sept 2004 (new) - advaita ashramaessentials for effectivity editorial n o one likes to work for...

� Traditional Wisdom �

ASPIRATION

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This Atman cannot be attained by the study of scriptures or by intelligence or bymuch hearing of sacred books. It is attained by Him who earnestly seeks It. To himthe Atman reveals Its true form. (Katha Upanishad, 1.2.23)

Nothing whatsoever is achieved in spiritual life without yearning. By constantly liv-ing in the company of holy men, the soul becomes restless for God. This yearning islike the state of mind of a man who has someone ill in the family. His mind is in astate of perpetual restlessness, thinking how the sick person may be cured. Or again,one should feel a yearning for God like the yearning of a man who has lost his joband is wandering from one office to another in search of work. If he is rejected at acertain place which has no vacancy, he goes there again the next day and inquires,‘Is there any vacancy today?’ (The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, 96)

Devotee: ‘How can we speak of one person’s deserving grace, and another not de-serving it? Grace should apply to all?’

Holy Mother: ‘If a man wants to cross a river he must pray sitting on the river bank.He will be taken across in proper time.’

Devotee: ‘If everything happens in proper time, where does God’s grace come in?’

Holy Mother: ‘Must you not sit with a fishing-rod in your hands if you want to catchfish? A deer does not simply walk into the mouth of a lion which is fast asleep.’

In Bhakti-Yoga the first essential is to want God honestly and intensely. We wanteverything but God, because our ordinary desires are fulfilled by the external world.So long as our needs are confined within the limits of the physical universe, we donot feel any need for God. (The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, 7.83)

11 PB - SEPTEMBER 2004

PRABUDDHA

BHARATAArise! Awake! And stop not till the goal is reached!

Vol. 109 SEPTEMBER 2004 No. 9

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� This Month �

What makes work effective, at both sub-jective and objective levels? Essentials forEffectivity, this month’s editorial, discussesthis important question.

Prabuddha Bharata—100 Years Ago fea-tures (1) excerpts from an interesting articleentitled ‘Why Do We Live’ and (2) some ‘Oc-casional Notes’.

Reflections on the Bhagavadgita is SwamiAtulanandaji’s commentary on verses 4 to 10of the tenth chapter of the Gita. This instal-ment discusses the fact that the Lord is theOrigin of everything in the universe. Com-menting on the eighth verse, the author illus-trates with a moving example how the Lordofficiated for His devotee who was busysinging His names during his duty hours.The swami also elaborates on how devoteesrejoice when they meet each other.

In the concluding instalment of his learnedarticle Ramakrishna Vedanta in the West:New Interfaces and Challenges, Dr MSivaramkrishna continues his discussion onthe challenges before the Ramakrishna Ve-danta movement. Referring to the attemptsby Western scholars to interpret original Ben-gali texts and arrive at ‘notions of textsstrongly at variance with the Hindu herme-neutic traditions’, the author underlines theneed to ‘intensify one’s inner resources’ inpreference to polemics or ‘absorbing thetainted, the defiled’. A former professor andhead of the English department of OsmaniaUniversity, Hyderabad, the author is a regu-lar contributor to this journal.

Holy Mother’s unique relationship withthe Master, motherly love and service beingthe main melody of her unique life, her steer-

ing a fledgling Ramakrishna Order—suchaspects of that embodiment of purity areworthy of adoration and contemplation. DrUmesh Gulati does just that in his HolyMother Sri Sarada Devi: Her Glory and Di-vinity. The author is an emeritus economicsprofessor from the United States, and enjoysstudying Vedanta as lived and taught by theMaster and Mother.

A Survey of the Mind by Swami Satya-swarupanandaji is the final instalment of hiswell-researched article on human mind.Marshalling irrefutable facts, the author dis-pels some common myths about Easternpsychologies, and concludes with an admi-rable presentation of the Yoga-Vedantamodel of mind. A monk of the RamakrishnaOrder, the swami is from the Order’s head-quarters at Belur Math.

A Special Event in New York City is adetailed report of the observance of the150th birthday of Holy Mother by the Rama-krishna-Vedanta Center, New York. The re-port features the tribute paid to Mother anda concert held on the occasion, and the dedi-cation ceremony of the Center’s newly reno-vated buildings.

Parabrahma Upaniøad is the third instal-ment of a translation of this important San-nyasa Upanishad by Swami Atmapriyanan-daji, Principal, Ramakrishna Mission Vidya-mandira, Belur. The elaborate notes arebased on Upanishad Brahmayogin’s com-mentary.

Glimpses of Holy Lives features someincidents from the life of Girivar, a devoteewho believed that whatever God does is forour own good.

PB - SEPTEMBER 2004 12

Essentials for Effectivity

EDITORIAL

No one likes to work for nothing. Even adunce does not work without a pur-pose, says a well-known Sanskrit ad-

age. Yet, there are as many different ways ofdoing work as there are people. Irrespective ofhow we work, all of us would certainly likeour endeavours to be effective and successful.Is there a recipe for effectivity? Yes, says theChandogya Upanishad. Its first chapter tells uswhat contributes to effectivity: ‘Yadeva vidyayákaroti ùraddhayopaniøadá tadeva væryavattaraóbhavati; Whatever is performed with knowl-

edge, shraddhá and meditation becomes moreeffective.’1 The word væryavattaram literallymeans ‘more strengthening’. It is also taken tomean ‘effective’ or ‘more powerful in bearingfruit’. Effectivity has two dimensions: externaland internal. ‘External’ refers to the effectiveaccomplishment of the work to one’s satisfac-tion. ‘Internal’ refers to the work’s long-terminfluence on the individual’s inner growth.Knowledge, shraddhá and meditation—wediscuss these factors one by one.

Doing Work with Knowledge

According to the Tamil classic Tirukku-raò, one should ‘Think well before tak-ing up any work. To start thinking after

beginning the work is disgraceful.’2 A soundknowledge of the nature of work, technical ex-pertise, tools required and so on—obviously,all this is need to be considered before em-barking on any venture. But is there anythingmore? Yes, according to the Bhagavadgita thereare certain important things we need to knowbefore taking up any work. There are both ob-jective (external) and subjective (internal) fac-tors. First, the objective; these are discussed inthe Gita, 18.25.

Consequence

Every work leaves its pleasant and un-pleasant effects on people—one who does thework as also those affected by the work. ‘Nowork is free from blemish, even as fire is cov-ered by smoke,’ says Sri Krishna, and advisesArjuna not to shun work just because it is asso-ciated with defects.3 For work to be effective,one needs to consider all possible conse-quences of work and choose that option which

will mean maximum good to the maximumnumber of people.

Expenditure of Power and Wealth

Cost of human resources and fixed andrunning costs of systems need to be studiedbeforehand in order to be free from surprisesand shocks later. Of course, we have cost esca-lation during project execution due to incom-petence, inefficiency and other factors, butthat doesn’t concern us here.

Injury

Any possible violence to people or ani-mals resulting from work needs to be antici-pated earlier.

Human Resources

This is perhaps the most important factorinfluencing effectivity. Having incompetentpeople at the helm of an organization is a surerecipe for ineffective work. The inefficiencyand incompetence at the top effortlessly per-colate down the line. Even otherwise, compe-tent people too reach their level of incompe-


tence sooner or later, following the Peter Prin-ciple: ‘In a hierarchy, every employee tends torise to his level of incompetence.’ A soundknowledge of who is suitable for what, andperiodic quality audits of human resourcescan greatly contribute to the effectivity of anorganization.

So we have seen some of the objective fac-tors, knowledge of which can make work ef-fective. Now for the subjective factors; theseare discussed in the Gita, 18.30.

What to Take up, What to Leave Alone

True assessment of one’s abilities: A dispas-sionate knowledge of our strengths and limi-tations helps us maintain sobriety and ensurethat we don’t live in a fool’s paradise. Em-barking on a venture without adequate com-petence is a compelling invitation to ineffi-ciency, ineffectiveness and frustration. SaysSwami Vivekananda:

There is, however, one great danger in humannature, viz. that man never examines himself.He thinks he is quite as fit to be on the throne asthe king. Even if he is, he must first show that hehas done the duty of his own position; and thenhigher duties will come to him. When we beginto work earnestly in the world, nature gives usblows right and left and soon enables us to findout our position. No man can long occupy satisfac-torily a position for which he is not fit.4 (Emphasisadded)

Taking care of the means: Cutting cornersor adopting unethical means might help fur-ther the end sometimes, but the negative sam-skaras (mental impressions) arising from thequestionable means can cripple an individ-ual’s character. It is good to keep in mind Swa-

miji’s golden pronouncement:‘Let us perfect the means; theend will take care of itself. Forthe world can be good andpure, only if our lives are goodand pure. It is an effect, and weare the means. Therefore, let uspurify ourselves. Let us makeourselves perfect.’5

Trying to change others: We will under-stand the futility of our attempts to changeothers when we reflect on how difficult it is tochange ourselves. In trying to effect externalchange, it is good to remember the well-known prayer: ‘God, grant me the serenity toaccept the things I cannot change, the courageto change the things I can and the wisdom toknow the difference.’

What to Fear, What Not to Fear

‘Fear arises from duality,’ says the Bri-hadaranyaka Upanishad.6 True fearlessness isconcomitant with God-realization, since inthat state of Oneness, there is no second objectto fear. Till we reach that blessed stage of real-ization it is profitable to cultivate somehealthy fears. These fears have been discussedin ‘From Fear to Fearlessness’, editorial forApril 2004.

What Is Bondage, What Is Freedom

Work binds when selfishness is the mo-tive behind. According to Vedanta, the Atmanis the eternal, blissful and infinite core of ourpersonality. It is again the source of realKnowledge and everlasting Bliss. Ignorance(avidyá) of our real nature makes us look forhappiness and fulfilment in the world. So wedesire (kama) sense objects. Desire drives us toaction (karma) for its fulfilment. Work donewith desire steeps us more in ignorance, andthe vicious cycle of avidyá-kama-karma en-sures continuity of the ‘misery-go-round’ ofbirth and death.

While desire-prompted work forgesmore links in the chain that binds us to the

478 Prabuddha Bharata


Cutting corners or adopting unethicalmeans might help further the end

sometimes, but the negative samskaras(mental impressions) arising from the

questionable means can cripple anindividual’s character.

world, selfless work, done without anxietyabout its result (if the means are taken care of,the end must come), purifies the mind, strength-ens the will and triggers our progress on thepath to freedom.

The Effect of Samskaras on Character

Samskaras are closely related to our dis-cussion on bondage and freedom. The firstchapter of Swamiji’s illuminating lectures onkarma yoga discusses this important topic.7

We recapitulate the salient points. Every ac-tion and thought is registered on our mind as asubtle impression (samskara). These impres-sions have a built-in property: they goad us onto repeat the action or thought. Each repetitionstrengthens and deepens the impression. Thealgebraic sum of these good and bad impres-sions, accumulated over years, nay, births, iswhat is meant by character. If the sum is posi-tive, we have good character and if negative,bad. This sum total determines our reaction tosituations, our personal life, work environ-ment and so on. In short, what we are at anygiven moment is governed by these impres-sions. Just as bad impressions make us act badin spite of ourselves, good samskaras make usact good in spite of ourselves. So freedom im-plies becoming free from the hold of good im-

pressions too. Augmenting good impressionscan ‘drive’ our life on the path of good. Thefirst step in strengthening our character is,thus, the cultivation of good thoughts and per-formance of good deeds.

Anything done consciously for long be-comes a habit, thanks to the samskaras. Workdone in a slipshod way or with questionablemeans also leaves its impression on the mind.The work may be accomplished all right, butthe cumulative impressions resulting fromhow we work and the means we adopt willstrengthen our bondage and slavery to themind. We can appreciate how powerful theseimpressions are only when we attempt to turna new leaf, try to live a moral life. The mentalresistance offered by the bad impressions willbe enough to unnerve us and make us retractfrom our resolves at self-transformation.

Vedanta, however, offers hope to every-one and condemns none. Only, more bad im-pressions will mean greater struggle. Every-one can turn a new leaf provided he is pre-pared to pay the price and struggle unremit-tingly. There is also an inspiring assurancefrom Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi that japa,or repetition of God’s name, can minimize theintensity of karma.8

Doing Work with Shraddhá

Usually translated as ‘faith’ for want of abetter word, shraddhá signifies a spe-cial mindset. It is a self-propelling force

in us that keeps us riveted to the task in handtill its completion. Swamiji gives an exampleto clarify the point: What will be the mindsetof a thief adjacent to whose room is a room fullof gold? He will keep thinkingabout how to break the separat-ing wall and acquire the gold.He will not rest till he accom-plishes the task. The force thateggs him on despite obstacles iswhat is called shraddhá.9 Some

striking implications of shraddhá become evi-dent from this example.

Implications of Shraddhá

First, a man endowed with shraddhá hasan ideal, which goads him on to action till its at-tainment and endows him with the strength to

Essentials for Effectivity 479


A worker endowed with shraddha does notlet mental restless influence the quality ofhis work. He is endowed with fortitude andenthusiasm, two important traits of asattvic worker outlined in the Gita.

overcome all obstacles in the way. The ideal ofhuman life is Self-realization. Swamiji beginshis lectures on karma yoga by saying, ‘Thegoal of mankind is knowledge. That is the oneideal placed before us by Eastern philosophy.Pleasure is not the goal of man, but knowledge (em-phasis added).’10 Second, a man with shraddháwill not need supervision for his work. Third,quality. He will set his own lofty standard forwork and will strain every nerve to accom-plish it. Fourth, accountability. Such a worker ismore accountable to his higher Self. His ac-countability to the organization is a matter ofcourse. Fifth, enthusiasm. A worker endowed

with shraddhá does not let mental restless in-fluence the quality of his work. He is endowedwith fortitude and enthusiasm, two importanttraits of a sattvic worker outlined in the Gita.11

Faith in the Atman

Swamiji never tired of exhorting peopleto have shraddhá, burning faith in themselves,in their real, divine nature: ‘The history of theworld is the history of a few men whohad faith in themselves. That faith calls out thedivinity within. You can do anything. You failonly when you do not strive sufficiently tomanifest infinite power.’12

Doing Work with Meditation

Working with an Awakened Buddhi

Meditation during work refers to amindset that helps us detach our-selves from the body and mind and

remember our real nature (Atman) or, whatamounts to the same, God, who dwells in theheart of all beings. For a beginner this amountsto refusing to identify with the body and theuntrained mind, and trying to be a witness tohis mental gyrations without getting affectedby them. Practice enables one to become morealert and identify oneself with buddhi, the dis-criminative faculty. Incidentally, selfless workas a spiritual discipline is expected to result inthis identification with buddhi, a step funda-mental to any fruitful spiritual endeavour. Wedon’t work mechanically anymore, but withan awakened buddhi watching the move-ments of the mind and bringing it back to thetask in hand every time it strays, following theGita dictum: ‘Whenever the unsteady andrestless mind strays, rein it in and bring it backto dwell on the Atman.’13

Doing work with an alert mind is whatSwamiji advocates in his prescription for innertransformation through work: ‘When you aredoing any work, do not think of anything be-yond. Do it as worship, as the highest worship,and devote your whole life to it for the time be-

ing.’14

Need for Practice

Such a meditative awareness duringwork needs preparation and practice. WhenArjuna asked Sri Krishna how to control thewayward mind, the Lord replied that it waspossible through practice and detachment15

—detachment from anything that is inimicalto the attainment of one’s goal. When some-one remarked that it was extremely difficult toproceed towards God while leading the life ofa householder, Sri Ramakrishna taught with abeautiful example how with practice one canwork in the world with a major part of themind fixed on God:

What about the yoga of practice? At Kamarpu-kur I have seen the women of the carpenter fam-ilies selling flattened rice. Let me tell you howalert they are while doing their business. Thepestle of the husking-machine that flattens thepaddy constantly falls into the hole of the mor-tar. The woman turns the paddy in the holewith one hand and with the other holds herbaby on her lap as she nurses it. In the meantime customers arrive. The machine goes onpounding the paddy, and she carries on her bar-gains with the customers. She says to them, ‘Paythe few pennies you owe me before you takeanything more.’ You see, she has all these things



to do at the same time—nurse the baby, turn thepaddy as the pestle pounds it, take the flattenedrice out of the hole, and talk to the buyers. Thisis called the yoga of practice. Fifteen parts of hermind out of sixteen are fixed on the pestle of thehusking-machine, lest it should pound herhand. With only one part of her mind she nursesthe baby and talks to the buyers. Likewise, hewho leads the life of a householder should de-vote fifteen parts of his mind to God; otherwisehe will face ruin and fall into the clutches ofDeath. He should perform the duties of theworld with only one part of his mind.

16

Regular Prayer and Meditation amid Work

Regularity in spiritual practices amidwork is a great help in cultivating meditativeawareness. Holy Mother underlined its im-portance with an example:

No doubt you must do your duties. This keepsyour mind in good condition. But it is also nec-essary to practise japa, meditation, and prayer.One must practise these at least in the morningand evening. Such practice acts like the rudderof a boat. When a man sits in the evening forprayer, he can reflect on the good and badthings he has done in the course of the day.Then he should compare his present mentalstate with that of the previous day. … Unlessyou practise meditation morning and evening,along with your work, how can you knowwhether you are doing the right thing or thewrong?

17

Swamiji has a name for work done withan alert mind: ‘self-conscious activity’. Whatare the benefits of such an activity? Over toSwamiji: ‘Call upon the sleeping soul and seehow it awakes. Power will come, glory willcome, goodness will come, purity will come,

and everything that is excellent will comewhen this sleeping soul is roused to self-con-scious activity.’18

��

In order that work becomes effective,three important things need to be factored intoit: knowledge, shraddhá and meditation. Be-sides making work effective, these factors con-vert work into a spiritual discipline, effectinginner transformation. �

References

1. Chandogya Upanishad, 1.1.10.

2. Tirukkuraò, 467.

3. Bhagavadgita, 18.48.

4. The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, 9

vols. (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1-8, 1989; 9,

1997), 1.66.

5. CW, 2.8.

6. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, 1.4.2.

7. CW, 27-35.

8. Swami Nikhilananda, Holy Mother (New York:

Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1962), 222.

9. CW, 1.407.

10. Ibid., 1.27.

11. Gita, 18.26.

12. CW, 8.228.

13. Gita, 6.26.

14. CW, 1.71.

15. Gita, 6.35.

16. M, The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, trans. Swami

Nikhilananda (Chennai: Sri Ramakrishna

Math, 2002), 367.

