A teacher walks the path first

Once upon a time in Tibet, there was a famous Master Nansen. Worthy students flocked to him to learn something worth learning. Three young princes Wang-Tsu, Chang-Tsu and Cheng-Tsu enrolled to study under him. They were well versed in martial arts and well trained in battle. They could shoot down a bird hundred feet away, spear a lion without even seeing it and catch a fish with their bare hands. After spending a few years in the monastery, a desire took form in their minds to visit India. When they approached the master, he told them that they were not yet ready to undertake such a difficult journey across the Himalayas. The princes were confident over their abilities and persisted. Reluctantly Nansen agreed and advised them, “Here is a packet of food that should last you for seven days. Start tomorrow early morning and cross the mountain ranges with in the week. After that a mighty storm will blow and close the pass for the rest of the year. On the second day, bathe in the Gandarva Sarovar and cross the swamps. Count your breath and keep it in 1:2 ratio. Account for all your food. The sick and wounded have to stay behind or else all of you will perish”.

The princes thought that they old man was needlessly scaring them. “ I have tore apart a hungry lion with my bare hands”, said Wang. “I have walked through burning fire”, said Chang. “I have fasted for 3 months”, said Cheng. The following morning they started out as per the master’s instructed route and reached Gandarva Sarovar. They set up a small fire and camped on its bank. In the morning when they woke up, the fire had died and it was bitterly cold. Wang being a bit lazy decided to skip the dip into the lake. The other two were shivering and their bodies were cold as a rock when they came out of the lake. Wang laughed at their plight, “Use your sense, and don’t just follow all that the old man said blindly”. Within a few minutes they were deep into the swamp and a swarm of mosquitoes and flies were circling around Wang. The heat of his body and the sweat attracted the insects like magnets and they bit him furiously all over the body. The numb cold bodies of the other too allowed them to escape undetected and it was their turn to laugh. By the time they crossed the swamp, Wang had developed a severe fever and could no longer walk. He told his brothers, “Please leave me to my fate under this tree and proceed. If I survive, I will retrace my steps to the monastery. Alas!! The might Wang who could tear apart a lion met his inglorious end in the hands of some little insects”.

As they proceeded, Chang who was a sensitive person grieved over his brother’s situation and forgot his breath. On the third day when they reached the ice clad mountains, he started feeling dizzy. His face was swollen and he had palpitations. He told Cheng, “You should now proceed without me. Take all the food we have and offer my humble salutations to the land of Buddha”. Cheng, being the strongest continued the journey alone and crossed the mountains on the fifth day and reached a dense forest. He calculated that he had more food than needed and left behind some packets every time he rested to reduce his burden. A bear caught his scent and killed him in the night when he was sleeping on a tree. Nansen turned his page over and continued writing his book.

The King is the soul; The Prince is the mind

Once upon a time and again, there was a King. He had 5 sons who were of great caliber. After they finished their education and mastered the weapons of their choice, the King called them and told them, "Each one of you have mastered a weapon but that is still not sufficient to protect the nation. So each one of you head out in a different direction and return after a year". The princes headed out on white horses and returned exactly a year later mastering unique skills. A demonstration of their new abilities was organized and all the subjects assembled at the Royal arena. The eldest prince raised his hand, and there was a volley of arrows. The second prince opened his mouth and he could throw a flame at any thing. The third prince clapped his hands and suddenly there was lightning and thunder. The forth prince could talk to the horses and make them walk over fire or a battalion of soldiers on foot. The youngest prince could teletransport from one point to another in space. All the subjects felt that their kingdom was now very secure and nobody could attack it with such brave and extraordinary princes to protect it.
A few days later, a powerful demon arose from the shadows of the forests and struck terror in the hearts of the villagers. The King summoned his minister and said "None of my sons are ready for battle. So please take care of this demon for me". All the princes were shocked and grieve struck by these words of their father. The eldest prince interpreted that he was not fit to be a warrior and became a dancer. The second prince ruminated over these words so much and over analyzed it and eventually went mad and drowned himself in a pond. The third prince went back to his teacher and continued training to become ready for battle. The fourth prince felt humiliated and abandoned the kingdom. The youngest prince teletransported himself to the demon in hot blood before the minister and the army arrived and was killed.

