Why America needs the ideal of Mahatma Gandhi more than ever.

Civil War:

          It is said that when a nation becomes too powerful, and when there are no external threats to its existence, the nation dies by itself, by means of a civil war. The Charleston church shooting bears testimony to this fact, when 21-year-old Dylan Roof, the shooter, posed for a photograph with a confederate flag. 

Civil War

Civil war does not necessarily mean a powerful rebel warring-faction, with an ideology of its own, fighting a war with modern weapons. As warfare is constantly evolving, and when the freedom of the society is so unhindered, that anyone and everyone can possess a gun, and when it falls into the hands of the Psychopaths, the result is a civil war. 

The ideals:

          Where lies the problem? It is in basics. Society must be built upon a strong coherent ideal, and when the ideal crumbles, the nation disintegrates. American Society had very great ideals in the beginning, with George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and other great patriots providing an ideal framework for the nation’s foundation. It immediately becomes manifest when the Americans proclaimed neutrality and did not side with France, in a war against Britain. Abraham Lincoln saved the union, and the nation fought for high ideals i.e., the emancipation of slavery and equality of man.

Washington and Abe

           These ideals which had hold the American society is slowly giving way to a degenerative form of chaos. People take the name of freedom to justify violence. The expression of freedom must be in the form of non-violence. Freedom and violence don't go together.

Founding Fathers of USA

             Today, the young American generation take to the killing at a very young age, in the form of shooting games, expressing freedom in the form of violence, bullying others, in the development of abnormalities, in the development of mental problems, and when they grow, they resort to violence, to express themselves. The nation has lost its ideal. The young generation, failed to understand the meaning of strength and weakness, failed to understand the meaning of freedom, failed to understand the meaning of love and life.

There is one man whose ideals resonates even today. I feel the man has found an antidote to violence. Every contemporary violent-society needs to embrace his philosophy and ideals to save themselves. He is none other than our Mahatma Gandhi. The gun-toting kids, mass shootings, racial hatreds, violence motivated by anger, will all vanish into thin air when they learn of this beautiful philosophy of non-violence. Below are the six quotes of Mahatma Gandhi, and is the medicine for every violent society to redeem themselves.

The Six quotes:

1. Nonviolence is a weapon of the strong.

2. Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.

3. The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

4. An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind.

5. Whenever you are confronted with an opponent. Conquer him with love.

6. Where there is love there is life.

These ideals had been put to test by Mahatma Gandhi, under the most violent circumstances, and under the very nose of the British Empire, who were then the global superpower. And what happened at last was that a spinning wheel toppled a battle tank.

Mahatma Gandhi

  

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Alternate Meditation Techniques.

Mediation and sense impressions:

Meditation is Samadhi. In Samadhi, there are no ‘Vrittis’ or sense impressions. Meditation chiefly consists in reducing or lowering down the number of sense impressions, or roasting down the sense impressions, so that they lack the potential to create a desire-motivated action, resulting in suffering. When the sense impressions are thus eliminated, they fail to achieve any volition, thereby eliminating a potential desire-action, and the consequential suffering is thereby eliminated.

Great saints, who have eliminated the sense impressions completely, were able to remain absorbed in Samadhi for a long duration of time, even the bodily needs fail to bring them down. It is said that a person, who has attained Samadhi, will not be able to hold on to his body for not more than 21 days. It is only by great Avatars, who even after attaining Samadhi, were able to come down for the benefit of humanity.

Aspirants of spiritual life, struggle to reduce the number of sense impressions, which are haunting them. An aspirant will be able to spend long hours of time in meditation, only if the sense impressions doesn’t arise. What to do to prolong this meditative effort? And what to do at times, when we are not able to meditate? This is explained here.

Long Vs Short meditation:

It is said earlier that the key to meditation lies in minimizing the number of sense impressions. A person who has a large number of these impressions, and at the same time decides to sit for a long duration of time in meditation, ends in disaster. Because as soon as the mediation effort is over, the mind spirals down in a second and goes on enjoying the sense objects. The objective of meditation is defeated thereby.

