Death and Resurrection (Cont'd)

                                                           The seemingly contradictory idea of death and new life is but a fact even in our ordinary experience.  As we have seen in the last Post, the destruction of old cells in our body gives rise to new ones. Jesus explained the need of dying to our self for a new life by indicating how a seed will remain as it is unless it falls to the ground and disintegrates to give rise to a new plant producing fruits. Here we have to be cautious to the danger of falling into the snares set up by self-serving people instigating others to forego one's life for a better tomorrow. It is self-serving because the rule applies to each one's self and not to be applied to others by anyone else. Any sacrifice worth the name has to be self-sacrifice and we have no right to demand it from others in the name of religion or of common good. This is what Jesus demonstrated by his own example of self-sacrifice by death on the cross the spirit of which may be followed by those who believe in him. Even at the sacrifice of the Holy Mass Christians are expected to participate in it by offering themselves as living sacrifices by renewal of their minds (See Romans, 12:2).
                                                         For human beings, therefore, change and transformation start with a new mind and the body will automatically follow the dictates of the mind from a renewed perspective. It is self-defeating merely to run away from the world to shun it in the name of spirituality as the world follows us wherever we go. The fundamental reason for the persistence of the world  in us lies with our own self known as the Ego that cannot be eliminated merely by our moving from one place to another. This is why Jesus laid down the fundamental principle of spiritual life as denying one's own self along with carrying one's own daily cross and following him (See Mark, 8: 34). The self cannot be denied without being master of our lower nature with the help of our higher nature. A renewal of mind is the basic condition for the same. We need not bother ourselves with persecuting our bodies for the sake of spirituality as others will do it for us when we are seen as different from them. At the same time, penance and fasting voluntarily undertaken goes a long way in subduing our unruly minds, which will help us to be masters of our lower nature. Those who go about with a renewed mind will consider as despicable what the world holds in high esteem while what it considers as lowly and worthless will be their object of esteem and honor. The conflict will be certain between the two sides and in this conflict the believers have their chance for self-sacrifice and transformation. We shall see below our part in this process of transformation from death to a new life through resurrection as threefold:
1. Our willingness to be transformed;
2. Acquiring the necessary enlightenment;
3. Faithful execution of what we see as true.
                                                      Here we shall discuss the first point , leaving point nos. 2 and 3 to the next Post. As created in the image and likeness of God, man is endowed with the faculties of intellect and will for action. Any action is expected to be guided by the illumination provided by our intellect on the basis of which a choice is made by exercising our will. The problem here is that as we are also endowed with a body with five sense faculties , our mind that is connected to both the intellect and the sense organs may easily get clouded. The resultant picture of reality presented to the will for a choice and decision will not be transparent and we are led into uncertain territories. To avoid such pitfalls, it is necessary to strengthen our will-power to seek and follow the right course of action .To take a decision to improve our lives according to the Word of God and wise sayings is already the battle half won. Exercises are required to strengthen our will-power by controlling our weaknesses for which prayer and penance will go a long way. To avoid a harmful habit like smoking by quitting it at one stroke is a good exercise in gaining will-power. To forgive any ill-treatment meted out to us by someone is a gem of an exercise in practicing will-power. At the beginning it will be very painful and yet by constant practice we can be experts in accumulating will-power. In the same spirit of fortifying our will to excel in life, a steady and determined attempt to lead a fully human life should constantly rule our conduct of life. The efforts we make in this connection should not be under any stress and strain, but should be smooth and effortless. The reason for this caution is that we are expected to be just what we are as created by God and not become alienated by our actions. (to be Continued).                

Death and Resurrection

                                                           Epicurus, the hedonist philosopher of Greece, advised his followers thus: "Eat, drink and make merry today as you shall die tomorrow". Similar themes are seen in India in the atheistic philosophy of the Charvakas. On the contrary, the Bible, Vedas and the holy scriptures of the major world religions insist on the continuity of life even after death. The differing world views have their practical consequences in our daily lives. While the former is confined to this world and to our bodily needs, the latter takes into account a life after death and to the needs of our souls.  Jesus succinctly proclaimed this essential truth by giving priority to the Kingdom of God without neglecting the reality of our present life in the world. In this Section we shall make an attempt to have a balanced and harmonious view of the essential relationship between the end of life in this world and its continuity forever.    
                                                          Death is commonly understood as the separation of the soul from the body. This view brings to the fore the diversity between the body and the soul at the expense of their essential interconnections. Though they are different, the one cannot survive without the other and at death the soul must be feeling out of place as it was so long attached to the body. The body readily disintegrates although its association with the soul may not be easy to be shaken off. Therefore, to understand their relationship better, we shall describe death as a transformation of life from one state to another. There is continuity not only to the soul but also to the body though in different degrees and forms. Even scientifically speaking,  all matter is ultimately energy and it cannot be completely annihilated but can only be transformed from one state to another. The longing, therefore, for reclaiming its partner is incumbent upon both the soul and the body. In this context, the Christian teaching of the immortality of the soul forever and the resurrection of the body at the end of the world is very convincing as it is cogent to the nature of things as they are.
                                                        Death is seen as a transformation if we are prepared to see birth and death as two sides of the same coin. They are not opposed as they are complementary just like day and night are not opposed to each other as the one presupposes the other. They are harmoniously united to one another since the one follows the other without any break and they are not to be taken as conflicting events. Similarly, birth or life and death should be seen as parts of a harmonious whole , the latter replacing the former for a transformed kind of life. Death is a passport to an upgraded form of our life just like in our birth we were upgraded from the womb to this earth. That we cannot recollect anything from our stay in the mother's womb does not in any way take away from the beauty of this world we experience. Death allows us to be born into the next world where too we are to slowly grow up to meet God in His full effulgence.  
                                                        Death is not to be taken as something that happens at the end of one's life. Every moment of our life death is foreshadowed in the destruction and renewal of cells in our body that also indicates to us the need of transformation of our body. Death is the gateway to our ultimate transformation to be finalized in the realignment of the body with our soul at the resurrection. For this to happen we have to be actively aware and be engaged in the process of transformation with the aid of the Word of God and religious teachings. This transformation takes place from inside , i.e., from our soul to the outside,i.e., our body. In this process, the Spirit of God is actively present turning us into spiritual entities. The concept of spiritual bodies is very much present in the Indian way of thinking as can be seen from the Vedas. St. Paul in his first Letter to the Corinthians elaborates in some detail the nature of different kinds of bodies in connection with the question of resurrection from the dead (See 1 Corinthians, 15:35-49). The comparison of death with sleep in the New Testament is very significant regarding the wholesome understanding of death and the new life emerging out of it. Jesus himself considered death only as a mode of sleeping in the case of both the daughter of Jairus and of Lazarus both of whom he raised to life. In this sense, there is similarity between sleep and death since both of them are under suspended animation for a shorter or longer period. The greatest pleasure here on earth is achieved in sleep although without consciousness of the same. Similarly, after resurrection from the dead we shall experience the greatest pleasure, with a transformed consciousness, in contemplation of God. A glimpse of this kind of pleasure known as bliss may be seen in our meditative experience when communion with God is felt as palpable. (To be Continued).           

