No Limits With Soccer

“I don’t believe in any religion or god. But I believe in a universal faith: soccer. I’ve often wondered why we don’t make football the religion of the world.

Because it’s through soccer and its binding force, the whole worldgets united,” stated Brazilian soccer legend Garrincha.

“Soccer has the power and potential to unite the world in a manner that no man-made faith has ever been able to do so throughout the history of human civilisation,” said Ernest Hemingway, who played soccer in addition to wielding his formidable pen.

Soccer has that universal ethos and a cathartic power to bind all. The one-month-long soccer carnival inspires bonhomie, camaraderie, fellow-feeling and fierce but friendly competitiveness.

Often during the World Cup matches, the lines of nations and artificial boundaries get blurred. We all become one and rejoice in each other’s success with magnanimity and universal euphoria, however short-lived that may be. This is the beauty of soccer and the relevance of sports in general.

Soccer-legend Pelé didn’t only belong to Brazil. Today, he’s a part of world heritage. When Lionel Messi, Ronaldo and Neymar kick and dribble the football, they don’t remain confined to Argentina, Portugal or Brazil, respectively. The whole world roots for them.

This is what we all urgently need. Soccer is but ametaphor. Let the entire world realise that through sports, especially football, we all can cement our bonds, wash away our bitterness and prejudices, and live with a greater sense of closeness and joy with each other.

Desires don’t come true

We are under a delusory idea that thought is an idle, impotent happening, within ourselves. In fact, thought has godly powers. As each thought sweeps across the mind, its secret potency rises up in front of us, like the mysterious genie in ‘Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp’.

A willing slave to execute our thought commands! With the ending of thought, the genie, with faithful anxiety and sincerity, turns upon his heels to execute the order given by man’s conscious mind. But alas! Ere the Spirit could take the first step to rush out on his errand, another thought wave of desire has risen up in the inner world calling the genie back to take more orders and, at the command of the mind, it swivels round its heels again to face its master.

Sad, indeed, is the plight of this godly agent, the presiding deity of the human mind! This creature of all-might and all power is made, under our own confusing commands and contradictory orders, to stand and whirl like a top, each half of the circle representing a definite command and the other half showing a definite but vain attempt made by the Spirit at its execution! But the desire’s power does not allow it any chance to fulfil itself!

Yoga is a technique of controlling, conserving, preserving and directing the mental dynamism through a chosen channel of application. If a single-pointed mind can wish for anything to the exclusion of any of its contending thoughts or desires, it shall at once be fulfilled.

The process of evolution

Abodhisattva is enlightened; he compassionately refrains from entering nirvana until every other sentient being has been released from the endlessly repeating cycle of time. However, presently we know that history does not move in cycles but is a linear developmental process that began 14 billion years ago with a burst of heat, light and energy that, over time, gave rise to matter, life and, finally, to our unique human capacity for self-reflective consciousness.

It is only in our capacity for consciousness that the very impulse that created us miraculously gains the means to know itself. Indeed, the process that began with a bang so long ago has just begun to awaken to itself through us. The bodhisattva vow needs to be updated to be in alignment with the emerging cosmic perspective.

Even the idea or concept of enlightenment or non-duality needs to be redefined. Spiritually, it no longer makes sense that the ultimate goal of enlightenment is merely a release from the world process. Nor does it mean becoming one with the world and one with that formless unmanifest dimension that lies beyond it. Because the universe is evolving in time, to become one with it, we have to become one with the process of evolution itself.

So, we find ourselves in the driver’s seat. The implications are dramatic. Enlightenment must express the dawning revelation that our conscious participation in the evolutionary process has become essential to the creative unfolding of the cosmos. It’s a revelation: from now on, it really is up to us.

Stop living on edge

The average person is like an eccentric flywheel that is not centred properly. The faster the wheel turns, the more violently it vibrates, ultimately flying apart. Most people are frequently in danger of ‘flying apart’ mentally. Living at their periphery, they vibrate more violently the faster they whirl through life. Few think of themselves as even having a centre. They are forever ‘on edge’.

Living at periphery forces you to relate to others at theirs. They, in turn, will be ‘on edge’ with you. Your understanding of them will be superficial. Get mentally inside whatever you are trying to understand, to gaze outward from its centre. The secret of understanding others is to identify with them at their centre. To find the centre of anything or anyone, first withdraw to your own centre and project your feelings empathetically from that point.

Meditation is the process of finding your centre. Its success depends on right attitude. The first attitude fundamental to ‘centring’ is self-acceptance. You are who you are. Make the best of it, and envy no one. Encourage yourself in your efforts to attain your highest potential. Self-acceptance will come progressively as you try to live up to the highest in you.

True conscience is innate. It is the silent voice of the soul. Be clear in your true conscience. When you resist your lower impulses and strive towards inner heights, your conscience will be reasonably clear. You will achieve that measure of emotional and psychic relaxation without which it is impossible to find rest at your centre.

