30 May 2013

Place of Worship -

What do we worship and why do we worship are gut wrenching questions that most of us avoid and instead follow easier routes of choices handed over to us by the culture and society in which we are raised.

Mother Nature grants humans complete freedom to choose and bear the consequences of our choices. Nature does not mess with our choices.

Temple, church, mosque, gurudwara are the typical places of worship attended by the devotees when their inside is crying out for help to fill a void within. Often times, the fear or intensity of void within cannot be clearly defined and visiting the place of worship and following the traditional rituals provides some solace.

Religious traditions naturally vary between religions which are simply the ways of life.Traditionally in most Hindu households there is a small space within the residence that is reserved for settling quietly to worship or pray; the difference between the two words has been difficult to decipher. In addition to the small place of worship in private residence, a Hindu devotee enjoys the freedom to visit and explore any other places of worship of choice. In Muslim tradition the devotee sits on a mat facing in the direction of Mecca or Caba of prayer; at the fixed times of prayer. A quiet place within easy reach is acceptable. Christians congregate in church every sunday or visit the church individually as the need arises. Jews choose to face and address  the Wailing or Western Wall as a sacred wall of faith in Jerusalem. Traditions do play significant role in life; however in the face of ever changing times, inflexibility in rituals and traditions seems to diminish and tarnish the essential  spirit.

Mother Nature has blessed every human with a body in which to live throughout lifetime. The entire space within the confines of our outer skin; the entire space is exclusively ours; making it an ideal place for worship or prayer. It is always approachable. Consequently it is important that we keep this space clean all the time. As we internalise our life experiences without the fanfare of traditions or rituals and feel the functioning of our miraculous human body, it begins to dawn on us that the Universe that lies within us is identical to the Universe outside of our skin. Our skin is not a border of separation but merely an integral part of the entire Universe. We feel seamlessly connected with the outside Universe through our breath.

The Universe seemingly outside our skin is the Creator and each one of us is its unbiased Creation; seamlessly connected with each other. Then the duality between Me and You ceases to exit. This all inclusive Universe presents itself as the ultimate reality.

The above perspective of life minimizes Man’s compulsive desire to install a symbol of worship within the closed brick walls and a roof that is dedicated as the place of worship. Often, Prayer seems to be fear of the unknown stemming out of Ignorance.

Prayer and thirst for experiencing the all inclusiveness of Universe within and around us is self-empowering, liberating and free of any fear. Self-enlightened Masters step out of their prisons of subjugation with sublimation of all anger, fear and have the innate strength to offer sincere prayers of forgiveness for their subjugators. Self-enlightened individuals like these become convincing proof for the noble spirit of all inclusiveness in Universe.

29 May, 2013

Yoga and Doctor -

Barring a few exceptions, a human is gifted with a fine tuned instrument called the human body. The total responsibility of maintaining the body perfectly tuned and disease free is ours until we leave this body. It is possible to accomplish it through an age old proven system called Yoga and its full dimensions are described in a system called Ashtang Yoga Sadhana, which was eloquently summarized and  demonstrated by Rishi Patanjalin around 300-200 BCE. Rishi Patanjali is credited for brilliantly capturing and encapsulating the body and spirit of human knowledge about Yoga that  was considered ancient even during his era!

The 8-step Ashtang Yoga Sadhana is a philosophical and spiritual (not about spirits and angels) treatise on Yoga system for engaging life to experience its fullest possible dimensions.

Yoga’s fundamental approach is to insure pleasurable physical and emotional balance for constantly maintaining the human body properly tuned, balanced and disease free without any synthetic medications. Vedic medicines derived from natural herbs and Vedic medical diagnostic techniques are integral and complementary disciplines for addressing physical, chemical and emotional imbalances in human body.

The ultimate accomplishment of a Yogi is to leave or shed human body clean and unharmed by disease and voluntarily cross over the threshold of the death of body. In this case, the body dies by voluntarily ceasing the life sustaining breathing.This supreme state of consciousness has been experienced by self-enlightened Masters of the Indian sub-continent and referred to as Nirvana in Buddhism and Mukti or MahaSamadhi in Hinduism.... as described by Sadguru Vasudev of Isha Yoga. When internalized and experienced, this philosophical perception takes us far beyond the concepts of Hell and Heaven as physical realities and places of residence with dubious immigration status.

If this was true, then why don’t people follow Yoga for enriching life? The casually asked  question has a casual answer “Because it takes effort”. A realistic answer to the same question surfaces in consciousness only when the pain of Ignorance about the life process becomes excruciating and tears you apart; like an intense toothache.  

On the flip side with the mundane habits of indulgence in cyclic pleasures and pains of life, the human body gradually encounters disease in repetitive cycles and ultimately succumbs when it is unable to breathe. That stage is death of the body. With the help of modern medical sciences,  a human body is kept alive beyond its natural abilities to sustain life, which is a common scene in modern hospitals....making the process of dying unnatural and unnecessarily painful.

A modern medical doctor discharges his essential role in minimizing discomforts of a sick body with injections, tablets and various other technological means at his disposal. Specifying medications to address the illness and antidotes to overcome their side reactions are not uncommon. Unfortunately, the Doctor cannot inject spirituality in the veins. That is not the realm of his responsibility. Based on his daily experiences in treating patients, the Doctor also knows that most patients do not change their ingrained habits and lifestyles.

Some humans resort to self prescribed potent drugs to soften the pain of Ignorance.

A Yoga teacher teaches a life long discipline to avoid all tablets. A Doctor is bound by his responsibilities to comfort his patients. While a Doctor charges for each visit, a genuine Yoga teacher traditionally offers a helping hand at no charge, The age old tradition of Yoga teaching discipline is to offer the life-enriching science at no charge...treating it as the supreme gesture of charity and selfless service. However, it will be unwise to discount a modern Yoga teacher who has to charge a nominal fee for daily sustenance.

29 May 2013

Body and Essence of Religion -

Some thoughts seem to flow out through the fingers of a writer probably because of their relative importance to the meaning of life.

The Essence of every religious philosophy around the world is essentially identical. The apparent variations are due to the Body of religion. The Essence of religion is about experiencing and attaining clarity and simplicity of thought.

The Body of religion is represented by the written scriptures, spoken words, interpretations of words, variations in places and objects of worship, rituals and above all blind faith under the self-deceptive brand of devotion.

Blind faith guides you down a pitch dark alley. The first natural reaction to pitch darkness is fear of ignorance. In the darkness, only self-illuminating lightning bugs or the owls gifted with natural night vision can find their way, while the rest are left in the alley groping and gasping for some source of light. Moving from one dark alley to another dark alley in the hope of finding the source of light is not a solution.

Human civilization has been led down the dark alleys of blind faith far too long.

It behooves us to understand and experience the Source of self-illuminating light energy of the lightning bugs or the gift of an Owl’s night vision.