of the body and the mind can be achieved with focus with Om chanting)
I have spoken of the ‘ant and the boot’ story pretty often. To the minute ant at the edge of the boot, the imposing man can never be comprehensible. It is beyond the tiny brain of the little ant to break out of its intelligence level to understand the looming man in his entirety. This is all Hindu Dharma is about. That overwhelming knowledge is our God-Goddess. We simpletons may relate to this supreme consciousness as Shiva or Raam or Shakthi as per our comfort level.
I am sharing links to my earlier blog posts on this fascinating subject of mine. I have always regarded myself as kind of spiritual(!) over religious!!! That inspite of me having limited spiritual knowledge. Still this is the one single realization that the Abrahamic folds completely missed out on. This may be because, Hinduism has no founder. That we are not an organized religion like others, helps. Dharma is not an ‘ism’ at all. The Sanathana Dharma is way of life that if you follow with conscience can open doors to achieve supreme levels of higher conscience when you can belong in the other world without your physical/mortal body even as an earthling. Otherwise this is possible only when we shed our physicality (on death). This is where transcendental meditation comes in. Hindus are eternal seekers. We seek, don’t pray. We seek the supreme knowledge to attain the level of higher consciousness in our own time which is possible only for Mahans like Swami Vivekanand.
I am writing this up after watching the video of a Thai Buddhist monk take leave of his physical/mortal body when fully awake. I am not the owner of the video. This is a very recent recording. Generally this kind of Jeev Samadhi is not possible to witness at all. Rarest to happen. What a highest level of super consciousness the Buddhist monk must have attained. Technology has gifted us this wonderful opportunity to understand or decode the one true path which is Dharmic (Buddhism and Jainism and even Sikkism are offshoots of Hindu Dharma).
Pranaams to the noble Atma. Blessed. What a way to take leave. In a world wracked by violence and bombs and bloodshed, what a dharmic way some live by. Om Shanthi!
(On my friends’ suggestion I am adding this on India. Bharatha is Yoga Bhoomi while the Abrahamic nations in Middle East and the West are bhogis. In short, materialistic. Our paths can only be divergent).
The All Pervading Isha…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpgsB1Ncdwo
No copyright violation intended. This was playing when I had a darshan of Linga Bhairavi as ardent Shiva devotees performed ‘shaashtaang namaskaaram’ (prostrations) to the deity of Union of Mother and Father – the Bhairavi Lingam. Cannot shake it off my system now…
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Didn’t really think much about Isha (Yoga) all these days or years. Decades back, the Isha Yogi Shri. Jaggi Vasudev (popularly referred to as ‘Sadhguru’) was writing a column in the Tamil weekly ‘Kumudam’ (or was it ‘Ananda Vikatan’) He wrote under the title ‘Aththanaikkum Aasai Padu’ (desire everything and anything). I regret missing reading it then deliberately. First of all the Isha Guru was not as popular then as he is now (though he had started making waves). Secondly, his grey beard and unconventional looks didn’t convince me that he was serious about what he preached. His sermon was casual style where he argued, one can be spiritual and materialistic at the same time. The same way, I have also missed the Tamil author Balakumaran. Now I learn of his genius.
Over time, Isha Yoga have spread their wings covering territories. They have planted thousands of trees and they employ rural artisans who they teach and train in various vocations. Foreigners wholeheartedly take ‘Dhiksha’ – the vow here, to become Yogis detaching themselves from material life. Not to be outdone are young and eager and highly accomplished Indian youth who give up every single pleasure conceivable in mortal life to become part of Isha Yoga. Isha, like any prospering institution or ideology, earned its fair share of critics. There were allegations that youth were getting brainwashed. My friends who have been at the center for Yoga training and meditation have always refuted this. The peace and the quiet (?!) and the Yogic nature allure some lost (or otherwise) souls to ascetic way of life for reasons known only to them. How can you mesmerize Americans and Australians and Germans and French all at the same time along with young Indian men and women.
Taking a rubber tube-tyred bullock cart ride, I struck up a conversation with an Australian couple in their fifties who said they were regulars in this part of the country every year. They seemed comfortable in Indian clothes and with Indian food and culture. Yoga and meditation lured them to India.
A mix of nationalities were meditating in varied locations in absolute silence through out the bustling center (which could be bordering on commercialization, but prevented from going that way evidently with great care). Under the trees. In the coves around Dhyana Linga, in the Chandrakund (women’s bath descending down broad stairs, with Mercury Linga at the center), in the Suryakund (stairwelled men’s bath with Mercury Lingam), lost to the outer world, existing in a transcendental hemisphere perhaps. Moving sight. Such a self-discipline is derivable only with an ‘inner calling’. Mind control is the key, for living a hermit’s life is no cake walk. There can be no hypnosis or black magic involved here. Indian youth have left their promising careers and family wealth behind seeking the ‘truth’.
Unlike Abrahamic fold, Hindu Dharma does not believe in conversion. We have no Vatican/Mecca or Bible/Koran. Hinduism or Sanathana Dharma is Free Will. Gurus preach in India foremost that attracts many foreigners. The Beatles and why even Steve Jobs have been to India on their spiritual journey. Once you skim the poverty and deterioration over centuries, you may find what you have been searching for – as these men have done.
