4. Hinduism
The Great Mystery - Texts
I am the object of all knowledge, father of the world, its mother, source of all things, of impure and pure, of holiness and horror. I am the goal, the root, the universe, home and refuge, dearest friend, creation and annihilation, everlasting seed and treasure. I am the radiance of the sun, I open or withhold the rainclouds, I am immortality and death, am being and non-being. I am the Self, Arjuna, seated in the heart of every creature. I am the origin, the middle, and the end that all must come to. I am the birth of this cosmos: its dissolution also. I am he who causes: No other beside me. Upon me, these worlds are held like pearls strung on a thread. I am the essence of the waters, the shining of the sun and the moon: OM in all the Vedas, the word that is God. It is I who resound in the ether and am potent in man. I am the sacred smell of the earth, the light of the fire, Life of all lives, austerity of ascetics.
(Bhagavad Gita VII)
I am the essence of the waters,
The shining of the sun and the moon; OM in all the Vedas, the word that is God.
(Bhagavad Gita VI)
Verily, this whole world is Brahman, from which he comes forth, without which he will be dissolved and in which he breathes. Tranquil, one should meditate on it.
(Chandogya Upanishad)
The Great Mystery - Musings
Brahman is the vast ocean as well as the salt in its waters, the shining waves on its surface, the darkness of the deep, spawner of myriad life and the tomb/womb to which all returns.
Brahman is the storm and the whirlpool, the silent sunrise, the calm inlet, the day and the night. Brahman is the rounds of the seasons, the stars rotating on their still silent axis, creatures flickering in and out of being, again and again, like sparkles on a rippling bay. All in all, birth and death, creation and destruction, dreamer of the universe and the dream too, returning and returning and returning.
The Ancient Self is father and mother, upon whom the worlds are strung as pearls on a thread. Brahman is the world, is that which creates the world, and Om, the sacred sound.
The 330 million gods of Hinduism are but the innumerable manifestations of the Infinite. In the depths of Cosmic Night sleeps Vishnu, and from a lotus in his navel arises Brahma who dreams the worlds that Vishnu sustains. And after eons of Daylight, all the myriad worlds collapse back into unconscious Night, destroyed by Shiva.
The feminine aspects of divinity also play their part in the great Cosmic Dance. Lakshmi is the giver of blessings, Shakti, the creative energy that enlivens all that is, and Kali the great destructive devouring mother who feasts of the blood of her children. Male and female divinities each have their counterparts in the other. Shiva cannot exist without Shakti; Rama is inconceivable without Sita.
Hinduism does not ignore the shadow side of divinity. Noticing the shadow itself is a clue to winning the game. All is maya, illusion. Not Brahma, not Vishnu, not Shiva, not Shakti, not Kali- none of the divine manifestations, much less the world, is real. None is separate from Brahman, the Ancient Self. Brahman is in All, and is All. Self contains self, is self.
Thou art in me.
Thou art me.
I am in Thou.
I am Thou.
The World - Texts
For, as the vast air, wandering world-wide, remains within the ether always, so these, my wandering creatures are always within me. These, when the round of ages is accomplished, I gather back to the seed of their becoming. These I send forth again at the hour of creation. Helpless all, for Maya [illusion] is their master, and I, their Lord, the master of this Maya, ever and again, I send these multitudes forth from my being.
(Bhagavad Gita IX)
The (treasure) chest, having the atmosphere for its inside, and the earth for its bottom does not decay. The quarters of space are its corners and its upper lid is the sky. This chest is one containing wealth and within it rests everything here.
(Chandogya Upanishad, III.15.1)
I am the birth of this cosmos: its dissolution also. I am he who causes: no other beside me. Upon me, these worlds are held like pearls strung on a thread.
I am the essence of the waters, the shining of the sun and the moon: OM in all the Vedas, the word that is God. It is I who resound in the ether and am potent in man. I am the sacred smell of the earth the light of the fire, life of all lives, austerity of ascetics.