17. Holy Mother, 220.

18. CW, 3.193.

Essentials for Effectivity 481


Pilot to passengers in mid-flight: ‘I regret to inform you that we are in terrible trouble. Only

God can save us now.’

A passenger turned to a priest to ask what the pilot had said and got this reply: ‘He says there

is no hope.’

—Anthony de Mello, The Prayer of the Frog, 1.76


Prabuddha Bharata—100 Years AgoSeptember 1904

Why Do We Live?

(A Japanese Sermon)

‘In a certain place there was once an extraordinary dunce by the name of Chokichi,’ begins the

preacher. ‘Now, there are very many dunces in this world, but this particular fellow was a most

accomplished dunce. In the matter of forgetting things he was a perfect genius.

‘One day his mistress said to him, ”Chokichi, this is the anniversary of the death of our principal

ancestor, and his reverence the priest will be here before long. Therefore we must have the custom-

ary offerings ready to set before the household gods. So hurry to the market and buy me some car-

rots, dock, wild potatoes, mushrooms and lotus root—these five things.”

‘With this she gave him five farthings, and Chokichi, with an exclamation of assent, girded up his

loins and started off. As he was hurrying along to market on a dog-trot he met his neighbour Chomat-

su. ”Hello, Chokichi!” said the latter, “you are in a great hurry. What are you after and where are you

going, anyhow?”

‘”To the market to buy some things,” answered Chokichi, as he hurried on.

‘”Well, what are you going to buy?”

‘“What am I going to buy? I don’t know, I’m sure,” was the reply.

‘So the story goes. This forgetting [of] the important business that his mistress had sent him on,

and only racing in the street—it was a great piece of folly, was it not?

‘And yet this Chokichi is not to be heedlessly laughed at, for while it may not be true of this audi-

ence, yet in certain distant parts of the country there are many people who forget the essential thing,

just as Chokichi did; whereas, so far as other matters are concerned, they know everything about

them. If you don’t believe it, ask anybody.

‘Here, Hachibei! (the preacher addresses an imaginary character) They tell us that everything

born into this world has a commission from heaven. For example, take the cow and the horse—what

were they born for? And Hachibei will answer, “Why, anybody knows that! They were born to carry

heavy loads and to save folks labour.” But the cock, what was he born for? Ask him that and he will

tell you, “He was born to tell the hours.” The dog, what was he born for? “He is to guard the gate.” But

the cat, what is she for? “She is to catch rats.” Ask anything you please, so far as general matters are

concerned, and he knows all about them. Well, then, Hachibei, you yourself, what were you born into

this world for? But Hachibei will scratch his head and finally answer, “What was I born for? I don’t

know. Most likely I came just to eat rice and find fault.” For us to think that man alone came into this

world to wander purposeless—that is, for us to belong to the foolish fellowship of Chokichi. It is man

alone that has not come into this world just to eat rice and to grow old. Man is called the lord of the

universe; of all things he is chief. He is not like the dog or the cat. It is not for him to wander aimlessly.

‘But let us go on with our story. Chokichi reached the market-place at last, but he had quite for-

gotten what he came to buy. And so, as he was loafing around the place with the money in his hand

he caught sight of some cakes in a shop window. Forthwith he bought and ate a dozen of them. Then

he loitered here and there; he drank a little wine and loafed in the grog-shop. He spent every one of

his five farthings buying things in the street and eating them on the spot. And then he went home

Prabuddha Bharata—100 Years Ago 483


grumbling to himself: ”It wasn’t enough! Mistress didn’t give me coppers enough! And so I can’t get

any fried eels or duck-hash!”

‘Now, when he got home, maybe his master and mistress weren’t waiting for him! And maybe

they weren’t hot!

‘”Look here, Chokichi, what have you been doing? Have you brought what you were sent for?”

‘When they said this Chokichi answered, in a dazed sort of way: ”No, I haven’t brought anything

at all.”

‘”But what have you done with the money we gave you?”

‘”Oh, the money?” said he. “Why, I spent it all for things to eat in the street; only it wasn’t nearly

enough.”

‘Master and mistress sat completely dumb. At length they broke out. ”Why, what are you thinking

about? The five farthings—don’t you understand? We didn’t tell you to spend them in any such way

as that! You were to buy carrots, and dock, and the rest! But instead of buying what we need, you

spend them in stuffing yourself, and then on top of that you tell us that you haven’t enough! You must

be a perfect fool!”

‘And they stormed and scolded away.

‘Now, dunces are beyond redemption. ”Why!” said Chokichi, with a look of utter amazement, “Do

you want some carrots and some dock? If that is what you want, I’ve just been to the market, and why

didn’t you tell me so? That would have been the very time to get them.”

‘Well, well! He was an accomplished dunce! And in the wide world one could hardly find a mas-

ter that would keep such a fellow for five minutes. So in the end there was nothing to do but send him

away with two or three cuffs across the head. However, it is quite useless for any of you to hear a

story of this kind and merely roar over it. This is nothing less than a parable. And with the words of

Confucius on our lips, “If I see folly I look within myself”, today both you and I should well consider

whether we too do not belong to the company of this Chokichi.

‘In the first place, we received at birth from our Master Heaven these admirable bodies that we

call the five members. We were provided with what we call the five senses—far more precious than

the five farthings—the five functions of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and feeling. In our hearts,

likewise, we received at birth the five virtues of love, justice, courtesy, wisdom and truth. And the real

meaning is simply this: heaven desires to have us buy what we call the five relations—the carrots and

the dock, which are these five things: obedience to parents, loyalty to masters, concord between hus-

band and wife, harmony among brothers, and a mutual fidelity in our intercourse with others. And yet,

quite forgetting the essential business of the five rules or doctrines, day and night we spend our time

in nothing but this buying and eating things in the street, with its “I want this; I want that; that will not

do; or, there is not enough of this!” Why, is this not Chokichi? It was not to wander about thus pur-

poseless that we were born.’

—Dr Scherer’s Japan Today

We do not hold that the salvation of India lies only in the adoption by its people of a common

religion. But we do believe that the acceptance of a common religion by Indians which is the

substratum of all the various modes of faith—a religion which, like the string in a garland of

many flowers, runs through, coordinates and makes into an organized whole all the different forms of

religion—will at once arrest the national decay and advance the march of progress by strides.

—from ‘Occasional Notes’

Reflections on the Bhagavadgita

SWAMI ATULANANDA

Chapter 10 (continued)

4-5. Intelligence, wisdom, non-delusion, forbearance, truth, control of the senses, seren-ity of heart, pleasure and pain, birth and death, fear and fearlessness, non-injury, equanim-ity, contentment, austerity, benevolence, fame and infamy—these different conditions ofbeings arise from Me alone.

Man is born with one or more of thesequalities, according to his past kar-ma. What we deserve, the Lord gives

us. What we have earned in a previous life be-comes our asset in the present life, the capitalwith which we start out. The child’s history isalready written before the baby is born. What-ever the child develops into, is stored up andremains latent at the time of birth. We start onour life’s voyage with our pockets filled orempty according to how they were at the endof the previous life. Gross, material things, wecannot carry with us when we depart. But ourcharacter, our tendencies—all that is stored upin our subtle body stays with us and accompa-nies us when we are reborn. Our desires, am-bitions, hopes, character traits—all these arestored up in our subtle body. The gross bodycan carry and enjoy gross things. And whenwe leave the gross body, we cannot carrygross things with us. But mental qualities be-ing subtle, the subtle, reincarnating body car-ries these along through ages. The wise mantherefore cares more to store up lasting trea-

sures—a noble, lofty ambition, intelligence,truthfulness and other ennobling charactertraits—than wealth and other perishablethings. And rising above them all, the yogistores up the highest knowledge, jnana, the re-alization of Truth, which lasts through eter-nity.

Whatever is arises from God. Intelligenceis mentioned first. Some men are intelligentbeyond comparison. They easily grasp subtlesubjects of thought. They perceive things notcomprehended by the ordinary mind. Othershave wisdom. They know the Self. They per-ceive That which is beyond the reach of thesenses. Again, others have sound judgmentand the power of discrimination. Some haveforbearance; no abuse or insult ever agitatestheir minds. Others are truthful; they give ut-terance only to their own actual experience ofthings. And so we find men with different dis-positions, different qualifications and differ-ent acquisitions according to their characters.‘And all these differences are from Me,’ saysthe Lord. And also:

6. The seven great rishis of old, as well as the four Manus, from whom have come allthese creatures in the world, were born of My mind and endowed with My nature.

The Deity, as Creator Brahma, created, ina primeval age, from His own mind, theseven first teachers and the archetypes of

rulers, the Manus. With their thoughts di-rected towards the omniscient Lord, these su-perhuman beings were endowed with power

and wisdom. From them has come all subse-quent creation. Whatever spiritual knowledgeexists in the world has been preserved by thespiritual descendants of the seven great rishis(Saptarshis), who are the primeval teachers ofour race. And the ancient Manus are the pri-


meval kings or rulers. This again shows how all creation has descended from God.

7. He who comprehends in reality these various manifestations and yoga power ofMine—he becomes well established in unshakable yoga. There is no doubt in this.

He who knows in truth the vast extent ofMy being; who knows Me as infinite;who knows the fact that the great ri-

shis and Manus possessed their power andwisdom as partaking of a very small portion ofthe Lord’s power and wisdom—he becomeswell established in unshakable yoga, the state

of samadhi or right realization. The knowl-edge of the conditioned is the doorway lead-ing to the knowledge of the Unconditioned.

And what is that realization in whichthey become well established? It is the knowl-edge that

8. I am the origin of all; everything evolves from Me. Knowing this, the wise worshipMe with loving contemplation.

Those who know the Truth find theirgreatest happiness in the contemplationof Truth. They know Me as the supreme

Reality, the Origin of all things, the One fromwhom all creation has evolved. They knowthat, controlled and impelled by Me as the in-ner Regulator, everything moves according tolaw. The Gita says, ‘He who sees the supremeLord dwelling alike in all beings, the Imper-ishable among the perishable—he sees in-deed. For seeing the Lord as equally presenteverywhere, he does not destroy the Self bythe self, and thus he goes to the highest Goal.’1

Only those who see the emptiness of theworld are fit for devotion to the Lord. Onlythose who know for certain that all else is van-ity can turn to Him, who is eternal Bliss. ‘Thereis fear in duality;2 It is realization alone thatmakes one fearless,’3 says the Upanishad. Weare fearless when we are non-attached andfree from desires. Knowing the Lord as theSelf, the Cause and the omniscient Lord of all,we become devoted to Him. The knowledgeof the supreme Reality leads to love, regardand earnestness, and these lead to devotion tothe Lord. God is the only Joy in existence; butthrough the darkness that envelopes our na-ture, things that are not God seem attractive,and naturally, they don’t give us lasting joy.The worship of God is our greatest privilege. Itis the greatest delight to those who have tastedit. We look upon it as an obligation, a task, a

duty. But once we succeed in worshippingHim really, we will see how sweet a task it is. ‘Iwill praise Thee with my whole heart.’4 ‘UntoThee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.’ (25.1)‘Praise the Lord; for the Lord is good: Singpraises unto His name; for it is pleasant,’(135.3) sings David. To worship God is thebhaktas’ greatest delight, a privilege for whichthey have sacrificed all they possess, some-times even their lives. As a bee is attracted tohoney, so is a devotee attracted to God. As themagnet draws the iron, so does God draw Hisdevotees to Him. As flies are attracted bysyrup, so is the bhakta attracted by sweet com-munion with God.

In her Master as I Saw Him, Sister Niveditatells a beautiful story told about a native sol-dier in India. He was Raghunath Das, a greatlover of God. Raghunath Das was a soldier inthe British service, faithful and good andmuch beloved by his officers. One night, whileon duty, he heard a Ram-nam party. He triedto stay at his post, but the shout of ‘Jay bolo ram-chandra ki jay!; Hail Lord Ramachandra!’ mad-dened him and he threw away his arms anduniform and joined in the worship. This wenton for some time, till reports reached the offi-cer. He sent for Raghunath Das and asked himwhether what he heard was true and if Ra-ghunath knew the penalty for it. Yes, he knewit: He was to be shot! ‘Well,’ said the officer,‘go away this time, and I shall report it to no


Reflections on the Bhagavadgita 485

one. This time I forgive you. But if the samething happens again, you must suffer the pen-alty.’ That night, however, the sentinel heardagain the Ram-nam party. He did his best notto join them, but it was irresistible. At last hethrew all caution to the winds and joined theworshippers till morning. Meanwhile, how-ever, the officer’s trust in Raghunath Das hadbeen so great that he found it difficult to be-lieve anything against him, even on his ownconfession. So in the course of the night, he vis-ited the outpost to see for himself. NowRaghunath Das was in his place and ex-changed word with the officer three times.Satisfied, the officer went back and slept.

In the morning Raghunath Das appeared

to report himself and surrender his arms. Butthe report was not accepted, for the officer toldhim what he himself had seen and heard.

Thunderstruck, the man insisted on be-ing relieved from service. Rama, the Lord, haddone this for His servant. Henceforth, in verytruth, he decided to serve no other. And he re-nounced the world and became a vairagi.

The story most strongly illustrates God’slove and care for His devotees. But it alsoshows how greatly attractive worship is for atrue lover of God. Even death does not countwith him.

In the next verse Sri Krishna describes thecondition of His bhaktas.

9. With their heart fixed on Me, with their life resting in Me, mutually enlightening oneanother and perpetually singing My glory, they are delighted and rejoiced.

The true devotee has his very being in theLord. His mind, his heart, is constantlyfixed on Him. What we love is upper-

most in our mind. We are never separatedfrom anyone we sincerely love. Such a one isconstantly with us. We see him with our men-tal eye; we feel his presence; we talk to himmentally; and our life is interwoven with him.To him goes our last thought when we dropoff to sleep; he greets us when we return toconsciousness next morning. And sometimeseven in dream he is with us. So it is with thebhakta and his Beloved. The Lord is his lode-stone. To Him his mind runs naturally. In Himhe finds rest, peace and happiness.

We always speak of the thing with whichour heart is most filled. What is dearest to us,what concerns us most, forms the object of ourconversation. And so the bhakta talks of God.His whole nature rests in the Deity. Life is val-ueless without Him. All other desires havefled from him. The bhakta wants to enjoy hisLord. He is filled with the joy that is found inHim alone. He is truly happy, truly rich andrejoices always, because he has found a greatand wonderful treasure. All earthly love is buta part of that infinite Love, which is God.

‘Never, O beloved, is the husband loved forhis sake but for the sake of the Self in him.Never, O beloved, is the wife loved for hersake, but for the sake of the Self in her.’5 Wher-ever we truly love, there we love God. The hus-band, the wife, the child, the friend—all ofthem are only mediums through which a littleof God becomes perceptible to us.

God is everywhere, but our sight is notproperly adjusted to enable us to see Him. He,the Beloved, is the adjuster of our sight. Sup-pose we take opera glasses and look at thesteps. We have to adjust the glasses, each ac-cording to his sight. The different persons wemeet are like different opera glasses, differ-ently adjusted. One suits my sight, anotheryours. One reveals in his personality love tome, another to you. But it is always a glimpse ofGod in the person that calls forth our love. Ilook through your glasses and everything isblurred. I see the person you most love, but donot find anything lovable in him. The God inhim is blurred to my sight. Another person,like another pair of glasses, suits me. Yes, Ilove him and see a little of God in him. To youit may be quite hidden. Only a sage can seeGod through all mediums, all glasses, all man-



ifestations. His sight is so sharp that it burnsthrough all veils. Says the Upanishad, ‘Know-ing that the same Lord inhabits all bodies, thesage will worship every body as such.’6 Hesees God at the back of the personality. Andhaving seen once, he speedily recognizes Godin all. There is a puzzle card. We cannot findthe hidden man. At last we discover him.Henceforth we will always see him wheneverwe see the card. In another place in the Upani-shads we read, ‘Of the cows of differentcolours the milk is of just one colour. The wiseman regards the Atman like the milk and thedifferent manifestations like the cows.’7 TheAtman is the same in all, no matter how peo-ple differ.

In the Chandogya Upanishad, we see Shve-taketu receiving spiritual instructions fromhis father. The father asked him to bring a fruitof the banyan tree. Then he said, ‘Split it intotwo.’ The boy did that. ‘What do you see?’asked the father. ‘Seeds, small like particles,’said the boy. ‘Break one of the seeds,’ said thefather. ‘What do you see inside?’ ‘Nothing,’said Shvetaketu. ‘I tell you, a banyan tree isthere,’ said the father. ‘The tree is there, hiddenfrom your sight. But it is there. Even so, mydear boy, the Atman is invisible, but It exists inevery being.’8 The boy understood, but wasnot quite convinced. ‘Bring a glass of water,’said the father. The son did that. ‘Now put alump of salt in the water, put the glass asideand come tomorrow.’ The boy obeyed his fa-ther. The next morning the father said, ‘Bringnow that glass of water. Drink a little waterfrom the top. What do you find?’ ‘It tastessalty.’ ‘Now drink a little from the middle.What do you find?’ ‘It tastes salty, sir.’ ‘Nowdrink from the bottom.’ ‘It is also salty, sir.’‘Did you see the salt?’ ‘No, sir.’ ‘So is the At-man hidden in the body.’9 ‘Quite concealed inall beings dwells the Atman even as butterdwells in milk. Ever churn, O aspirant, withmind as the churning stick.’ The bhakta al-ways churns. He performs acts of devotion.And he obtains the butter and he is happy and

contented. He is satisfied.Only he who has no desires is rich and

contented. The bhakta is filled, satisfied. TheLord fills Him; he has no other desires. He isthe greatest among men. He is fearless. Thelover of God is greater than any potentate.One who renounces is superior to any king.He is stronger, more fearless and richer thananyone else. There is a story to illustrate this.

In olden times it was customary in East-ern countries for rulers to visit different partsof their domain and, while visiting, distributewealth among the subjects. Once such a kingin India went on his yearly tour and, being im-mensely rich, he brought great happinesswherever he went. Seated on a gigantic ele-phant he would throw pieces of gold amongthe poor and the people would follow him fora long distance, always expecting to get moregold. One day, departing from a village, thisking had to cross a forest. Before he had gonefar he saw a sannyasin seated under a tree. Theman was all but naked and had no possessionsof any kind. His staff and water pot was allthat he possessed. Seeing the man so poor, theking called his minister and directed him togive him some gold. But when the minister of-fered the gold, the man refused to accept it.The minister reported to the king what hadhappened. The king told him to take moregold as the holy man probably thought the giftinsufficient from such a rich monarch. Theminister went again, but met with the same re-fusal. Then the king thought, ‘Perhaps the san-nyasin is offended because I have not person-ally made the offering to him. It is certainly notgood to displease a holy man. Let me descendand ask his pardon and offer the gift to himmyself.’