The path should also choose you

Spiritual path has been called the path of light and fire by Swami Rama; light denoting the wisdom that you gain and the fire denoting the difficulty in walking the path. For me, the journey is more important than the destination. Most of us spend a lot of time trying to choose a path, a Guru, weigh the advantages; judge our experiences and results. All these activities lose their significance the moment we realize that we are not the center of the universe. Among the grand scheme of things played by the Creator we are just a speck of dust. The moment we understand this and accept this, the question “Have I chosen the right path?” magically turns around to “Has the path chosen me?”
There are millions of paths. Some lead to God; some lead to Hell; some lead to nowhere; some are just intermittent paths. A Sadhak walks on a combination of these paths and that is why each Sadhak’s journey is unique and different. If you are walking on the Satvik path, you have to be a Satvik person. Your thoughts and actions should be Satvik. Your values, believes and philosophy have to match the path. You must be strong enough to walk on the path and endure all the pains. Only then will the path accept you. If not, it will mercilessly throw you out; you will land somewhere; you will have to recover and find a new path that matches your temperament. Just claiming that you are walking on Satvik path is of no avail. If you are walking on the yogic path then you have to accept that there will be no miracles. Miracles are against the rules of nature and yogic path is the acceptance of the rules of nature and quickening your evolution by the power of Sadhana. I do not know if miracles happen or not but if you seek them yogic path will only lead you to disappointment.
As the journey proceeds, you will see the results of progress yourself. On a Satvik path, you will see that your inner Self is becoming better gradually. On the outside your health; wealth will keep fluctuating based on the Karmic laws, but in the inside you will be achieving more peace and distributing it all around you. Yogic path will not make your pains and miseries go away but will make you strong enough to endure them. Maturity is nothing but the ability to accept all the joys and sorrows on the path and not trying to avoid them. When maturity grows fully in the inside of your persona, you will be able to accept death with little fear or protest, more so welcome it with total joy…
A recent incident exposed my immaturity and humbled my pride. My journey took me on a path in the remote mountain peaks of the Himalayas. I was caught alone on a narrow cliff connecting two mountain ranges when fear incarnated on me. I had accented half the cliff and seen that the steep precipice below was at least a couple of kilometers. A hundred steps were needed to cross or to return. Each foot hold was a couple of feet higher vertically and the ground was loose. The grass was slippery and wet and my legs were shaking out of control. There were no markings and I did not know if I was on the right path to make the crossing. If not I had to backtrack and navigate through another branch of the maze. The descent was the real scary part. I had effortlessly run down steeper paths in the past but today I was on all my fours. In the waking state I had bragged that I was fearless and death was not the worst thing that could happen to you. But today my scramble made me suspect my own sincerity. I had done many more dangerous daredevil stunts but today fear had made me an animal. I found a ledge with some solid ground to sit. I took off my backpack and tried to relax. For twenty minutes I tried all the yogic tricks that I had learnt in the past fifteen years to calm my mind but nothing worked.
“Don’t worry I am there” said atman.