Meditation

On the contrary, it is good, if a person puts his effort in eliminating sense impressions, even if he sits for meditation for a shorter duration of time. Both must be undertaken simultaneously. Both mediation and curbing sense impressions must go hand in hand.

How to reduce sense impressions?

The sense impressions, which are already in work, cannot be undone. But the sense impressions, which are yet to be formed, can be undone. How?

1.       Keep a distance from sense objects. This simple technique will save a great deal.

2.       Shut down the sense organs. This is another simple technique. Just close your eyes and ears and do not allow the sense impressions from taking shape.

3.       Run a consequential process in your mind. If one happens to encounter any sense impression, just take them to the logical conclusion. Sense objects – contact – sense impressions – volition – desire action – enjoyment – suffering – rebirth.

In this way, the sense impressions are eliminated, and mediation can be prolonged for a long duration of time. But still, if one is not able to sustain, there are some alternate techniques which will help them. They are very simple, just like breathing and walking. In fact, it is breathing and walking meditation techniques, which helps to prolong this effort.

Breathing Meditation:

                Breath and mind are interconnected. The more one is restrained, the other is automatically restrained. This is the principle. Control the mind, and you control your breath; control your breath, and you control your mind. This generally we call it as pranayama. It is a very simple breath-in and breath-out process can be learned from any meditation centers. This is for beginners.

                For a person, who has considerably brought down the sense impressions, even breathing becomes a meditation. Great saints meditate in every breath. They inhale all the sufferings of humanity and exhale peace. They literally take the sufferings of humanity through their breath and give peace in turn.

Inhale suffering and exhale peace.

                When we come in contact with these great saints, they will be able to penetrate through our breath and stall it, and thereby bringing peace to the mind. The person is not aware of it, but the saint knows what he has done. The person only experiences peace in the presence of the saint. Because the breath has penetrated the breath.

This is the technique – inhale all human sufferings and exhale peace.

Walking Meditation:.

                Buddhism strongly enforces this technique. It is a simple walking on a lawn or a garden or a busy road. The only condition is that a person must be alone. Take slow to medium steps in a rhythm. The focus must be on cutting down the non-self.

Walking Mediation

When walking 1) Think that you have given up the world completely. 2) Then, cut down the non-self, which then arises (when the world is completely given up, there is no reason for the objects to rise), i.e. the objects or desires, through ignorance, attributes itself to the self. 3) Send your peaceful thoughts to the world. By this process, the breath is automatically stalled, and one can enjoy the ensuing peace.

                This is the technique – 1. Cut down completely 2. Whatever then arises – cut down 3. Pray for peace.

Undercurrent meditation:

                This is a technique, which is very difficult to grasp. It is only for the advanced spiritual aspirants. This undercurrent meditation is to put your part of the mind in meditation all the time, below the surface and to put your other part of the mind on the surface engaging in day to day activities. An advanced aspirant will look normal from outside, doing all the activities just like an ordinary person, but deep beneath the surface of the mind, he is seated in meditation.

Calm below and activity above

                The spiritual aspirant too gets angry and laughs etc. But it is only for a moment, for they are not real and only a feigning. Whereas, for an ordinary person, anger, and other emotions are real since they are connected with objects. For the spiritual aspirant, since there are not objects to hold on, all the emotions disappear in a moment. There is no substantial reality to sustain these emotions.

                This is the technique – Put your mind to meditation below and do all your activities above.

I can talk meditation, I can walk meditation, I can laugh meditation...

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10 Steps to Spirituality.

1.       Do not injure.

2.       Do not form sense-impressions.

3.       Do not be swayed by joys and sorrows.

4.       Cut off all attachment.

5.       Do not complain.

6.       Do not feel helpless.

7.       Exercise daily.

8.       Be Truthful in work.

9.       Meditate and pray for others.

10.    Be the last for liberation.

1.       Do not injure:

Non-injury is to refrain from doing harm to the body of others. The body is precious not for the fact that we live and enjoy through it, but for the fact that the highest spiritual illumination (Samadhi) is attained through it. Therefore, body ought not to be harmed, for the fact, that it bars the spiritual progress of beings. Highest non-violence is the basis of true religion. Therefore, do not injure.