(Bhagavad Gita VII)
The World - Musings
The Great Mystery in its immense creativity, sends forth out of It's Self, the worlds of the cosmos and the creatures who inhabit them. Boundless is the reach of the universe, and endless is its teeming life. Like a treasure chest full of great wealth, Brahman contains all. Self breathes the breath of vital force into all existence, pervading every part, even to the tip of the nails. Existence vibrates with the very essence of the divine. Not created by a Being separate from it, it is the Being Itself, spun from its dreaming.
The world is a place of creation and destruction, life sustained by devouring life, creatures enchanted in its thrall. Throughout the Day of Brahma, the worlds and creatures fold up their karma until all activity is accomplished. Then the Night of Brahma settles and the worlds are gathered back into the fathomless womb. There they remain as pure potential within the divine unconscious. Endlessly sent forth and gathered back, all creatures are in Brahman.
It is folly and illusion - maya - to think that reality is separate from the Divine Womb. It is folly and illusion - maya - to think that we ourselves are separate from any creature, cell, atom or galaxy of the universe. It is folly and illusion - maya - to think that any beings are separate from Brahman, Self.
Brahman is always here. Creation is Self's divine play and all creation participates in the game.
The world has no beginning.
It has no end.
It eternally begins.
It constantly dies.
The world is empty.
The world is full.
The world is illusion.
The world is Brahman.
Humanity - Texts
Some say this Atman is slain, and
Others call it the slayer:
They know nothing.
How can it slay? Or who shall slay it?
Know this Atman
Unborn, undying
Never ceasing
Never beginning.
Deathless, birthless,
Unchanging for ever.
How can it die
The death of the body?
Knowing It birthless,
Knowing It deathless,
Knowing It endless, Forever unchanging.
Dream not you do the deed of the killer,
Dream not the power is yours to command it.
(Bhagavad Gita II)
Although I am not within any creature, all creatures exist within me. I do not mean that they exist within me physically. That is my divine mystery. These when the round of ages is accomplished, I gather back to the seed of their becoming: these I send forth again at the hour of creation. Helpless all, for Maya ["play, "illusion]) is their master. Maya makes all things: what moves, what is unmoving. O son of Kunti, that is why the world spins, turning its wheel through birth and through destruction. Fools pass blindly by the place of my dwelling here in the human form, and of my majesty they know nothing at all, who am the Lord, their soul. Vain is their hope, and in vain their labour, their knowledge: all their understanding is but bewilderment; their nature has fallen into the madness of the fiends and monsters. Great in soul are they who become what is godlike, praising my might with heart and lips forever, striving for the virtue that wins me, and steadfast in all their vows, they worship adoring, one with me. Others worship me, knowing Brahman in all things. Some see me one with themselves, or separate: some bow to the countless gods that are only my million faces.
(Bhagavad Gita IX)
Humanity - Musings
Atman is the self. It's something like soul, but migrates from embodiment to embodiment. My self's body was born, goes through stages of growth, matures, grows old and dies. But "I" don't die. The aggregate of my actions and desires has been refined over many lifetimes.
The "me" of June 2, 2003 is not the same as the "me" of yesterday or the "me" of tomorrow. The "me" of this day isn't the same as the "me" who was a fetus in my mother's womb, an infant, a child, an adolescent, a young adult, a mature woman, or the "me" who will be an old woman dying.
I can't remember "myself" as an infant or many of "my" experiences from my past. Who is to say where "I" was before I was born?
The "me" I experience as my "self" at any given moment cannot contain the Self. Self is much more mysterious than that.
Is the flame of a candle the same flame as the one that was used to light it? Leaping from body to body, and yearning to fathom the elusive meaning of it all "I" am not the same, but not very different from moment to moment. A sort of ethereal essence, yet not properly an individual, nothing can really ever contain me. Yet I am fully contained in the Divine embrace.
Just as salt is not separate from the ocean, I am not separate from the Source. And yet - where can I find "me?" Where is the ocean?
"I" - and "you" - are part of a divine game of hide and seek. Through my endless round of births of hopes and fears, joys and glooms, I have been seeking - and been sought.
And when I come face to face with the Divine Brahman, I see - Brahman is in me and I in Brahman.
The Teachers - Texts
You and I, Arjuna,
Have lived many lives.
I remember them all:
You do not remember.