Suffering and Salvation (Contd)

                                                           As we have noted above, Jesus is the model of suffering for humanity whereby he has turned out to be the torch-bearer of human dignity. Human dignity cannot be maintained by violence and aggression, but only by love and meekness. This is the method to bring out the full potentiality ingrained in each human soul endowed with a body together constituting the image of God. However, the tendency latent in every human being is for domination over others by hook or crook thinking that such a state would make them happy forever. This is the result of an illusion created by our superficial involvement in the world giving primacy to our body and material things neglecting our soul and its spiritual dimensions. The other extreme is to ignore the claims of our body and material things to the detriment of our well-being. The right balance and correct proportion is a necessity in practicing renunciation that is absolutely necessary for spiritual life resulting in true happiness. It is in this context that we have to look at Jesus as our model of suffering and the standard for maintaining human dignity. By standard here we mean the ultimate criterion to measure the worth of anything as we have the standard meter kept in Paris for determining the measurement by meter. Units of meter like centimeter, millimeter etc., are modeled on the standard meter whereby we are able to measure anything uniformly and without dispute by anyone. Similarly, Jesus Christ stands as the standard for human dignity in approximation with which our actions can be invested with human dignity.  
                                                          What did Jesus do to earn this role of the cornerstone of the grand edifice called human dignity? He is the only person known to humanity who was born with a view to dying for the human race to redeem it from perversion and utter destruction. We say this because of the fact that the entire life of Jesus was in antithesis to the established patterns and ways of the world that necessarily led to his elimination from the world and Jesus could not have been unaware of the consequences of his actions. His very birth was announced by Archangel Gabriel to his mother Mary causing her unbelievable confusion and consternation. Although Mary was pacified by Gabriel in unfolding God's plan, she never ceased to be baffled by her son's ways of dealing with her and everyone else. She could only silently adore the mystery culminating at his crucifixion, a price he had to pay for being good to his fellow humans. It started at the first miracle, performed at the request of his mother, changing water into wine at the marriage feast of Cana-in-Galilee. Jesus had warned Mary that she did not know what she was asking for, namely that his first miracle would be the first stepping stone to Calvary. The destiny of Jesus reached a point of no return when Lazarus was raised from the dead as the Jewish authorities seriously plotted to do away with him. Their Chief Priest Caiaphas even prophesied that it was better if one man was to die for the whole people. Jesus knew very well that his every word and action was being thoroughly watched and that taking the path to uphold human dignity was equal to signing his own death warrant! Who would dare to question the most sacred duties of observing the Sabbath and offering sacrifices at the Temple of Jerusalem in the name of human dignity? Jesus did unequivocally declare that the dignity of the humans stands above even the most sacred divine duties because the latter cannot be genuine at the expense of the former.  In other words, upholding human dignity in every situation is the true test and verification of genuine devotion to God.        
                                                       The spurious ways of worshiping God  by placing the Sabbath duty above the human welfare and offering sacrifices neglecting the duty of love of neighbor were condemned by Jesus. One step ahead, he even forbade offering of sacrifices when someone has something against us as we are obliged to make up with the aggrieved party before going back to the altar. Even if it is taken only figuratively, the spirit behind it is very clear regarding the dignity of every human being.  Even in the Old Testament it is unambiguously announced that God prefers mercy over sacrifice. Jesus took upon himself the role of defender of human dignity by opposing the forces undermining it even in the name of God. Such forces ultimately conspired to crucify him by threatening Pontius Pilate, the Roman Ruler of the time, by denouncing him as the enemy of Caesar, the Roman Emperor, if he let Jesus go free.      
                                                       Jesus corroborated his teaching on human dignity with his own life and death, another important indication of the truth of his teaching. He could have cleverly avoided the humiliation, suffering and the terrible kind of death meted out to him by being diplomatic in giving evasive answers to the implications of his revolutionary teachings. But Jesus chose the Will of his Father over his perceived safety and well-being in upholding the truth of his teaching on human dignity. The way Jesus had answered the so many crooked questions by his adversaries during his life, it is clear that his intelligence surpassed far above that of all the doctors of the Law and the members of the Governing Council, the Sanhedrin. It means that he could have easily outmaneuvered any tricky questioner to save his skin and escape the cruel fate that awaited him. Only one factor prevented him from taking such a step and that was his conviction that his Father's Will reigned supreme and had to be followed even at the cost of his own life. This is why we say that Jesus is the savior of the whole world as he has shown us the genuine method of being truly human. Without bringing out the divine element deposited in every human being by God, no one can claim to be genuinely human. Jesus did this by denying himself to the point of his death whereby God raised him up from the dead. Without self-denial at different levels of our life we can never hope to redeem our humanity from under the clutches of various types of dehumanizing elements. Jesus Christ is the perfect specimen we should incorporate in our scheme of things so that even our sufferings turn out have value for our salvation.         

Suffering and Salvation (Contd)

                                                           Submission to the Will of God follows once we start thinking as God thinks. The classical example cited for seeing the Will of God in suffering is the story of Job in the Old Testament (See the Book of Job, chapters 1-42). At the outset, let us try to clear a possible misunderstanding about the need and relevance of human suffering. It is not that we are condemned to suffering needlessly as if God is powerless about it nor that we are helpless in controlling and curing the causes of our sufferings. God's purpose in allowing suffering in the world is part of an overall strategy to accommodate the humans who are spirits with bodies. In the words of the priest-paleontologist Pierre Teilhard  de Chardin "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience." The primacy of spirit over matter is the underlying reason why we encounter suffering through which the spirit emerges victorious over the clutches of our body and mind. In other words, the transformation of our personality requires that the spirit within us, with the aid of the divine spirit, is able o conquer the tyranny of the material inclinations of our body, aided by our mind. Our sufferings, therefore, can be valuable means to transform ourselves if we are prepared to take them as challenges in our life.
                                                        Given the above precautions of understanding , we may see how God accedes to the challenge of Satan to test Job, the righteous one. Satan wanted to prove that in adverse circumstances even the just would turn against God. On withdrawal of all his blessings and infliction of severest of calamities even to his very person, Job always thanked and blessed the Name of God. He did it by saying that God has given and God has taken away; let His Name be always blessed. On being defeated in his challenge, the Satan withdrew from the scene and God blessed Job all the more doubling all his blessings he had earlier. However, Job was not exempt from the normal human reactions to sufferings and even tried to justify himself before God by seeking reasons for his sufferings. It was a time when sufferings were considered to be punishment for one's own if not of the sins of one's ancestors. Job could not reconcile himself to the idea that he might have sinned in his life or displeased God in any way. The challenge of God to Job to fathom the reasons for simple and fundamental events like the foundation of the universe and its measurements etc., completely unnerved Job. The conclusion Job was supposed to draw was that unless God lets someone see the inner secrets of His counsels, the humans were to blindly accept the structure of the world, including suffering, as it is. He saw the need of accepting the Will of God in everything as He is the One for Whom everything is possible. Accepting inevitable sufferings in our lives as the Will of God does not mean that we have to be content with our fate doing nothing to alleviate our suffering or improve our situation. On the contrary, often it is because we fail to be vigilant and proactive that dictators like Hitler and Mussolini were able to create havoc in the world dragging it into violence and mayhem during the second world war. Instead of being ready to sacrifice ourselves for just causes, our selfishness gets the upper hand and the result would turn out to be out of our control. To save our own life we have to be ready to sacrifice it, according to Jesus, and such a person is not afraid of anyone or anything except God. We have seen in the previous Post that to be afraid of God is not different from loving God and we should not make a difference between the two with the intention to carry forward our own will.      
                                                   We have to still tackle the important question about how to come to know the Will of God. If the purpose of this knowledge is to do the Will of God, we have different models in the Bible. As we have seen above, Job accepted as God's Will whatever happened to him, good or bad, wealth or poverty, health or disease, fame or ignominy, honor or dishonor etc. This is an acceptable method, provided one does not feel condemned to fate and therefore unable and unwilling to correct the course of events when they go against human dignity. For, human dignity is the touchstone whereby we may come to know the Will of God irrespective of the source of authority demanding our compliance. If someone, therefore, claims to represent and speak for God, we will have to take out our touchstone to verify the claims. As for the correct representation of human dignity, we shall have to fall back on the authority of Jesus Christ as shall be seen in the next Post.  Complete surrender to the Will of God, whatever happens to us, is a valid and sure sign of our complete faith and trust in God. This, however, has to be arrived at by a personal decision borne out of reflection and meditation on the Word of God and not from insinuations of interested parties who are on the look out for exploiting vulnerable people. Ignorance of the Word of God had led people in the middle ages to produce "Deus ex Machina", i.e., "God out of machine" when no suitable solutions to problems were available. Invoking God for anything and everything, ignoring common sense, science and technology is the present day equivalent to such attitudes. Such invocations or ascriptions of events to God's power are acceptable as they can be implicit remembrance of God and prayer to Him for favors received. They are unacceptable as explanations or reasons why such and such events happened as they may lead to superstitions and consequent malpractices. Because St. Augustine was guided by the inner voice "tolle," "lege", i.e., "take, "read" a certain passage of the Bible, some people have adopted a method of randomly opening the Bible to find out God's Will from the first verse they see. The weakness of this method consists in the fact that while Augustine had the inner voice after consistent and prolonged meditations on the Word of God, people today can hardly spare ten minutes for meditation and prayer. After immersing oneself in the daily grinds of routines and conforming oneself to the standards of the world, what kind of inner voice one can have? As we have seen above, the priority should be to think as God thinks by adjusting our standards to the mode of God's thinking. This is the first condition for knowing the Will of God for us in particular instances. This general principle was followed in the Old Testament by the priests of the Lord by resorting to Urim and Thummim and by the prophets of the Lord  by consulting Him each and every time they pronounced the Lord's Will. However, not every priest was considered suitable for using Urim and Thummim (See Nehemiah, 7: 65) nor every prophet for consulting the Lord.  
                                           We have in the Old Testament an instance of resistance to the Will of God, a completely opposite attitude to that of Job, in the interesting and beautiful story of prophet Jonah  (See Jonah, chapters 1-4). The story has added significance in elucidating the ways and means to know the Will of God, as Jonah was specially called by God to fulfill a mission. Against the command of the Lord to go to the great city of Nineveh to denounce it for its wickedness, Jonah set sail for Tarshish in order to escape from the power of the Lord. The story goes on to narrate how the Lord defeated Jonah's purpose ultimately throwing him back on the shores of Nineveh by means of a whale. Hemmed in by the power of the Lord Jonah announced the Word of the Lord: "In forty days Nineveh shall be overthrown" (Jonah, 3:5). The people of Nineveh believed the Lord's Word and they sat in sack cloth after announcing a public fast. No one was exempt including the king and even animals were bound by the decree of the king to fast and do penance. After seeing how they abandoned their wicked ways, the Lord repented and did not bring about the destruction He threatened to unleash.  
                                          Jonah was sore at the way the Lord changed His mind and blurted out the reason for his first refusal being his knowledge of the Lord as gracious and compassionate, long-suffering and ever constant, and always willing to repent of the disaster . Jonah was afraid that dealing with such a person was going to hurt badly his Ego and so he did not want to take up the mission assigned by God. Resistance to God's Will comes from our own Ego in different ways. As long as He grants our wishes, we are all for Him and the moment our will is thwarted we try to run away from Him to our protected shell. The rest of Jonah's story tells us how God teaches him by practical lessons why the Lord is the way He is. To know this is essential for knowing God's Will as we have detailed above about the mode of God's thinking. There is a sense in which God's Will cannot be thwarted by us and yet it is incumbent upon us to follow His ways and do His Will. Here we have the mystery of predestination and free will that cannot be treated in this brief Study. (To be Contd).  