Spiritual journey

Someone once asked me what I considered to be essential ‘ingredients’ for spiritual progress. He was surprised by my answer.

I said, “The only essential ingredient is you!” We are all complete and capable of achieving realisation. As such, the only essential ingredient on this journey is us. Whether we have a ‘hunger’ for spiritual progress or not, work hard at it or not,… one day, realisation will dawn.

You might ask, “What, then, is the fuss about? Why this rush, this rat race?” I would say the rush is largely our egodriving us. If you look back at the Bhakti and Sufi movements, there were ‘spiritual giants’ who had utmost yearning and love for God, for union with our creative force, for realisation. They were not in a rush. They enjoyed the yearning and exuded love.…

To enjoy the spiritual journey, Iwould suggest a ‘triple twist’ of solitude, silence and soul food.

* Solitude: This is ‘my time’, a few minutes a day for oneself. This helps in reflection, charging one’s batteries and assessing what has gone by during the day and focusing on what is to come.

* Silence: Silence is very powerful. Speech is designed to communicate with the outside world; silence is to communicate with yourself.

* Soul food: Solitude and silencewill provide you with food for thought. Use these ingredients to prepare food for your soul.

Nurture your soul with the light of knowledge, the water of compassion and fertilise it with joy. And share it. For, as long as you keep sharing it, your plate will never be empty.

Keep smiling and stay blessed.

Connect to your centre

I am often asked, what is your religion? My religion is nothing but love. You should inquire into your true nature and believe in yourself. Regular meditation can help us practise universal love. Restless and dissatisfied people miss the gift of life. So much energy is wasted that we could otherwise have used to enhance ourselves, our families, jobs and society.

What we search for is actually present in the now. We can never close our eyes to the world in the name of spirituality. Selfrealisation is the ability to see ourselves in all beings. This is the third eye through which you see. We should be able to love and serve others, seeing ourselves in them. This is the fulfilment of spiritual practice.

Meditation helps conserve energy and puts us in touch with our centre, calms our restless minds, sharpens our intellects, makes us more aware of what is going on around us. It opens our hearts to the beauty and bliss of each moment, to the interconnectedness and unity inherent in all beings. The silence we experience in the depths of meditation carries over into the rest of our day, effecting calm. We become less irritable and less distracted. The energy normally wasted on unessential thoughts is now available for us to direct as we deem fit, allowing us to focus on the job at hand.

When we meditate, the whole environment is purified. So, even those around us are positively affected. We are not isolated, we are like links in a chain. The harmonising effect of an individual’s meditation can spread to the community, nation and the world.

When You Make a Wish

A man serendipitously standing under a Kalpataru wished for water. He found it. He desired food, dreamt of riches; spouse, children, assistants, and all his dreams were fulfilled. One day he feared: what if a tiger came? A tiger appeared and devoured everyone. Everything happened as he had willed. Was it his karma( destiny) or his thoughts that made his wishes come true?

We all live under the Kalpataru of the divine cosmos. Swami Vivekananda asserted that each thought has a life and whatever one thinks even sitting in a Himalayan cave is bound to happen. Even if a person fails to realise his thoughts in one lifetime, his prayers will take shape in some birth. One reads about law of persistence of force, law of conservation of energy, law of indestructibility of matter; so too mental activity, willing and wishing cannot be destroyed.

Wishes form samskaras in the mind. These wishes may take several births to come true and some may not bring happiness. Psychologists advise people to think positive and visualise their dreams coming true because positive thoughts help us in realising our dreams. In the Yoga Vasishta, Sage Vasishta explains to disciple Prince Rama that human action can overcome destiny. He instructs that by vichara and viveka — right thinking and discrimination cultivated by self-efforts — one can achieve anything, even salvation.

Each human is given a chance to exercise free will to get liberation. With satsanga, company of sages and scriptures, one can overcome the cycle of births and deaths by will power.

Leadership as Service

Leadership is about “who we are” and “what we do”. Along with learning to act as a leader, we must possess the characteristics, behaviour and habits and the mind and heart of true leaders. True leaders have the courage to confront the meaning of existence. Such leaders enter within their own hearts and souls, engage in self-analysis and connect with the spiritual force within themselves.

True leadership is not acting a certain way; it is a reflection of who we are within. Those who raise this question cannot rest until they find answers. They conclude that there is a higher power within that guides us. That inner spiritual power is the source of morals, virtues, power and life. It does not matter what name we call it — whether God, consciousness, soul —that power is within, enlivening each of us. Once we contact the eternal spiritual power, we connect with the source of the qualities of true leaders.

The second aspect of leadership is service. It is by serving others that we earn the right to lead them. Those who are spiritually aware see the same power enlivening all creation. Intellectually understanding service does not provide the conviction we need when we are tested, as we most certainly be, by people and circumstances.

Becoming a true leader is about becoming a true human being. It is about choosing a life committed to spiritual growth and service. If we tap into spiritual sources within, we will become leaders whose lives will inspire others to follow and who will be a blessing to those we meet.