I am the birthless, the deathless,
Lord of all that breathes.
I seem to be born:
It is only seeming,
Only my Maya.
I am still the master
Of my Prakriti,
The power that makes me.
When goodness grows weak,
When evil increases,
I make myself a body.
In every age I come back
To deliver the holy,
To destroy the sin of the sinner,
To establish righteousness.
He who knows the nature
Of my task and my holy birth
Is not reborn when he leaves
this body.
He comes to me.
(Bhagavad Gita 4)
The Teachers - Musings
Rishis, the sages of ancient times, heard the eternal wisdom of the vedas. The word "veda," the most ancient class of Hindu sacred texts, means wisdom or knowledge communicated directly from the Divine Source. It was the Rishis' duty to reproduce the great succession of cosmic events in rituals, thus preserving rta, the order of the world. Respect for the wisdom of ancient holy-men is found throughout Asia. Theirs was the golden age when "virtue walked on four legs."
The forests of India have been filled with such holy saints from time immemorial. The eternal wisdom has been contemplated, explicated, and communicated to countless seekers who have sat at the feet of countless gurus. Just as there are a myriad of paths to the Divine in the Indian world, there are a plethora of teachers.
The teachings of the sages are augmented by the teachings of many incarnations of Vishnu. The most famous incarnations were Rama and Krishna. Rama was the perfect human being living the perfect life with his perfect divine wife, Sita. Krishna appears in many stories as the beautiful blue shepherd with whom all the milkmaids fell in love. He led an idyllic life with Radha, his wife.
In the Bhagavad Gita Krishna appears as the trusted charioteer of the warrior Arjuna. On the battlefield of an impending war he imparts the most central of all Hinduism's sacred truths: Do your dharma (duty, inner calling), but don't be attached to its fruits. Perform the practice (yoga) that is appropriate to your spiritual personality - the yoga of knowledge, the yoga of meditation, the yoga of action, or the yoga of love and devotion.
The Way - Texts
The ignorant work for the fruit of their actions: The wise must work also without desire… Let them show by example how work is holy when the heart of the worker is fixed on the Highest.
(Bhagavad Gita, III)
Shake off this fever of ignorance. Stop hoping for worldly rewards. Fix your mind on the Atman. Be free from the sense of ego. Dedicate all your actions to me.. If a man keeps following my teaching with faith in his heart, he will be released from the bondage of his karma. He who knows the nature of my holy birth is not reborn when he leaves this body: He comes to me. Flying from fear, from lust and anger, he hides in me, his refuge, his safety: burnt clean in the blaze of my being, In me many find home. Whatever wish men bring me in worship, that wish I grant them. Whatever path men travel is my path, no matter where they walk it leads to me.
(Bhagavad Gita III)
Whatever man gives me in true devotion: fruit or water, a leaf, a flower: I will accept it. That gift is love, his heart's dedication. Whatever the gift that you give to another; whatever you vow to the work of the spirit; O son of Kunti, lay these also as offerings before Me. Thus you will free yourself from both the good and the evil effects of your actions [karma] Offer up everything to me. If your heart is united with me, you will be set free from karma even in this life, and come to me at the last.
(Bhagavad Gita IX)
The Way - Musings
There is no one way for Hinduism to the exclusion of all others. Just as we humans have different physical abilities, different kinds of intelligence, different emotional temperaments, different tastes and predilections, we have different spiritual temperaments and talents.
Hinduism speaks of four paths; each suited to a particular spiritual temperament.
Just as we are not all athletes, we are not all spiritually action-oriented. Karma yoga is the path of spiritual action. It suits the person who is drawn to act on the world-stage, who does something rather than just ponder.
Just as we are not all scholars, we are not all spiritually knowledge-oriented. The path of jnana yoga is the path of wisdom. This is the path of great philosophers who seek out true insight.
Just as we are not all musical composers, we are not all suited to be contemplative mystics. The path of raja yoga is sometimes called the "royal way." The sages meditating alone in the forests and on mountaintops are revered throughout Asia. Through meditation and self-discipline they are able to achieve direct knowledge and unity.