Suffering and Salvation (Contd)

                                                           It would look like presumption from the part of finite and frail human beings to try to know the way of God's thinking. But the chiding administered to Peter by Jesus about thinking like humans and not like God implies that we should be able to think like God and not merely as humans. This is possible only if we are prepared to get under the skin , so to say,  of reality. In other words, the human way of thinking is governed by the appearances of things and not by their reality. It comes down to giving prominence to our body, senses and emotions neglecting the soul, intellect and will power. We are dragged down by the weight of events and occurrences in the world as our body and its five senses are always open to the world outside. In course of time, we forget the powerhouse within us rooted in our soul to which all our faculties should be made subject for a smooth functioning of our life. Such a reversion of our natural and human way of behavior from the body to the soul will result in the peeping out reality over and above its appearances. Now we are on the way to think as God thinks and not merely as the humans do.  
                                                        What prevents us from seeing reality as it is as against its appearances is our tendency to superimpose our subjective reality over the objective reality. Our bodily way of thinking , i.e., thinking arising out of our lower nature, is responsible for supplying the materials required for manufacturing the content of the superimposition in our subjective thinking. An example given by the Indian sages in this context is about someone mistaking a rope for a snake of which the person is afraid. The subjective thinking of the person has superimposed the serpent on the rope due to lack of light or poor eyesight or because the person was inebriated at the time! The rope and the fear are real, whereas the serpent is only manufactured by his or her imagination. Similarly, a person without light, i.e., understanding or due to ignorance or because he or she is inebriated with the spirit of the world is prone to superimpose his or her views on the reality presented. The solution is to revert to the proper human spirit endowed with intellect and will power supported by the divine spirit. Such a reversion helps us to see things, events, reports and speeches as they are without any interference of superimpositions. The result is objective reality or truth and God Himself is Truth. Now we are closer to the mode of God's thinking. To achieve this one needs to listen carefully to the objects, words spoken etc., without any preconceived ideas. In addition, it is necessary to reflect on what is listened to and meditate on its implications whereby we shall really know things as they are. If this is real knowledge, a step ahead, when it strikes as revelation of the inner nature of things enabling us to distinguish between right and wrong, it is called wisdom. We already know from what has been said earlier that fear of God is the beginning of Wisdom.    
                                                     God confers wisdom on people whom He approves. An example may be given from the Bible about King Solomon's wisdom. God appeared in a dream to Solomon asking for what he wanted. Solomon asked for a heart with skill to listen in order to help him govern God's people justly and to distinguish good from evil. God was well pleased with Solomon for asking this and not for a long life for himself, or for wealth, or for the lives of his enemies, but for discernment in administering justice. His request for a wise heart, therefore, was granted and in addition , he was given all those things he never asked for (See 1 Kings, 3: 5-14). From this incident, we may have a glimpse of how God thinks and also how we should pray to God. As for the nature of wisdom conferred on Solomon, and for that matter of any genuine wisdom coming from God , an instance may be taken from the Bible how Solomon exercised his power of wisdom. We read there how two women quarreled over the ownership of a living child as against a dead one claiming to be its mother. Since both were vehemently arguing and were unwilling to reach any compromise, Solomon ordered a sword to be brought for dividing the child into two to give a piece each to both of them. At the king's order to cut the living child into two, the real mother asked him to give the child to the other woman saying that at any cost the child should not be killed. The other woman insisted that the child should be divided so that neither of them has the baby.  At this, King Solomon gave his judgment to give the child to the first woman and not to kill it as she was its real mother (See 1 Kings, 3: 16-28).  
                                                From this instance of the exercise of wisdom by King Solomon, we may learn two things. First, the mode of thinking of God , seen through the exercise of His wisdom by Solomon, is always impeccable and contrary to the human way of thinking. Second, wisdom of God conferred on the human is not something esoteric and mystifying leading to superstitions and meaningless rituals, but immersed in the general laws of the Universe. In this case, Solomon used the laws of human psychology to pinpoint the real mother of the child and thus his exercise of the wisdom given by God was transparent and convincing to everyone. It is a further corroboration of our thesis  in this Study that the secular and the sacred are not to be separated in such a way that superstitions, black magic, spurious miracles etc., are given a chance to take over our rationality gifted to us by God. The real meaning and extend of true miracles may be gathered from the Gospels and how Jesus performed them. Generally speaking, Jesus dissuaded the beneficiaries of his miracles from publishing them in order not to draw attention to himself. A telling example of self-effacement even when he could easily have drawn attention and admiration from people is seen in the miracle of turning water into wine at the marriage feast of Can-in-Galilee. Jesus just asked the servants to fill the six stone water-jars standing there and draw some off and take it to the steward of the feast. He did not command the servants to bring water before him to be blessed that could easily have given the impression to the people of magical powers in Jesus. According to God's way of thinking, self-effacement is absolutely necessary even for people vested with God's wisdom and authority. The fundamental reason behind this requirement is the principle that what is honorable before the humans is despicable before God and vice-versa!      
                                            As a corollary to the above we may say that human suffering and pain can only be understood within the ambit of God's way of thinking elevating them as effective instruments of salvation (See Matthew, chapters 5-7). God's way of thinking is always from a perspective of totality, while ours tends to be fragmented. Therefore, to think like God, we must make attempts to see things from a wider perspective and not from fragmented ones. While we see things as happening in the past, present and future, God sees everything in the eternal present. To live in the present is to try to think like God. To grieve at tragedies is quite human and yet we will not lose hope if only our perspectives are not bound by the immediate sad events. The life of Jesus has amply taught us the meaning and purpose of human suffering, although by nature we are averse to pain both physical and mental. (To be Contd).  