Non-Violence

2.       Do not form sense-impressions:

Sense-impressions implies death, and death implies rebirth, and rebirth implies suffering. Unless all sense impressions are stopped, Samadhi cannot be attained. Sense impressions simply draw us out towards action, motivated by desires, which is centered on the idea of body, and which creates additional karma, and which at last brings suffering.  Therefore, do not form any sense-impressions.

Yoga is stopping the sense-impressions from taking shape.

3.       Do not be swayed by joys and sorrows:

Our lives are a constant oscillation between joys and sorrows. Joys and sorrows are always attached to a system or a structure or an object in which we are involved in. By this constant oscillation, we lose our spiritual end in sight and get lost in the quagmire of the cycle of joys and sorrows. We then become a finite entity, confined to a body or an object or a system or a structure. Therefore, don’t get swayed by joys and sorrows.

Don't be swayed.

4.       Cut off all attachment:

This is the root of all our problems - attachment. We get attached and receive blows, and yet we could not retreat. Attachment is an idea rooted in the false-self that doesn’t exist, and that is the reason why we find sometimes our life appear like a mirage as if it were a shadow. Attachment is nothing but an emotional layer, clinging to a false-self for survival. As soon as the cover of false-self is blown, man loses his objective-identity and suffers. Attachment = Suffering; therefore, be detached.

5.        Do not complain:

Complaining is a sign of weakness. We create our own lives, and, therefore, we are responsible for what we are now. Always remember that there is no hindrance in our lives, expect that we bring in. We form goals, we then block it, and then we complain. Therefore, stop complaining, clear the blocks by yourselves, and steer towards the goal.

6.       Do not feel helpless:

Helplessness is a sign of weakness. Helplessness indicates that we are obsessed with our own selves and that we lack a broad vision for humanity. Start doing things to yourself and the whole world will follow you. The first person who is going to help you in your life is yourself. Therefore, do not feel helpless.

Do not feel Helpless

7.       Exercise daily:

Body, mind, and spirit are interconnected. The body has its own basic functionality and basic needs like food, sleep and work. Everything must be tuned to an optimum level so that our minds are focused on higher planes of spirituality. Exercising is like refreshing our body, which in turn helps in forming a posture or asana, from which we can consistently focus on higher planes of spirituality. Therefore, exercise to meditate.

Run everyday

8.       Be Truthful in work:

This life is nothing but a test of truthfulness. Why should we be truthful? The answer is simple – This life system is based on truthfulness. Truthfulness needs complete detachment and even demands complete sacrifice. Sacrifice for nothing? By Sacrifice, we grow from a finite to an infinite stature.

Truth alone Triumphs

9.       Meditate and pray for others:

The solution for the problems of our lives must be universal. Any spiritual solution must be universal, otherwise, it is merely a farce. Therefore, the problem of others is the problem of yours as well. When men, animals, and the world suffer, we cannot simply remain quiet, for it is our responsibility to resolve it. Therefore, meditate and pray for others.

Meditate and Pray

10.   Be the last for liberation:

Always help others, and be the last even if it mean death. Do not take on privileges even in liberation. Help others to go through the process and be the last in liberation.

              

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How to build life?

Building lives are often the most complicated, most despairing and most confusing of all, as we are often caught in the mire of forces of attachment, which makes us believe that the life and its objects are real. Again, when the forces of attachment are cut asunder by the forces of nature, the objects around which we build our lives crumble, creating chaos and confusion. When the basis of life around which we build our lives crumble, we become desperate. In that state, we begin to seek answers for life. Life has to be altogether built on a new platform which doesn’t crumble or fail. Building such a life would be a huge challenge, as the new basis of life would often conflict with our conventional ideas that we hold. So how to build our life?

How to do it?

We will look at the prerequisites of the new platform upon which life has to be built.