The need for the arts

Paramhansa Yogananda was on avisit to Lake Chapala in Mexicowith his student, an engineer.

“We stood together in silence,” Yogananda related. “My inspiration was the contemplation of God’s beauty in Nature. I attributed my friend’s silence to the same cause.

And then he exclaimed, “Just think of all the power you could get from this much water!” “The view before us was the same. It was our outlook that differed.” “Circumstances,” Yogananda continued, “are always neutral. It is our reaction to them that gives them their meaning for us, making them appear either good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant, useful or beautiful.”

What does art define for us? Our feelings, primarily.

Feeling is seldom adeduction. It is a different faculty of understanding from the intellect. In its own way, it is as important as the intellect.

The mere fact, for instance, that the galaxy we live in contains billions of stars, and the universe as many billions of galaxies, hasn’t any meaning for us unless that abstract knowledge generates some reaction in us on afeeling level.

Understanding is not synonymous with knowledge. It is born of the feeling awakened in us in response to knowledge: the sense of awe, perhaps, or of expanded awareness.

Ignorance, by contrast, is not so much a lack of factual knowledge as an exaggerated reaction to whatever facts we know: areaction of fear, perhaps, or of isolation, with a resulting inward contraction upon the ego. Feeling, then, is of two kinds: calm and impersonal on the one hand, and emotional on the other.

Guidance for fulfilment

Just as there can be no life without prana, without a guru there can be no knowledge, no unfolding and growth of the Shakti, innate power that lies dormant in every individual. A guru should be one who has realised the mantra and who can charge it with conscious force; a master of shaktipat, possessing great spiritual power.

Atrue guru is one who awakens the inner Shakti Kundalini through shaktipat that is the descent of divine grace in an individual’s life. Having set the divine shakti in motion in an individual’s body, he bestows the joys of divine love in him. Through the compassion of such a guru, disciples can lead lives of ecstasy. Agenuine guru understands the ways of the world and the law of destiny. He is adept in spiritual matters but he is just as adept in practical affairs. Disciples who live under the protection of such a guru pass through difficulties with ease and seekers live fearlessly even in the most terrifying of circumstances.

Normally, it is difficult to get to know realised gurus or to understand them. We are quite indiscriminate in accepting people as gurus and because we do not receive inner satisfaction from them, our faith gets destroyed and we think that guruhood itself is nothing but hypocrisy. We end up becoming hostile to a true master and do him injustice. A true guru is not one who tries to gather as many disciples as possible and keep them in that condition even after leaving his physical form. Only he is a true guru who helps seekers become realised beings like himself.

The flow of a stream

Sometimes we find that the streams of our lives can run into frozen winters. Yet, beneath the surface, the waters run deep. Klemens Tilmann found a profound symbolism in a little stream.

The stream was only about four yards wide, but the water was in constant movement. Parts of the stream were frozen over and large areas of ice had become covered by the energetic flow of the water above. But the water flowing beneath the flat surfaces of ice was full of bubbles, dancing and vibrating.

The water of the stream sometimes encountered obstacles, and at other times flowed freely.

Sometimes it ran in the opposite direction to the current only to later join the mainstream. All these different processes were observed by Tilmann who was impressed by the water’s obedience to its own essential being.

Tilmann saw in this little stream the symbol of his own life and the symbol of what all human life on this earth is meant to be. Every good action that we perform is determined by two factors: perfect obedience to our own inner being and perfect response to the situation in which we find ourselves. The stream responded everywhere — to the valley, to the bed of the stream, to the stones, the temperature and the weather.

Depending on circumstance, our lives can be like valleys, like stones or like dams that impede further movement. Yet, like the water in the stream, our lives are meant to run on, through choices in obedience to our own inner nature and quest and in obedience to the circumstances that may either expand or circumscribe our lives.

Harmony in relationship

Love is an indispensable element in every harmonious relationship, but the secret in such relationships is to minimise expectations, because where expectation creeps in, disappointment will naturally follow.

In a healthy relationship, there will be some form of expectations. We can learn to keep these to a minimum and raise acceptance of each other to the maximum.

If you expect something, voice it in a calm and relaxed manner; don’t sulk. The other person cannot read your mind. At the same time, in any harmonious relationship, it is important to learn to forgive. People are bound to make mistakes, sometimes accidentally, sometime deliberately, or even in a spurt of anger or hurt. It is important to let go of the past and build your relationship anew every day. That is the romance of life.

Always have a sense of gratitude. See the good in the other; if something seems negative, it may be the other person’s nature. If so, accept it. Correct with love what you can, and accept what you cannot. For your own spiritual growth, grow together and understand the family.

When there is a sense of spirituality in life or a spirit of seva to the community, selfishness diminishes. Narrowness and selfishness lead to disharmony.

To ensure harmony, cultivate a vision of inclusiveness. A sure mantra for harmony in life is: a family that prays together, grows together, serves together, will stay together. Such a family is certain to have an abundance of love, harmony, joy and even prosperity.