The king approached the sannyasin veryhumbly and begged of him to accept his gold.But the sannyasin said, ‘Sir, how can I acceptyour gold? I am a rich man and you are poorand a paltry king.’ The king was very muchsurprised. He did not understand what thesaint meant. ‘Don’t you see, revered sir,’ he

Reflections on the Bhagavadgita 487


said, ‘that I have come with all my retinue?And all these men following me are carryingboxes full of gold and precious stones. Mywealth is almost inexhaustible. Please take asmuch as you may require. I see you have nobelongings of any kind. Kindly accept my of-fer and bless me that I may go in peace. Thenthe saint said, ‘Sir, you possess much wealth,but still I call you poor. For with all yourwealth your unfulfilled desires are many. Youalways long for more and more and that keepsyou unhappy, while I, who possess nothing,am perfectly contented. I don’t desire gold orprecious stones; I don’t desire anything. I knowmy true Self and am always full of bliss. Hewho desires much is poor, but he who is free

from desire is the richest of the rich. Content-ment is wealth and discontent is poverty andwant.’

Bhaktas are always contented. They arerich in their love of God, rejoicing in the com-pany of their Beloved. Says one of the Puranas,‘All the pleasures of this world and even of thedivine sphere are not worth a hundredth partof the joy that comes from the cessation of alldesires.’ Then, the knots of the heart are cutasunder; all burning unrest vanishes to makeroom for peace.

In the next verse Sri Krishna states whatkind of gift the Lord offers his beloved wor-shipper.

10. To these ever-steadfast and loving worshippers I give that wisdom-devotion (bud-dhi yoga) by which they come unto Me.

That is the reward of the bhakta: higherand purer love—that is all he cares for.‘Those who always worship Me devot-

edly (not for any purpose of their own, but outof love for Me)—to them I give the devotion ofright knowledge (buddhi yoga). That is the ex-tremely superior condition of mind, producedby contemplation, by which they realize thatessential nature of the Lord, devoid of all limi-tations. They know Me, the supreme Lord, astheir own Self. No matter to what creed or sectthey belong, be they Jewish or Christian orMohammedan or Hindu, they are My faithfulservants. I will enlighten their minds and clearaway all doubt and difference. I will removeall darkness and ignorance and I will gatherthem up unto Myself.’

(To be continued)

References

1. Bhagavadgita, 13.27-8.

2. Dvitæyádvai bhayaó bhavati.—Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, 1.4.2.

3. Abhayaó vai brahma. —ibid., 4.4.25; Abhayaóvai janaka prápto’sæti hováca yájðnavalkyaë.

—ibid., 4.2.4.

4. Psalms, 138.1.

5. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, 2.4.5.

6. Evaó sarveøu bhéteøubhaktir-avyabhicáriîæ;

Kartavyá paîõitair-jðátvásarvabhétamayaó harim.

—Vishnu Purana, 1.19.9.

7. Gavám-anekavarîánáó køærasyápyekavarîatá;Køæravat-paùyate jðánaó liïginastu gaváó

yathá.—Brahmabindu Upanishad, 19.

8. Chandogya Upanishad, 6.12.1-3.

9. Ibid., 6.13.1-2.



According to my view, the sum and substance of the Gita is this: surrender yourself to God and

completely efface the ego. To belong entirely to God and not to depend in the least on one-

self or anyone else—this indeed is the main teaching of the Gita. In whatever way one accom-

plishes this, one’s life becomes fulfilled.

—Swami Turiyananda

Ramakrishna Vedanta in the West: New Interfacesand Challenges

DR M SIVARAMKRISHNA

(Continued from the previous issue)

Obviously, Western explorations of Ra-makrishna’s sadhana as a tantric pose areal challenge in at least three intercon-

nected facets: the according of primacy to thevaried phases of Ramakrishna’s sadhana, therole of canonization in hagiography and thenature of language in scriptural texts.

Tantra as the Primary Mode of Perception

Ever since Lex Hixon suggested the cru-cial significance of Tantra in Ramakrishna’ssadhana,1 several studies took the clue andelaborated the implications. In fact, the assign-ing of primary significance to Advaita in thehierarchy of Ramakrishna’s sadhana andteachings, these studies contend, is arbitraryand contrary to ‘facts’. This is merely institu-tionally supported canonization and not fac-tually warranted interpretation. Walter G Nee-vel’s essay2 is a trendsetter in this regard butthere is a possibility of the most extreme psy-choanalytical and often irrational extension ofthe implicit issues. Though some studies arebased on texts in original Bengali, they arenevertheless highly polemical, if not, at manyplaces, pathological, ‘torturing’ texts for mean-ing, with the ‘erotic’ as the only semantic refer-ent. And it shows a colossal ignorance of thefunctioning of linguistic frames in Indian her-meneutic traditions.

Radical Academic ‘Assault’

However, one important issue that reallyposes a challenge is this: how far—or how long—can one regard Ramakrishna as imperviousto further, more radical appropriations in the

light and context of more and more serious in-volvement of the scholarly, academic world.The academic world will bring all the schol-arly apparatus with it: establishing authentic-ity of texts, the problem of allegedly ‘inten-tional’ omissions of passages in translatedtexts, the new historical perspective of religionas one of the discourses of signification amongmany, and so on. Above all, scholars thesedays are notoriously deconstructive, ferretingout small details ignored (or ‘wilfully sup-pressed’) earlier.

These perspectives are strengthened byanother trend: many Western scholars of Ra-makrishna Vedanta are today attempting toget to the originals in Bengali without relianceon any ‘mediated’ text. (Mediated texts aregenerally ‘meditated’ texts!) Thus, at least onecomplete translation of the Kathamrita claimedas the only unexpurgated one with explana-tory notes is now available as doctoral work.3

Exposure to variations between the ‘canon-ized’ texts and the originals is, to say the least,intriguing to the Western mind, which is nowarriving at notions of texts strongly at variancewith the Hindu hermeneutic traditions.

Language: The Key

The central question here seems to menot a question of translation but the entireproblem of hermeneutics or the religious im-plications of language. As Ernst Fuchs has putit elaborating his hermeneutical doctrine, ‘lan-guage is not the abbreviation of thinking, butthinking is an abbreviation of language.’4 Thisis especially true of religious thought.


Ramakrishna Vedanta in the West:New Interfaces and Challenges

Language in religious contexts, thoughdrawing from a common denotational, lin-guistic pool, has connotative implicationswhich purely secular decoding can almostnever interpret properly. For instance, wordsused in Bengali (which, one should note, isheavily Sanskritized) such as ramaîa, kræõá, ud-dæpana, prema, dháraîá, bæja are certainly tracta-ble to varied de-coding. But that particularregister has, in the context of Ramakrishna’suse, no pathological erotic implications unlessin an extremely irrational deconstructive my-opia one is incapable of distinguishing the twoentirely different realms of eroticism and spir-ituality. As Charles Malamoud suggests in arecent study, ‘the image we have of the limpidbeginnings of the immortals’ Sanskrit lan-guage is one that we may deduce from thegreat pains taken to obscure it’, and ‘throughscrambling of phonemes’ suggest this obscu-rity5 (and Bengali is heavily Sanskritized).

Interpretations of Ramakrishna’s emo-tive language and imagery are therefore, touse his own telling image, absorbing the ucchi-shta, the tainted, the defiled. Thus to decons-truct (or, rather, dismember) is a tribute toone’s ingenious interpretive skills but hardlydefensible. Even the so-called excesses of va-machara will, perhaps, recoil at this absurd re-duction of Tantra sadhana to eroticism, imbu-ing it with all pervasive permutations andcombinations of ‘abbreviated’ Freudian as-sumptions. In short, ferreting out the gupta—the insight for the initiated alone—need not beregarded as unearthing the ‘grotesquely’ erotic;or rather, the secret need not be equated withthe sordid. But once the equation is drawn,then the simplistic bracketing of samadhi toeroticism becomes a predictable phenome-non. This is just the culmination of a processdescribed so accurately by William IrwinThomson talking about the ‘reductionistthinking’ of sociobiology—‘the new landslideof the detritus of nineteenth-century material-ism’—he says that ‘it reduces a psychologicalor cultural complex to a gene, and then it con-

ceptualizes a gene as a hunk of matter ratherthan a crystal of sacred geometry and frozenmusic.’6 In short, so far as Ramakrishna as atantric is concerned, ‘the camouflaged passionand murky reasoning’ of Freudians are cer-tainly negligible for the devotee but challeng-ing to the scholar. And most scholars Rama-krishna saw as vultures, a species proliferat-ing in academic skies—though it is uncharita-ble to put it that way.

In short, the ‘awakening of kundalini,knows quite a different relationship … be-tween language and sexuality.’ (22) One cer-tainly needs to keep the entire matrix of thesphota theory for de-coding Ramakrishna’slanguage. Here is a necessity for caution be-tween what Heidegger called the evil of ‘pro-vocative disclosure’ instead of ‘procreativedisclosure’. The provocative disclosure is‘only out to rob that which is to be discovered,of all that might be of some use; in contrast tothis exploiting, grabbing disclosure stands theprocreative one, in which that which is to bediscovered or revealed is to be brought withall possible care, into its own true and full be-ing.’7

Madness

Along with Tantra, ‘madness’ is seen by afew Western academic enthusiasts as one ofthe ‘central hermeneutic’ principles to reckonwith Ramakrishna. Interpretations range fromseeing even his nirvikalpa samadhi as ‘paren-tal loss’ consequent to Totapuri’s (the sub-merged parental figure) departure from Dak-shineswar, to those that continue to see it as anepileptic fit. For instance, Timothy Jensen in-terprets Ramakrishna’s ‘insanity’ ‘as not inci-dental either to his period of intensive medi-tational practices or his teaching, for in his un-derstanding it was precisely through “mad-ness” that God is realized, and it is throughmadmen that God speaks.’8

This suggests, in fact, a distinction, ar-gues Jensen, (‘a dichotomy’) ’repeatedly seenbetween the one who has realized God and the



conventional, even though pious, household-er’. In short, while all madmen cannot be ‘saidto have realized God’, madness is ‘the closesthuman analogue to Ramakrishna’s realizationof the divine, in his own eyes and perhaps inthose of his disciples as well.’

But far more significant frames are sug-gested by Carl Olson.9 Placing Ramakrishnaalongside saints such as St Francis of Assisi,Olson sees madness as a negation of ‘reason-ing or rational argument based on scripture’that prevents one from ‘direct realization’. Asin the case of ‘other ascetics and saints beforehim’, Ramakrishna’s ‘madness’ ‘functions as asymbol of the holy person, the divine-intoxi-cated one, the realizer of ultimate reality, orthe liberated one’. In addition to ‘demonstrat-ing wide mood swings’, such a state of mind—‘insanity’—‘is an indication that the life repre-sents one’s final birth. The mad individual isno longer subject to the cycle of time.’ In thissense, Ramakrishna’s madness, concludes Ol-son, ‘is a celebration of his freedom and a man-ifestation of it’. The sanity of divine madnessunhinges the insanity of the ordinary. As Tho-mas Merton put it, ‘The whole concept of san-ity in a society where spiritual values have losttheir meaning is itself meaningless.’

Thus Ramakrishna’s ‘madness’ is a chal-lenge to cognitive maps extant in the West.Controversion of common notions of rational-ity, emphasis on ‘direct perception, the tran-scending of time and the cycles of birth—andan extraordinary range of ‘mood swings’without a trace of abnormality—all these fea-tures suggest that the theories of cognitionneed radical updating. If updated in all its im-plications, we get in Ramakrishna an extreme-ly effective prescription of the world and theincarnation who ‘sports’ in that as, cognitive-ly, the world of lila and nitya as its alternatecurrents.

The Incarnation

‘Ramakrishna’s mystical experience withJesus in 1874,’ says Daniel Bassuk, ‘is highly

significant as it marks the beginning of the as-similation of Jesus Christ into the Hindu reli-gion on par with the Hindu Avatars. From thistime forward, the Hindu God-men have aspiritual brother in Sri Isha, another Avatar tocontend with, and a Western one at that.’10

‘Contend with’ are important words for,as Beatrice Bruteau says, this is a ‘challenge inthe Eastern attitude toward the divine incar-nation’. Quoting Ramakrishna’s words that‘when an incarnation comes, a tidal wave ofspirituality breaks upon the world,’ Bruteauspells out the Hindu point of view: ‘… for onereligion to claim that its hero alone is the onlyincarnation is small-minded in several ways:bigoted, ignorant of world history, unaware ofthe largeness of God, spiritually undeveloped,immature, and leads to hostility rather thanharmony.’ She says, this is ‘a severe challengebut one that has to be faced in a world that istruly global now, in which we are all drawingcloser together, sharing our lives more andmore intimately’.

These are insights largely shared bymany students of the religious situation today.Dialogue on inclusive pluralism is increas-ingly heard. As Rev Kenneth Cracknell, con-ceding that ‘there are indeed some black spots,places where challenge has gone unheeded’,says, ‘taken as a whole, the picture gives usgrounds for hope: men and women all over …have set out on the way of dialogue, and dia-logue will lead to discovery and the discoverywill be of God greater than our feeble thoughthad deemed possible.’11 Finally, Diana L Eckpoints out that ‘plurality of religions is not in-terpreted as a ‘problem’ to overcome. It is afact of our world. And it is one we must en-counter creatively if we are to make sense ofthe world.’12

Seen against this background, for the Ra-makrishna Vedanta movement this couldmean the challenge of interfaith dialogue as‘assimilation’ of a ‘faceless’ nature. Thus Ra-makrishna ceases to retain his ‘uniqueness’ asincarnate divinity. Of course, to ‘Hinduize’

Ramakrishna Vedanta in the West: New Interfaces and Challenges 491


Ramakrishna is improper, but more than this,to ‘universalize’ him as on a par with globalmarketing strategies is, again, to make him ananonymous non-entity.

In this respect the equating of Ramakri-shna and Christ has to be achieved with sensi-tivity and experiential spirituality. For in-stance, Hans Torwesten’s insight could as wellbe an effective frame: ‘What makes [Ramakri-shna] so Christ-like that we can speak of an“unknown Christ in Hinduism”, with a slightand yet momentous shift in meaning whichthe Indian theologian Panikkar gave to the ti-tle of his book, not a Christ hidden in Hinduphilosophy, but a Christ who lived a hundredyears ago and is still unknown to most Chris-tians?’13

Lila as a Comprehensive Cognitive Map

The ‘momentous’ shift in meaning is ac-tually the challenge of redefining the newmodel of the universe as conforming to andconfirming the Great Master’s central percep-tion of the universe as lila, the playful enact-ment of the fun-loving Mother, the placing of‘Goddessliness’ and its femininity at the cen-tre of things. So if things fall apart, we have asecond coming.

Lila as a concept has evoked tremendousinterest. Apart from Bettina Baumer’s pio-neering work (and the seminal essay by Anan-da K Coomaraswamy), the very idea is nowregarded as constituting a crucial hermeneutictool for interpretation across boundaries. Theidea of lila, as William S Sax says in a recentvolume on the subject, ‘appears to mark a de-lightful difference between European andSouth Asian traditions, embodying a ludic di-mension in Indian religious life that is mutedor even absent in the dominant religions of theWest.’ Noting that ‘though there may be ex-amples of “playfulness” in Judaism, Christia-nity or Islam, still it seems fair to say that Hin-duism had developed the doctrine of playmore than any of the other so-called world re-ligions, and that this idea has supported, par-

ticularly, in the most recent religious history ofthe subcontinent a pervasive attitude of joyand delight in God’s lila.’14

The centrality of lila in Ramakrishna canhardly be exaggerated. As Malcolm McLeanin a recent essay on the subject of lila has put it,Ramakrishna ‘is fond of stressing the wilful-ness of the Mother, her right to do with us andthe world whatever she chooses.’ But his lila—‘a constant theme that manifests itselfthrough [Ramakrishna’s] life’15—constitutesseveral challenges: wilfulness, unpredictabil-ity, the assumption of several aspects includ-ing madness, are certainly challenges to neatmechanistic models of the universe. In otherwords, if all these negative aspects are put inthe metaphors of Advaita, it is to allow the il-lusion of rope and snake to resolve itself not interms of reality but of play. As Arthur C Dantohas observed, ‘When the snake gives way tothe rope, the principles worked out for copingwith snakes are not invalidated as such, butmerely put out of play.’16

Ramakrishna would still say that puttingsomething out of play is not ceasing to be partof the play but to catch the Mother, as childrendo in the game of hide and seek. Then one be-comes a passive participant, a sakshi. If badthings happen to good people, good peopleplay along and do not feel inclined to be badsince lila requires both for dramatic continu-ity.

Thus lila and our participation in it is aneffective analogue for the meditative practiceitself in which ‘you are the actor, you are theone who is plowing’ or, one can add, ‘playing’.Lila predicates a balanced picture (stemmingfrom bhavamukha) of the order emerging out ofchaos. This is a challenging paradigm whichresolves several anomalies without dissolvingthem—a fact evident in Ramakrishna’s life it-self.

Conclusion

In his study of the contemporary ‘questfor wisdom’ in the US, Tony Schwarz says,



‘The flowering of more comprehensive ap-proaches to wisdom, uniting the best of theEast and the West represents a historic first.Never before have we had access to so manytechnologies of transformation or to so muchknowledge about the full spectrum of humanpossibility. … these comprehensive approach-es, perhaps, never before have been so desper-ately needed.’17

Achieving ‘comprehensive’ spirituality isa challenge Ramakrishna Vedanta both posesand receives. It has to receive, specially, thenearly imperative need to interpret Ramakri-shna Vedanta shruti in the light of Westernsmritis—without privileging either. Enteringpolemics is no answer; intensifying inner re-sources—perennial in their originating purity—is. �

References

1. Lex Hixon, Coming Home: The Experience of En-lightenment in Sacred Traditions (New York:

Doubleday, 1978), 42-57.

2. Walter G Neevel Jr, ‘The Transformation of

Ramakrishna’ in Hinduism: New Essays in theHistory of Religions, ed. Bardwell L Smith

(Leiden: E J Brill, 1976), 53-97.

3. Malcolm McLean, ‘A Translation of the Sri SriRamakrishna Kathamrita’ (PhD dissertation;

Otsgo, 1983).