Just as we are not all poets, we are not all drawn to the devotional life of the ecstatic saint. Theirs is the path of bhakti yoga. These are the people who, overcome with their love of the Great Mystery, often appear as itinerants whose joy spills over into seeming lunacy.
All paths lead to the goal. It doesn't matter what deity is your inspiration. As long as our practice is done with a pure heart and good intentions, it serves our purpose as an opening to the Unfathomable Mystery.
Meditation - Texts
Om, shanti shanti shanti
Om, peace, peace
(Hindu mantra)
The waking state, the Common-to-all-men. is the latter a, the first element... The sleeping state, the Brilliant, is the letter u, the second element... The deep-sleep state, the Cognitional, is the letter m, the third element... The fourth is without an element, with which there can be no dealing the cessation of development, benign, without a second. Thus OM is the Self (Atman) indeed.
(Mandukya Upanishad)
O Breath of Life, turn not thy back on me:
Non other than I shalt thou be.
As an embryo in the waters, so I within myself
Bind thee, that I may live!
(Atharva-veda, Homage to the Breath of Life)
Meditation - Musings
My faculties of discrimination pervade my waking, my sleeping, my dreaming and my deepest center.
I know the world of samsara when I am awake. It is the world of beings, the physical world.
In sleep, loosened from the bounds and bonds of consciousness I can fly and experience the improbable and the impossible. When I'm asleep I reside in a place of indescribable rest. In this state I am mysteriously re-charged with the vital energy of life, prana, and I am able to come back to my waking state to resume my life in the physical world.
In the state of deep sleep I am beyond both waking and dreaming. My senses are shut off and my body becomes paralyzed. My heart and my breath slow down. I am not aware of any of this - who even knows where my "I" is?
In the state of meditation, I can consciously shut off the senses, fix my attention on my breath, concentrate on my "third eye" between the eyebrows and hold the mind fast. In seeking freedom from the busy waking "me," I can attain in my deep being the most amazing peace in the experience of which all other experiences pale.
Evil and Suffering - Texts
Who sees the many and not the ONE, wanders on from death to death.
Even by the mind this truth is to be learned: there are not many but
only ONE.
Who sees variety and not the unity wanders on from death to death…
(Katha Upanishad)
Who is poor?
He who is not contented.
What rolls quickly away, like drops of water from a
lotus leaf?
Youth, wealth and the years of a person's life.
What is hell?
To live in slavery to others.
How is heaven attained?
The attainment of heaven is the freedom from cravings.
What is a person's duty?
To do good to all beings.
What are worthless as soon as they are won?
Honor and fame.
What brings happiness?
The friendship of the holy.
What destroys craving?
Realization of one's true self.
Who are our enemies?
Our sense-organs, when they are uncontrolled.
Who are our friends?
Our sense-organs, when they are controlled.
Who has overcome the world?
He who has conquered his own mind.
(Shankara, A Garland of Questions and Answers)
Evil and Suffering - Musings
Sin is a conscious act of defiance of the Will of God. This concept is completely alien to a religion for which the Great Mystery is beyond personhood.
If there is no "Infinite Person" and we are not judged, we are subject only to the natural consequences of our own actions. The word karma is intimately related to action. It is sometimes even translated as action. Not only evil actions, but also good actions generate karma. Our karma propels us to new incarnations in which we experience evil and suffering as the consequences of our past lives.
We are deluded in mistaking the world of samsara for ultimate Reality. What we must do as human beings is to overcome our own ignorance. We must strive to expand our consciousness.
Our illusion that the world can be grasped and that we will be happy if we achieve our many desires causes us to fall into the trap of attachment. This results in suffering.
If we concentrate our efforts in each life on attaining wealth, pride and power, we will inevitably return again and again.
Only when we pierce the veil of maya, realizing that grasping for illusion is fruitless, do we find release and joy.
Struggle - Texts
Through constant effort over many lifetimes, a person becomes purified of all selfish desires and attains the supreme goal of life.
(Bhagavad Gita 6:45)
Awake, arise! Strive for the Highest, and be in the Light! Sages say the path is narrow and difficult to tread, narrow as the edge of a razor.