Friendliness & Friendship

To attain the Divine, it is essential to dive into the depths of love. Only those who can soften their hearts and allow themselves to flow towards the world, in the form of friendliness and compassion, are truly religious.

The Divine is revealed only to those who are ready to extend and flow with compassion and friendliness. What you understand as love is conditional love. If your heart is filled with love for only one person, naturally, there is no love for the rest of the world. Then that love is surely selfish, conditional and sullied with expectations.

The love that has no selfish motive is unconditional and has no expectations in it. The love that stagnates starts accumulating the dirt of negativities. The love that stops flowing, the love that gets trapped in one, starts smelling of possessiveness and expectations. The love that flows is fresh, alive and fragrant. The love that is static becomes stale and dies. The love that streams forth keeps increasing. The more it flows, the more it deepens and extends to others.

The depth of love is measured by its extensiveness. They go hand in hand. The love that is not bound to one, and flows towards all becomes friendliness. Such love has non-attachment, humbleness, open-mindedness and no reservations.

Love is formless; friendliness has a form. Love is an experience; friendliness is an expression. Love is unmanifest; friendliness is its manifest form. Love is a poem in a poet’s heart, friendliness is the recitation of the poem on the lips. Thus, love in action is friendliness.

Are you awake?

Krishna says to Arjuna, “Be awake. Be a true yogi. Awaken yourself!” Was Arjuna literally sleeping? No! This awakening that Vasudeva talks about is “waking up of consciousness”. To be awake is to be aware. Awareness about who you are and what is the purpose of your birth.

Awakening is enlightenment that the Buddha attained. What was he awakened from? He was sleeping on the bed of unconquerable desires, unwholesome thoughts and short-lived materialism. A false ego was what he was dwelling in. Awakening made him realise the real essence of his existence and that only happened when he shed desires. Being awake is seeing the true Buddha-nature in self with open eyes.

Krishna tells Arjuna that desires cause suffering. A true yogi is aware of this and overcomes his ‘dukkha’. Thus, one should raise his consciousness to higher realms and get attuned to divine energy so that his suffering can come to an end. To be awake is to see the world from divine eyes.

How does one become awake? Meditation increases the vibration that connects to the Supreme. Slowly and gradually, awareness rises up as the third eye of wisdom opens up. The knowledge of who you are, descends, and illumination happens. The additional aspect is of kundalini awakening that is necessary for enlightenment. Prince Charming (divine energy) comes down and kisses the Sleeping Beauty (kundalini energy), rousing her awake, and with consciousness, moves up the spine and enlightenment is accelerated.

Results, not excuses

Your life isn’t going to get better by chance, but by the choice, your choice. Whatever your plan is, just know that nothing else will satisfy you. Today, wherever you stand in the race, desiring health, happiness, money, peace of mind and/or true expression, you earlier decisions and efforts have briefed your current position.

But in this extraordinary world, most people fail to achieve the desired targets, because of one big reason that is the lack of the most desirable aspect to success: faith in self. All winners share a common attitude, they believe in themselves, even in those times when nobody else did, that made the difference.

Faith can turn your failure upside down. Faith is not trying to believe something regardless of the evidence, faith is daring to do something regardless of the consequence. You only have to decide upon what is it you want out of your life and then stay with it, never deviating your course, no matter what, how long it takes, or how rough the road or weather is, until you have accomplished it. Achievers achieve, no matter what. Success is not the special skill but ultimately your will.

Don’t postpone your life, be in the driver’s seat now, look at the world of opportunities, size it up, make a decision, and make things happen. In order to succeed you need courage more than the fear of failure. Think of delivering results, not excuses. It is better to prepare and prevent than to repair and repent. Be the CEO of your life. God wants us to bite off more than we can chew, to live by faith and not by sight.

Potent energy

The atom is the final unit of matter, just as the individual is the final unit of society. If one succeeds in breaking an atom, one does not destroy it; rather, one converts it into a greater force, known as atomic energy. Matter is energy in a solid form and energy is matter in a dispersed form. When the atoms of matter are broken and converted into atomic energy, they are transformed into a force much more potent than in their material form.

So it is with that unit of society known as man. When man is ‘broken’, his horizons expand vastly. Just as breakage does not destroy matter, so defeat does not ruin man. Matter increases in strength when broken up. So, man, when defeated, gains new, increased strength.

When man is beset by defeat, his inner forces are released. His senses are aroused. His concealed strength comes to the fore and he sets about redressinghis setback. Spurred on with new resolve, he devotes himself to the task of regaining what has been lost. An irresistible spirit arises within him. Nothing can arrest his advance. Like a river flowing into the sea, he surmounts every obstacle in relentless pursuit of his goal.

The occurrence of an atomic explosion in matter turns it into avastly more powerful substance. The human personality, too, contains huge, latent potential. This potential bursts out into the open when there is an eruption within one’s soul. It breaks free when some shattering disaster afflicts one. The strings that have held one down are torn apart and begin to vibrate to the tune of life.