4. Quoted in Robert W Funk, Language, Herme-neutics and the Word of God (New York: Harper

& Row, 1966), 65.

5. Charles Malamoud, Cooking the World: Ritualand Thought in Ancient India (New Delhi: Ox-

ford University Press, 1996), 197.

6. William Irwin Thomson, The Time FallingBodies Take to Light (London: Rider Hutchin-

son, 1981), 61.

7. Erna M Hoch, Sources and Resources: A WesternPsychiatrist’s Search for Meaning in the AncientIndian Scriptures (Delhi: Book Faith India, 1993),

313.

8. Timothy A Jensen, ‘Madness, Yearning and

Play’ (doctoral dissertation; Chicago,1978),

218.

9. Carl Olson, The Mysterious Play of Kali: An In-terpretive Study (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990),

66.

10. Daniel Bassuk, Incarnation in Hinduism andChristianity: The Myth of the God-Man (Basing-

stroke: Macmillan, 1987), 66.

11. Rev Kenneth Cracknell, ‘The Meeting of Peo-

ple of Different Faiths in Britain Today’, Ap-

pendix to John Hick, God Has Many Names:Britain’s New Religious Pluralism (London:

Macmillan, 1990).

12. Diana L Eck, Encountering God (New Delhi:

Penguin, 1995), 152.

13. Hans Torwesten, Ramakrishna and Christ (Kol-

kata: Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Cul-

ture, 1999), 82.

14. William S Sax, The Gods at Play (New York: Ox-

ford University Press, 1995), 3-4. For a recent

discussion on the significance of lila, see Eliot

Deutsch, ‘An Outline of Advaita Vedantic

Aesthetics’ in Relativism, Suffering and Beyond:Essays in Memory of Bimal K Matilal, eds. P Bili-

moria and J N Mohanty (New Delhi: Oxford

University Press, 1997), 336-47.

15. Malcolm McLean, ‘At the Whim of the God-

dess: The Lila of the Goddess in Bengal Sak-

tism’ in The Gods at Play.

16. Arthur C Danto, Mysticism and Morality: Ori-ental Thought and Moral Philosophy (Harmonds-

worth: Penguin, 1976), 30.

17. Tony Schwarz, What Really Matters: Searchingfor Wisdom in America (New York: Bantam,

1996), 432.

Bibliography

1. Edward C Dimmock, The Place of the HiddenMoon: Erotic Mysticism in the Vaishnava Sahaji-ya Cult of Bengal (Chicago: University of Chi-

cago, 1989).

2. Jeffrey J Kripal, Kali’s Child (Chicago: Univer-

sity of Chicago, 1995).

3. Narasingha P Sil, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa: APsychological Profile (Leiden: E J Brill, 1991)


Ramakrishna Vedanta in the West: New Interfaces and Challenges 493

Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi: Her Glory andDivinity

DR UMESH GULATI

‘Without Shakti (Power) there is noregeneration for the world. Why isit that our country is the weakest

and the most backward of all countries? Be-cause Shakti is held in dishonour there. Moth-er [Sri Sarada Devi] has been born to revivethat wonderful Shakti in India; and makingher the nucleus, once more will Gargis andMaitreyis be born into the world,’ wrote Swa-mi Vivekananda in a letter to Swami Shiva-nanda from the US in 1894.1

Since Swamiji wrote these lines, HolyMother Sri Sarada Devi has become a house-hold name. One wonders, however, whatprompted Swamiji to stress the glory and di-vinity of Holy Mother to his brother disciples.Perhaps Swamiji wanted to reinforce in themtwo ideas: One, to emphasize that Holy Moth-er was an equal of Sri Ramakrishna in divinetreasures and his true spiritual successor. Sec-ond, and more important, he wanted his broth-er disciples to know the role Sri Ramakrishnahad envisioned for her in the spiritual revivalof Indian society in general, and the social re-juvenation of women everywhere in particu-lar.

Mother in Sri Ramakrishna’s Eyes

About the first idea, Sri Ramakrishnahimself had indicated in so many ways thatHoly Mother, who could only barely read,was indeed Sarasvati, the Goddess of Wis-dom, who had come to impart spiritualknowledge to the world.2 While the Masterwas like an ‘unsheathed sword’ in projectinghis divinity and kept many great intellectualsof the time spellbound by his eloquence,Mother’s divinity was, however, hidden be-

hind the veil of ordinariness and commonnessof an Indian housewife.3 The Master thereforewanted to change that impression and set thestage for her future role in continuing his spiri-tual ministry and spreading his message.

One day in Dakshineswar the Mastertold some listeners, which included Narendraand Mahendranath Gupta (M), that God can-not be attained by reasoning; He is beyondscriptures. He went on to say, ‘If I see a manwith even one book in his hand, I call him a ra-jarshi (or a seer who appears with outer splen-dour, like a king), though he is a jnani (or aman of knowledge). But the brahmarshi (or aseer who dwells in Brahman-Consciousness)has no outer sign whatsoever.’4 It won’t be anexaggeration to say that the Master regardedMother as a true brahmarshi; her very ordi-nariness gave away her hidden spiritual excel-lence.

One in Spirit with the Master

He confirmed this impression about Sa-rada Devi as an acme of spiritual realizationwhen one day she asked him how he regardedher. He replied, ‘Really and truly I always re-gard you as the embodiment of the blissfulMother of the Universe.’5 The Master even for-malized it by worshipping her as the DivineMother in her aspect of Shodashi in the sum-mer of 1872. After the worship both the wor-shipper and the worshipped merged into eachother and became one in spirit. No wonder allthe direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna lookedupon Holy Mother as one in spirit with theMaster. Swami Abhedananda summarizedhis brother disciples’ sentiments in his hymnto Sri Sarada Devi that begins with ‘Prakìtió


Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi:Her Glory and Divinity

paramám’: ‘Your essence is one with Ramakri-shna. His name brings you great joy. O Em-bodiment of his thought alone, I salute youagain and again.’

There are many examples by which HolyMother showed how she had become one withthe thought current of the Master. For in-stance, no sooner did the he say to Narendra(later Swamiji) to eat in his room, seventy-fivefeet away from Mother’s, than she began tocook Narendra’s favourite dishes. Anothertime the Master asked Sarada Prasanna (laterSwami Trigunatitananda) to get his carriagefare from Mother. Before the boy even reachedthere, his carriage money was on the steps ofthe nahabat. We would like to mention justone more incident. Once the Master had de-cided to take a number of his men and womendevotees to attend the great Vaishnava festi-val at Panihati. Just before the departure of theparty for the festival, Mother inquired througha woman devotee if she too could join theparty. The Master told the devotee, ‘She maygo if she wishes.’ Hearing these words, HolyMother said to the devotee, ‘Quite a number ofpersons are going with him; besides, the placewill be filled with people. … So I won’t go.’ Asit turned out, the Master was pleased with thatdecision. He said after returning from the fes-tival, ‘If people had seen her with me, theywould have made fun of us and teasingly said,“There go the hamsa and the hamsi [a pair ofswans].” She is very intelligent.’ (70) Informedabout the Master’s reaction, Mother said, ‘I re-alized he was not wholeheartedly giving mepermission to go. Instead of saying, “Yes, ofcourse she will go,” he merely said, “She maygo if she wishes.” He left the decision to me. SoI gave up the idea of going.’ (71)

Mother of the Ramakrishna Movement

In the letter mentioned above, Swamijialso revealed to his brother disciples that be-fore he went to America he had sought Moth-er’s permission and blessings, which she readi-ly granted and prayed for the success of his

mission to the West. Swamiji noticed in Amer-ica how the women there were free and self-confident and were the real shakti (power) be-hind enterprising men. ‘Yet they worship Her[Shakti] ignorantly through sense gratifica-tion. Imagine then what a lot of good they willachieve who will worship Her with all purity,in Sattvika spirit, looking upon Her as theirMother!’ That explains why Swamiji wantedto set up Sarada Math even before Rama-krishna Math and to make Holy Mother itscentral figure. Once back in India, however,Swamiji changed his mind about SaradaMath.6 No one was more pleased than Motherherself for bringing into being RamakrishnaMath and Ramakrishna Mission first, for shehad earnestly prayed to the Master for her mo-nastic children to have a place of their own. Inthe words of Swami Tapasyananda, ‘She is, ina very real sense, the Mother [and the de factoleader] who gave birth to the spiritual move-ment associated with Sri Ramakrishna’s name.’7

Swami Saradananda says that one of theattributes of incarnations is their omniscience;8

they always live in the present. Being omni-scient means that an incarnation has theawareness of ‘the origin, middle and end of allobjects of the world’. For example, Sri Rama-krishna, an incarnation of this age, knew verywell the inner world of each and every one ofhis disciples as one sees an object in a glasscase. He also knew who he himself was, hismission in this world, and how each one of hisdisciples and devotees fitted into the broaderpicture. Of course, an incarnation doesn’t getthis knowledge by discursive reasoning, asyou and I would do, but by immediate and di-rect perception. That is how Sri Ramakrishnaknew Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi’s place inhis overall life and mission. True, he neververbalized it, and no incarnation ever doesthat. Unlike an ordinary person, an incarna-tion doesn’t consider all the pros and cons be-fore making a decision. And yet whatever hedoes is right. In other words, Sri Ramakrishnahad anticipated Holy Mother’s role in his fu-

Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi: Her Glory and Divinity 495



ture spiritual ministry. That, after all, is thesignificance of the Master’s marriage—not tosatisfy any worldly desire but to make his wifeas an equal partner in his divine play and mis-sion. He foresaw in Sarada, then only fiveyears old, a perfect instrument to teach hu-manity, especially householders, the meaningand purpose of life and how to live it. Only afew days before his mahasamadhi at the Cos-sipore garden house he finally told her thatshe had to do a lot more than what he haddone.

All the brother disciples of Swamiji heldHoly Mother in a very high esteem. In fact,they all thought her to be a living Durga. Suchadoration and even supplication from such‘jewels of sons’, however, would have turned

the head of a lesser person. But Mother was di-vinity incarnate, with humility as its identicaltwin. Though conscious of it, she very rarelyexpressed it. For example, she told her cousinShibu, a small boy then, ‘Yes, I am Kali.’ Sheonce said, ‘In the fullness of spiritual realiza-tion, a person finds that the God who residesin his heart resides in the hearts of all—the op-pressed, the lowly, and the untouchable. Thisrealization makes one truly humble.’9 As acorollary one also becomes more loving, car-ing and serves everyone as the manifestationof God.

Love Was Her Gospel

Holy Mother once remarked that renun-

ciation was Sri Ramakrishna’s special mes-sage. Love is synonymous with renunciation,and it is love that was Mother’s gospel. Forlove without renunciation becomes maya, butrenunciation in action is karma yoga. If Sri Ra-makrishna’s message of renunciation, of‘woman and gold’ and ‘I’ and ‘mine’, has to beactualized, it must get its bone and flesh inlove and selfless service. That is where MotherSarada comes in, who began her spiritual min-istry of service from the very day she movedinto the nahabat, the fifty-square-foot roomthat became the base of her operations. Thissmall room served as her bedroom and thesupplies room as well. It is from here that sheserved Sri Ramakrishna and his increasingnumber of disciples, working for more than

twelve hours a day. Althoughthe Master himself called thiscramped room a ‘cage’, she her-self had no complaints. On thecontrary, she often remarked inreference to her days in Dakshi-neswar, ‘How happy I wasthen!’ Mother was happy be-cause she loved the Master andhis mission, not for the sake of thehusband but for the Self, intu-itively hearing the voice of SageYajnavalkya. The Master gave

sermons on God and renunciation of ‘womanand gold’, but it was left to Mother to clarifytheir meaning by her own example.

One may not agree with Sister Nivedita’simplied remark that without Rani Rasmanithere would have been no Ramakrishna.10 Butjust as without Radha, there could be no Kri-shna or Vrindaban, the same way withoutMother there would have been no Ramakri-shna, or the Ramakrishna Order with God-re-alization and service as its twin objectives.Even Sri Ramakrishna acknowledged his in-debtedness to her. He once said that if shewere not that pure, who knew if he himselfmight not have lost self-control. As Swami Bu-dhananda has put it:


He foresaw in Sarada, then only five yearsold, a perfect instrument to teach

humanity, especially householders, themeaning and purpose of life and how to

live it. Only a few days before hismahasamadhi at the Cossipore garden

house he finally told her that she had to doa lot more than what he had done.

Sri Ramakrishna could not have been the ‘Ka-pala-mochana’ that he is, unless Sri Saradamanihad been the Holy Mother that she is. Think forinstance, what would have happened if Sri Ra-makrishna were to turn an ordinary house-holder! There was no law under the sun whichcould have barred Sri Sarada from claiming herright according to Dharma. But how very easilyshe transcended the urge of becoming themother of a few, for was she not the Mother ofall? Thus in one sense Sri Ramakrishna is the gift ofSri Sarada to humanity.

11(Emphasis added)

Mother above Anything Else

Although Holy Mother regarded theMaster her guru, once in a while she turnedthe tables on him. One day Mother, as usual,carried a plate of food for the Master to hisroom when a woman devotee standing out-side his room said, ‘Mother, please let mecarry the plate.’ Mother agreed, and the wom-an carried the plate, and placing the plate be-fore the Master, hurriedly left the room. Sincethe Master knew that the woman had led animpure life, he refused to eat from ‘out of thosedefiled hands’ until Mother promised that shewould not let anyone else, especially thatwoman, carry the plate. Sarada Devi saidfirmly, with folded hands:

I cannot give any such promise, but I shall try tobring your food myself. If someone addressesme as ‘Mother’ and wishes to carry the plate, Ishall not be able to refuse. You must not forgetthat you are not my Lord alone; you are theLord of all.

12

What woman would show such indiffer-ence to her exclusive right on her husband’sattention! What a wonderful lesson on spiritu-ality, divine love and detachment, from a dis-ciple of a doyen of spirituality! Only a sage ofequal standing could dare speak like that.

Her Compassion for the Fallen

There were other times when Holy Moth-er expressed her compassion and forgivenessfor the so-called fallen women. A certain ladyof ill repute used to visit Mother at Udbodhan

House in Calcutta. One day Balaram Babu’swife informed her through someone that ifthat woman continued visiting Mother, sheand her friends would stop coming. HolyMother replied that anyone who had takenrefuge in her would come regardless ofwhether anyone else liked it or not. In fact, sheeven accepted food from that devotee, andothers fell in line. Unlike the Master, who wasvery selective in accepting his devotees, Moth-er was same-sighted and accepted all regard-less of their purity and lifted them up fromthere. She even did japa on their behalf and of-ten told them, ‘When you are in distress, justsay to yourself, “I have a Mother.”’ True to herwords, Mother told another woman who, in asincere mood of repentance, made a confes-sion of her past sins: ‘Come in, I shall initiateyou. Offer everything at the feet of the Master.What is there to fear?’13 Truly, she spoke in themanner of Jesus to Mary Magdalene!

Conferred Prestige on Womanhood

Her empathy, compassion and forgive-ness not only revealed the best of Mother-hood, but also redeemed womanhood frometernal damnation since the Fall of Adam andEve from the Garden of Eden, for which wom-en have been blamed for every evil in man.One day in great privacy Sri Ramakrishnaasked Mother if she had come to Dakshines-war to drag him to the path of samsara. Moth-er’s reply was spontaneous and direct. ‘No.On the contrary, I have come to help you onyour chosen path.’ Here we quote Swami Bu-dhananda again:

The prestige which Sri Saradamani conferredon the entire womanhood by this act of su-preme renunciation, has yet to be understoodand assumed by the womenfolk of the world.This was not only a great event in the lives of SriRamakrishna and Sri Sarada Devi; correctly un-derstood, it is one of the greatest events in hu-man history. This was virtually opening thegates of liberation for the millions [of womenthroughout the world].

14



Concern for Her Children’s WelfareAs the number of devotees visiting her

began to increase, their physical comfort be-came her personal concern. She not only wait-ed on them, but also often cleaned their platesand washed their laundry; indeed no workwas too menial for her. She gave this lovingcare to everyone without any distinction ofcreed or caste. If a devotee protested that itwas a sin to receive service from a brahmin,and a guru at that, she would say that devo-tees have no caste. She served Amjad, a Mus-lim worker, with the same loving care as shedid for Sarat (Swami Saradananda).

Holy Mother kept a keen eye especiallyon the health of her monastic children, as sheknew that the monastery couldn’t providethem nourishing food. In 1891, nineteen-year-

old Kalikrishna, later known as Swami Viraja-nanda, accompanied Swami Saradanandaand others to visit Mother at her village inJayrambati. When the time for them to leavearrived, they fell sick. So Mother did not allowthem to leave until they recovered and gainedstrength. During their stay at her house shecooked for them nourishing food and wentfrom door to door to procure milk for them.Many years later, ailing Gangadhar Maharaj(Swami Akhandananda) came to Calcutta toget medical treatment. When his brother disci-ple Baburam Maharaj (Swami Premananda)met him and asked why he had not visited hisbrothers at Belur Math, he said:

Mother compelled me to come from Sargachifor my treatment. She has appointed a Kaviraj(doctor). Here I take medicine regularly; I’m on

a diet. Now if I go elsewhere, Mother will scoldme. Besides, (smiling) you are all renunciates;can you serve me a protein diet there?

15

However, after Swami Premananda in-sisted and promised to do everything to makehim comfortable, Swami Akhandananda leftwith him for Belur Math. Before anyone re-gards it as an insult to Mother, one must bearin mind that it is in the nature of a child to doexactly the things that its mother has forbid-den it. One must also not forget that regardlessof how much we might consider those swamisas spiritual giants, for Holy Mother they wereher gems of children! And, it is this very play-fulness of these saints that authenticated theirMother-child relationship.