The Atman is beyond sound and form, without touch and taste and perfume. It is eternal, unchangeable, without beginning or end: indeed above reasoning. When consciousness of the Atman manifests itself, man becomes free from the jaws of death.
(Katha Upanishad)
Where is your sword,
Discrimination?
Draw it and slash
Delusion to pieces.
Then arise
O son of Bharata:
Take your stand in
Karma Yoga.
(Bhagavad Gita)
Struggle - Musings
If my own actions over countless lifetimes generate karma, I am the author of my own destiny. It follows that I must strive throughout all my incarnations to work off this karma in order to attain release, joy, moksha.
The struggle takes many forms and is enacted in as many ways as there are forms of life. It is a struggle to overcome ignorance and to re-alize that my "self" is the Self. To realize that atman is Brahman is no easy thing. Brahman's play is more intricate as the most complicated game of chess or of any computer-generated game imaginable.
The setting of the Baghavad Gita is a battlefield. It an apt setting for what is the real struggle - the inner struggle of Arjuna to overcome his ignorance. We too, must conduct an inner struggle.
It takes trial and error, living through innumerable relationships, mastering innumerable skills, and carefully consolidating successful behaviors while discarding destructive ones. It is through this process over many lifetimes that we can grow into fuller consciousness in order to find the Source that we seek. It is by finally seeing things as they truly are that we realize that we are That.
Death - Texts
Wornout garments are shed by the body:
Worn-out bodies are shed by the dweller within the body.
New bodies are donned by the dweller, like garments.
(Bhagavad Gita II)
When a man leaves his body and departs, he must close all the doors of the senses. Let him hold the mind firmly within the shrine of the heart, and fix the life-force between the eyebrows. Then let him take refuge in steady concentration, uttering the sacred syllable OM and meditating upon me. Such a man reaches the highest goal.. When a yogi has meditated upon me unceasingly for many years, with an undistracted mind, I am easy of access to him, because he is always absorbed in me. Great souls who find me have found the highest perfection. They are no longer reborn into this condition of transience and pain. All the worlds, and even the heavenly realm of Brahma, are subject to the laws of rebirth. But, for the man who comes to me, there is no returning.
(Bhagavad Gita VII)
Death - Musings
Death, the dreaded event that is inevitable, happens again and again to human beings. There is no final judgement.
Upon my death in one lifetime, I will be propelled by my karma, into a new state of being that is appropriate to my new needs.
I may be reborn as an animal or a human being of higher or lower spiritual abilities, or I may spend time in one of the many heavens or hells that are abodes of gods and demons. But one thing is certain. I will not remain in my next state for more than one lifetime. Once again, "I" will be born again as a new creature to learn new lessons generated by my actions. Again and again I must learn new life lessons by experience, until I have learned them all.
New lives are the direct results of our former lives. Depending on what we have achieved, we move on to new incarnations, again and again.
We can only achieve our final release from the innumerable rounds of births and deaths from a human state. That is why my human life is so precious. It is here, in my human embodiment, that I have all the tools of consciousness that I need to real-ize my union with Brahman.
The Ultimate - Texts
Not wounded by weapons, not burned by fire,
Not dried by the wind, not wetted by water.
Such is the Atman.
(Bhagavad Gita)
To love is to know me,
My innermost nature
The truth that I am;
Through this knowledge he
enters at once to my Being.
My grace is upon him,
He finds the eternal,
The place unchanging
Verily, this whole world is Brahman, from which he comes forth, without which he will be dissolved and in which he breathes.
Tranquil, one should meditate on it.
Now verily a person consists of purpose.
According to the purpose a person has in this world, so does he become on departing hence.
(Chandogya Upanishad)
The Ultimate - Musings
In overcoming ignorance, in overcoming grasping by acting out of the authentic center of my being without regard for the "fruits of my actions," I real-ize that the whole world is Brahman. My essential self, atman, is Brahman:
Not wounded by weapons,
Not burned by fire,
Not dried by the wind,
Not wetted by water.
Such is the Atman.
Drawn to this immense insight I am swept up in love.
To love is to know me,
My innermost nature
The truth that I am;
Through this knowledge he
enters at once to my Being.
My grace is upon him,
He finds the eternal,
The place unchanging
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