1. Build a life that doesn’t die – The first major failure in life is life itself. Life is slowly ebbing out and we need to find a solution for that. Death takes away everything in our lives, of all our achievements, and of all our relationships with people and society. Therefore, we ought to build a life which defies death. Is it possible not to die? Yes, it is. Death is always a body- phenomena. We need to know that man is more than the body. If we were only the body, then we would be like animals and cannibals, always fighting for survival alone. Death is a limited dimension, but there is an unlimited dimension in man which doesn’t die. The man has to grow from this limited dimension to the unlimited dimension.

Build a life without death

The idea of body is nothing but the forces of attraction which intends, ‘I’, and ‘mine’. The forces of attraction always operate through the senses. All forms of gratification through the senses strengthens the idea of the body. All forms of restraint of the senses reveal the limitless dimension of man. Any sense impression, which intends the idea of enjoyment, must be rejected. In fact, meditation is all about negating sense impressions.

A man meditates only to converge his forces on a higher plane, where the limitless dimension is revealed. Meditation is a tool to reveal this limitless dimension. A man meditates to overcome death. Entertaining the idea of enjoyment and meditating at the same time is incompatible and futile. So the first thing to build a life is to restrain sense impressions, to restrain all the forces of attraction which intend enjoyment, to restrain all senses not to form any sense impressions. This act of restraint must be followed by a meditation process which reveals our infinite dimension.

2. Build a life around non-objects – Most of us build of our lives around objects which are dear to us. The objects are sometimes our loved ones. We work for them for our whole lives. We develop great forces of attraction towards them. We do a great mistake by holding on them to be permanent and forever. Beauty fades, and what appeared once attractive becomes repulsive. Old age creeps it and death overtakes eventually. This is the fate of all of us.

Building life around relationships

Next, we build our lives around our wealth and property. The problem is again the same. They are not going to remain forever. These objects are made of material and they have a life cycle. They are subjected to corrosion and ultimately all objects go down. So How to build our lives?

Those who have developed a great spiritual maturity can altogether shed objects completely, but for those who could not it is better to develop forces of detachment. Forces of detachment don't mean you have to hate your loved ones. You must love and at the same time remain detached. This is little tricky but with practice, it can be achieved. A man is involved in objects and at the same time remains aloof.

3. Build a life on strength – Strength means detachment. A person who is attached is subjected to love, hatred, and anger. By expending our forces on attachment, hatred, and anger, we become weak- physically, mentally and morally. We lose our strength. We must remember that nobody is going to hurt, expect ourselves. Therefore pointing fingers at others is always vain. It shows our helplessness.

Therefore, life has to be built around strength. The body, mind and breath must be tuned to perform at an optimum level. Any deviation in the forces of body, mind and breath is not going to help to achieve our goal.

Build on strength

The key to building our lives lies in not the forces of attachment but in the forces of detachment. Try and build your lives over it, I am sure you will not suffer.

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Dream Vs Day Dream.

Dream:

When Dr. Kalam said, ‘Dream, Dream, and Dream because Dreams transforms into thoughts and thoughts result in action’, he meant a vision and not a daydream. Such a dream is consistent with our goals, and we are trying to achieve it ever since from our childhood. It is a dream which many successful people have chased. We often come across so many of them in history – successful scientists, entrepreneurs, sports persons, and people in other fields. The dream is not just a personal goal but a universal vision, impelled by an idea to do good to humanity. History has forgotten those people who seemed great, but without humanity. Great men are those who bring themselves their achievements for the betterment of humanity.

Dream, Dream and Dream - Dr. Kalam

Dreams are a thing which is not to be taught, which cannot be bought, and which is uniquely yours, and which cannot be copied. Everyone has such a dream; but following the dream is what matters. Many lose their dreams in their pursuit, either for the fear of society or for the number of obstacles to be crossed. Dreams are always worth attempting, as it is always yours and you only can do it. The sign that you are progressing towards a dream is that you don’t get sleep, and that you are aware of the passing every single minute or second without attaining the goal. Therefore if you dream you are going to lose your sleep, and if you sleep you are going to lose your dream.

Day Dream:

Day dreaming is often what people do when they don’t have any real dreams. This dream is always without any purpose. It always happens in a hypothetical reality, which doesn’t exist. Just like an adolescent boy or a girl dreaming a dream about a person, whom he or she had not seen, had not met, and the events in the dream is not going to happen anytime in future etc., the dreams lack any real utility. Futile is the one word which can be used to define day dreaming.