Of course, everyone in the RamakrishnaOrder, from Swami Vivekananda down to the

last servant, respected Motherfor that and went to her for ad-vice or to lodge a complaint. Inevery case her word was takenas final. She based all her deci-sions on the criteria of thestrength they would engenderin forging a solid foundation forthe infant Order and leading itinto a fraternity of brothers. An

incident that occurred at the Koalpara ashra-ma is worth mentioning. The head of this ash-rama was very stern and authoritarian in hisdealings with workers. So these workers likedto spend more time with Mother at her villagein Jayrambati. The leader mentioned to herabout their disobedience and requested hernot to encourage them by giving them goodfood. Mother was outraged by what the mansaid and remarked, ‘What is the matter withyou? What do you mean? Love alone is the es-sential thing. Our organization is growingonly through love. I am their Mother. How im-pudent you are to mention to me their food.’16

Needed: Reorientation of Relationships

According to Aristotle, man is essentiallya political animal. As such, we live in a rela-



Holy Mother wanted us to turn our gazeinside and awaken to the fact that the Self

in us is the Self in all. By doing so, alldifferences separating us will vanish, and

we will become one family of brothers andsisters, helping and serving one another.

tionship with one another in this world. Thelife of Holy Mother is a profound message inthe art of living in a society of people, at home,workplace, organization and community; thesecret is to live and work for others. Motheronce said that the Master had left her to dem-onstrate to the world the Motherhood of God.What it means is that one should serve andwork for others like a mother does for her ownchildren. Working and serving out of love iscalled karma yoga, and for householders it isone of the best ways to realize God and attainmoksha; it is also a therapy for leading ahappy life.

Today the whole world is living in fearand insecurity. That is because we identifyourselves with the externals, our body forms,religions and nationalities. These are thebreeding grounds for jealousy, hatred and fa-naticism. Holy Mother wanted us to turn ourgaze inside and awaken to the fact that the Selfin us is the Self in all. By doing so, all differ-ences separating us will vanish, and we willbecome one family of brothers and sisters,helping and serving one another. In order tomake this a reality, Mother wanted us not tofind fault with others, but be aware of our ownfaults. For no one is perfect, not even devas. Ifthey were, they would have attained their lib-eration already. After all, morality or righ-teousness is not absolute; considering it socauses all the conflicts and unhappiness in theworld. So Mother wanted us to choose, in thewords of Rabbi Kushner, happiness over ourown standards of righteousness.17 We shouldaccept others as they are by cultivating virtuesof forbearance and forgiveness. What a pro-found lesson in practical Vedanta! Reori-enting relationships on these lines, and medi-tating on Holy Mother, will help us subdueour passions of lust, jealousy, hatred and

pride, and release so much of our dormant en-ergy for constructive purposes like removingpoverty, ending violence and securing worldpeace. �

References

1. The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, 9


1997), 7.484.

2. Swami Gambhirananda, Holy Mother Sri Sara-da Devi (Madras: Sri Ramakrishna Math,

1977), 114.

3. See T M P Mahadevan, ‘Sri Sarada Devi and

the Mission of India’ in Sri Sarada Devi: TheGreat Wonder (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama,

1994), 234.

4. M, The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, trans. Swami

Nikhilananda (Chennai: Sri Ramakrishna

Math, 2002), 882.

5. Swami Nikhilananda, Holy Mother (New York:

Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1982), 40.

6. Kumud Bandhu Sen, ‘Sarada Math: Why Not

during Mother’s Time?’ in Prabuddha Bharata,

January 2004, 68-70.

7. Great Wonder, 165.

8. Swami Saradananda, Sri Ramakrishna and HisDivine Play, trans. Swami Chetanananda (St

Louis: Vedanta Society of St Louis, 2003), 166.


10. The Complete Works of Sister Nivedita, 5 vols.

(Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1995), 1.190.



13. Ibid., 174.


15. Swami Sambuddhananda, ‘Meeting Holy

Mother and Baburam Maharaj: One Day’s Ex-

perience’ in Vedanta Kesari, January 2004, 8-9.


17. Harold S Kushner, How Good Do We Have toBe? (New York: Little Brown, 1996), Chapter 5.



The genius of communication is the ability to be both totally honest and totally kind at the

same time.

—John Powell

A Survey of the Mind

SWAMI SATYASWARUPANANDA

(Continued from the previous issue)

Some Psychological Issues

The experiential world of Yoga-Vedantaalso delineates several issues of deeptheoretical and empirical import to psy-

chology. They outline a system of mental prac-tices that explore and utilize the diverse capa-bilities of the human mind to help one dis-cover the ontological ground of one’s being.

Unfortunately, Western psychology, dom-inated for the most part by the behavioural and(Freudian) psychodynamic schools, has hadvery little to say about but the most common-place human behaviour. The relatively newerhumanistic and transpersonal schools, cen-tred on the human, transpersonal and cosmicdimensions of the personality, and focusingon the individual’s inner potential for growth,are still some way from becoming major forcesin Western thinking. To make matters worse,most mainstream Western psychologists havebeen ignorant of the psychological insightsfurnished by Eastern thought, or harbour pro-found misconceptions about it. When Freudstarted a correspondence with RomainRolland after the First World War, Rollanddrew his attention to the spontaneous reli-gious sentiment (as opposed to formal reli-gion), ‘the feeling of the eternal’ (or ‘oceanic’feeling), which, according to Rolland, is notonly not uncommon but widely exerts a richand beneficent power. Rolland asserted thatthis sentiment had never failed him throughhis life, was a source of vital renewal, never af-fected his critical faculties, and had nothing todo with his personal yearnings (it being a con-tact imposed on him as a fact).1 He also sentFreud his biographies of Ramakrishna and Vi-vekananda (as exemplars of this ‘spontaneous

religious sentiment’) on publication. Freudadmitted that he did not know how to explainthis feeling, having himself never experiencedit, but then proceeded to interpret it as an ex-pression of a primitive (or infantile) ego—with poorly defined ego boundaries. He alsobelieved that mystical intuition ‘cannot revealto us anything but primitive, instinctual im-pulses and attitudes—highly valued for anembryology of the soul when correctly inter-preted, but worthless for orientation in thealien external world’. Franz Alexander’s pa-per on ‘Buddhistic Training as Artificial Cata-tonia’ is another oft-quoted example of ill-in-formed psychoanalytic interpretation.

There have been others, however, whoseexperience pointed to the contrary. R M Bucke,a Canadian psychiatrist, had in 1872 a remark-able and immensely joyous experience of ‘in-tellectual illumination quite impossible to de-scribe’. He then brought out an anthology ofthe lives and teachings of personalities with arecorded history of similar experiences. Thiswas his famous work Cosmic Consciousness,which also included a sketchy chapter on SriRamakrishna. Medard Boss, the influentialSwiss existentialist and psychiatrist, wroteabout his experience of Indian holy men in hisbook A Psychiatrist Discovers India (1965):‘There were the exalted figures of the sagesand holy men themselves, each of them a liv-ing example of the possibility of humangrowth and maturity and of the attainment ofan imperturbable inner peace, a joyous free-dom from guilt, and a purified selfless good-ness and calmness.’ (187-8) Alan Roland, acontemporary psychoanalyst (and psychoan-alytic writer) posits a ‘spiritual self’ as distinct


from the ‘phenomenological self’ studied bytraditional psychoanalysts.

Scholars have noted that Freud’s theorieswere influenced by his own personal idiosyn-crasies, family and social upbringing, as alsothe intellectual climate of scepticism, rational-ism and positivism that pervaded the Europeof his times. Although Freud used many anal-ogies from physics to give his views a ‘scien-tific’ flavour, psychoanalysis failed to earn re-spect as an ‘objective’ science. But physics it-self has taken some curious turns since thedays of Freud, and in a remarkable reversal ofpositions mathematicians and theoreticalphysicists are now proposing models of thehuman mind. A subjective idealist, for in-stance, would find Penrose’s world view quiteakin to his own. The classical Aristotelian lawsof thought stand modified today as a result ofempirical observations (like the dual nature oflight), while purely ‘rational’ mathematical in-sights have led to experimental discoveries inphysics that would have otherwise appearedcounter-intuitive (like the bending of light bygravity).

Some Misconceptions aboutEastern Psychologies

The Yoga-Vedanta systems (as also therelated Buddhist psychology embodied in theAbhidhamma and the Vishuddhimagga) providea comprehensive functional model of the hu-man mind that explains not only instinctiveand ordinary motivated behaviour, but also‘the farther reaches of human nature’ and themany dormant potentials of the mind that areseen manifested only occasionally in espe-cially gifted individuals or in persons under-going special discipline. Unfortunately, thesepsychological perspectives have not receivedthe scientific attention they deserve, becauseof several misconceptions, a few of which itwould not be out of place to discuss and clar-ify here.

1. Because Eastern thought is largely reli-gious, the scientific bent of modern psychology has

led the great majority of Western psychologists toignore the teachings of their Eastern counterparts.On the issue of Advaita Vedanta being a reli-gion, the philosopher J N Mohanty argues:

In the process of sadhana (or practice) shravana ishermeneutical, manana is philosophical, nididh-yasana is meditative. None is religious. Themeditative process is akin to explorations intoone’s own psyche, to what may be calledauto-psychoanalysis, than to anything thatcould be called ‘religious’. Moksha, the goal ofthis process, is not supernatural, otherworldly,soteriological. It is not salvation. It is discoveryof the identity between the innermost truth ofone’s ‘psyche’ and the innermost being of theworld: of psychology and physics. What is reli-gious about it?

2

D T Suzuki’s remark, made with regard toBuddhism, is also a perfectly valid appraisalof the position of the Yoga-Vedanta systems:‘What would Freud have said to a religion inwhich there is no God, no irrational authorityof any kind, whose main goal is exactly that ofliberating man from all dependence, activat-ing him, showing him that he and nobody elsebears the responsibility for his fate?’3 On thecontrary, as Joseph Byrnes notes, ‘Hinduismand Buddhism are so “psychologically” ori-ented that the use within the traditions of any-thing other than experimental psychologywould be a redundancy.’4 It is worth notingthat while both the Advaita Vedanta and San-khya-Yoga systems allow for a God, He (orShe) is not central to its theory and practice.One can be an adept in these systems withouteven believing in God.

2. Issues of singular importance to Westernpersonality theories, like developmental and socialinfluence as well as the role of sex differences onmental function are not addressed by Yoga andVedanta. Daniel Goleman has rightly sug-gested that the Eastern perspective of the hu-man lifespan is radically different from West-ern concepts.5 Unlike Western psychology,Yoga-Vedanta takes a developmental per-spective that not only spans across multiplelifetimes but also allows for ontogenetic

A Survey of the Mind 501


movement up and down the evolutionarytree. There are not only good philosophical ar-guments in favour of transmigration6 of thepsychic apparatus, but many researchers haveamassed impressive empirical data in its sup-port.7 Transmigration of the personality struc-ture and continuity of existence often renderthe environmental influences over a few yearsof relatively lesser consequence. Moreover thesocial organization at the time of codificationof these Darshanas was relatively simple andat the same time stratified by well-definedcodes of conduct, so that social influences onbehaviour were not as complex as at present.These theories also do not recognize sex differ-ences in the Atman, the core of individual per-sonality, or any gender-related differences inoverall mental capacities, though other texts(like the Itihasas and Puranas) often discusssuch differences in personality traits and be-haviour.

3. These psychologies being essentially phe-nomenological and a descriptive theory of internalstates, they are very difficult to study objectivelyand experimentally, and leave enough scope forself-deception. This has been the stock argu-ment of behaviourists, who refused to recog-nize mental states as the proper object of psy-chological study. But the newer and influen-tial discipline of cognitive sciences specializesin the study of these very states. Electro-ence-phalography (EEG) and imaging techniques[Positron Emission Tomography (PET), SinglePhoton Emission Computerized Tomography(SPECT) and functional Magnetic ResonanceImaging (fMRI)] now provide powerful toolsfor studying and correlating the electrical andmetabolic activity of the brain with specificcognitive, emotional and volitional processes.It is now possible even to monitor the activityof a single neuron in situ. A whole host of posi-tive physiological and psychological changeshave now been scientifically found to be asso-ciated with meditation. Even differences in thetypes of meditation have been objectively doc-umented. For example, in an oft-cited Indian

study it was found that the EEGs of yogis prac-tising deep one-pointed concentration ofmind showed a pattern that could not be dis-turbed by strong stimuli like flashing lights orloud noise. In contrast, in a Japanese study ofZen masters practising mindfulness, on theirexposure to repetitive stimuli (a series ofclicks, neutral sounds as well as affectivelyloaded words) the EEG showed a continualand steady registering of each sound. They re-sponded as much to the last click as to the firstin a long series, and equally to neutral soundsand emotionally loaded words.

4. Meditation is the key to mental health inEastern traditions. The Western concept ofmeditation is coloured by the Judeo-Christiantheistic tradition, where meditation is synony-mous with discursive prayer or reflection afterscriptural reading, and is intended as ascheme of moral and devotional training. Inthe Indian tradition dhyana is commonlytranslated as meditation and is the penulti-mate of a series of eight steps in Patanjali’sYoga. It involves a very high degree of internalconcentration wherein a solitary train ofthought is maintained to the exclusion of otherthoughts and perceptions.8 But the six priorsteps constitute a long preparatory disciplineaimed at developing concentration of mindand the power of introspection along with de-tachment of the will from the hold of instinc-tual desires (abhyása-vairágyábhyáó tannirodhaë).Abstinence from immoral activities (yama),working with a spirit of objective detachment,invoking thoughts contrary to those arousinginstinctual drives (pratipakøa-bhávanam), men-tal repetition of a mantra (to train the mind toretain a single thought as well as to lay posi-tive samskaras) are all primary disciplinesthat weaken drives (kleùa-tanékaraîa), neutral-ize complexes (by increasing awareness ofone’s thoughts and reactions) and prepare themind for meditation. Many behavioural andcognitive therapeutic techniques used byWestern psychologists—like avoidance andsystematic desensitization by reciprocal inhi-



bition (equivalent to pratipakøa-bhávanam), usedfor the treatment of anxieties and phobias—can be correlated with these basic yogic tech-niques. In its elementary stages, the Vedanticdiscipline of viveka or vichara would involvemuch of cognitive retraining, that is to say, al-teration of maladaptive attitudes and reac-tions to events as well as biased thinking. Dhy-ana and samadhi, then, are higher states ofyoga that can be sustained only after prelimi-nary mental purification attained throughstrenuous practice. Also, it is only in thesestates that the higher faculties of mind becomeapparent.

The Yoga-Vedanta Model of Mind

(In the following discussion we shall beusing rather freely concepts and terminologythat have been separately developed by theYoga and Vedanta systems in order to outlinea comprehensive model of the mind). The Ve-dantists conceive of the human personality aspossessing five components (termed koùas orsheaths), namely the physical (annamaya-koùa),the vital (práîamaya-koùa comprising psycho-physical energies), the mental (manomaya-koùa), the intellectual and judgemental (vijðá-namaya-koùa, also called buddhi, mediatingjudgement and volition and corresponding tothe Western psychological concept of ego) andthe blissful self (ánandamaya-koùa) that has noequivalent in Western psychology).

In terms of personality traits a commonand basic classification is based on the Sankh-ya-Yoga categories (called gunas) of tamas(principle of inertia), rajas (principle of activ-ity) and sattva (principle of equilibrium orequanimity), which are conceived of as thefundamental matrix of Prakriti, or nature. De-tails of the personality traits (based on varyingproportions of the three gunas) have been dis-cussed in the Bhagavadgita.9

The Vedantists conceive of the mind, orantaëkaraîa, in terms of four functional modes:chitta, manas, buddhi and ahaïkára. (a) Chittaacts as the storehouse of memories, samskaras

(or subconscious impressions) and kleùas (lit-erally, ‘pain-bearing obstructions’; they standfor five instinctual mental forces). Samskarasare functionally classified into two: vásanásamskaras responsible for memories of pastevents, and karma samskaras, or karmáùaya(the residue of past actions). The latter, on anindividual basis, provides the impulse to actin certain ways, and collectively, determinesthe species of birth, longevity and the generalpattern of personality and life experiences. Inits collective function the karmáùaya also has atranspersonal and cosmic dimension. (b) Ma-nas comprises the constant perceptions andcogitations (termed vrittis) derived from andworking on sensory inputs, as well as memo-ries rising to consciousness from the depths ofthe chitta. (c) Buddhi is the intrinsic capacity ofthe mind, or antaëkaraîa, to get concentratedinto a limited number of (usually logically oremotionally linked) vrittis. Buddhi manifestsas a definitive judgement (niùcayátmiká buddhi)or a conscious decision to act (saïkalpa or kriti).It is worth remembering that in the over-whelming majority of people this saïkalpa, orvolition, is simply determined by the interplayof karmáùaya and kleøa and can hardly betermed free volition. (d) Ahaïkára is the mentalmode of self-reference and self-awareness thatall humans possess. It is responsible for appro-priating all physical and mental perceptionsand activities. In common parlance the termahaïkára is equated with egotism or ego buttechnically it refers only to the ‘I-sense’ (theasmitá component of the kleøas). Pure con-sciousness (chit or chit-shakti), which is the verynature of the Atman or Purusha and is not re-lated to any material category, gets identifiedwith the unconscious material (jaõa) dyna-mism of the mind and the product (chit-jaõagranthi) is ahaïkára. The result of this combina-tion is the sense of self-awareness, which iswhat we term empirical consciousness (cheta-na). It is only this chetana that can be the objectof empirical study.10

In the Indian psychological context, be-



haviour is largely determined by samskaras,the dynamic residues of previous experienceslying dormant in the mind. They are storednot only during one’s present lifetime butthrough innumerable previous lives, thus al-lowing for an almost inexhaustible repertoireof behavioural patterns, although in practicethe species, the physical body and the envi-ronment in a given lifetime narrow down therange of samskaras that can actually have afree play.

The formation of karmáùaya as well as itsfructification is closely related to the functionof certain forces termed kleøas, of which rágaand dveøa, the attractive and repulsive drives,provide the familiar feelings of attachmentand hatred to perceived physical or mental ob-jects and lead to corresponding behaviour.Kleøas of a more pervasive nature are asmitá,the sense of self, abhiniveùa, the instinctualpreservation of the self, and avidyá, which bymasking the underlying consciousness pro-vides the matrix for the play of these psychicforces.

Linked to a memory trace or any specificaction (the physical effect of karmáùaya), thekleøas not only result in the personal feelings ofpleasure, pain and the like, but also leave freshkarma residues. Activated repeatedly, a kleøagains strength and results in the activation ofkarmáùaya of certain types leading to fresh ac-tivity and fresh karmáùaya formation, thus set-ting the pattern for behaviour stereotypes.De-linked from kleøas, or overwhelmed by kar-máùaya of a contrary nature, the karma-sams-karas lose their inherent power of impulsegeneration in course of time. The kleøas, then,form the crucial link for all behaviour-modifi-cation strategies.

Over and above this deterministic mindis the Purusha or Atman, the source of the con-sciousness streaming through the buddhi asalso the will (chit-shakti), which guide our con-scious behaviour. The will is responsible forconcentrating the mind and detaching it fromthe play of samskaras and extraneous forces.

This concentration and detachment of themind (or the will) comprises the essence of allvoluntary mental training.