Direction from vision

Krishna gives a very comprehensive understanding of the entire science of the management of life. In chapter 18 of the Bhagwad Gita, He says there are three types of visions or points of view that people have about life. Krishna declares that one who sees the oneness of all beings or sees unity in diversity is endowed with the best vision. Such a saatvik vision gives rise to love, service, consideration for others, accommodation of the viewpoints and needs of others, and cordial relationships.

The second type of vision is rajasik in nature. It is a mediocre vision that focuses on differences and understands such differences to be the reality. It gives rise to a sense of ‘I-ness’, ‘my-ness’, ‘your-ness’/ I and my, you and yours. It results in likes and dislikes and leads to conflicts.

The third and last kind of vision is a tamasik vision. It takes avery partial view of life, where a part is mistaken for the whole. Such a person foolishly gets attached to one small thing, being, concept or ideology and this gives rise to bitter fanaticism.

Each of these visions — the saatvik vision of unity in diversity, the rajasik vision of seeing only the differences and the tamasik vision of ignorance — comes with its own consequences and expressions. Accordingly, one with a saatvik vision will be a doer of saatvik karma, and the quality of his karma will be saatvik in nature. Similarly with rajasik and tamasik visions. Thus, depending on our view of life, the very quality of our life is established.

Paths to the Summit

During the week, people tend to leap out of bed the moment the alarm rings, jump into the shower and rush off to work — and all this while, their bodies are still technically ‘asleep’. This kind of routine places tremendous strain on heart and brain.

Thirty minutes of early morning T’ai Chi or Yoga not only prevents such self-inflicted damage to the body, it also helps you to tackle the rest of the day in better ways.

There are a number of reasons never to miss a day of your practice. A certain continuity is necessary for progress. If a day is missed, there is a strong possibility that the mind will lose the thread of both what has been learnt in class and what has been worked on.

When an insight or breakthrough is imminent, it is important that the vehicle for its actualisation be available. Missing a day makes the next day harder and less efficient.

When you are active, a certain momentum begins to build up. When you are inactive, a corresponding inertia prevails and becomes increasingly difficult to overcome.

As you practise, you will discover new details, experience new body feelings and become more integrated. Your mind will become calm, clear and focused inward. Your movements will take on a softer, smoother, more effortless quality, and you will begin to develop a T’ai Chi body.

One day, you will be surprised by your skill. T’ai Chi is not the only way to the top of the mountain; so many practices are there to choose from. But for those who find T’ai Chi suits them, it is a good way to progress.

Call of the unknown

The call of the unknown is the call to unite. All the waves in the ocean are nothing but water, but to see this oneness, a certain spiritual apparatus is needed.

Hence, in India, you put a dot on your forehead. That is seeing the world not through ordinary eyes but through the eye of intuition. This inner apparatus supports one in transformation.

For this to happen, the body, emotion, intellect and sex centres have to be pure. Each of these centres has a mechanical part and a magnetic part. When the magnetic part of the centres is harmonised, then one can drawin a different faculty to see.

Then oneness can be seen. Like how you need an X-ray or scanning machine to see deeper parts. So, the discipline is to drop negativity of all the centres and enhance positivity so that the faculty to see oneness happens.

One has to learn how not to identify with negativity and learn the art of delinking. For this to happen, learn to have non-consideration when these forces attack us. Our inner consideration is a part of identification with them.

What is blocking us is our mind that is not cultured, not purified, a mind with its “dogmas, conclusions and opinions”. When all of these exist, ego will exist. The ego identifies with an ideal and anyone disagreeing with the ideal is a block in his life.

When a child is born, there is no ego, it is innocent. Then, slowly,society and family put in the “I” in the child. Even our education system, in an indirect way, gives vitality to it. The true purpose of spirituality is to help us overcome ego.

Of Amarnath & Shravana

Tirtha, pilgrimage is an occasion for soul-searching, a time to express and expand, when the temporal and the timeless conjoin. Nowhere is this better embodied than in the annual pilgrimage to the cave-shrine of Amarnath where the ice lingam waxes to its full height on the full moon day of Shravana in August.

Here, Shiva whispered the secret of creation and dissolution of the universe to a half-asleep Parvati, unwittingly overheard by a pair of pigeons. Sighting the immortal pigeons here is considered auspicious.

Shiva granted the boon of immortality to the gods, to be ‘amar’, hence the name ‘Amarnath’. Swami Vivekananda’s mystical trance at Amarnath on the Sravana Purnima day of 1898 has been described by Sister Nivedita who was present.

Vivekananda is said to have received the “Iccha-Mrityu Vara”, or death as desired, from Shiva. Amarnath embodies and captures the essence of the Kashmir Shaivite tradition, or the Trika tradition, corresponding to the three states of Shiva, Shakti and Jiva.

The Amarnath area stands at the centre of the Kashmir Shaivite cosmology, expounded by Abhinavagupta in the Bodhapanchadasika which locates Shiva at the very heart of “pratibimbavada” monism as opposed to Shankara’s Advaitic monism which denies a personal God.