Gurus get popular once popular personalities and celebrities start following them. Fake Gurus exist undeniably. Gurus travel overseas because their international followers want them to. With no force or brainwashing or coercion or bribing, some seekers turn to Hindu Dharma for salvation (Nirvana in Sanskrit).
Shiva, the ultimate. When Shiva is here, why do we need a Jesus.
Do Hindu Gurus champion conversion campaigns? Malign others?
What still brings many around the world to Hindu Dharma and Buddhism on their own volition.
Isha Yoga Center to me seems one such an epicenter that draws followers from every corner of the globe. Its impact on native Hindus is remarkable. It is a coincidence that the resurgence of the Hindu Conscience has to happen at the same time. I have not much listened to Sadhguru’s lectures, but he comes across as a practical guru from what little I have gathered. I have followed him once online on his Kailash Manasarovar pilgrimage across Indo-China border in the Himalayas. (Historically these regions belonged with India but China claimed them using aggression). Marvelous.
I do listen to Isha devotional in You Tube always. Nirvana Shatakam to others. Never miss their webcast of Shivrathri celebrations every February. Even Gurus have to evolve with changing times! I don’t find anything wrong with the Dancing Guru. The mysteries surrounding his personal life are immaterial to me. ‘Nadhi moolam, Rishi moolam’ – ignore! Wise counsel of our ancestors.
Isha Yoga center however has been in the eye of controversy for one more reason: for coming up in the Elephant corridor – in the elephant country where the elephants would climb down from the Nilgiris (the Blue Mountains (whose queen is the hill station Ooty), cross the valley and head to Kerala or wherever. I realized this immediately on setting my foot at Isha. It is impossible to miss. Despite all, my heart ached. ‘Isha is the elephant, is it not? Or rather the elephant is Isha?’ I asked aloud no one in particular. Why should it have to be here. Thousands of tree plantations seemed poor deal to me.
Shirking the painful thoughts, I focused on the huge monolith in front of me. The smiling Shiva in polished granite, with His chin tilted up, with His eyes half closed as if in trance, with the moon in His braids, with the snake around His neck. I clicked as many pictures of Him in all angles possible but nothing could capture Him in entirety I know. I made Him my screensaver with immediate effect. Ever since, I cannot put Him out of my mind. The profound impression He has made in my heart will be there forever in my life. The rugged tribal who descended from the Tibetan Himalaya is our Father. The Adi Yogi, the first Yogi in world history who gave India/Hindus the Yoga. Yoga is now universal gift. A gift that can never be matched or compared with any other. A gift like none other. The Adiyogi who dwelt in the cremation grounds, smeared in ash, anointing Himself with ash. A sect of His followers the nude ‘Aghoris’ even today feed on corpses and live life the way He did in cremation/burial sites. Never feeding on another life. Even vegetarians feed on living and breathing trees and plants destroying future offsprings before they are born.
Today happens to be Aarudhra when we celebrate the Dancing form of Lord Shiva – the Nataraja. Shiva’s cosmic dance has stopped the world scientists in their tracks that they have Him installed at CERNE, Switzerland. None has made the connection yet, but the scientific community now suspects of one between Lord Shiva and the creation of Earth. The You Tube is full of stories claiming Shiva is the extraterrestrial who brought life to our planet. To average Hindu, nothing matters. Shiva is our forefather. Father. Shakthi, our Mother.
I have had darshan of Lord Shiva (in the form of Shiva Linga) in hundreds of temples in India and abroad. Lately, in Bali – in caves. Thousands of years of Shiva worship preceded Christianity or Islam. In Isha Yoga, I didn’t find my spirituality rekindled. To me, it was more cosmetic. May be it appealed to others, but not to me. However, the Adiyogi in my mind lingers day and night, refusing to go away.
I forgot the elephant corridor. Hopefully the Indian elephant herds will find a way around. Shiva will find one. The center has refused via legal channels that the Yoga ashram has cut across elephant country. Hopefully this is true. Even if not, the Adiyogi has made it worthwhile.
If anyone is hypnotized or mesmerized or brainwashed, the only one doing it to him/her could be Adiyogi Himself. A lone Mumbai backpacker clicked some pictures for me. In his 30s, he couldn’t pull himself away from Adiyogi. Must be climbing up the corporate ladder – from what I could size up of him.
Shiva will be there for India to eternity. This is His home. He will take care, I breathed in peace.
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PS: Wanted to include my friends’ opinion on Isha. They allege that the Christian ‘Karunya’ group of institutions have amassed landed estates (that were primarily agricultural and forest areas) in and around Coimbatore by whatever means but media make no mention of the same. Isha cornered as they are Hindu.
Spending a night in a Siruvani resort, taking a walk along the edges of forest reserve areas bordering cultivated farms and banana plantations, I couldn’t help noticing dried elephant dung heaps that were only two days old. The agricultural lands and estates were off limits to elephant herds, surrounded by electrified fences. Images of India’s wild elephants getting electrocuted, denied their passage flashed in my mind. Man-elephant conflicts are increasingly getting frequent, with bulls raiding villages and barns, routing, trampling over plantations. Troubling images. I knew I was walking down the elephant corridor in elephant country and anytime I could come face to face with a wild tusker. Strangely for a very first time ever, I feared for the life of the gentle giant over mine.
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