According to this model, deterministicbehaviour derived from the samskaras can bemodified in several ways. First, voluntary ac-tions contrary to the general trend of the kar-máùaya weaken the force of the latter. Second,the kleøas can be consciously attenuated (techni-cally termed tanékaraîa) by contrary thoughts.This is distinct from subconscious repression.Repressed kleøas are technically termed vicchi-nna. Finally, the light of consciousness (prajðá-loka), when brought to bear on the subcon-scious portions of the mind, can completelyneutralize dormant samskaras. This focusingof the prajðáloka requires discipline of a veryhigh order, but even ordinary awareness ofour samskaras through an alert observation oftheir effects on the conscious mind can helpprofoundly alter these effects.11 Most effec-tive psychological therapies depend on thisfocusing of awareness for resolving conflictsand complexes. All meditators are aware ofthe power of meditative awareness in calmingthe mind, reducing impulsiveness and damp-ening vortices of negative thought.

This theory of the mind is in agreementwith many recent neurophysiological find-ings.12 Repeated excitation of a nerve leaves iteasily excitable (termed ‘long-term potentia-tion’, or LTP), which then enhances its facilita-tory or inhibitory function. Repeated stimula-tion has also been shown to alter gene expres-sion, thus laying down long-term memoriesand patterns of behaviour. Also, emotionallycharged cognitions (associated with strongkleøas) that are routed through the limbic sys-tem (responsible for mediating emotions) inthe brain have been found to lay down memo-ries very difficult to erase and thus modify be-haviour accordingly. However, there is noknown neurophysiological equivalent to thetranspersonal dimension of karmáùaya. Also,neurophysiological understanding of aware-ness is still rudimentary. Researchers are fo-



cusing on the neural correlates of attentionand short-term memory as well as global pro-cessing of information by the brain to build atheory of awareness. The theories proposed toexplain the sense of self are, however, not verycredible. For example, some neurobiologistshave proposed that a major portion of thebrain is primarily concerned with the map-ping of bodily as well as external perceptions.A second order of neurons then creates a freshrepresentation of their interaction and this initself gives rise to the feeling of a coherent self.Unfortunately, even personal computers dealwith many second-order representations, butthey have never reported self-awareness.

The most striking insights provided byEastern psychologies are in the domain ofmental powers and advanced capacities. Aswe noted earlier, the mind is actually struc-tured to release tremendous power and attainapparently ‘supernormal’ insights if properlydisciplined, purified of distractions and con-centrated. Here we shall only consider twospecific insights provided by these psycholo-gies: (a) the Atman as the source of all plea-sure; and (b) the mind’s capacity to erase allthought (nirodha). Vedantists identify the At-man as the source of all joy, right down to thepleasure of ordinary sense perception. The At-man is identified not only as the ground of ex-istence (Being), but also as of the nature of con-sciousness and bliss. As stated earlier, percep-tion, in Vedantic epistemology, depends onthe mind’s ‘taking the form of’ its object (tadá-kára vritti). This focused vritti illumined by theconsciousness of the Atman constitutes objec-tive knowledge. In every act of focused percep-tion the Atman is revealed (sákøád-aparokøád-brahma).13 Consequently, every act of knowingleads to satisfaction—a manifestation of thebliss of the Atman. All sensual pleasure also isa result of this focusing of the mind inducedby the object of pleasure.14 However, volun-tary concentration of the mind is an arduoustask (as any schoolchild can aver); in fact, forc-ing a desultory mind into concentration often

results only in reactionary distractedness.Hence the universal urge for novelty thattransfixes the mind involuntarily. This also ac-counts for the sense of joy in and after deepsleep. It is worth noting that neurophysio-logists have identified neurotransmitters thatmediate pleasure. Every novel experience isfound to release endogenous opioids (opium-like substances) in the brain, and this is associ-ated with pleasurable sensation. Neverthe-less, as we have noted earlier, identification ofa chemical mediator does not in itself explainthe psychological experience of pleasure. Thefact that the core of the human personality isblissful or joyous is alien to Western psychol-ogy. In fact, some post-Freudian psychoana-lysts tell us that there is a ‘depressive core’ tothe human personality. Existential psycholo-gists contend that guilt and dread (of Nothing-ness) are basic human existentials that nonecan transcend. In contrast, Yoga and Vedantatake this transcendence to be the very goal(puruøártha) of humanity. Recognizing thistrue source of joy can drastically alter one’sperception of life for the better. Therapists canalso use this insight to help patients with awhole range of disorders including anxietyand depression. Finally, for empiricists, thiscan be a hypothesis that can be put to objectivetest.

Meditators universally record the experi-ence of joy that accompanies meditation onceearly distractions are overcome, and this in-creases till the mind is able to sustain a solitarythought (samánajátæya pratyayapraváha), a statetechnically termed savikalpa samadhi. Yogapsychologists, however, speak of stages evenbeyond this. The mind can actually be turnedoff (termed nirodha), that is, made free of allvrittis. This is distinct from sleep since sleep it-self is a vritti. As the phenomenon is very rare,authentic descriptions of its physiological ef-fects are also difficult to come by. Evidently,the yogi practising nirodha is initially able tostop all vrittis for brief periods only, but onceestablished in the nirodha of asamprajðáta yoga,



most yogis would not be able to reverse theprocess. About the characteristics of nirodha inthe context of Buddhist meditation, DanielGoleman writes:

Although nirodha can last for seven days of thehuman time-rhythm, there is no time sequencein the state itself: the moment immediately pre-ceding it and immediately following it are expe-rienced as of immediate succession. The limit ofseven days given for the duration of nirodhamay be due to its unique physiology: heartbeatand normal metabolism, it is said, cease alongwith consciousness though metabolic processescontinue at a residual level so that the medita-tor’s body can be distinguished from a corpse.’

15

Sri Ramakrishna tells us that for most yogisthe body expires in three weeks’ time follow-ing nirodha. The fact that Sri Ramakrishna’sown heartbeat would stop during samadhiwas recorded by his physician.16 An interest-ing eyewitness account of a yogi’s passingaway twenty-one days after what was appar-ently nirodha, at a Ramakrishna Mission hospi-tal, was recently recorded in this journal.17 Tothe yoga psychologist this is no suicide. It isthe culmination of the effort to regain self-identity (that is, the Atman) unhindered bythe trappings of the mind.

Conclusion

We have briefly reviewed some of the im-portant theoretical and experimental perspec-tives that have a bearing on our current under-standing of the human mind. It is obvious thata lot of ground remains to be covered beforewe can have an adequate empirical under-standing of the mind and mental processes.Developments in disciplines as diverse as psy-chology and theoretical physics are likely tohave important contributions to make in thisprocess. Interdisciplinary collaboration andcollation of ideas will be needed to develop aworking theoretical model of the mind thatcan not only explain known behaviour butalso generate testable hypotheses. This is thevery basis of scientific development. Much ofthe advances in higher experimental and ap-

plied physics has been accompanied (and of-ten preceded) by advances in theoretical phys-ics. The last decade was christened ‘the decadeof the brain’. Many people believe that thiscentury will witness spectacular advance-ments in the empirical understanding of themind and consciousness. The current trend ofevents does not belie that hope. �

Notes and References

1. Selected Letters of Romain Rolland, eds. F Dore

and M Prevost (New Delhi: Oxford University

Press, 1990), 86-8.

2. J N Mohanty, ‘Advaita Vedanta as Philosophy

and Religion’ in Vedanta: Concepts and Applica-tion (Kolkata: Ramakrishna Mission Institute

of Culture, 2000).

3. D T Suzuki, Erich Fromm and Richard De-

Martino, Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis(London: George Allen & Unwin, 1960), 124.

4. Joseph Byrnes, Psychology of Religion (New

York: Macmillan Free Press, 1984), 240.

5. Daniel Goleman, ‘Eastern Psychology’ in The-ories of Personality, eds. C S Hall, G Lindzey

and J G Campbell (New Delhi: John Wiley,

1978), 373.

6. For example, see ‘The Cosmos: Microcosm’ in

The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, 9


1997), 2.212-25; and ‘ Reincarnation’ in ibid.,

4.257-71.

7. Ian Stevenson, Director, Division of Personal-

ity Studies, University of Virginia, USA, has

compiled an International Registry of over

3000 cases of individuals with memories sug-

gestive of reincarnation. Dr Stevenson’s re-

ports are characterized by their attention to

detail, rigorous attempt to cross-check the

claims of the participants and scientific analy-

sis of data to eliminate biases. In India the

leading researcher in this field has been Sat-

want Pasricha, a clinical psychologist at the

National Institute of Mental Health and Neu-

rosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore. Unfortu-

nately, theological, dogmatic, cultural and

personal biases have consistently worked



against the incorporation of these findings in

the orthodox scientific world view. Conse-

quently, psychologists have to persistently

keep ignoring many important behavioural

issues (like the talent of prodigious children)

inexplicable on the basis of a single lifetime,

and several cultures fail to derive the benefits

of a world view with wider existential ‘givens’

which can profoundly and positively affect

one’s approach to issues like disease and

death.

8. William James thought this to be an impossi-

ble task. He wrote in Varieties of Religious Expe-rience, ‘No one can possibly continuously at-

tend to an object that does not change.’

9. See Bhagavadgita 13.19-40 and 17.2-22.

10. The Gita (13.5-6) identifies chetana as an attrib-

ute of køetra, or Prakriti.

11. The Gestalt psychotherapist F Perls had right-

ly noted that ‘Awareness itself can heal.’

12. This is not to suggest that the present neuro-

physiological model is the best way of ex-

plaining mentality.

13. Vedanta Paribhasha of Dharmaraja Adhvarindra,

trans. Swami Madhavananda (Calcutta: Ad-

vaita Ashrama, 1983), 8.

14. See ‘The Bliss of Objects’ in Panchadashi of SriVidyaranya Swami, trans. Swami Swahananda

(Madras: Sri Ramakrishna Math, 1975).

15. Daniel Goleman, The Buddha on Meditation andHigher States of Consciousness (Kandy: Bud-

dhist Publication Society, 1980), 44-5.

16. Swami Saradananda, Sri Ramakrishna the GreatMaster, trans. Swami Jagadananda (Madras:

Sri Ramakrishna Math, 1978), 385.

17. Swami Sarvagatananda, ‘You Will Be a Para-

mahamsa’ in Prabuddha Bharata, January 2003,

16-7.



Two Wolves

An elder Cherokee Native American was teaching his grandchildren about life. He said to

them:

‘A fight is going on inside me.

It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves.

‘One wolf represents fear, anger, envy,

sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance,

self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority,

lies, false pride, superiority and ego.

‘The other stands for joy, peace, love,

hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness,

benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity,

truth, compassion and faith.

‘This same fight is going on inside you and inside everyone.’

They thought about it for a while. Then one of them asked the grandfather, ‘Which wolf will

win?’

The old Cherokee simply replied, ‘The one you feed.’

—from cyberspace

A Special Event in New York City

150th Birthday of Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi andDedication of the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center Buildings

Observance of the150th Birthday ofHoly Mother: First Phase

The Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center ofNew York observed the 150th birthdayof Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi in two

phases. The first phase took place on Sunday,21 December 2003, at 11:00 am, when a specialservice to commemorate the occasion washeld in the Center’s chapel. The devotees at-tending the service filled the chapel. Thosewho could not be accommodated in the chapelwere able to observe the service by means ofclosed-circuit television in other locations inthe Center. Swami Adiswaranandaji gave atalk on ‘Holy Mother, Embodiment of DivineGrace’. Vedic chanting and devotional songswere performed by the Center’s choir. Follow-ing the service, a full-course dinner was servedto the entire congregation. Throughout theseason all books on the life and teachings of

Holy Mother received a special discount at thebookshop and through the Center’s catalogueand website.

Observance of the150th Birthday ofHoly Mother: Second Phase

Later, from 23 to 25 April 2004, the Centercontinued with a second phase of its celebra-tion of the historic 150th birthday with threeprogrammes: a tribute and concert, a sympo-sium and the dedication of the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center buildings. To announcethe events, beautifully printed invitationswere sent to all members and friends of theCenter. Participating in the programmes werethe spiritual leaders of several RamakrishnaOrder centres and other distinguished guests,community leaders and musical artists. Thelist of participants in the three-day event fol-lows:

Swami Adiswaran-anda, Ramakrishna-Viv-ekananda Center of NewYork; Swami Tathagata-nanda, Vedanta Societyof New York; Swami Che-tanananda, Vedanta Soci-ety of St Louis; SwamiTyagananda, Ramakri-shna Vedanta Society,Boston; Swami Yogat-mananda, Vedanta Soci-ety of Providence; Cathe-rine B Carlson, daughterof Chester F and DorrisCarlson (Chester F Carl-son, scientist, inventor ofXerography and past presi-dent of the Center, and


Swamis at the dedication ceremony (l-r): Swamis Tathagatananda, Chetanananda,

Tyagananda and Yogatmananda

Dorris Carlson are notedfor their lives of selfless ser-vice); Gerald P Gehman,President, Willard StraightBlock Association, NewYork City; Alex Herrera,Director of TechnicalServices, New YorkLandmarks Conservan-cy (Erin Tobin Beardon ofthe New York LandmarksConservancy’s SacredSights Division repre-sented Mr Herrera, whowas unable to attend); DrMahendra Jani, Chair-man, Department ofMathematics, WilliamPatterson University,New Jersey, and Found-er and President, Viveka-nanda Vidyapith, New Jersey; Henry Kohn,Past President, 92nd Street Young Men’s He-brew Association, New York City, and Found-er and Director, American Jewish Society forService; Dhan Gopal Mukerji Jr, lecturer on in-ternational affairs and son of noted writerDhan Gopal Mukerji (Dhan Gopal Mukerji’sbook, The Face of Silence (1926), is an English bi-ography of Sri Ramakrishna that introduced SriRamakrishna to many notable personalities of thetime, and thereby contributed significantly to thespread of the Master’s teachings in the West); DrJerome J Pollitt, Professor and Former Dean ofthe Graduate School, Yale University, andPresident, Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Centerof New York; Jon M Sweeney, Editor-in-Chief,SkyLight Paths Publishing, Vermont, and au-thor of Praying with Our Hands, The Road toAssisi and The St Francis Prayer Book.

There were musical offerings by the stu-dents of Vivekananda Vidyapith, an academyof Indian philosophy and culture, New Jersey,and the Randy Armstrong Ensemble, com-prising Randy Armstrong, multi-instrumen-talist, composer; Volker Nahrmann, bass, key-

boards, percussion; and Jose Duque and SteveFerraris, percussion. (Formerly known as UnuMondo and Doah World Music Ensemble, theseartists perform on guitars, bass, keyboards, flutes,drums and over twenty-five traditional instru-ments from around the world, creating an excitingmusical experience. By combining ideas from manycultures and traditions, this unique ensemble isdedicated to exploring and celebrating the spiritualunity and harmony of all humanity.)

Details of the programme follow.

Tribute and Concert

The tribute and concert in honour ofHoly Mother was held on Friday, 23 April, at7:30 pm at the New York Academy of Medi-cine Hosack Hall, 1216 Fifth Avenue, 103rdStreet, New York. As the devotees gatheredand filled the beautiful 500-seat auditorium,they were greeted by a large image of HolyMother projected onto the wall above thestage, while the organ provided a musical pre-lude. The programme then began with a pro-cession of the swamis and other participants.Leading the procession was a group of morethan thirty students of Vivekananda Vidyapith,

A Special Event in New York City 509


A view of the congregation: Seated in the front row are (l-r) Erin Tobin Beardon,

Dhan Gopal Mukerji Jr, Gerald Gehman, Henry Kohn and Catherine Carlson

who made their way towards the stage whileperforming inspiring Vedic chanting. Afterthe chanting, the choir of the Ramakrishna-Vi-vekananda Center performed devotional hymnsand songs as offerings to Holy Mother. Thechanting and music were enhanced by theprojection of beautiful images of Sri Ramakri-shna, Holy Mother, Swami Vivekananda, holyplaces of India and a variety of colourful flow-ers and natural scenes.

Swami Adiswaranandaji then welcomedthe distinguished participants and spokebriefly on the life and message of Holy Moth-er, and said that in the advent and life of HolyMother Sri Sarada Devi we find a modern-dayfulfilment of the promise of Lord Krishna inthe Bhagavadgita that from time to time in thehistory of humanity, whenever the needarises, the Lord incarnates in the world to setthings right and guide us towards our spiri-tual destiny of unity with the Divine. ‘Onehundred and fifty years ago,’ the swami con-tinued, ‘in the small village of Jayrambati inWest Bengal, India, was born such a divinepersonality, Sarada by name, who would latercome to be known affectionately by her devo-tees in India and throughout the world asHoly Mother. A rare combination of human

and divine qualities,Holy Mother continuesto inspire millions ofspiritual seekers. Her lifeand teachings touch ourvery souls and grant uspeace and joy. In her in-visible form she contin-ues to give her blessings,even today, to anyonewho accepts her as thereal Mother and surren-ders to her. Holy MotherSarada is our real Moth-er, not an adopted moth-er, nor a vague mother,but our real Mother.’ Theswami concluded his re-marks on this auspicious

occasion with a prayer to Holy Mother for herblessings of peace and happiness for all.

Swami Adiswaranandaji then intro-duced the distinguished participants, thefour guest swamis and Jon M Sweeney, whoproceeded to the podium in turn, each offer-ing beautiful words of tribute to HolyMother.

After the conclusion of this tribute por-tion of the programme, the swami intro-duced the musical artists of the RandyArmstrong Ensemble, who then began theirconcert, blending sounds from East and Westand featuring an impressive variety of instru-ments from all parts of the world. Each musi-cal selection was received with enthusiasticapplause, and at the concert’s end the audi-ence expressed its appreciation with a stand-ing ovation that subsided only when SwamiAdiswaranandaji thanked the artists andonce again offered a prayer to Holy Motherfor the welfare of all. Feeling greatly upliftedby the evening’s tributes and musical offer-ings, the devotees looked forward to the tworemaining events of the weekend: the sympo-sium on Holy Mother and the Center’s build-ing dedication.



Students of Vivekananda Vidyapith performing Vedic chanting

Holy MotherSymposium

The symposium,entitled ‘Make the WholeWorld Your Own’, tookplace on Saturday, 24April, at 7:30 pm in thechapel of the Ramakrish-na-Vivekananda Centerat 17 East 94th Street,New York City. Nearly300 devotees attended.The programme openedwith the offering of Ve-dic chanting and devo-tional songs by the Cen-ter’s choir, after whichthe life and teachings ofHoly Mother Sri SaradaDevi were beautifullypresented in talks given by Swami Adiswar-anandaji and the other swamis, Dr MahendraJani and Jon M Sweeney. The presentationsserved to illustrate Holy Mother’s teachingsand how those teachings found expression inevery aspect of her life.