The cave-shrine of Amarnath with its three kinds of lingas, representing Shiva, Parvati and Ganesh, reflects this Shaivite mysticism.

The Saviour & Liberator

“For you were called [by God] to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.” Galatians 5:13: this verse encapsulates three aspects of freedom: the saving call to freedom, the self-control of freedom, and the selfless charity of freedom.

In the first place, freedom is a call from God who is depicted as saviour and liberator who delivers and leads people to freedom. Freedom from slavery and tyranny, injustice and oppression, guilt and shame, envy and hatred, and so on. At the personal level, countless followers of Jesus Christ will testify of the deep sense of internal freedom that comes from the personal knowledge of Jesus Christ. Jesus said of himself, “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36).

Freedom also requires self-control. Freedom must not be a pretext or presumption for indulgence and immorality, dissipation and debauchery. Liberty and licence should not be confused or conflated. The greatest and worst of tyrannies is the tyranny of the self. Someone may claim that their profligate lifestyle is an expression of their freedom but, in reality, it is amanifestation of their hopeless and helpless bondage.

Control of self-indulgence or selfishness is, however, neither enough nor possible without love — or, in the more archaic expression, charity. Control over our own selves is best done by charity towards other selves. Selfishness can be supplanted only by selflessness.

Free from life & death

People talk about freedom as being free from rules, laws and responsibilities: ‘I want to be free from my troubles.’ ‘I wish I was free from the past.’ ‘I would like to be free from my worries.’ Freedom is not a physical release or an escape door. It is not about running away from everything. Freedom is not only what you like to do. Your likes and dislikes are the basis of your bondage.

Through liking and disliking, you weave a web of limitations that takes away the freedom to just be. The moment you establish your likes and dislikes, you are excluding parts of creation and are trapping yourself into alifelong bondage that takes away the possibility of knowing life in its totality.

Freedom is about being able to joyfully do what is needed for the situation. Action is always about the situation, not the way you fancy it. This will release you from compulsive action.

Only one who has no need for action can know the true joy of action. To be free within yourself, forget the very meaning of anger, hatred, jealousy and fear.

Freedom is an expression of your inner nature, unbounded and ecstatic. It is a dimension where life happens to you in an absolutely explosive way.

Freedom is about being free from your own thoughts, emotions and actions. Freedom is the awareness that opens the way to an intelligence beyond thought that makes life an expression of joy and peace, instead of being a futile pursuit of that. It is a way to be where every breath happens in the ecstasy of feeling the existence dancing within you.

Admit your mistake

Enlightened ones say that if you perceive your mistake in the right way, despair can never arise. The reason for your sadness and despair is that you actually do not want to accept your mistake, but are compelled to do so. Your ego does not let you admit that you are filled with passions and mistakes. When you are caught red-handed and have to reluctantly admit, you develop complexes. This occurs when you intend to defend your ego and not honestly own up. The negative emotions reveal the importance you have given to your ego instead of admitting your fault.

If you are controlling your passions, say, anger, only so that you can protect your image, then the anger will keep erupting every now and then, because you continue to nurture its cause, the ego. Your suffering is not because you did what you shouldn’t have done, but because you could not protect yourself from being seen as guilty, you could not secure your self-created image. When the image you have created gets tainted, you cannot bear to see it. He who honestly accepts his mistake, his goal is to be pure and peaceful and so he puts right efforts to remove it.

You ask for atonement but your focus remains on the deed and not on the impurity latent in your intention. Thus, by falsely repenting and taking atonement, you try saving your image but not move in the direction of transformation.The meaning of true repentance is overcoming the passion or emotion that had led you to commit the mistake, end of the intention that prompted you to sin.

Wisdom of upanishads

What is the highest blossoming of consciousness? That consciousness, which is neither in the past, future nor in the present, but is a witness to all three. Or, we can say, that consciousness which contains the infinite past, infinite future and that which is totally available in the present moment. Like a telescope. A telescope can bring into your vision something that the naked eye cannot perceive.

Through the telescope, you can see distant stars and planets. You can watch their movements more clearly. The telescope just magnifies the rays that are anyway coming in, so that you can see them and become aware of them — you can comprehend them.

In the same way, though infinite divine consciousness is present everywhere, it is only the telescopic vision — which is really an altered state of consciousness — that can experience divine consciousness. This altered state of consciousness is called samadhi. A final blossoming of consciousness —samadhi.

The next sutra says, “Samadhi Vividhah — Samprajnat Asamprajnat”. Knowledge is present in consciousness and different types of knowledge is comprehended at different levels of consciousness. When it comes to samadhi, even there, there is not only one form of samadhi. There are many different types of samadhis: the balanced, equanimous intellect; the calm, serene mind; the unfocused, but alert, mind. A mind that is aware of everything, aware of the infinite, or a mind that is not at all aware of anything, which is not even asleep.

