Tag Archives: Religion and Spirituality

Definition and scope of Hinduism

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Golden leaves in summer 2013The struggle of summer and springs to capture 2013 is continuing in New Delhi. Summer scores victories during the day but loses ground in the night. More and more casualties are war seen everywhere. Some are captured in above picture.

Some serious talk about Hinduism.

Hinduism being the world’s oldest religious tradition, incorporates all forms of belief and worship without necessitating the selection or elimination of any. The Hindu is inclined to revere the divine in every manifestation, whatever it may be, and is doctrinally tolerant. A Hindu may embrace a non-Hindu religion without ceasing to be Hindu, Continue reading →

Thou shall not judge thy neighbors.

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How many think that the phrase “Thou shall not judge thy neighbors” is only in Bible. I had dwelled upon this in my words in Barbarians, Here is another version from Swami Vivekananda:

we tend to reduce everyone else to the limits of our own mental universe and begin privileging our own ethics, morality, sense of duty and even our sense of utility. All religious conflicts arose from this propensity to judge others. If we indeed must judge at all, then it must be `according to his own ideal, and not by that of anyone else’. It is important, therefore, to learn to look at the duty of others through their own eyes and never judge the customs and observances of others through the prism of our own standards.

Continue reading →

The true meditation is awareness of inner voices, the noise and turmoil within!

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Internal monologue:

Myth about inner voice and vain search of mirage!

We are in constant monologue with ourselves. As if we are preparing a speech or dialogue or worse, rehearsing a role in a hypothetical situation, a position also called as day dreaming. This movement of thought, in express words, changes at night when a part or all of the words takes shape of pictures, characters or colors. Some time we are conscious of this process but more often we are not. Complete consciousness of this process alongwith complete awareness of our physical presence is true meditation.

Meditation

What is not Meditation?

Small purple flower

Unfortunately, unscrupulous dream merchants have made a business out of meditation. It is packaged as every expected dream and sold. It is sold as ‘Prayer’. It is sold as ‘Consciousness’. It is sold as ‘Spirituality’. It is sold as ‘Self-development’. It is also sold as medicine for peace.
Meditation is an incident waiting to happen. To everyone. It is not something to be done or a pursuit to be followed. Though some initial steps look like action but actually it is cessation of action. Meditation is not an achievement but is a method to forgo achievement. The meditation is not a method to meet ‘a personal God’ or to some supreme power but is kick starting the process of self-realization or understanding the truth beyond this Illusory Reality called Maya or better understood as internal monologue. Continue reading →

Middle Path of Buddha and Conscious Living

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Most misunderstood philosophy.

If Gita or Bhagwat Gita is most misunderstood book or holy scripture/speech than among those who were born on this earth, Buddha who was also known as Sidhartha once, is the most misunderstood person. Frequently misquoted and misunderstood. As a Prince he had difficulty in accepting the realities of life which everyone so easily accepts and as a hermit he easily accepted harsh actuality of the earth without a murmur. His attempt to communicate, as always, faced linguistic hurdles created by ignorant people.

Understanding Buddha’s Sunyata or emptiness

To understand Buddha is to understand his teaching for he was no different from what he taught. Continue reading →

Automaton story

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Smartness trumped by foolishness.

Once upon a time a nomadic priest came to a river bank to take morning bath in the river. He was alone. There was nobody around. He had to return the call of nature. He had a pot of copper which was his total “assets”. Hence he wanted to hide it some where. He feared that in his absence some thief may steal it. So he found a solution. On river bank sand was spread all over the area. He made ​​a pit in the sand by his hand and after placing the  copper pots in the pit, he covered it with sand. Now to identify the place he made a Shiva Lingam (a Religious Image; See below) over it. Now to make it more authentic, he also placed some flowers and leaves over it so that it may appear that some one has recently worshiped it. Of he went to attend the call of nature. Upon his return to that place, he was in a shock.Now there were so many similar ‘Shiva lingam‘ statute carved on sand. People presumed that on that particular date, it was a ritual to make that image on the sand and perform the ritual of prayer/worship. Hence the people without much thought and consideration followed the presumed ritual. Now the priest could not find his own Shiva lingam under which he had buried his valuable copper pot and had to lose it. Finding himself in this situation he expressed his anguish in these words in a couplet:

In this world people follow each other in passing;
Who cares for right or wrong;

Actions are performed in automatic motion;
Sand ate my copper-ware due to shiva-lingam.

(The story and couplet translated to English from Hindi/Sanskrit Source: Nishant’s Blog)

Shiva Lingam im Hindu-Tempel/AAI Wien

Shiva Lingam im Hindu-Tempel/AAI Wien (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This is a sequel to my earlier post on Automatons. How we are lost in our thoughts and are acting mechanically. This story is also reflective of the fact that we plan things from a very limited perspective and future is always uncertain. Fatalists can blame the priest in above story, for his loss as natural because he had misused the religion to cling to his assets. But that is not the point. Point is how our mind travels, in limited two dimensions and we create problems for ouselves and others.