“You are there and I am here, and that exactly is the problem”, said the mind.
“There is no you and me. It is just me everywhere”.
“True, but when it hurts, I have to bear all the pain”.
“Nobody is going to get hurt. Just calm down and you will be able to proceed”.
“That is what I have been doing for the past twenty minutes but my legs are not stopping to shake”.
“You know that you had been on worse cliffs and worse situations”.
“Yes but today my only gear is a pair of shoes and the soles of each of them are held in place by one single nail. If I slip, not even a helicopter rescue mission would be able to find my bone powder. More likely it might be a couple of years before another human strays into these lands. Nobody even knows that we are here. It was a complete secret mission to seek God, remember?”
“In that case you will die but that is not the end of things and what more better way to die than seeking truth in the Himalayas”.
“True, but what if I don’t die and I am just stuck hanging in between. It is starting to drizzle and I have neither the food nor the clothes to spend the night”.
“These things affect just the body. There is more to you than meets the eye. Prepare to meditate till the end of time”.
“The past fifteen minutes I have not managed to meditate for a single second and you just said that this is the peak of physical conditions till the end of time that I would come to know”.
“We are now covered by the clouds and you cannot see anything other than one step down. This is a boon in disguise. So descend one step at a time and you will be able to make it back”.
“Yes, I will try but I can see the valley below even with my eyes closed and even my limbs know how deep below it is”.
“Focus; live in the present! The next step is your present. Do not think further”.
“Yes, but after 10 steps down what if I realize that I had sidetracked and there is no step down”.
As this conversation went on for millions of years, Swami Dayanand Giriji’s words made new sense to me. Samadhi is the state of union with God. Every living being gets to meet God in deep sleep indiscriminately. What distinguishes real yogis is their ability to meet God at will. For meditation to be really useful, one should be able to meditate at any given time, at any given place, in the presence or absence of any person or object. Only then will meditation become and useful tool. I laughed down upon myself in this situation and felt what Karna went through his final battle. The only time he needed all those things that he had accomplished in his life, nothing would come forth to his memory. I suddenly felt humbled that all my accomplishments were so trite. What dawned cannot be put into words nor expressed. But I understood that the yogic path is all about disciplining the mind. There will be many a time a thin glass wall between you and your goal; you and Him; between wakefulness and Samadhi; whatever you call it. It seems that you have almost reached it but when the final moment arrives all your preparations seem to be in vain. The yogic path is all about training the mind, training yourself so that your meditation does not fail when that moment arrives. Till that happens you have to keep training.
As a kid when I had heard our damsel in distress, Draupadi call out to Krishna for a Saree, I had exclaimed, “What a fool she is! If she could call God and He would grant her wish, why ask a Saree when she clearly knew that Moksha was the real thing”. Now even if I succeeded in my secret mission, I was not sure what I would ask as I was so caught up in the moment. I laughed down again at my vanity realizing that I was no better than anybody. Very humbling but true! The physical connotation of these things had a deep meaning in my spiritual journey and this is how I learnt something about “My Path”.