Rouse from deep sleep

Acentral idea in George Gurdjieff ’s philosophy was that man is in deep sleep. He is an automaton and each of his actions, thoughts and feelings are just passive and mechanical responses to stimuli. Things just happen, with no true and independent thought or action. Without self-knowledge, he says, man will remain a slave, a plaything of the forces acting upon him.

Gurdjieff considered human beings incomplete, but endowed with an ability to develop potential. The way is self-observation, the beginning of a long journey of self-discovery. In the process, your deceptive sense of self-becomes apparent. Gurdjieff calls them ‘I’s. The ‘I’s are false personalities that appear and disappear at will, to which you are continually enslaved. Your deeds or emotions are determined by the peculiar characteristics of each ‘I’ — a schizophrenic existence that seems to tear your life, swinging you across happiness and sorrow.

Gurdjieff ’s teachings divide man into three centres: the moving, thinking and emotional centres. The moving centre is responsible for physical work, thinking centre for logical reasoning, and emotional centre for emotional states. We need to harmonise all the three centres equally.

But most of our lives are limited to one or, at best, two centres. Our lasting memories are ones where our physical, emotional and thinking centres have combined to create a complete experience. Man cannot do this by himself. He must work in a group with like-minded people. To overcome their sleep, they can
wake each other up.

Knock, knock. Who’s there?

The realisation of our separation from the Supreme is a harbinger to the state of union. If we do not know we are separated from God, then we will never take steps towards Him. Therefore, we need to realise what state we are in; otherwise, we continue with the same habits, believing that our purpose in life is just to work, make money and support our families until the day comes when we pass away.

Millions physically pass away every day, and millions more are born. People pass through life without recognising what the purpose of their existence is. Saints and mystics tell us that first we need to realise our connections. We are not alone; we are a part of God. We are conscious; we are not distinct from God. We have coverings of body and mind, forming layers of mind, matter and illusion, but once we realise that we are separated from God, then a passion to be one with Him will be ignited in us.

Generally, when we are home and are expecting someone to come, we are looking at the door. What, then, is the door from which we experience God? It is our third eye. How do we focus there? First we still the body, and then we get to a state in which no thoughts are coming.

We need to experience oneness with God. We are not away from God; we are one and the same. We are consciousness, full of the light and love of God. That experience comes as we rise above physical body-consciousness as we sense God. We can be intellectually aware, but it is experience that makes us realise who we truly are.

Savour your uniqueness

Each one of us is unique. No one laughs and cries the way you do and no one walks, talks and works the way you do. We are all eminently qualified — to do the work just we can do in this world and to live the life only we can live in this world. Samuel Silver said, “Your thumb is a reminder that you are not just one more animated toy stamped out by a factory, but an individual, capable of doing and saying things differently from anyone else, capable of making a unique contribution, large or small, in your world, your home.”

The essence of spiritual life is to just be. When we are what we are meant to be, we reveal what we are by what we stand for and what we stand against. When our horizons widen, we see our personal ups and downs, desires, cravings and efforts in scale: small and transitory spiritual facts, within a vast abiding spiritual world and lit by a steady spiritual light.

Our uniqueness makes us aware of our goals and enables us to pursue them single-mindedly. Our journey in life is not meant to be left to chance, else, we would never get to our destination. There is a difference between the archer who aims deliberately and hits the target and one who keeps shooting arrows without direction.

Don’t bury your uniqueness to become one unidentifiable mass, losing your individuality and uniqueness. Paradoxically, real unity is not built on a lack of individuality and uniqueness. Real unity grows when we can celebrate our differences and pursue and build on our own God-given uniqueness and gifts.

Of hardware & software

What do we have in common with computers? The basic design. Like the personal computer we interact with everyday, we have two parts to our self: the hardware, or the body, and the software, or spirit.

To deny the spirit, to reject spirituality as nonsense, is analogous to bringing home computer hardware, and dispensing with the software as unwanted.

You may set such a system upon your desk — it will look good. You may clean it everyday, meticulously, but what is all your effort worth? You are labouring over a useless box. So it is if you tend your body and neglect the spirit.

You render your existence worthless. You are only adding to the crowd in the world, just as the useless system would be crowding your desk.

What is the essence of spirituality? It is to appreciate the interdependence of all beings and non-beings in creation. It is to understand the common denominator, non-duality, or advaita.

Such understanding marks the culmination of knowledge: it is Vedanta. The force that suffuses all beings and objects alike is also the substratum of creation.

Call it by whatever name you will. The Upanishads call it Bramhn. Freedom from mundane existence requires that you be logged on to Bramhn always.

You — like everybody and everything in creation — are, in fact, always logged on to Bramhn.

The need is to be conscious that you are so logged on. This helps attune your mind to the cosmic rhythm. This quickens in you powers you never suspected you possessed.

True Spirit of Sacrifice

More than a decade ago when I obtained a doctorate, to acknowledge my gratitude towards a helpful Indian Muslim professor, I phoned him that I’d come to India during Eid al-Adha (Bakrid). I met Rehan Qadir and his spouse in Kolkata and they insisted I stay with them.

