In genuine spiritual life, one cannot be satisfied with the internal experiences alone. Such experiences as a result of self-awareness and God-consciousness should in some way translate themselves into external expressions like visible forms of love and service. A life of devotion to God expressed in religious practices only partially satisfies this criterion in a true religious person. The acts of devotion and rituals performed have to be imbued with genuine self-awareness and God-consciousness issuing forth in verifiable acts of love and service to God and humanity. What is more, this kind of verification is the only way to test the truth of our internal experiences resulting from religious practices. Very often the religious practices and rituals performed by us do not make any difference to our lives and we remain the same old selves we were before. The fundamental reason for this anomaly is that such practices and rituals have not touched our innermost core whereby they become our 'anubhava'. The root meaning of 'anubhava' will clarify it further. 'Anu' is the experience resulting from what is heard by us from the Word of God or wise sayings. 'Bhava' is to make present in our lives the experienced gained from 'anu'. It is an actualization in our personal life what we heard from the Word of God or wise sayings. In this context, we may refer to the parable of the sower in the New Testament where some seeds that fell on suitable ground produced fruits in varying degrees (See Matthew, chapter 13).
There is constant tension and ambivalence in the life of individuals of all types and categories, if they are unequipped to face the world. The huge difference in the manner in which people handle their frustrations and tensions indicates their level of preparation for life. An unprepared person fumbles and falls when meeting the challenges of life thrown at him or her during the course of the daily business of life. Such a person is overcome by the enormity of the problem , whereas another person who is equipped with the basic human values of life comes out of the problem unscathed. The reason for this difference is that the unequipped person easily becomes a slave to the situation when an equipped person turns out to be its master. A recent example of such a person who overcame the most terrible tragedy of his life when his wife and two sons were charred to death in one of the rooms of Taj Mahal hotel in Bombay during the terror attack on 26th November 2008 may be cited here. He was the General Manager Mr. Kang who was busy rescuing hotel guests to safety even as his own family was in possible danger on the 6th floor of the hotel. On the eve of the anniversary of this attack, Mr. Kang continued to be its General Manager on 24 hour duty going home only to sleep. His professed attitude is that one should never lose faith and hope whatever be the situation in life that confronts us, but busy ourselves with our daily duties. We may give another example to illustrate our point that an uninitiated and untrained person might totally misrepresent a given situation and ascribe false values to it. In the process, a totally new meaning is created by the imagination of the untrained person resulting in ignorance and fear leading to unsavory consequences. Let us suppose that an electronics engineer in a city is visited by his childhood friend who could not complete his education beyond the primary school level. When the engineer was out on shopping leaving his friend back, the newcomer was baffled by various electronic equipments in the room. He tried to touch the equipments here and there suffering shocks each time he did so. Imagining that the room was infested with ghosts, he ran out of the room when his friend met him and inquired about the reason for his panic. The engineer was amused to learn that his friend was threatened by ghosts in his room whenever he tried to touch any of the items stored there. He refused to return to the hell-hole as he understood it. The engineer took him to the room and started operating all the equipments creating an atmosphere of heavenly feeling! From this example it is clear that even to perceive reality in its true dimension certain training and preparation are required. How much more is it required for facing the daily challenges of life!
According to the Bhagavad-Gita, brooding over the objects of sense, men and women develop attachment to them. Attachment to the objects of this world is the root-cause of their self-destruction. For, attachment ensues in desire from which anger sprouts forth. Anger results in delusion causing confusion in self-knowledge that should have served as the anchor of life in a wise person. Confusion in self-knowledge produces ruin of reason and such a person perishes due to the ruin of his or her reasoning faculty. The Gita is very specific on the means of enlightenment and liberation while living in this world as may be seen from the following text. "Perfection is characterized by the ability to see the Self by the pure mind and to relish and rejoice in the Self. In that joyous state, one is situated in boundless spiritual happiness, realized through transcendental senses. Established thus, one never departs from the truth, and upon gaining this, thinks there is no greater gain. Being so situated, one is never shaken even in the midst of greatest difficulty. This indeed is actual freedom from all miseries arising from material contact". (Bhagavad-Gita, 6: 20-23)
The Bible too endorses similar views on the way to live life in this world. When Jesus exhorted his followers to to be as perfect as the heavenly Father (See Matthew, 5: 48), he meant it be possible and feasible for the poor and frail human beings to whom he addressed the same. Already in the Old Testament we see God demanding from Abraham to live in His presence and be perfect as a precondition for setting His covenant with him (See Genesis, 17:2). Living in the presence of God, therefore, is a means for us to be perfect. It is like seeing God Himself whereby we become perfect. The Self in the Gita, generally speaking, stands for God or the Absolute. Jesus, in the New Testament, exhorts us to be internally pure and one of the Beatitudes is about seeing God by those who are pure in heart (See Matthew, 5: 8). Notice also how both the Bible and the Gita insist on the connection among joy, truth, freedom and liberation, as a result of detachment from the material world consequent upon seeing God (Self). This kind of seeing is not by our physical eyes, but by our internal eyes and is called insight as against mere sight we usually have. A beautiful example of this kind of insight is seen in John's Gospel chapter 9 where a person born blind is the one actually having true insight as against the scholars who prided themselves to be knowledgeable. Seeing God or the Self, therefore, is by means of insight that proceeds from our spiritual nature. That is why one is able to see God only after death devoid of the physical trappings of our body and this world. And yet, there should be a connection between this wold and the world to come. (To be cont'd).