Just like that

This story can be anywhere anytime. There was a big old tree standing alone on the top of a small hill, just like that. Elsewhere there was a donkey standing alone, just like that. All of a sudden a lightning struck and reduced the tree to ashes, just like that. The donkey got enlightened just like that.

Now continue this story, just like that…

Stand out of my light

One story that has been told over and over again is about the meeting of Diogenes and Alexander, the Great. When told under a spiritual context, it is not to document history but to put across a couple of points that the great masters have to teach. Hence you will hear many versions of the same. This version is my favorite because it marks the height of awareness and consciousness that a person can reach and how much we can simplify our lives. It is also not Rajasic and tells us what true surrender means.
Diogenes was a Greek philosopher who roamed around naked and owned absolutely no possessions. Some say that Diogenes was the Greek name for Dandi. Once upon a time he was living under a tree beside a river. He ate whatever people gave him. People thought he was mad. One day when he dipped his begging bowl into the river he saw a dog drinking water. It glanced at Diogenes from the corner of its eyes as if “What is this animal doing?” It immediately occurred to him that he actually did not need a bowl to drink water and immediately threw it into the river and started drinking water just the way the dog did. The dog immediately accepted him and from that day they both started living together under the same tree and sharing whatever they found to eat.
Now Aristotle had asked Alexander to meet Diogenes. Alexander’s army happened to camp nearby and his military officers reported to him that Diogenes was living outside the village. Alexander immediately sent an officer to invite him. When the officer arrived, Diogenes was lying under the tree and it was past noon.
The officer said, “Alexander, the Great wants to meet you. So please do come with me”. Diogenes said, “Oh!! I love meeting people and would have gladly joined you if I did not have all these guests to entertain all day. So please tell your king that I will not be able to come”. At this the officer looked around and said, “I can’t see a single person here. All the time you are just lying around and mumbling to yourself. Where are your guests?” Diogenes replied, “You see, in the morning, a cold wind rubs past my body and wakes me up. No sooner am I finished talking with the wind, the birds in this tree wake up. You see, there are quite a lot of them on this big tree and I have to talk to each and every one of them and send them of to work. And by that time, the Sun comes. He is my good old friend and I have a lot to talk with him. Further he comes only once a day. When he is gone, I bathe in the river and talk to the fishes. When I am done entertaining all these guests, I am completely beat and collapse. Consider my age. I will not have any strength remaining. And the same story keeps repeating every day”.
The officer had heard that Diogenes was a mad man. So he went back to the camp and reported to the emperor that Diogenes was too busy to meet him without going into the details. Alexander, himself rode down to meet Diogenes the next day. When he arrived, Diogenes and the dog had finished feeding and were lying on their bellies and enjoying the Sunshine beside the river. They did not even care to move when the party arrived. The guard stumped his spear and announced, “Diogenes, do you know who has arrived to meet you?” Diogenes opened one eyelid and drowsily asked “Who?” The guard continued, “Alexander, the emperor of the world.”
At this Alexander spoke gently, “Diogenes, I am pleased to finally meet you. If there is anything you want, please ask me and I will give you all that you want to make your living comfortable”. Diogenes said, “Alexander or who ever you are, I was enjoying the Sun before you came and stood between us. So if you could, please move out of the way and I will be comfortable again”. Alexander felt ashamed and moved aside but the guard felt offended and cried out, “You fool, do you even know who Alexander is? He is the only person who has defeated all the armies in the world.” Now Diogenes moved a bit and said, “You see the wind that breezes past, if it stops moving in and out of your lungs, you are the Emperor and so is everybody else. You see this river flowing. If it stops giving water, you are the Emperor and so is everybody else. You see the Sun shining above your head. If it stops giving light, you are the Emperor and so is everybody else.” Alexander understood the meaning and Diogenes had said everything that was to be said. Before leaving, he made a closing remark, “Had I not been Alexander, I would have liked to be Diogenes.” Hearing these words, Diogenes suddenly sprang up and just like an innocent child said, “Had I not been Diogenes, I surely would not have liked to be Alexander.”
-Retold by AtmaAnanda

Why do I meditate?

Once upon a time a great Tao had two disciples – Lao Tse and Chuang Tzu. Both of them had spiritually reached all the heights as their master and very wise and experienced. But they still had a subtle competition between them, each one trying to prove to be better than the other in their master’s eyes. There are many symbolic stories on how the master tried to correct them and here is an interesting one to ruminate.

They lived on a hill in a remote forest. One day, the master and his disciples went to the village to beg for food. While returning, it rained heavily and there was a flash flood. A stream of fast moving water blocked their path. The three of them sat down to meditate. After 15 minutes, Lao Tse got up. He had meditated on the form of a lotus. So he crossed the stream walking over the water as if it were solid ground. Chuang Tzu got up after 30 minutes. He had meditated on the form of a dragon. Quickly he slid like a snake and emerged on the other shore with no effort. The Tao however got up only after two hours. He had a radiant smile on his face and was totally in bliss. He put two steps into the water, fell down and was carried away by the current.