I felt uncomfortable that they’d sacrifice a goat as Qurbani. Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son to respect the words of God, so Bakrid marks the sacrifice. God provided a male goat to Abraham to sacrifice in place of his son. Abraham sacrificed the goat and divided it into three parts, with one-third offered to the poor, another third portion given to friends and families, and the remainder retained by Abraham’s family.

But there was no Qurbani at my professor’s place. Instead, we distributed clothes and food in an orphanage and fed the poor and needy at Kalighat. I asked them, ‘Aapne Qurbani nahin dee?’ They just smiled.

I went to Karachi and wrote to them asking why they did not offer a sacrifice on a sacred day. The professor wrote, ‘No religion can be greater than fellowfeeling and empathy. You were our esteemed guest and we knew you do not touch meat. It’d have been terribly uncomfortable for you had we sacrificed a goat during your stay at our place.

Allah understands the intentions and makes concessions. Moreover, Allah says in the Qur’an, ‘Sacrifice what’s closest to your heart and dearest to you.’ The sacrifice of ego, which is dearest to us, is of paramount importance’. Sufis and mystics urged followers to sacrifice all vices and get rid of ana (egoism). Until the ego disappears, Selfrealisation will elude us.

Raw Deal to Mahabali?

It was like ‘Ram rajya’ in Kerala during the time of King Mahabali. Contrary to his ‘asuric’ lineage, Mahabali was an embodiment of nobility and virtues.

His days of exemplary governance, peace and prosperity are recalled even today by the peopleof Kerala during ‘Onam’ celebration. Legend says that ‘devas’ felt threatened by the goodness and valour of Mahabali.

They conspired to remove him and pleaded with Vishnu to intervene. Vishnu obliged, pushing the righteous and noble King Mahabali to the netherworld. Life and work are intertwined.

It is for our benefit and for the benefit of society, too. While minor deviations from this are ignored, major ones are invariably interrupted and set right by those with higher perspective. Even in a family or a corporate, individual actions are expected to be in conformity with the collective.

In scaling up, this applies to societies, states, countries, globe or the universe as a whole. When one country’s efforts at progress and development are reflected in other countries, we are seamlessly in tune with positive cosmic forces. Common good, benefit of all, along with one’s own, must be the driving force behind all endeavours, be it by a commoner, king or a country.

Viewed in this background, Mahabali’s kingdom was no doubt plentiful. However, his actions, though good, counted negative in the larger context. With no concern for others, they came in conflict with the totality, threatening the equilibrium. Therefore, he had to be removed and order, systems and harmony re-established.

Human Love and Bonding

Raksha Bandhan is the affirmation of love between siblings. Originally observed among martial races of north India, the festival has assumed a pan- Indian character. Rakhi is a talisman tied by a sister on her brother’s wrist and has come to symbolise protective bonding of love.

Love is said to be the longing of soul for soul. God, full of love, is the ocean of kindness. The love between mother and child, lovers, friends or siblings is a reflection of Divine love.

The basic purpose of life is to become one with God, who is love personified. What better way to do this than to first express your love for fellow human beings? And the family is a good place to start.

The path of Bhakti or devotion brings us closer to God and enables us to even become One with Him. The boundless passion of the gopis for Krishna — often misinterpreted as being libidinous in nature — is nothing but pure bhakti.

Swami Prabhupada explained that the “Love of Krishna or Krishna consciousness is the perfectional stage of real knowledge in understanding things as they are… The gopis are the typical example of this perfectional stage of knowledge.

Their minds are always in Krishna… Since the gopis are on the platform of pure transcendental knowledge, their minds are always filled with Krishna consciousness….” Gopis teach us how to be perfect devotees. Their route to godhead is one of unconditional love and utter devotion.

Raksha Bandhan glorifies filial bonding of love that can be extrapolated to include everything in the universe. Ultimately, love is God.

The 70% Threshold

At the heart of Tao philosophy is the 70% rule. It states that you should do a T’ai Chi movement to only 70% of your potential.

Striving for 100% inherently produces tension and stress because when you strain yourself, your body experiences fear. Even without you being aware of it, your tense body responds by shutting down. At 70% capacity, you can throw 100% of your energy and effort into practice, and you still generate 100% of the possible Chi that a T’ai Chi movement is capable of producing.

Going beyond 70% drains your energy reserves. Staying within 70% of your capacity produces optimum physical accomplishment, simultaneously reducing psychological stress. The more you relax, the more energy, stamina and strength you will have.

The core of the 70% rule is creative art, not science. It says you should use your full effort and energy, but not to the point of straining yourself. Maintaining a natural comfort zone without using force brings many benefits.

It allows you to challenge your capabilities and progressively increase them without overexhaustion, damage to your nervous system, or physical injury. You can absorb and integrate inside yourself what you learn more easily, both in T’ai Chi and in your life, and build on it, ultimately enabling yourself to grow and flourish more as a human being.