Dedication of theRamakrishna-Vivekananda Center Buildings

The three-day programme concluded onSunday, 25 April, at 11:00 am at the Centerwith a special service to dedicate the Center’snewly renovated buildings. The programme’stheme was ‘The Spirit of Service’. In 2001 theCenter purchased the adjacent building (19East 94th Street), and soon thereafter em-barked on an extensive project to join the ac-quired building with its own landmark build-ing, restore the architectural details that hadbeen lost over the years from the façade of theadjacent building, and completely renovateboth buildings. Having almost completed thisproject after more than two years of work, theCenter chose to formally dedicate the build-ings as part of Holy Mother Sarada Devi’s150th birthday celebration. On this sunny

Sunday morning about 300 members andfriends came to help the Center dedicate itsnewly expanded facilities. Everyone was veryhappy to see the bright new façade of the Cen-ter and its chapel and other rooms tastefullydecorated with flower arrangements for theoccasion.

Swami Adiswaranandaji led the visitingswamis and the other distinguished partici-pants into the chapel and then the Center’schoir offered chanting and Indian and West-ern devotional songs. After opening the ser-vice with a prayer, Swami Adiswaranandajiwelcomed the participants and all those whocame to the service and thanked them for be-ing present for this occasion. The swami beganhis introductory remarks by pointing out that‘Upon his return to India, following his his-toric visit to America to participate in theWorld’s Parliament of Religions, Swami Vive-kananda founded the Ramakrishna Orderwith a dual motto: “For one’s own salvationand the good of the world.” Service to human-ity is therefore one of the guiding principles ofthe Ramakrishna Order, and that is why thetheme of this dedication ceremony is “TheSpirit of Service”.’

A Special Event in New York City 511


The new chapel altar

‘For more than one hundred years,’ theswami continued, ‘the monks of the Ramakri-shna Order have been carrying on works ofservice in the Order’s many centres through-out India and other parts of the world. SeeingGod in all people and serving that God throughits hospitals, dispensaries, schools and reliefactivities, the Order has become a model forpublic service. Just two years ago the Order re-ceived the Government of India’s GandhiPeace Prize in recognition of its one hundredyears of humanitarian service—the first timethat the prize was awarded to an entire institu-tion, rather than to an individual. In Americaand other Western countries, the works of ser-vice of our centres consist mostly of providingspiritual nourishment to people, teaching theuniversal principles of Vedanta and further-

ing the cause of interfaith understandingand cooperation, the harmony of religions,and universal tolerance. The Ramakrish-na-Vivekananda Center of New York andall the centres of the Order in America havebeen working silently and steadily since1895, and it can be said that in some form orother the ideals of the Order have gradu-ally struck root in the American culture.Today, as we join together to dedicate ournew buildings, our Center embarks on anew chapter in its life, and in its commit-ment of service. We fervently pray to SriRamakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vi-vekananda so that they may bless us all tocontinue to work for the good of humanityfor many years to come.’

Swami Adiswaranandaji then intro-duced the visiting swamis and other dis-tinguished participants, who spoke on’The Spirit of Service.’ The swamis focusedon the ideal of service as it pertains to theRamakrishna movement as well as to thelives of spiritual seekers. Other partici-pants reflected on the history and traditionof the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Centerof New York, its founding by Swami Ni-khilanandaji more than seventy years ago,

and recalled various interesting chapters inthe Center’s history. Community leaders ad-dressed the Center’s role in the communityand thanked the Center for this latest contri-bution to the city and neighbourhood—the re-storing of a landmark building to its originalbeauty. The dedication programme wasbrought to a conclusion by a joyous song bythe choir, after which Swami Adiswarananda-ji requested everyone present to join in aprayer to Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother andSwami Vivekananda so that the Center maycontinue to serve as a source of spiritual inspi-ration for all. Following a brief tour of the Cen-ter, all in attendance were given a tastefullyprepared luncheon and a souvenir of the occa-sion. �



The restored façade of the Center’s buildings


Parabrahma Upaniøad

TRANSLATED BY SWAMI ATMAPRIYANANDA

The means to the realization of the three-footed (tripáda) Brahman (continued)

… mJoºt rnhãbgu vhu fUtuNu g:iM =uJ=úttu g˜xÓt a ;tzÓbtltu liJuÀguJrb˜xtvq;oNwCtNwCilo rjËg;u > g:t

fwUbthfUtu rl˜fUtb ytlà=brCgtr; > g:iM =uJ& ôJËl ytlà=brCÆttJr; > Ju= YJ vhk ßgtur;& > ßgtur;Mt bt

ßgtur;htlà=gÀguJbuJ > ;Àvhk gr”tútk vhbtÀbtlbtlà=gr; > NwC{JKobtstg;u‡Jht;T > … >>2>>

2. … [Although the self] everywhere (that is, always) [is ever sporting] in the golden (that is, re-splendent or self-luminous) supreme sheath, [it appears to go through the experiences of thethree states due to ignorance],1 just as this Devadatta (representing the jæva), [awakened from hissleep] by being beaten with a stick [lapses no more into the state of slumber once again, and]does not get involved (or tainted) by altruistic actions like iøôá-pérta2 or [any other kind of] goodor evil actions [performed in the world of relative existence].3 [It is] just like a small boy who ex-periences [pure] joy [untainted by and] not born of any [selfish] desire.4 Just like this luminousbeing [after getting fatigued in the waking and dream states] experiences joy in sleep, so [it in-deed] realizes, [that is, remains established in its own real nature as] the all-encompassing su-preme Light [of pure Awareness that illumines even the external] lights [like the sun], thus re-joicing only [in the Bliss of its inner Self].5 The mind (citta), which becomes [transformed, as itwere, into] That [Brahman] attains the Supreme Atman (paramátman) and delights in the Bliss[that is one’s own svarépa, or real nature].6 [In such a mind is] born the [pure] White [by the graceof] æùvara (God).7…

Notes

1. Although ever abiding in the self-luminous, transcendent state of supreme Knowledge, the self, nev-

ertheless, falls into the pit of the three states (waking, dream and deep sleep) by traversing along the

náõæs (ramá, aramá, icchá and punarbhava) being enveloped by its own covering of ignorance.

2. The term iøôá-pérta is often used in Upaniøadic literature to encompass all kámya karma (motivated ac-

tion). Iøôa denotes the actions enjoined in the ùruti, like sacrifices (yága-yajðádi), while pérta denotes

the actions enjoined in the smìti, like digging ponds and tanks, and other works of altruistic or chari-

table nature. But all these actions are motivated by desire and hence fall in the category of kámya kar-ma.

3. In most Vedantic literature, Devadatta is often used as a generic name to represent a person or a jæva.

Suppose a person who is deeply asleep is awakened by beating him with a stick. Such a person nor-

mally does not go back to sleep immediately. Similarly, this jæva too is awakened from his state of

deep slumber by Vedantic knowledge attained through the grace of the ùástras and the guru, who

teach him the highest truth: ‘You are not the limited entity called jæva, subject to the experiences of the

three states. You are verily that Substratum on which the three states are, as it were, superimposed

and whose true nature is revealed by de-superimposition.’ Having been thus awakened to his true

nature as the immortal, ever-pure, ever-aware and ever-free supreme Self, the jæva never again gets

deluded by the experiences of the three states.

4. A small boy experiences pure joy unsullied by desire, because no hankering arises in his mind that

would make him feel ‘Let this [object] be mine.’ He thus derives joy from anything that comes to him



effortlessly and of its own accord.

5. Just as this shining being (deva, meaning the jævátman), though enjoying deep sleep, gets tired and de-

energized on going through the transactions of the waking and dream states and longs to rush back to

the joy experienced in deep sleep, even so, one who realizes the truth of the Great Saying (mahávákya)

‘Ahaó brahmásmi, I am identical with Brahman (which is pure Joy independent of everything other

than Itself)’—having heard this great Truth from the scriptures (ùruti) and the guru (ácárya, or spiri-

tual preceptor), such a one, retracting from this external world of duality, remains as the inner Light

of pure Awareness. He then realizes that his real nature as this inner Light of supreme Consciousness

is the Light that overwhelmingly illumines or irradiates even the huge external lights such as the sun

and the moon. Such an illumined soul then remains established in his svarépa (real nature) as pure

Joy unrelated to any phenomenal existence.

6. When the mind of the sage becomes so absorbed in the contemplation (nididhyásana) of Brahman that

whatever thought arises in his mind becomes, as it were, of the form of Brahman alone (technically

called brahmákára vìtti), then such an illumined sage attains the Supreme Self (paramátman). He then

delights in the Bliss of his own Self and, being overwhelmed by That (Supreme Self), gets absorbed in

It. This is sometimes spoken of as ‘the merging of the mind into the heart’, the heart being identical

with the Self. (See Bhagavadgæta, 8.12; Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi [Tiruvannamalai: Sri Ramanash-

ramam, 1989], 92-3, 378.) Through this merging or absorption, there arises the realization of absolute

non-difference (nirvikalpa jðána).

7. Suppose one asks, from where does the mind of such an illumined sage derive its Brahman-absorp-

tion? The answer is, from God (æùvara). The sage’s mind attains the colour of pure White, meaning the

nirvikalpa state or the state of mind free from all mentations, a state of absolute non-difference. In fact,

the mind then becomes ‘no mind’ (technically called amanæbháva; see ‘Advaita Prakaraîa’, MáîõékyaKáriká, 31), having taken, as it were, the form of the indivisible Brahman Itself (brahmákára- or akhaîõá-kára-kárita). Æùvara is endowed with the powers of action, knowledge and will (kriyá-jðána-icchá-ùakti)that are non-material and of the essence of pure Awareness or Consciousness. Being supremely com-

passionate (parama-káruîika), He devours, as it were, all the obstacles of His devotees, His children,

on the path to supreme realization and leads them to the ultimate Goal out of His unbounded love.

In this connection one may recall Shelley’s immortal phrase: ‘The white radiance of Eternity.’

God alone is the way and the goal of all. Always meditate on Him in your heart. Don’t worry.

He will set everything right. Wherever the Lord keeps you, always pray so that your mind

dwells on Him. And however He may keep you, it is for your own good. … It is always good to be

content with wherever the Lord places you. He is all good and omniscient. He knows what is best

and arranges everything accordingly. But we demand something from Him according to our lik-

ing and create a mess.

‘Those who have worldly desires suffer from restlessness even in the solitude of a forest.

Those who have disciplined their senses practise austerities even while living in a crowded

home.’ (Hitopadesha, Chapter 4) This is the real truth. There is no harm in praying thus: ‘O

Lord, wherever I may be, may I never forget you. May I have the company of your devotees.

Please keep me away from worldly people.’ Call on Him wholeheartedly and He will do what is

good for you.

—Swami Turiyananda

Glimpses of Holy Lives

‘Whatever God Does Is for Our Own Good’

Girivar was a farmer who lived in a smallvillage on the banks of the Narmada. Aman of staunch faith in God’s mercy,

he was fond of repeating his favourite maxim:‘Whatever God does is for our own good.’ ByGod’s grace, Girivar enjoyed favourable cir-cumstances: his old parents were undemand-ing, he had a dutiful wife in Gauri and hisyoung son Uday was always obedient. ‘Whatmore can a man ask for?’ Girivar’s neighbourswould talk behind his back. ‘In his place, any-body could say “Whatever God does is for ourown good!”’

Quite right. A devotee must never makemuch of his reliance on God until it is put tothe test and he passes.

The Trial Begins

Sorrow made its presence felt for the firsttime in Girivar’s contented life when he losthis parents in quick succession. ‘One gets theopportunity of serving one’s parents in theirold age as a result of great good karma,’ hemused sadly. ‘It is my misfortune that I couldnot serve my parents for a longer time. Butthen, these things are in God’s hands. What-ever God does is for our own good.’

The real test, however, was yet to come.And it came soon.

Just as Girivar was getting over the painof bereavement, fate snatched his son too. Theeight-year-old was bathing in the river withhis mother, when a crocodile caught the boyand carried him away before anybody had achance to help. Shouting ‘Oh, God! Save me!’little Uday disappeared under water. Andthey brought an unconscious Gauri home.

Girivar did his best to assuage his wife’sanguish, but she was inconsolable. ‘Gauri my

dear, do you think I don’t share in your suffer-ing? But try to understand. It is futile to wishthings had happened differently. This worldis but a wayside inn. Every individual comesto this world to work out his own karma, andwhen that is done he departs. Really speaking,people are not related to one another as weimagine. Did we know who Uday was beforehe came to us? Do we know where he has gonenow? But we can be sure of this much: our sonhas certainly gone to a better place. After all,he called to God to save him—he did not callout to you or me—and the Lord will never for-sake such a person.

‘Gauri, remember what the sadhu told usthe other day. This world is God’s pleasure-garden and we are His servants. We may havegrown a beautiful flower, but that does notmean the flower belongs to us. On the otherhand, it should be a matter of great joy to us ifthe Owner of the garden should want theflower we have grown.

‘Then again, how can we take it for grant-ed that Uday is dead? What evidence have weof that?’

‘Not I, but Thou’

‘Maybe you are right,’ said Gauri in be-tween sobs. ‘Deep inside, something tells memy Uday will come back to me, no matterwhen.’

‘But that is quite beside the point. Whyshould you expect to see him again!’ exclaimedGirivar. ‘The thing to understand is this: If weconsider ourselves God’s servants, we mustbe ready to serve Him in whichever way Helikes us to. Until now God accepted our ser-vice in one way, and now if He wants us toserve him in a different way, we must be pre-


pared for it. A servant cannot have prefer-ences. He who hesitates to serve his masterwholeheartedly is an unfaithful servant; andhe who regards his master’s things as his ownis even worse—he is a thief! Don’t you see,Gauri, nothing in this world is really ours: Godgives, God takes away. We have accepted Himas our master, so let us not flinch from ourduty; let us forget our happiness for His sake.But believe me, whatever God does is for ourown good.’

Now Girivar saw no point in spendingtime on his fields. He leased out all his landand the couple gave themselves up totally toworship and meditation. Before long, their de-votion started to show results. Gauri, espe-cially, began to experience a kind of peace shehad never before known in her life. Noticingthe change that had come upon his wife, Giri-var observed one day, ‘How can man hope tounderstand the Lord’s inexplicable ways?Could we even imagine He would draw us toHim in this manner? Maybe you can appreci-ate it now—a son is a son, no doubt, but our at-tachment to him might have led us away fromthe only thing that is to be loved.’ Gauri nod-ded quietly. ‘See? That is why I say, whateverGod does is for our own good,’ concluded Gi-rivar.

Still, a mother is a mother. Memories ofher beloved Uday continued to haunt Gauri.

Destiny Intervenes

Far away down the river, the crocodile thatmade off with Uday was challenged by another crocodile and lost its grip on the boy in the ensuingstruggle. But Uday was already seriously injuredand too weak to save himself. Luckily, some peoplein a boat passing a little distance away spotted hislimp body bobbing listlessly in the water. As theypulled him aboard, Uday lost consciousness.

Inscrutable Karma

King Chandrasen, the ruler of the terri-tory that straddled the Narmada, was child-less. Recently he had lost his young wife too.

The suddenness of her death hit the king hardand he was contemplating giving up every-thing to embrace the monastic life. His sense ofobligation to his subjects, however, was mak-ing it difficult for him to decide. At last, unableto make up his mind, Chandrasen approachedhis father’s guru for guidance.

The guru was a yogi who possessed oc-cult powers. ‘It is not right for a king to neglecthis royal duties, to leave his kingdom uncaredfor,’ he advised. ‘Moreover, I know you aredestined to find a worthy heir—and I alsoknow a secret rite that can make it happenvery soon.’ The king’s face brightened up. ‘Ed-ucate the boy, train him well, and when he co-mes of age, hand over the reins of the kingdomto him. You may become a sannyasin onlythen.’ Then the guru added, ‘But the boy willremember his antecedents on the day of hiscoronation.’

King Chandrasen decided to go aheadwith the rite. It was the custom to feed the fishin the Narmada after the ceremony. The kingwas doing just this, when his officials caughtsight of a bleeding figure drifting downstream.As karma would have it, it was Uday.

Everything turned out just as the guruhad predicted.

When Uday regained consciousness aftertwenty-one days, he had forgotten everythingexcept his name. He was taught that he wasPrince Udayraj, son of King Chandrasen, andthat his mother, Queen Kamaladevi, wasdead. Gradually, under the tutelage of quali-fied instructors, the boy learnt all the skills aprince would need to run an efficient adminis-tration. And when Uday grew up, the king ar-ranged for his marriage with the princess ofVijayanagar.

Chandrasen had discharged his respon-sibilities. Only one last thing remained, Uday’scoronation, and the king, after consulting hisministers, fixed an auspicious day for it too.Now at last, he could give it all up and becomea free sannyasin.

(To be continued)



Reviews

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� Reviews �

Meditation, Mind and Patanjali’s Yoga.Swami Bhaskarananda. Sri RamakrishnaMath, Mylapore, Chennai 600 004. E-mail:[email protected]. 2002. xviii + 253 pp. Rs 75.

Hosts of books have been written on the subjectof yoga and meditation, but this book is spe-

cial because of its author’s credentials: Swami Bhas-karanandaji, a senior monk of the Ramakrishna Or-der, is President of the Vedanta Society of WesternWashington, Seattle, and the spiritual head of theVedanta Societies of Hawaii and Vancouver—posi-tions that require him to travel a lot and acquirewide experience in instructing and guiding peoplein spirituality.

The book opens with the pertinent chapter‘Why Should We Meditate?’ It discusses the need ofincluding meditation in our daily lives. However,in line with authentic teachers of yoga, the swamiwould have his readers meditate more to attain thevastly superior end of God-realization than just forreasons of health (although the latter is not entirelyneglected). He gives special attention to the mas-ter-disciple relationship, explaining why aspirantsneed to follow a trustworthy guide if they hope tomake any real progress in yoga practice. While cau-tioning them against posers, the author also doesstudents a positive help by describing the charac-teristics of a genuine guru.