Suffering and Salvation

                                                           It is a problem from the very beginning of mankind that it is their lot to suffer various kinds of calamities, diseases with pain and sorrow  although they are destined to be happy forever. The fundamental problem in this scenario is a kind of radical ignorance about the source of both our happiness and sorrow experienced by us. It would appear that objects and events outside ourselves constitute our happiness and sorrow. For example, we imagine that we would be eternally happy if only we were to win a lottery giving us access to many millions of rupees. At the time we are unaware of eventualities that might lead us into multiple problems that might crop up in our life as a result of winning the lottery. If the source of happiness were in the millions we have won, nothing else should be able to render us unhappy. We know from the experience of so many people that the same is not true. Similarly, a calamity or accident that causes us pain and sorrow need not be the determining factor of our unhappiness. There are scores of  people who suffer a lot as a result of calamities, sickness etc., and yet remain composed to face them bravely. Some even use the occasions to chart new avenues in their lives giving rise to succor and support to those who suffer misfortunes. It is not that we would never be affected by any sorrow from events happening where we are helpless in offsetting them. In such circumstances, however, our sorrow will be proportionate and it will not be able to incapacitate our ability to manage it reasonably well. Our conclusion, therefore, is that the source of both our happiness and sorrow is rooted in us irrespective of external circumstances. We shall try to explain it below.  
                                                       This explanation calls for a little knowledge of who we are by nature. All human beings are endowed with a multiplicity of faculties like the five senses, a mind consisting of intellect and will and a spirit that is the underlying life-force vivifying and nurturing all other faculties. The spirit in a body is called the soul. People with disabilities like blindness, deafness, dumbness, autism etc., are also not out of the general sphere of humanity. That there are such exceptions and shortcomings in some cases only go to prove the general rule, besides the fact that such people are sustained by their spirit. The spirit of man, according to the Bible, is endowed with the image and likeness of God (See Genesis, 1: 26-27). As man's spirit is the unifying factor of all the faculties, it is the connecting link and sustaining element of both his body and soul. Man shines as the image of God in both body and soul as one unit. In Indian Thought, man is considered as God Himself (Paramatma i.e., the Absolute) in manifestation as Jivatma (individual). Remembering this reality is the source of our happiness achieved through meditation and allowed to remain in our consciousness throughout the day as presence of God.
                                                      With the faculties gifted to us by God, we are expected to grow up as against mere growing old.  It implies that we manage ourselves to conduct the business of life with a certain maturity.  It may be normal, for example, for a child to suck its thumb and can be easily forgiven with due caution to wean it gradually away from the habit. However, if a 40 year old person starts sucking his or her thumb we consider it abnormal. Similar is the case with some people, grown old but not grown up, when they are dejected by small incidents like a perceived insult. Students committing suicide due to failure in examinations may be considered as a refusal to grow up as they refuse to turn a breakdown into a breakthrough. They may not have heard about how Thomas Alva Edison failed 999 times in making the first light bulb. On being questioned about his frustration in failing so many times, Edison replied that 999 times he learnt how not to make a light bulb! We have a pathetic example in the Bible how a man grown old and held in high esteem by all was in fact never grown up. In 2 Samuel, chapter 17 we read about Ahithophel, whose counsel to king David and his rebellious son Absalom was considered as equal to the word of God , committed suicide. The reason was that just once his counsel was not accepted by Absalom preferring to follow the counsel of Hushai the Archite. This shows that acclamation by the people and holding high position need not in itself make a person happy unless he or she grows up.    
                                                 What is the sign that a person has grown up instead of merely growing old?  A really grown up person would have restrained the Ego lurking in all of us with a view to transforming oneself  into an ever newer and better person. The Ego is the hallmark of our lower nature manifested through pride, greed, envy, lust for power and honor, uncontrolled sexual deviations, selfish motives under the garb of serving the common good etc. All these taken together are labelled under 'flesh' in the Bible. As against them the 'spirit' stands for our higher nature supported by the divine spirit. The fight between the spirit and the flesh is graphically pointed out by Jesus to his disciples by saying: "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Mark, 14: 38). The fight is, therefore, internal to conquer our base self in order to allow our real self to shine forth. The same principle is followed in the Bhagavad-Gita throughout starting with the statement summarizing its content in "kurukshetra is Dharmakshetra". Its fifth chapter deals with 3 types of spiritual aspirants who remain liberated even as they transact with the world and enjoy its benefits. Our discussion in the present Study about the interaction and alignment between the secular and the sacred is in conformity both with the Bible and with the main thesis of the Bhagavad-Gita. There we can find how the real source of happiness is the Self that is none other than the Sadcidananda or God Himself made present to us in the Kingdom of God.    
                                               Just like happiness, the sorrow we experience from manifold sufferings has its source in the self. The fundamental difference here emanates from the two senses of self that we possess. The one and the same self that is governed by our higher nature is the source of happiness , whereas the self that is terrorized by our lower nature is the source of sorrow. It is not that we have two selves within us, but the one and the same self takes different hues and colors depending on who is our master, the higher or the lower nature. Our spirit aided by the divine spirit should be able to overcome and govern our will, intellect or mind and senses. "For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his mind will remain the greatest enemy" (Bhagavad-Gita 6.6). It does not mean to say that happiness or sorrow is just a mind-game, but the mind has a decisive role in our happiness or sorrow. Being shocked or devastated and thus becoming sorrowful at certain events is in accordance with the human nature and there is nothing to be ashamed of. Even the great king David, a person in tune with the mind of God, cried out loud calling out the name of  his beloved son Absalom at his death. He even refused to eat for days together sleeping on the floor. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, wept at the death of his friend Lazarus although he was going to raise him from the dead  soon afterwards. Such examples show that expression of sorrow is in tune with the human nature. In addition, psychologically speaking, to avoid falling into trauma with the result of the scarring of the psyche, it is beneficial to let out our anguish at sufferings beyond our control. However, our reactions should rise above the mere human level based on emotions to a higher plane controlled by our spirit. In the language of St. Paul, the expression of our sorrows should not be like that of people who do not have any hope beyond this present life. In this context, it is good to remember what Jesus said to Peter immediately after designating him as the foundation of the Church and conferring the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven on him (See Matthew, 16:: 18-19). As Peter could not reconcile himself to the notion of suffering and death his master was to undergo, he took Jesus aside and tried to dissuade him from his mission. To this Jesus reacted by calling him Satan and solemnly announced: "You think as men think, not as God thinks" (Matthew, 16:23). It is clear from this rebuke that to react properly to sufferings and sorrows on a spiritual level , we have to try to think as God thinks and not merely as humans do. (To be Contd).              

Public Life (Contd)

                                                           The relationship between religion and politics is a very controversial issue in today's world. In the western world, it is known as the relationship between the Church and the State. The close relationship between the two in past centuries resulted in the blurring of the roles each was meant to play. As a result, especially in the western world, separation between the two is the preferred norm  for social life. Democratic way of life, apart from ideologies like fascism, totalitarianism and communism, is a main contributor of the polarization between the Church and the State. This is because of the misunderstanding that democracy with power from the people might go against the power that is bestowed by God on selected people in the sacred domain. Even St. Paul asked Christians to acknowledge and obey civil authorities as there is no authority except from God  This is in tune with what Jesus said to Pontius Pilate who condemned him to death that he would not have had any authority over him unless it was given from above (See John, 19:11).
                                                        If so, what is the role of religion and religious authority? The role is to draw living models of genuine human beings as far as religion is concerned. As for religious authority,  it is to show that authority is not the same as power and that authority means service. Religion is endowed with the task of percolating the society with the idea of communion through service to fellow human beings. Belief in God compels us to do service to others should be the motto of true believers. Such a belief ensues in genuine service and communion as against the style of service of some of the political leaders who are self-serving under the tag of service. Religion need not enter into direct political activities in order to achieve its end and yet cannot remain blind to political developments that shape citizens' life. Some of its members may be trained to enter into political activity in order to serve the human community without any discrimination of caste, creed, religion etc. "Give to God what is God's and to Caesar what is Caesar's" is the golden rule we must follow here. In the case of the Church, it cannot be seen as Christian religion as the very concept of the church is embedded in the ideas of service and communion. The Church is nothing but a communion of believers where its visible members are ruled by a hierarchy of rulers representing Jesus Christ. However, one should not forget its invisible character that is as important, if not more, as its visible character and in its invisibility Jesus Christ is the sole head. Here there is no distinction between religions and races as the whole humanity is encompassed in the redemptive process once and for all accomplished in Jesus Christ.
                                                    The public life of an individual is relevant to the society as a whole when the particular interests of a person are subsumed under the general welfare of all. More than a brute majority in running the affairs that are of interest to all , the principle of universality as against particularity should be our guiding principle. The rights and privileges of the minority incorporated in the Indian Constitution and in various laws enacted by the State from time to time are meant to soften the might of the mere majority in public affairs. The principle of universality etched in the very structure of the Universe would be able to take care of everyone's interest if we are ready to voluntarily curb our greed for wealth and lust for power. In other words, it is in the nature of the Universe to be affected in some measure even by the most private actions of individuals. For harmony, tranquility, peace and growth, therefore, the particular and individual aspirations should conform themselves to the general and universal welfare.  
                                                     Life is so interconnected that no one can be an island and prosper. Many cases of suicides may be traced to the utter loneliness and helplessness of individuals who refuse to seek help in good time. This is applicable even in our moral and ethical life besides our psychological and physical life. The spiritual life that should be the source of our energy will be nurtured when our inmost depths are actively related to God. A practical tip from the great German Philosopher Immanuel Kant regarding the way to know what is moral and ethical also points to the importance of the universal over the particular. He advised people to consider how it would affect the world if every one were to act the way they acted. If they approve of the resulting situation as contributing to the common good, they may go ahead and do it, if not, such actions are to be avoided. Similarly, the aspirations of the people on national and regional levels need not contradict each other if seen in the proper perspective.  