-Story by Sri RajGopal M.,retold by AtmaAnanda

Interview - Part 2

By choosing this life are you not escaping from your responsibilities?
No, in fact I am fully accepting my responsibilities and further expanding them. Escaping is something you do when you are not ready to face reality. A person may use drugs or alcohol to escape temporarily. A person may abandon his life when the going gets tough. For instance, when a close relative dies, when he looses his job, when his business fails, when he commits a crime ... if a person runs away, that is escaping. I have done none of these. I was pretty happy in my social and family surroundings when I took this decision. Further I am now available to take care of my aged parents. When ever there is a need, I attend to it, I am not running away. I have enough capacity to do that. After fulfilling those needs, I am utilizing rest of my time for meditation. This is where I differ from others in a similar position where they feel insecure and run behind money not knowing when to stop. While most fellow beings put up with the evils in the social system either with the pretext of not having time or being afraid of being victimized, I fight for my rights. I got all my dealings with the system like getting my DL, passport, tickets by standing in queue. Not only am I available to the call of my family but I am learning to accept the whole world as my family and trying to attend to everybody’s call. So my responsibilities if anything have expanded. Only thing is I am trying to be less selfish, less self centered, less insecure, less mean and less impatient.

Isn’t seeking for one’s own Moksha the most selfish thing to do?
I am of the opinion that seeking Moksha is the only thing to do. What ever you do in life is either irrelevant or a step towards Moksha. In Bhagvadgita, Lord Krishna says that only one can help himself in the path of Moksha. No body can give it to you as a gift and you can not give it to anybody as a gift. You have to earn it yourself. And it is ever living being’s foremost duty. It is a different thing that most people get disoriented and start running behind money, fame, … That is the game of Maya. When people say that they want Moksha, most of them do not know what Moksha is. They have seen unhappiness in life and they have heard somebody saying that if you attain Moksha you will be never sad again. So when they say that they want Moksha, what they actually mean is that they want to escape the unhappiness around them. Now this Moksha can be achieved irrespective of your marital status, citizenship, work status, profession, wealth, sex, beliefs… Time again people have attained Moksha across all these boundaries to prove this point. The lifestyle that you choose should just be conducive to your evolution at that point. Further, Moksha is obtained through divine grace. It is beyond your control to command when the grace descends on you, but when it descends you should be ready. It is a natural phenomenon like death. No matter how much you love a person or an object, you can not take it with you when you die. You die alone. So is the case with Moksha. If Moksha is selfish, so is dying. Now your question becomes ridiculous.

There are so many poor people in India. May be you can help them instead?
You can help a poor person become rich but that does not end his sufferings. Both rich and poor people are unhappy. Many poor people are happier than many rich people. That has to do with the mind. All the so called social work that people do is to change the standard of living. But the problem of unhappiness stems in the mind. People have to understand these themselves and have to work for it themselves. May be that a great person like the Buddha can help them in some way, but until you attain enlightenment there is almost nothing that you can do to help your fellow beings spiritually!

Why did you pick this Guru? I know of people who are more powerful, more famous than him.
A Guru – Shishya relationship is more complicated and I too do not understand it completely. You do not pick a Guru like you pick a shirt at a store. Neither can a Guru arbitrarily pick a disciple or deny one. The Guru Tatva is more important. And when ever there is a need, God sends a being in physical form to guide an aspirant at that point. Neither of them might have planned to meet but when they meet, both will know it. That is the game of destiny. In fact, your Guru will only show you the path, motivate you and provide you with relevant facts that you are unaware of when you need to make a decision. You have to walk by yourself. May be you both can walk together for a while but soon everybody has to walk to their destination. Each being has a different destination and there are as many paths to it as there are beings.
I never claim that my Guru is the best or the most powerful. That would be like a child claiming that her father is the strongest man in the world. Further for any relationship to be successful, it should not be conditioned on the capacity of others in it. If you marry a wealthy person expecting that he will be showering you with comforts, his money can melt away tomorrow. Power shifts hands. Change happens. But you still stick to the relationship because you have the inner strength to offer and not because you receive from your spouse. That is a true promise. That is where a real relationship differs from a business. If you choose your Guru based on his google pagerank, his popularity or his success numbers, there is only so much that you will get out of it spiritually.