Day Dreaming

Day dreaming begins when we don’t have any real work to do. It begins when we are lazy to the extent that we are unable to move ourselves a few inches in the cushion in which we are seated in. They seek things which fuel their day dreaming. For example, watching television serials endlessly, watching movies and songs endlessly, and surfing internet endlessly etc. Day dreaming also arises from physical weakness – when we don’t exercise properly or when we don’t do any physical work. Day dreaming arises when we fail to face or confront the real world. It is just like hiding ourselves under a mask from the real world. Only when tragedy strucks, the mask falls for a while, only to be worn again, for we are utterly weak and helpless.

Watching TV endlessly

It is the choice which is left to you whether to dream or to day dream. Dream is real and gives meaning to life, and one has to do some hard work for it; whereas day dreaming is poisonous and only leads to weaknesses in our lives. Therefore DREAM.

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Case for Non-Violence

All desire to live; none wishes to die. If animals were to be food for the man they would voluntarily surrender themselves to be butchered. All act of killing cause immense pain and suffering. Imagine how we jump ourselves around when we get a small cut accidently by a razor blade and yet we wish to decapitate the body of others for our own pleasure. Imagine how we could not even bear a little excessive heat or cold for a moment, or even a mosquito bite, and yet we wish to inflict pain on others, which is 100x more painful, for our own pleasure. Life is same in all beings, only forms and bodies differ.

Mosquito bite

One of the greatest impetus for religious life is to come out of pain and suffering. Every day in our lives we see that. Every day we read it in newspapers. In fact, the news is all about death and obituary. There is no day in which the newspapers has not reported a death in one form or other. Earthquakes, wars, accidents, murders and other forms of death fill the paper every day.

News - Disaster

Death, pain, and suffering are a universal experience common to all beings. If man were to come out of that, he wishes the same to all beings. Therefore, the first obvious thing in religious life would be non-violence. Hinduism begins by non-violence (Yoga Sutras: 2:30 begins by Ahimsa), Buddhism begins by non-violence (The four noble truths), and other religions as well. Great men like Buddha had an ideal far removed from the ordinary religious. It surpassed the love for humanity and embraced all animals as well. The goal he decided was to get everyone out of suffering.

All-embracing love

The great teachers of mankind, found in their religious experiences, that even an iota of inflicting pain or suffering on others is bound to come back. They create an adverse karma, which one reaps in equal measure. Therefore, one ought to be careful not to create such adverse karma. The teachers also found that the human body has the ideal set of conditions for achieving liberation, and any harm done to it means stalling the liberation process. When you harm others you disturb the whole liberation process. Though animals do not possess such ideal conditions for achieving liberation, yet harming it would undermine the liberation process. Therefore, from the point of view of liberation non-violence has to be exercised.

What exactly does non-violence constitute?

1.       Abstain from inflicting direct physical harm or pain on human beings as well as animals. There are some group of people who argue that plants too possess life and if that is the case, there would be no absolute non-violence. Yes, it is true to a certain extent, but plants don’t bleed and cry when we uproot them; the sense organs are completely missing and the faculty which discerns pain is completely absent. Pain involves sensory organs in relation to a body and a nervous system which transmits the pain to the brain and a resulting experience. This cycle and the system is completely absent in plants and other similar life forms. Therefore, the pain is negligible.

2.       Non-violence constitutes complete detachment. Attachment to any object or person brings a series of motion resulting in pain or suffering to a particular person. The more self-dependent a person is, the more he will be able to help others. The more dependent a person is, the more he is likely to harm others.

3.       Non-violence is exercising love and helping others in distress. Only a non-violent person would be truly able to sympathize with the suffering of others. He becomes a great humanitarian, helping others in time of distress.

Humanitarian aid

Non-violence is not merely abstaining from flesh, but is essentially non-harming, non-attachment and helping others in distress. But it will be good if a man essentially abstains from eating flesh and blood.

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