    

Public Life (Contd)

                                                              Happiness is elusive to many people as they are easily deluded into believing that name, fame, money and uncontrolled sense gratification will make them happy forever. The American film 'Shortcut to Happiness' is an apt example showing that it is merely an illusion. It is about the ambition of a writer to become famous and wealthy and yet is rejected by every publisher. Frustrated and dejected, he easily succumbs to the temptation of the devil in the form of a young woman who promises to help him provided he sells his soul. A contract was made to this effect. On achieving whatever he dreamt of , the poor man finds himself hemmed in by superficial people all the time depriving him of his free will to enjoy life as he pleases. He finds that he has no time for his old friends who were with him through thick and thin and was able to offer them only money which they reject. He wanted to go back to his former self for which the contract he entered into with the devil stands as an obstacle. At the end he approaches the judiciary to annul the contract and barely managed to do it with help from eminent advocates. On regaining his soul he becomes genuinely happy again. What is portrayed in the film is that we should not run after illusory things for the sake of seeming happiness at the cost of even one's own soul. Our soul is all that we have and it is the source of our real happiness. As Jesus said, "what shall we give in return for our soul?" ( Matthew, 16:26). We shall not, therefore, trade our will-power and intellect , being the essence of our soul, for anything else whatsoever.    
                                                        In order to do justice to the main theme of our Study, we have to still explain how the interaction of the secular and the sacred applies as we go about with the daily routine of our life. In other words, our activities in the world to build it up should not be restrained by the demands of the Kingdom of God and vice versa. An example of such activities is our effort to create wealth. We find in the history of mankind different models of creation of wealth. In the primitive ages, it was a fight for survival when the humans were satisfied with bare minimum necessities of life  like food, water and shelter. In more advanced societies with the beginning of farming and settling in fixed places, called settlements, human affairs became more complicated. When the culture of group enterprises, like farming and exchange of goods, was gradually replaced by ownership of private property, frequent conflicts arose. Further, when the barter system of goods was replaced with the advent of money, even in its crudest form, an element of impersonality was added to the system of exchange of goods. Here we may remember the warning in the Bible that money is the root of all evil.  
                                                         In the different modalities of human interaction with regard to creation of wealth experienced in history, we are able to see the underlying concept of humanity  involved. In our Study, we are more interested in paying attention to such basic concepts of humanity rather than the theories and ideologies supporting endeavors of creation of wealth. For example, the employment of slaves as labor force from earliest times points to the division of humanity into masters and slaves. It is inhuman from our point of view today, whereas in ancient civilizations of Egypt, Greece, Rome, India etc., it was considered a viable means of survival. The socio-economic ideologies of capitalism and communism, as well as self-serving theories of feudalism and totalitarianism manifest totally different world-views with regard to their underlying concept of humanity. What we want to stress here is that an adequate and just standard of the concept of humanity is absolutely necessary to uphold the interaction of the secular and the sacred without the one cancelling out the other . In this connection, we propose that the manifestation of humanity in Jesus Christ as revealed in the Bible, especially in the New Testament, is the anchor and standard of real humanism we should practice.
                                                      Jesus seems to have denounced the rich and the powerful in order to uphold the blessings the poor are naturally heirs to. The first blessing in the beatitudes is:  "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven" (Matthew, 5:3). The New English Bible of 1961 First Edition translates the poor in spirit as those who know the need of God. In Luke 6:20 the same text is about the poor without any qualification. The Bible scholars agree that here Luke has in mind the "anawim" of the Old Testament who are totally dependent on God. Thus total dependence on God without any dependence on the  material resources one may have is qualified as poverty in spirit. In other words, people who are poor in spirit, even though they are rich in material resources, will never use their resources without fear of God. As we have seen above, fear of God does not allow them to swerve to the right or to the left from the path determined by God's ways. One who does not follow this principle is among those rich people for whom it is not easy to enter the Kingdom of God. Jesus qualified the situation as easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God. Therefore he advised the disciples to be rich before God and amass wealth  in the kingdom of heaven from where it cannot be robbed nor can moth eat it. One has to choose between God and Mammon, i.e., money, as both cannot be served at the same time. Both of them are capable of attracting our total allegiance and they cannot co-exist in a person as one of them is sure to ease the other out of our heart in due course.
                                                  Does it mean that loving God with our whole heart, whole mind and whole strength leaves no room for our undivided attention to worldly affairs? How can we, then, achieve excellence in our mundane duties where we have to compete with all kinds of people? Undivided attention is demanded both by God and Mammon and the defining moment in our life is determined by the choice we make between them. The choice is to decide to be a slave either to God or to Mammon. The Bible teaches us that a slave of God is a truly liberated person, while a slave of Mammon, i.e., money, wealth and power is enslaved forever in its vicious grip. To achieve excellence or to compete with others in the world according to the standards of competition, a liberated person is all the more suited than a slave with inhibitions and anxieties of all sorts. Loving God with one's whole heart, whole mind and whole strength liberates a person to release power to achieve excellence on whatever one does. The reason for this is that submission of our plans to a higher power liberates us from all sorts of anxiety enabling us to be focused  on our task totally. Besides, since we are expected to offer the fruits of our endeavors to God we become immune to the pressure created by the type of results we may achieve. Such persons are best suited to assemble all their energies in order to take on the tasks achieving thereby excellence in whatever they do. Besides, let us remember what we have said earlier about the love of God being on a metaphysical plane, whereas all our other kinds of love are on physical, psychological,emotional etc. planes where no clash of interests can take place! (To be Contd).        

Public Life (Cont'd)