There is constant tension and ambivalence in the life of individuals of all types and categories, if they are unequipped to face the world. The huge difference in the manner in which people handle their frustrations and tensions indicates their level of preparation for life. An unprepared person fumbles and falls when meeting the challenges of life thrown at him or her during the course of the daily business of life. Such a person is overcome by the enormity of the problem , whereas another person who is equipped with the basic human values of life comes out of the problem unscathed. The reason for this difference is that the unequipped person easily becomes a slave to the situation when an equipped person turns out to be its master. A recent example of such a person who overcame the most terrible tragedy of his life when his wife and two sons were charred to death in one of the rooms of Taj Mahal hotel in Bombay during the terror attack on 26th November 2008 may be cited here. He was the General Manager Mr. Kang who was busy rescuing hotel guests to safety even as his own family was in possible danger on the 6th floor of the hotel. On the eve of the anniversary of this attack, Mr. Kang continued to be its General Manager on 24 hour duty going home only to sleep. His professed attitude is that one should never lose faith and hope whatever be the situation in life that confronts us, but busy ourselves with our daily duties. We may give another example to illustrate our point that an uninitiated and untrained person might totally misrepresent a given situation and ascribe false values to it. In the process, a totally new meaning is created by the imagination of the untrained person resulting in ignorance and fear leading to unsavory consequences. Let us suppose that an electronics engineer in a city is visited by his childhood friend who could not complete his education beyond the primary school level. When the engineer was out on shopping leaving his friend back, the newcomer was baffled by various electronic equipments in the room. He tried to touch the equipments here and there suffering shocks each time he did so. Imagining that the room was infested with ghosts, he ran out of the room when his friend met him and inquired about the reason for his panic. The engineer was amused to learn that his friend was threatened by ghosts in his room whenever he tried to touch any of the items stored there. He refused to return to the hell-hole as he understood it. The engineer took him to the room and started operating all the equipments creating an atmosphere of heavenly feeling! From this example it is clear that even to perceive reality in its true dimension certain training and preparation are required. How much more is it required for facing the daily challenges of life!
According to the Bhagavad-Gita, brooding over the objects of sense, men and women develop attachment to them. Attachment to the objects of this world is the root-cause of their self-destruction. For, attachment ensues in desire from which anger sprouts forth. Anger results in delusion causing confusion in self-knowledge that should have served as the anchor of life in a wise person. Confusion in self-knowledge produces ruin of reason and such a person perishes due to the ruin of his or her reasoning faculty. The Gita is very specific on the means of enlightenment and liberation while living in this world as may be seen from the following text. "Perfection is characterized by the ability to see the Self by the pure mind and to relish and rejoice in the Self. In that joyous state, one is situated in boundless spiritual happiness, realized through transcendental senses. Established thus, one never departs from the truth, and upon gaining this, thinks there is no greater gain. Being so situated, one is never shaken even in the midst of greatest difficulty. This indeed is actual freedom from all miseries arising from material contact". (Bhagavad-Gita, 6: 20-23)
The Bible too endorses similar views on the way to live life in this world. When Jesus exhorted his followers to to be as perfect as the heavenly Father (See Matthew, 5: 48), he meant it be possible and feasible for the poor and frail human beings to whom he addressed the same. Already in the Old Testament we see God demanding from Abraham to live in His presence and be perfect as a precondition for setting His covenant with him (See Genesis, 17:2). Living in the presence of God, therefore, is a means for us to be perfect. It is like seeing God Himself whereby we become perfect. The Self in the Gita, generally speaking, stands for God or the Absolute. Jesus, in the New Testament, exhorts us to be internally pure and one of the Beatitudes is about seeing God by those who are pure in heart (See Matthew, 5: 8). Notice also how both the Bible and the Gita insist on the connection among joy, truth, freedom and liberation, as a result of detachment from the material world consequent upon seeing God (Self). This kind of seeing is not by our physical eyes, but by our internal eyes and is called insight as against mere sight we usually have. A beautiful example of this kind of insight is seen in John's Gospel chapter 9 where a person born blind is the one actually having true insight as against the scholars who prided themselves to be knowledgeable. Seeing God or the Self, therefore, is by means of insight that proceeds from our spiritual nature. That is why one is able to see God only after death devoid of the physical trappings of our body and this world. And yet, there should be a connection between this wold and the world to come. (To be cont'd).
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