Then follow, chapter after chapter, the eightlimbs of Patanjali’s yoga, each one given extensivetreatment. The inquisitive reader will come acrossinteresting discussions on the different types ofsamadhi, and find diagrams, illustrations and pho-tographs that aid his understanding. Separate sec-tions dealing with the obstacles and hazards one islikely to encounter on the way are sure to be of im-mense help to the serious practitioner.

A practical teacher that he is, Bhaskaranandajigives great importance to the practice of japa. De-scribing its various aspects and techniques in con-siderable detail, he points out how progress in japacan be an indicator of spiritual progress.

The physical and mental benefits that yogapractitioners reap, though they are actually onlyby-products, are not without value, especially in to-day’s stressful world. So the swami does not forgetto address the needs of those who turn to yoga forrelief; at the end of the book he provides a few yogictechniques to control and reduce mental tensionand enhance overall well-being.

Many thanks to Swami Bhaskaranandaji forsharing his insights with us.

Santosh Kumar SharmaKharagpur

How to Achieve Incredible Results byInspiration. P Vatsala and T Gokulan. NewAge Books, A-44 Naraina Phase 1, NewDelhi 110 028. E-mail: [email protected]. 2001.xvii + 154 pp. Rs 195.

An English poet rhymes, ‘You beat your pate,and fancy wit will come;/ Knock as you please,

there’s nobody home!’ A collection of interestinganecdotes, this book attempts to convince the read-ers that there is somebody home, unseen by humaneyes, incomprehensible to human reason. The au-thor has culled real-life incidents ranging frommundane hurdles to the problems relating to thepractice of devotion at higher states, wherein aidcomes from an apparently obscure source. Oftenman finds himself at crossroads, baffled which wayto go, and at the crucial moment, suddenly help co-mes like manna from heaven. The stories in thisbook bring out well the mysteriousness of life, forc-ing us to stop and question. Narrated in simplestyle, they are interspersed with quotations fromsaints and seers. They discuss various means to es-tablish communion with the unseen: meditation,prayer, self-surrender, yoga, grace, silence andmany more.

The book’s relevance stands unquestioned inthese days of widespread scepticism, a trend in-duced by the modern empirical scientific outlook.How much has man known? How much of nature



has man understood, how much of himself? Be-yond the birth-death spectrum, what is? Can hu-man reason ever smoke out these mysteries? How-ever, the divine promptings and guidance from ahigher source within us, known as inspiration, be-longs to a realm unknown to the rational man—farbeyond the hard walls of reason. These anecdotespoint at that inexhaustible source, which, whenproperly tapped, can help us redeem ourselves andachieve incredible results.

An interesting book that can help us gain amore comprehensive view of life and ourselves.

Swami ShuddhidanandaAdvaita Ashrama, Kolkata

People’s India: A Superpower. Mama-chan Daniel. Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Ku-lapati Munshi Marg, Mumbai 400 007.E-mail: [email protected]. 2003.viii + 171 pp. Rs 125.

At times we are not satisfied with what we haveachieved, and feel perturbed about the fact

that much more could have been done.India after independence is a case in point. On

many fronts—social, political, economic and edu-cational—significant progress has been made,which is visible too. But equally true is the fact thatmuch more could have been achieved, had certainerrors, weaknesses and shortcomings been ad-dressed at various levels right in the beginning. De-spite democracy, we lag behind others in meetingthe basic needs of the average people. Corruptioneats into the vitals; a few power-hungry leadersmanipulate the entire affairs of our great nation,while ordinary people remain helpless spectators.This raises a question mark about the political fu-ture of India.

The author of this book emphasizes the need toproactively intervene at the grass-roots level tobring about the desired change in socio-political re-ality. The concept is elaborated in eight chapters.The corrupt and listless bureaucracy, the greedyand callous leaders have reduced this great nationto mockery, and have led the people to suffering,want and misery. A significant percentage of Indi-ans suffer from illiteracy, poverty, and ill health.The claim that we shall achieve superpower statusin the near future is thus reduced to a myth, a meremockery, at present. However, the author is notpessimistic about India’s future, and maintains that

with the formation of people’s will at grass-rootslevel, based on truth and justice, India can achievethe desired goal. For this the author has given a de-tailed plan that he calls ‘a humble attempt to sug-gest a system in this regard, that is, the People’sSamitis, which can incidentally solve many of ourmajor problems’. Our democratic, secular and so-cialistic set-up and Constitution offer us hope, a sil-ver lining, on which we can really build a new na-tion.

The book suggests a practical and novel way of‘collective living’ for our entire people. This wouldbe possible through small-group integration andeconomic activities, with gradual bigger and largerintegration, both in terms of volume and expanse.A typical People’s Samiti is an association of agroup of enlightened citizens of neighbouring vil-lages, taluks, panchayats and so on, who would di-rectly try to form a ‘mini parliament’ concernedwith progress, development, problems and pros-perity at the block level. Such Samitis would fill theentire nation. These Samitis would be effective be-cause they would have the people’s will as their ba-sis. The author prefers to call this will the holiestwill, which would be based on truth and justice.The general will of the people on which the newway of living is attempted is based on our civilizedexistence, although owing to human weaknesses itsimplementation would be somewhat difficult andpossible only in phases. There would be a self-im-posed punishment for every failure, partial or com-plete. Thus, the author says, the solution lies throughstrengthening people’s will through value orienta-tion; the journey is from imperfect to more perfectto near perfect—achieved through collective ef-forts.

The book tries to emphasize the need for properand effective implementation of the policies mostof the governments planned in recent years. Thebook presents an idealistic approach to make Indiaprosperous and morally strong in the near future.Devolution of power to village panchayats, generalawareness and honest implementation of variousnational programs involving population control,religious harmony, social health, security, trans-port, food distribution and social justice—these aresome common points on the agenda of various po-litical parties. As an individual, every politicalleader and bureaucrat appears an angel whose soleinterest appears to be to help the poor and needy.What goes wrong at the collective level or in social


Reviews 519

implementation, one fails to comprehend!

Dr C S ShahMedical Consultant, Aurangabad

The Mind of the Guru. Rajiv Mehrotra.Penguin Books, 11 Community Centre,Panchsheel Park, New Delhi 110 017. 2003.xv + 256 pp. Rs 395.

At a crucial juncture of human life dawns theinsubstantiality of this world of day-to-day ex-

perience, and life seems a bottomless abyss withshadows flitting all over. The heart then seeks thespiritual light that can guide one out of this mad-dening labyrinth. A new hunt begins—for the greatones who know the way. The series of dialogues inthis book is an outcome of such a search conductedby Rajiv Mehrotra for many years by interviewinggurus from different traditions.

The term guru has come to have various conno-tations in different traditions and in colloquial us-age. Whatever be our understanding of the term,here we are in the presence of twenty exceptionalminds—intellectual and spiritual masters of ourtimes whose expanse encompasses a range wideenough to exclude none. Each has his perspective,rooted in a tradition different from another, yetthey all play the same melodious note—that of love,compassion, humanistic impulse, selflessness, ser-vice and sacrifice.

Luminaries of various hues illumine the pagesof this book: Sri Baba Amte, the heroic crusaderagainst leprosy and the architect of a self-reliant co-operative community carved out by crippled socialoutcasts; His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the voice ofTibetan aspirations, who sees compassion as an in-dispensable factor in happiness; Swami Rangana-thanandaji, one of the exemplary spiritual mastersof the Ramakrishna movement, and the present,thirteenth, President of the Order, for whom one ofthe most potent methods for God-realization is ser-vice to humanity, irrespective of caste, creed or col-our; Desmond Tutu, archbishop and crusader forjustice and racial conciliation in South Africa; PirVilayat Inayat Khan, the Sufi master who workedhard to bridge the gap between the experience ofcontemplatives and the findings of modern physi-cists, biologists and psychologists; Mata Amrita-nandamayi, the messenger of love who has been asource of inspiration for many the world over; andSri S N Goenka, the leading lay teacher of Vipassa-

na meditation—to mention a few.Flashes of their deep insight into various issues,

as much spiritual as secular, intertwining spiritual-ity, socio-political issues, religion and general wel-fare, all so well broached—these are rewarding andenlightening. Perusing these conversations, thereader recognizes vast mental domains, becomingaware of so many luminous trails wide open forhim to tread, all pointing at a sublime realm farabove the tumult he finds himself in. The authorbrings out successfully the different facets of thesemasters, who have helped men and women findtrue happiness in their unique way. Superb por-traits of these masters by Sujata Bansal further en-hance the book’s grace. In short, this book is sure tobe a worthy possession by all who have just takentheir first steps in search of a Lamp to light theirhearts.

Swami Shuddhidananda

Gaîeùa. Paul Courtright. Motilal Banarsi-dass, 41-UA Bungalow Road, Jawahar Na-gar, New Delhi 110 007. E-mail: [email protected]. 2001. xi + 274 pp. Rs 195 (paper), Rs295 (cloth).

Paul Courtright is Professor in the Department ofReligion at Emory University, Atlanta, USA.

The Hindu deity Ganesha enticed him three de-cades before. He collected every little bit of infor-mation he could of this deity and is now presentingit with all relevant interpretations to the world atlarge in the form of this handsome monograph.

The volume has an expanse of 274 pages, and allthe information about Ganesha, both mythical andotherwise, has been presented in six topical chap-ters. The chapters are well arranged and lead thereader comfortably into this exciting study.

The book begins with the origin of Ganesharight from the Vedic context and his prominence inthe Puranic literature. The elephant symbolism inIndian culture is dealt with in the second chapter.Here the author describes in detail other mythicalcharacters who bear physical similarity to Ganesha.These are Gajásura, Gajendra and Airávata, themount of Indra, the lord of gods. There are a num-ber of birth episodes of Ganesha. All these find aplace here. The symbolism of the severed head andthe broken tusk is also explained. The author citesmany other instances from Indian mythology ofsevering a head and fixing it to another torso.



The third chapter, titled ‘Ritual, Psychologicaland Religious Themes in the Mythology of Gaîeùa,’is more analytic. The author is more critical in thischapter. He is aware that a traditional Hinduwould view these myths differently than a Westernreader would. The concepts of initiation and sacri-fice are elaborated and the relationships of father,mother, son and brother are examined in minutedetail. The author finds in these relations oedipalthemes, which formed the core of psychological re-search in the twentieth century. The entire interpre-tation in this chapter is extremely fascinating andwould convince the reader about the rationality ofthe author’s interpretation.

Apart from being the lord of obstacles, Ganeshais the lord of beginnings as well. He is the lord of thegaîas. As a remover of obstacles he gains the leader-ship of the gaîas. As a lord of the beginnings, Gane-sha is worshipped at the commencement of anynew undertaking. Ganesha is installed on the toraîapaôôa of a home or a temple. He regulates the flow ofpilgrims in the sanctum sanctorum of the templeand also of souls in heaven.

Chapters 4 and 5 deal with the worship of Gane-sha, individually in homes and collectively in an-nual public festivals. The annual Ganesha festival isheld for ten days in the month of Bhádrapada (Au-gust-September). The regionalism of this festival isheightened by describing the festival in Maha-rashtra.

In his preface, the author has mentioned thehoax that sent a rumour round the world on 21 Sep-tember 1995 that Ganesha sipped milk. It is notknown whether there was any political motive be-hind this rumour. The author poses a number ofquestions in the preface and tries to answer them inhis own way.

The author concludes that the protean nature ofGanesha continues to give forth vitality to theHindu community. Ganesha is not displaced by theconditions of modernity. His mythology and sym-bolism adapt well to the novel circumstancesbrought about by a culture undergoing a rapidchange.

Thus, the reading of this monograph is ex-tremely rewarding. The volume contains twelveplates of historical icons of Ganesha and a map ofMaharashtra showing various sites of Ganeshatemples. The cover of the book exhibits a metallicicon of Bála-Gaîeùa, a yearling resting on one handand holding a laddu in the other.

The volume offers good reading to scholars ofreligion and mythology. The extensive bibliogra-phy and the elaborate index are useful for all seri-ous readers.

Dr N B PatilHonorary Director, MM Dr P V Kane Institute of

Postgraduate Research & StudiesAsiatic Society, Mumbai

Mantrapushpam. Comp. Swami Devarupa-nanda. Ramakrishna Math, 12th Road, Khar(West), Mumbai 400 052. E-mail: [email protected]. 2003. Rs 60.

Chanting of Vedic mantras, suktas and stotrashas been a time-honoured Hindu spiritual prac-

tice. Mantrapushpam is a compilation in Sanskrit ofthe ten principal Upanishads, the MahanarayanaUpanishad, some minor Upanishads, many impor-tant Vedic suktas, Sri Rudra, some sáma gánas, hymnsfor meditation on the Formless, a number of stotrasaddressed to Hindu deities, and Patanjali’s YogaSutras. The speciality of the book is the use of into-nation (svara) marks where necessary. Thanks tothe painstaking work of the compiler, the book canbe said to be almost free from proof-reading errors.

First published in demi octavo size in 1989, thebook has gone through six editions and sold about40,000 copies—an index of its popularity amongspiritual aspirants.

The present book is Mantrapushpam’s first,handy pocket edition. Though running to morethan 600 pages, the book is quite compact in size,thanks to the use of feather-weight paper. Theprinting is good and easy on the eyes. The book willbe a treasure in every devoted household.

PB

Aconductor was rehearsing with his orchestra and said to the trumpeter, ‘I think this part

calls for a more Wagnerian approach, if you get what I mean: something more assertive, so

to speak, more accentuated, with more body, more depth, more …’ The trumpeter interrupted:

‘Do you want it louder, sir?’ All that the poor conductor could say was, ‘Yes, that’s what I mean.’

—The Prayer of the Frog, 1.249

� Reports �

Arranged. Meetings, seminars and exhibi-tions commemorating Holy Mother Sri Sara-da Devi’s 150th birth anniversary; by Advai-ta Ashrama, Mayavati; at Champawat andLohaghat; from 4 to 7 June 2004.

Organized. A 2-daysymposium on the con-tribution of Marie Lou-ise Burke (Sister Gargi)to Ramakrishna-Viveka-nanda literature; by Ra-makrishna Mission In-stitute of Culture, Kol-kata; on 12 June. SwamiSmarananandaji, Gen-eral Secretary, Ramakri-shna Math and Rama-krishna Mission, pre-sided over the eventand Srimat Swami At-masthanandaji Maharaj,Vice President, Rama-krishna Math and Ra-makrishna Mission, ad-dressed the gathering.

Organized. A 3-day medical camp; by Ra-makrishna Math, Puri; at Bali-HarachandiMela in Brahmagiri; from 14 to 16 June. 300patients were treated. The centre conductedanother medical camp during the Ratha Yat-ra from 19 to 27 June in which 3458 patientswere treated.

Laid. Foundation stone for a school building;by Srimat Swami Gahananandaji Maharaj,Vice President, Ramakrishna Math and Ra-makrishna Mission; at Ramakrishna AdvaitaAshrama, Kalady; on 15 June.

Inaugurated. ‘Foundation for Unity of Reli-

gions and Enlightened Citizenship’, a forumdesigned to facilitate regular meetings be-tween religious leaders in order to exchangeuniversal religious ideas and thus promotereligious harmony in the country; by Dr A PJ Abdul Kalam, President of India; at Rash-

trapati Bhavan; on 15 June. The foundation,whose membership includes the spiritualleaders of all the major religions of India—Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Is-lam, Christianity, Zoroastrianism and Juda-ism—is chaired by Swami Jitatmanandaji,President, Ramakrishna Ashrama, Rajkot.

Visited. Ramakrishna Mission, New Delhi;by Sri Shyamal Dutta, Governor of Naga-land; on 17 June.

Inaugurated. A permanent exhibition on SriRamakrishna, Sri Sarada Devi and SwamiVivekananda; by Sri Bhairon Singh Shekha-wat, Vice President of India; at Ramakrishna


Swami Jitatmanandaji presenting ‘finalized ideas’ of the Foundation

to Dr A P J Abdul Kalam

Mission Vivekananda Smriti Mandir, Khetri;on 22 June.

Served. Lemonade to about 25,000 pilgrims;by Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Puri;during the Ratha Yatra festival.

Conducted. A medical camp; by Ramakrish-na Mission Ashrama, Guwahati; at the Ka-makhya temple; during Ambubachi Melafrom 22 to 25 June. The camp treated 3949patients.

Celebrated. The centenary of RamakrishnaMission Students’ Home, Chennai. TheHome organized a 2-day teachers’ conven-tion, which was attended by 1000 teachersand addressed by eminent educationists andsenior monks of the Ramakrishna Order, on22 and 23 June; and inter-school literary andmusic competitions on 30 June in whichnearly 900 students from 100 schools of thecity participated.

Completed. Desilting and deepening ofponds; by Ramakrishna Mission, Limbdi; in3 more villages of Surendranagar districtthat face acute water scarcity every summer;in June. The centre also installed 6 hand-

pumps in different areas of Limbdi town.

Continued. The supply of 1,00,000 litres ofdrinking water daily; by Ramakrishna Math,Pune; to 18 drought-struck villages of Ah-mednagar district; in June.

Constructed. 10 houses for people whosehouses were damaged by a violent storm; byRamakrishna Math, Ichapur; in Kishorpurand Ghoshpur areas of Hooghly district; inJune. Besides undertaking to build 35 morehouses, the centre also distributed amongthe victims 85 dhotis, 85 saris, 60 blankets, 40lungis and 40 towels.

Distributed. 480 saris and an equal numberof dhotis and chadars, 240 mosquito-nets,240 blankets and 240 sets of utensils; by Ra-makrishna Mission Ashrama, Sargachhi;among 240 families whose houses were gut-ted in a fire accident in Dhaparia, Nadia; inJune.

Distributed. 30 dhotis, 30 saris and 28 tow-els, among other things; by RamakrishnaMission Ashrama, Malda; among 28 familieswhose houses were reduced to ashes by afire in Basantatola, Malda; in June. �



Liberation by Alms

In the fifteenth century, the Church announced that it was possible to free a soul from purga-

tory by giving alms. In Madrid, the Count of Villamediana, who loved a good joke, entered a

church one day and encountered a priest with a collection tray, asking for money to save souls in

purgatory. The count dropped a gold coin on the tray and asked, ‘Are you sure my contribution

will liberate a soul from its torment?’ ‘Absolutely,’ said the priest. ‘Then,’ continued the count,

‘since I have already given you my alms, that soul has left purgatory.’ ‘Yes,’ responded the

priest.

Villamediana then took the coin from the tray and put it back in his pocket saying, ‘Well,

he’ll be a darnn fool if he goes back in.’

—from cyberspace

sept 2004 (new) - advaita ashramaessentials for effectivity editorial n o one likes to work for...

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