                                                           How do we overcome our desires given the scenario of our personal growth seen in the last Post? How can we progress in life without any desires and means to actualize them? Can we live in this world created for us by God without being a part of the mainstream of life? These are valid questions we must find answers for as objectively as possible. It is necessary to aim to overcome those desires for acquiring objects and developing relationships that are detrimental to the smooth flowering of our inner potentialities contained in the fundamental desires. It is not that we should not acquire things or wealth necessary to live in this world, but that we should not be slaves to them. As Jesus said since no one can serve two masters at the same time, we have to choose our master very carefully. We, as images of God, have all the necessary powers within us to subdue and enslave all the other powers in the world and make them serve our purposes. Here comes the need of overcoming our unruly desires that cover up our real power from within. Our intellect is the faculty to discriminate between what is beneficial to us from what is harmful. For this we need to depend on the Word of God and wise sayings handed down to us through generations. The gradual addiction to the material world at the expense of our spirit has to be resisted. As there are De-addiction Clinics for alcoholics and drug addicts, all religions should serve as De-addiction Centers for curing the vices that dissipate the life giving energy from within each of us. This is achieved through the practice of detachment even as we use the things of this world. Our addiction should only be to God and thus we are able to love Him wholeheartedly. This is the meaning of the injunction of Jesus to leave father and mother, wife and children and everything to follow him. It can be practiced by even by those who live in the world provided they develop the capacity to be detached from everything. It is practiced by those monks and nuns who genuinely leave the world, as a special gift from God, in an eminent and exemplary manner. Detachment is no disinterest; on the contrary, it is a very balanced and sensitive way of looking at everything without being bound by the actions we perform.     
                                                      Some people look at happiness as if it were a commodity to be bought from a common pool easily available in the world unaware that the source of happiness is in their own selves. Both happiness and unhappiness are infectious in the sense that other people are affected by both happy and unhappy people in their own ways. A step further, there is a tendency in happy people to seek out others who are happy  as the unhappy ones go for others who are unhappy. A drunkard goes about  looking for other drunkards and a drug addict seeks company from another drug addict. Therefore, one should not bank upon finding happiness in other people or things ignoring the store of happiness, however dormant it may be, in oneself. This is especially applicable to people who believe that they will turn out to be happy once they marry such and such a person. Such a person tends to marry someone who thinks in the same way and coming together of two miserable people will end up in a kind of hell on earth. Opposites attract on physical laws and yet when we go beyond mere physics, other laws like birds of the same feather flock together hold. Laws of human psychology and behavior are still more complex and thus the like-minded tend to come together in human affairs. The best way to attract happy people to us, therefore, is to be happy from which starting point we should begin a new life like in marriage. The Greek Philosopher Socrates advised his disciples in his discourses thus: " By all means marry. If you get a good wife you will become happy, and if you get a bad one you will become a philosopher." !    
                                                    God has deposited in each of us a seed that strives and struggles to break the ground to come out as a plant to grow into a fruit-bearing tree. There are obstacles like the hard ground, external threats, thorns and thistles waiting to crush the tender plant besides lack of sustenance like water and manure hampering its growth.  Above all, it should not be shielded from the sun light and should be exposed to it. The basic hardness of the earth is no problem for the seed since it is equipped by God with power from inside that no force on earth can stifle. Where it needs assistance is in removing the rocks on the ground, protecting it from marauding attackers, keeping it in good health by supplying manure and water and allowing the sunlight to fall on it. Periodic cleaning of the surrounding ground by removing the weeds, thorns and thistles around the plant is a must for its growth.  The same rule applies to our personal growth since the seed is the Word of God containing the Kingdom of God in an embryonic form waiting to be released with full power. Since every human being is created in the image of God , this seed is already inborn in the very conception of an individual. This is the reason why the Church vehemently upholds the sanctity of every human life from the moment of its conception. We are not able to be at peace with ourselves until we allow God's purpose in creating us is set in motion. Looking for peace and happiness we tend to run after acquiring things in the world, always being frustrated after achieving the same. Our desire for happiness is genuine as it is deposited in our hearts by God Himself and yet in finding it we often fail because we become slaves to objects without practicing detachment. In this context it is beneficial to remember what John Dryden said: "He who trusts secrets to a servant makes him his master."
                                                 The obstacles standing in the way way to happiness, expressed metaphorically above in the example of a plant, are negative thoughts like anger, envy, lust, revenge, pride, greed etc. emanating from our hearts. The thoughts themselves are harmless until we nurture them and allow them to produce fruits defiling us. They may be turned into opportunities to purify us if only w try to control them by our higher faculties of intellect and will. Intellectual enlightenment is like the sun light giving energy to the plants. Our will power is the power of determination that decides what we should do with our lives. These two powers in us are able to over-rule the dictates of our mind and the process is called sublimation. Sublimation takes place when the higher powers are in control of the clamor of the lower powers. The heart is metaphorically designated as the center of all these activities. Practice of self-control is central to any improvement of persons not only spiritually, but also psychologically, emotionally and physically. (To be Contd)      

Public Life (Cont'd)

                                                           It cannot be denied that the humans are ruled by various kinds of desires that could either be beneficial or destructive to our spiritual life. There are different types of desires as we live our daily lives. Some of them are to be developed and others restrained or curbed for a genuine and holistic development of the person. The desires unobtrusively to be developed are called fundamental desires present in everyone and yet covered up by our topical desires. The three fundamental desires universally present are : the desire to live a day more ( 'Sat' or the desire to go on existing), the desire for knowledge ('Chit' or the desire to know) and the desire to be happy ('Ananda' or the desire to be always joyful). This is 'Sachidananda' or the Absolute present in everyone and everything covered up by our desires for particular objects called topical desires. We actually search for the former in the latter and remain dissatisfied on achieving our particular desires in the objects outside of ourselves. This is because we are actually searching for the Infinite contained in the Absolute in the objects of our senses and mind where it cannot be found. It is like the case of an old lady searching for something under the lamp post although she lost the object in her hut. On being questioned why she was searching for something under the lamp post if she lost her treasure in her hut, the simple lady answered that there is no light in her hut! Under the false impression that just searching anywhere is enough to recover her lost treasure is similar to our searching for happiness and well-being in particular objects. Unless we turn back from the world outside to ourselves where the diamond of happiness is hidden we shall never attain it. Here a note is ringing in our ears from the proclamation Jesus made: Repent (turn back), for the Kingdom of God is at hand and the Kingdom of God is like a treasure hidden from public view and is within all of us.  
                                                      Those who doubt the universal presence of the three fundamental desires because some people commit suicide, a few prefer darkness over light and many are unhappy in the world do so for a variety of reasons. The common thread running through those reasons is a mix up of the desires themselves with their actualization. It is a fact that some people fail in actualizing the fundamental desires because of wrong choices they make. Seemingly going against the first fundamental desire, people who commit suicide are not in the best mental balance a normal person should have as they were misled into attitudes of life incompatible with the natural flow of life. Life has its own rhythm and rules disregarding which consistently and without self-examination leads to unmanageable situations for the person concerned. Such people are led to believe that they have reached a point of no return and to salvage the situation they believe that suicide is the only solution. In fact, with infinite capacities inherent in each human being we never reach such a point of no return if one is willing to be calm and reflect a little. Ways and means will be opened up even in hopeless situations as there is no end to hopes and possibilities in this world. As for the second fundamental desire, that there are people who prefer to be in the dark is attested by not only the Bible but also the great Greek Philosopher Plato. He said: "We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light".  
                                                     The fact that there are a number of people who are unhappy in the world goes to prove the validity of the third fundamental desire to be always happy. It only means that they are looking for it in objects outside themselves because of ignorance of the source of happiness inside themselves. No particular object of desire satiates them as soon as they attain it and they start looking for other objects of desire. This kind of never-ending quest for happiness actually derives from their own infinite potentiality for happiness of which they are unaware or are loathe pursuing. Created in the image and likeness of God, we are not meant to be fully satisfied with anything other than God Himself as St. Augustine noted in his famous book titled 'Confessions'. As we live in this world, we cannot avoid interacting with the world nor are we expected to run away from our daily challenges. Where we go wrong is in being slaves to the demands of the world instead of being their rulers and masters in virtue of being the images of God. In order to achieve this we have to return to ourselves through reflection and meditation to remind ourselves of our real worth. This will, in turn, show us the way to equitably deal with the situations in the world without plunging us into misery. Any sorrow or disappointment will be taken in its proper perspective without any doubt of our self-worth . For example, for a student to be disappointed and be sorry for failure in examinations is proportionate to what happened, whereas to commit suicide on account of it is disproportionate. It is disproportionate because the former situation may be turned into an opportunity by a wise student, while the latter case of suicide is irreversible and is a greater failure.    
                                                    As we have seen above, while the three fundamental desires are to be promoted and developed for a full blossoming of personality, the topical desires concerned with enhancement of our Ego that are detrimental to our real growth should be checked. We need not renounce all such desires as we have to maintain a body that is in direct touch with the world through our five senses. We only have to take care to exercise control over our senses of sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste. Some ascetics resort to violence against their own bodies by punishing them cruelly hoping that thus they would be able to control themselves by denying their urges. The vital point to remember here is that to control our body, we have to control our senses through which it operates. Again, to control our senses, we have to control our mind that directs the senses to act or refrain from action.  Mind control, therefore, is the hinge on which our senses and body should turn. In order to achieve this properly, the light that is in us through intellectual understanding is a requirement. Knowledge, understanding and clarity of the situations we have to operate in are supplied by our intellectual application. This presupposes our willingness to make progress in life by adopting suitable means for which our will power has to be set in motion. Intellect and will are two faculties easily made use of by our soul, while the body is governed by our mind and senses. However, the mind is not unconnected to our soul as it remains as the hinge on which our body and senses turn, which supply the material for the soul to work with. As the brain controls our bodily functions, our spirit consisting of the intellect and the will control our spiritual functions. The spirit in bodies is called the soul. Besides, we are endowed with the Spirit of God to aid us in our spiritual quest. Self control, therefore, is essential to our balanced and harmonious growth and is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, which means that we have to co-operate with the Spirit of God to achieve the same. (To be Cont'd).                     

