Rise above myths and re-discover yourself…

Rise above myths and re-discover yourself… all gods are nothing before the Source of your Self.

— essence of chapter 3
Kena Upanishad

Never mess with myths people believe in. They can never be proved as true which explains the anger if others ridicule them. Religious tolerance essentially means you go ahead and believe in your incredible myths and I’ll believe in mine.

Myths have an awesome power over us. They were cleverly designed for the unconscious, designed to take deep twisted roots inside the unquestioning mind of dreams. Once they possess the dreaming mind, it is impossible to shake off. Try and discard one, the myth will return as nightmares, portents, signs from the heavens that a deep wrong is being committed.

All religions have embraced myths unto their selves. Hinduism has probably more than the rest put together. Hindu myths are known by the euphemism puraan. Every major God has a puraan. Many popular godmen have also wisely acquired puraans for themselves. If you plan to become a godman in the near future, better set a committee right now to churn up an exciting new puraan for your forthcoming avatar.

Sure, myths have been a great unifier of nations and cultures. The legend of Lord Ram helped unite India from north to south, kept up its spirit in the worst of medieval times. The legend of Jesus spread across the ends of earth into the largest most powerful religion the world has known. Myths add magic to our lives, take us back to giddy childhood days, unite us through a shared belief.

They are also double-edged swords. The second edge is hidden in the handle, and it slashes the wrists of those who wield it. Whatever the culture race or religion, the message embedded in all myths is the same. He is great, you are insignificant. He is a hero, you are a zero. He made water into wine, He made a bridge of floating stones, you did not. Eventually myths bleed your strength and weaken you into submission. It puts another person, idea or entity way above you and reduces you to a kneeling bowing grovelling person.

Vedanta says there is a time to embrace the myth and a time to rise above it. When you need to merge with your religious group, go ahead and cuddle up with all the myths you want. When you want to touch the silence within, it is time to go beyond and look at yourself and nothing else.

You don’t need to discard your faith. Just rise above it, rise above all the gods and demons the human mind has created. Rise above all the godmen and prophets who have held sway over the ages.

It is not easy, yes. Vedanta was never for the faint hearted. Walk on only if you have the courage. The road ahead is rough but the view is very beautiful.

Existence is made out

Joy is the stuff existence is made of. So whenever you are moving towards becoming more existential, you will be becoming more and more full of joy and delight, for no reason at all. If you are moving into detachment, love will grow, joy will grow, only attachments will drop because attachments bring misery, attachments bring bondage, attachments destroy your freedom. Indifference is a pseudo-coin — it looks like detachment, but it only looks like detachment. Nothing will be growing in it. You will simply shrink and die.

Don’t try to achieve happiness

When you are trying to achieve happiness you will miss. The very effort to achieve happiness is absurd because happiness is here: you cannot achieve it. Nothing has to be done about it, you simply have to allow it. It is happening, it is all around you; within, without, only happiness is. Nothing else is real. Watch, look deep into the world, into trees, birds, rocks, rivers, into the stars, moon and sun, into people, animals — existence is made out of the stuff of happiness, joy. Relax and it fulfills you.

Love is not attachment

Love knows no attachment, and that which knows attachment is not love. That is possessiveness, domination, clinging, fear, greed — it may be a thousand and one things, but it is not love. In the name of love other things are parading, in the name of love other things are hiding behind, but on the container the label ‘love’ is stuck. Inside you will find many sorts of things but not love at all.

Are you afraid of aloneness?

Watch. If you are attached to a person, are you in love? Or are you afraid of your aloneness, so you cling? If the person dies or moves somewhere else or falls in love with someone else then you will kill this person or you may kill yourself and you will say, ‘I was so attached that I couldn’t live without her or without him’.

It is sheer foolishness. It is not love, it is something else. You are afraid of your aloneness, you are not capable of being with yourself. And you use the other person as a means for your own ends.

To use another person as a means is violence

Immanuel Kant has made it one of his fundamentals of moral life. He used to say that to treat a person as a means is the greatest immoral act there is. Because when you treat another person as a means — for your gratification, for your sexual desire, for your fear — you are reducing the other person to be a thing, you are destroying his or her freedom, you are killing his or her soul.

Courtesy Osho International Foundation/ www.osho.com

Slowly start unfolding the spiritual self

he beginning of a new year brings new resolutions, a desire to give direction and control to life.

So, it was that the family sat huddled, reviewing the year gone by, discussing resolutions, setting goals and methodology to achieve them. Looking back, year after year, we had fixed physical, professional, financial, social, family and intellectual goals. Many were achieved, some goals became meaningless and new ones emerged.

It becomes apparent that a major portion of time was spent on fulfilling responsibilities and equipping ourselves to live more comfortably and peacefully. 'Intellectual goals' were the ones which stood out: reading, reflection and analysis were in the realm of challenging the mind and understanding life.

The most interesting aspect of looking back is that 'yoga' gently entered life under the head 'physical goals' and slowly made way to 'intellectual goals' in terms of understanding life and self. And, finally, yoga emerged as a means of 'spiritual goal', adding a new dimension to our lives. In some ways, intellectual and spiritual goals merged.

Over the years, this 'nectarine' aspect of life, though always present and experienced in parts, was not fully tapped. Yoga brings with it a lifestyle based in the 'spirit of the self' which pervades all other aspects of life.

Yoga teaches us that this body is essentially an instrument for realising the ` Param Atman' . Besides the physical body, there is an immensely powerful yet soft and gentle `spiritual body'. To build a spiritual body is a goal. The question is how to put this concept in 'actionable'? Here is where yoga as a discipline and as a 'body of knowledge' comes to our help.

Though conceptually, the spiritual body would be one 'established in its pure pristine self' we can take its outward manifestation and try to achieve them. Thus, a well-developed spiritual body would manifest in this world with the following attributes: i) Calm, ii) Serene, iii) Magnetic, iv) Efficient, v) Dynamic, vi) Tranquil, vii) Joyous, viii) Pure, ix) Disciplined, x) Graceful, xi) Physically fit, xii) Focused, xiii) Constantly learning and improving.

This list is not exhaustive. It is just a means to understand that deep within when the spiritual body will evolve what would be its manifestation in outer physical world. So, the output would be the list stated above. What would be the inputs to nourish the spirit so that the spiritual body develops? Yoga and 'yogic living' give us 'tools' to nourish our spiritual self. The list here is: i ) Mantra, ii) Jap, iii) Asana, iv) Pranayama, v) Pratyahara, and vi) Dharana .

Also develop i) Vivek or discrimination, ii) Vairagya or non-attachment, iii) Always make a conscious 'sattvic' choice, iv) Complete listening, and v) Considered speech. The above inputs and assiduous development of vivek, vairagya , always making conscious sattvic choice and considered speech would lead to an output of a calm, serene, emotionally stable, physically fit and a magnetic personality which is constantly learning and improving itself.

The 'mantra' breaks the emotional, mental and physical knots or barriers within. The vibrational powers of mantra make the spirit free-flowing. The 'jap' of 'guru mantra' pervades the spiritual self and connects the spirit of self to a very powerful source of energy and intelligence. The 'asanas' done with awareness make the body a more efficient machine. The 'pratyahara' leads to the journey within and 'dharana' leads to a focused efficient mind.

In the physical world, a person who is established in 'vivek' and 'vairagya' is like a magnet to others. The self comes nearer to its internal self, our spiritual body. The journey begins from the physical to internal with changed understanding of life. The new unfolding is that of the 'spiritual self'.