Public Life (Cont'd)

                                                           It is the hallmark of any true believer in God to express, in however small a measure, the inherent divinity present in each of us. How this is to be done in public is our topic here. Our actions in public tend to be ostentatious and boastful when they do not spring up from the deep reservoir of our spiritual nature. In this context, Jesus admonished his disciples to take care that the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. At the same time, they have to be light of the world that should not be hidden from giving light to all around. How the two should be combined is an art we should learn from Jesus himself even when he performed miracles that could not be hidden. It was always to reveal God's glory and out of compassion for the poor and the needy, taking all precautions himself to be humble and unassuming. In other words, Jesus took care to deflect the glory emanating from his wonderful deeds away from his person. He did this by giving all glory and power to God alone and admonishing the beneficiaries of his mercies to keep them secret. If they did, however, publish them that did not detract from the good intentions of Jesus. The lesson for us in all our endeavors is clear here. We should not use our position, authority, and the good we do to enhance our standing among the people thereby promoting our own self, which is but an echo of our Ego. On the contrary, we should be able to use them to express our true Self, namely, the image of God in us, which is ever present in us.    
                                                       What are the practical ways of expressing the image of God in us? First of all we have to discover the image of God in us by being conscious of it. This requires meditation, which is the result of our rest from work occasionally. In this state of rest from the routine work, we are deeply engaged with our inner nature that is spiritual. Our concentration in this state on the inner core of our being produces a tranquility of mind that sees deep into our nature. We are seen as the image of God just as the moon is reflected in undisturbed and serene water and not in muddied water.With a calm and clear mind we are in a position to grasp the meaning of image of God as reflected in us. Our body and soul together as a unit is the image of God and not the soul alone. In the Indian tradition, we are not different from the 'Sadchidananda', i.e., God Himself or the Absolute. With this ever present and increasing self-consciousness, we have to face the challenges offered by the world. Each interaction in the world like in our family life, official life, life in the particular community we are a part of should turn out to be sources of enlightenment to those we come in contact with. Take the case of rampant corruption seen around us so much so that those who refuse to toe the line are dealt with indifference, if not hostility, by those who are bent upon using unfair means to enhance themselves. The politicians take solace in the malady by branding the disease as a global phenomenon. People take the easier route to achieve their purpose by throwing money around obtained probably through unfair means. The right attitude should be to be patient and refuse to part with money for favors and very often the right circumstances fall into place whereby we achieve our purpose without paying anybody undue fees. We are welcome to see God's hand in those favorable circumstances and thank Him for letting us contribute a little in treating the malady of corruption. There may be very few circumstances when we cannot wait for too long in emergencies and have to get things done like obtaining a passport in a hurry. It is like approaching the allopathic practitioners for severe illness instead of depending on the homeopathic treatment. A student who refuses to copy in exams even when there is mass copying may feel bad for some time, but never loses peace of mind. In later life such a student has a better chance of meeting the professional challenges in his or her career. The same may be said about the unfair means used in promoting one's career prospects. Our faith and trust in God are manifested through following the straight and narrow path less traveled by the general public.  
                                                  As a rule, therefore, whenever genuine human values and causes are upheld by our actions, we are on the road to realize ourselves as true images of God. It implies the seemingly unattractive injunction to lose ourselves in order to gain life. For, when we think that we are enhancing ourselves we are really losing ourselves and vice versa. The ultimate reason for this is that our real Self is not immediately evident to us and we mistakenly think that our false self, the Ego, is our real self. In order to overcome this malady we have to align ourselves with the Spirit of God. In this context, we may consider the fruits of the Spirit as propounded by St. Paul. St. Paul in his Letter to the Galatians chapter 5, verses 19-23 narrates the actions that proceed from our false self as well as our real Self. The real Self produces fruits of the Spirit and they are: love, joy, peace,patience,kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness and self-control.
                                                To express externally the divinity inherent in us, it is absolutely essential to love God fully and totally and our neighbor as ourselves. Although they are intimately connected, the one may not be confused with the other. St. John in his first Letter chapter 4, verses 19-21 emphatically aligns the two kinds of love to such an extent that some are misled into substituting one for the other. In fact St. John does not intend to do so as he has given only a means to test the veracity of our love for God. The ultimate reason for our contention that the one cannot be substituted for the other is that those two kinds of love belong to two different orders of reality. Our love for God is in the metaphysical order underlying our positive attitudes , while the love for our neighbor is in the empirical order to be executed visibly here and now. The two kinds of love, therefore, can easily co-exist without any conflict as our love for God stands as the foundation for our love for the neighbor. This will ensure that our love for the neighbor is not motivated  by self-interest and with an eye for his or her exploitation. The interplay of the secular and the sacred comes to the fore here where the Kingdom of God is not removed far from the affairs of this world and yet the former is not entirely restricted to the realms of the latter nor is the Kingdom generated from this world. (To be Cont'd).    

Public Life

                                                           By public life we mean more than mere social life as we intend to include all aspects of our life even as individuals. There should be constant interaction and balance between our individual and social lives. Arriving at harmony between the two is required for a healthy living physically, psychologically, intellectually and spiritually. At the root of our public life sustaining it is our hidden life as expounded in the previous section. Here we undertake to delineate certain fundamental themes that should permeate our public life leaving it to individuals to apply the same in specific situations. In this venture, the pride of place is taken by our prayer life, which is the connecting link between our hidden and public lives in as far as the spirit of prayer developed through our hidden life is meant to permeate and activate our public life. A constant vitality imbued by the undercurrents of the presence of God is an example of such a spirit of prayer. It need not be always and everywhere explicit in our daily routine, but should remain implicit that animates and controls every one of our actions. It is equivalent to watching and praying as per the injunctions of Jesus to his disciples so that they may not be led into temptation, meaning the final assault of the Tempter at the time of our death. This kind of constant reference to the presence of God in our daily lives in no way interferes with the efficiency of our mundane duties. An example from the Indian way of thinking should clarify this vital point of our personal life. A servant hired from far away by a wealthy businessman entrusts the care of his children to this servant. He takes care of the children as his own without compromising on anything that is required to be done for their welfare. At the same time, the whole undercurrent of his thinking and acting is for the benefit of his own children staying in his own village. He takes care of the master's children as if they were his own for the ultimate benefit of his real children by sending the money earned. Does the thought of his own children interfere with the efficiency of his work? On the contrary, in order to please his master he would be engaged in taking care of his children as if he had no other children of his own. This kind of devotion and dedication to his work in no way takes away his deep consciousness of the presence of his own children who live far away from him. Similarly, the remembrance of the presence of God can be and should be the hallmark of a true believer in God. That kind of an attitude is called the spirit of prayer essentially required for a prayer life.
                                                        Religions stress the need of the aid of the Spirit of God in maintaining a spirit of prayer and a prayer life. St. Paul elaborates on the workings of the Holy Spirit of God in our lives in his Letter to the Romans, chapter 8. St. Stephen admonished the Jews of his time, who were still heathen at heart and deaf to the truth, how they always fought against the Holy Spirit (See Acts, 7: 51). The Atharva Veda 7.52.2 prays that we may not fight against the divine spirit within us. It is important, therefore, to be in touch with the divine spirit and order our lives in harmony with the inscrutable workings of the Spirit. Finding our real Self and being rooted in it is essential for an efficient and successful engagement of the world by us. For this to happen we have to return to ourselves through prayer and meditation for reaching out to the world as real masters of the situations confronted by us. How this is to be achieved should be clear from our search in the rest of this section.
                                                      The human is a unit constituted by his or her body and soul, the external and the internal. There are 4 main sources of energy in the human, namely, the physical, the emotional, the intellectual and the spiritual. Their alignment and convergence should be the source of tremendous energy locked up in each of us. Opening up the locked in energy is achieved through physical exercises, mind control, education, i.e., the drawing out of the wealth hidden in all of us and activating the spirit within which the divine spirit dwells. Thus we see that all the four of these sources of energy may be summed up in two: the body and the mind on one hand and the intellect and the soul on the other. Activation of the spirit is to be cultivated through Jnana (knowledge), (Bhakti devotion), and vairagya (detachment), which are the three items of invocation at the beginning of all Indian Pujas (sacrificial offerings). Detachment is visibly practiced in our actions (karma) and thus karma (action) is not neglected in the above scheme of things. The ancient Indian Munis (Sages) resorted to Yoga practices for obtaining this vital alignment. Our mind occupies a central place in the activation of positive energies in us, if we are careful to curb the destructive negative thoughts that crop up constantly in our thinking. The means to achieve it is prescribed by the great Yoga Guru Patanjali in his Yogasutras (Rules of Yoga practices). To keep our minds positive and vibrant, Patanjali proposes the important Sutra (Rule): Chittavritti Nirodha(ha):yoga, i.e., stopping all the activities of the mind or stopping all thinking is yoga itself. What is primarily meant here is to cut out all negative thoughts that lead us to anger, jealousy, strife, lusts of all kinds, greed, attribution of motives to what others say  and do and consequent anxieties etc. The positive thoughts spring up from the recesses of our mind where our spirit meets the divine spirit. True education wells up from this source where meditation and contemplation of the infinite possibilities in us lead us to true alignment and harmony. The difference between a composed person facing the world and a disturbed person doing the same tells upon his or her perspectives and quality of life leading to effective education.              
                                                    The Bhagavad-Gita invites us to a perfect alignment of body and soul by our encounter with the Absolute as follows: "One gradually attains tranquility of mind by keeping the mind fully absorbed in the Self by means of a well-trained intellect, and thinking of nothing else." (Bhagavad-Gita 6.25). The Self with a capital 'S' stands for the Absolute or God Himself as He is present in us and is our real Self. When it is used with a small "s' the 'self' stands for our false self masquerading as our real self. The confusion between the two is the underlying source of all conflicts in human affairs. Hence we have the above-mentioned prescription in the Gita. In the Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions, the image of God in man stands for the real self and the false self is our Ego. Further in the Christian tradition,  Jesus Christ is the perfect image of God to which image we have to conform ourselves to enhance our original image.
                                                     The tranquility of mind advocated by the Gita is not a call to inaction as is evident from the fact that it was the result of the advice given by Sri Krishna to Arjuna for resolute action in the face of indecisiveness caused by Arjuna's attachments. The very first line of the Gita identifies 'dhamakshetra' (righteousness) with 'kurukshetra' (concentrated action). It means that justice and righteousness cannot be divorced from purposeful action.  The tranquility of mind, therefore, is only the outcome of a well -balanced and harmonious co-ordination of our body and soul. In the Bible, the equivalent idea is to enter into God's rest  for which the Sabbath was devised in the Old Testament. In the New Testament Jesus Christ himself is constituted as the Sabbath on returning to his Father so that anyone who approaches him is already at rest in the profound meaning of tranquility of mind. It is expressed in everyday life when Jesus invited all those who labor and are under heavy burdens to approach him so that he could be their consolation and support (See Matthew, 11: 28-30). (To be Cont'd).               

Hidden Life (Cont'd)

                                                           Before concluding this section, it might be worth while to note a few points about the Kingdom of God that is one of the central themes of this short Study. The Kingdom of God stands in antithesis to any kingdom of this world as well as our very life in this world. And yet, it is not completely foreign to this world in as far as we have to enter the Kingdom of God from our base in this world. Here we see the connection between the secular and the sacred. Jesus categorically announced at his trial before Pilate that his Kingdom was not of this world (See John, 18: 36-37).Thus, the origin, establishment and completion of the Kingdom of God are from above and our participation in it is from below. The Kingdom is hidden in the world as well as in ourselves, but goes beyond the world and waits for its full manifestation  The Kingdom implies sovereignty that we the subjects are bound to accept and acknowledge culminating in full faith in the sovereign, in our case, God Himself. Fear of God and love of God cannot be separated unlike the sentiments of some young people who are ready to love God, but are averse to fearing Him. This is because they misunderstand the fear of God to be like our fear of something in this world from which we tend to run away. The Bible gives ample evidence of the true meaning of the fear of God as running away from evil because of love of God. One example would be the instance when the Hebrew midwives Shiphrah and Puah who were ordered by Pharaoh to kill all the boys at birth disobeyed him. The reason they did not comply with the strict orders of the all-powerful Pharaoh was that they were God-fearing women. They also dared to give an unusual explanation when questioned by Pharaoh about failure to follow his orders (See Exodus, 1: 15-22). We may say, in brief, that fear of God implies avoidance of evil as love of God results in doing good.  
                                                       The main thrust of this Study is to suggest ways and means for us to be transported from the present world (the secular) to the Kingdom of God (the sacred). Our real Self and the Ultimate Reality of the world are both covered up by 'avidya' (ignorance) and 'Maya' (apparent reality) respectively. The veil that covers up is a false sense of Ego with all its consequences in the former case and a false sense of reality that leads us astray from the true Reality in the latter case. It is similar to our experience of dreams, which are real to us until we awaken to the world we daily live in. In our waking life, our mind has the tendency to superimpose false reality on the true reality due to various inadequacies in our perception. Examples would be a mirage seen by a thirsty person in a desert or a rope taken as a snake by someone due to lack of light. The lack of light stands for ignorance (avidya) and the object of superimposition is apparent reality (Maya). The real Self within each one of us is the image of God and His likeness in biblical terms and Sadchidananda in the Bagavad-Gita. In order to be conscious of this Reality, we have to turn to ourselves from the world outside of us we constantly deal with. Even the monks and the reclusive are not able to run away from the world as they carry the world with them through their bodies endowed with five senses wherever they are! The trick is to keep calm and be relaxed in all trying circumstances to attain which faith in God is the surest and permanent method of action. This method consists in our habitual practice of concentration on our true inner nature through meditation away from the clamor and distractions the world is filled with. Jesus instructed his disciples to go into a room closing the doors to pray in secret to the heavenly Father and he did not want his Father to take them away from the world, but only to protect them from evil. Once we attain the clarity about the nature of Reality as against appearances, we are well on the way to steer clear our life of all obstacles on the way to the Kingdom. The practical tips we find in the Bible, the Vedas and other Scriptures of religions should be our guideposts in this all-important venture of our life.
                                                    The Kingdom of God is hidden in each human being as well as in daily situations of life. Jesus indicated this by saying that the Kingdom of God is within us (See Luke, 17; 20-21) and prohibiting his disciples from searching for it in the outside world (See Luke, 17: 23) At present we are not able to point out the Kingdom as it is not fully established and manifested for all to see. By faith in Jesus Christ we know that it is fully established in his death, resurrection and ascension to his Father and that it will be fully manifested at the end of times when this world itself would come to an end. We have to learn to act in such a way that even as we are engaged in the daily business of living, our gaze should not waver from the values of the Kingdom of God. According to Paul "... the Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking , but justice, peace and joy, inspired by the Holy Spirit" (Romans, 14: 17). A familiar example given by the Indian Gurus is about a woman laborer carrying her child on her back even as she toils in the fields. Her constant thought about the well-being of her child does not distract her from efficiently performing her duties. At the same time, her complete involvement in the task assigned to her does not lead her to neglect her child. A similar attitude is what is required from us in our daily routines without forgetting the presence of God. This is same as praying always and everywhere when our actions are dictated by the fear of God as we have seen above in the case of the Hebrew midwives in Pharaoh's Egypt. Besides, let us remember about the logical order explained above as well as the metaphysical order of reality underlying the physical one.      
                                                How shall we go about in achieving this kind of balance and harmony in life? Jesus insists on the necessity of watching and praying as well as the need of being awake always and everywhere. It is against ourselves and our distorted minds that we have to keep a watch. A sleeping mind leads us into all sorts of imaginations contrary to our true well-being. Anything that comes to our observation and perception is liable to be misinterpreted by our minds so that what we understand is not the fact that is presented, but our imaginative interpretation of it. In this sense there are no pure facts as they are immediately interpreted by the mind. It is essential, therefore, to purify our minds and that is done through meditation raising the level of our consciousness to its full capacity. Then we shall see things as they are and that cannot be enunciated in words, but can only be lived. The Kingdom of God is perceived by such minds and that is why Jesus recommended children as representatives of the Kingdom. They perceive things as they are and not by a mind complicated by personal experiences. This is illustrated by the story of the naked emperor when everyone including the emperor himself believed that he was arrayed in magnificent clothes, seemingly too transparent, although in fact he was naked. It took a child to spontaneously shout out the fact that the emperor had no clothes on him!