Showing posts with label ramana maharishi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ramana maharishi. Show all posts

7.07.2011

Musings on the Philosophy of a great Sage

 Photo Courtesy: bhagwan-ramana-maharshi.blogspot.com

There are some arguments that stop even before they have started and one that glares at me is the continues debate of that which is unreal vs that which is real. Pure spiritual philosophies define the real world as unreal which is the basic argument that people agree to disagree on even before they tried to understand the potential deeper meaning of the words.

Here is an eye opening statement of Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi that helps me understand this phenomenon a little better from my perspective.

Quoting from "The Teachings of Ramana Maharishi In His Own Words" by Author Osborne:

"The world is perceived as an apparent objective reality when the mind is externalized, thereby abandoning its identity with the Self. When the world is thus perceived the true nature of the Self is not revealed; conversely, when the Self is realized the world ceases to appear as an objective reality."

Let me first start with the meaning of externalizing and internalizing the mind. We live in 2 states of the mind all the time, that which we stitch into the external world around us, which we call "real" and that which is a figment of our imagination and perception which is apparently internal and "unreal" from our own perspective.

To put this in a practical example, the real world could be defined as what my boss expects me to do at work tomorrow and the unreal world is my apparently realistic imagination of how beautiful Lord Shiva Nataraja looks in the great hall of Chidambaram when I imagine Him through my devotional mind. As I am extremely connected to the external world, it is very difficult for the mind to state it as unreal and try and connect to the "Self", hence the external world appears as the apparent objective reality. In case, in all sincerity I made the dance of Lord Shiva Nataraja all real in my mind and enjoyed the blissful moment of viewing his divine presence in my mind, that world built on the river of Bhakti is far more real than a distant boss I may or may not meet tomorrow.

The next word I would like to explain is what the Self is. This of course is my understanding and purely my perspective, and I may be wrong :). To my understanding and realization, the Self is the definition of ME, at this present moment in time, with no thoughts that cloud my mind, with no intellect that defines my ego, with no rules that define my identity, with no relationships that govern my role, and with no possessions that define my earthly existence. I am free off the world, I am free off society, I am free off my ego, I am free off man made rules and I possess nothing. When the mind tunes itself to this thinking for even 5 minutes and connects with this reality, I have touched the Self, that is the real ME. Hence the world now ceases to appear, it is non existent, and therefore not real.

This explanation in simpler terms defines the deeper truth of what the Great Ramana Maharishi might have tried to indicate, but now, there is the other argument of how do we call an ever changing world as unreal and illusionistic specially when the changes are visible right before our eyes?

Let’s revisit this statement of the illusion in this so called real world. Let’s take the step back and view the history of this country and its people across the ages. We have had a colorful past, there have been enough battles, there is enough diversity in language and life style, and yet the religious nature of Hinduism in the country is intact, and as ancient as ancient can get surpassing all the other world religions in terms of time and tolerance to withstand any form of destruction.

As Vedanta explains, that which changes is unreal and that which remains unchanged with the tolerance of time is real. People have come and gone, generations have changed, dynasties have been wiped out and replaced and yet the basic religious identity hardly got shattered by these blows. Isnt the faith of Hinduism, this way of life, this art of spiritualism actually real that it didn’t depend on any one human being or time for its sustenance? The thought of Lord Shiva is as powerful today as it was in the Indus valley ages. The thought of Vishnu is as profound now as it was during the Aryan age [If there was a disputed Aryan period at all?!]

Change is not permanent, and that is best explained by the recent turmoil brought in by the wealth revealed after centuries in the ancient temple of Lord Padmanabha Swamy. The wealth belongs to no one; the wealth in our system of rules still has great value, without an owner. Our rules don’t define what to do with this wealth, but this wealth certainly reeks fear into people about who will manage it and how justly they will be honest to the Lord's earthly possessions and hopefully it will not go into the wrong hands. The wealth cannot be used [to be fair to all] and therefore much as it is of great value, it is as good as sand for it belongs to no one.

Conceptually, what good has "Change" brought to this newly found wealth at an ancient temple? Is Lord Padmanabhaswamy suddenly that much more important because of the wealth he now has revealed to us as we perceive it through our minds? He always had it, we found His wealth now! This wealth was illusionistic and conceptual till it was brought to the surface, and now it controls the mind a lot more than the Bhakti that rules the devotees mind to Lord Padmanabhaswamy. He is no longer the Great divine being who rests in the enigmatic ocean of time, he is now the owner of Rs 90000 crores which will again disappear with time, but Lord Padmanabha Swamy as a concept will remain even if this temple is ravaged by time. 

Its a matter of time, the wealth that was once open treasure was buried for more than a century, and is now revealed and will be buried again. As we have seen before, what will remain is the unchanging principle of spiritualism defined by the existence of the great Trinity, by the spiritual presence of the Gods who rule the Indian mindset. We are part of the change, the physical body will give itself up, its the astral body that will bail us out to the next level in our spiritual journey. The change as we perceive it is limited to this life, the unchanging is the Atman that pervades the space and will leave the physical body at will survive the individual after death.

To the great Sage Ramana Maharishi, I bow in all humility for these divine teachings.

10.18.2010

The Rebel Saints of Shaivism



History has showcased many types of Bhaktas who have searched for Lord Shiva through their lives. They have taken to different schools of thought and within Shaivism itself we see these variants. While the Pasupatas live in silence and mysterious solitude, the aghoris lead a esoteric lifestyle too far to fathom. 

And then there are the popular saints who have defined Shaivism for the ordered society. While Kannappa Nayanar and Karraikkal Ammaiyar found place in the list of 63 Nayanars, Adi Shankaracharya rephrased the laws of divine worship to the society we know today and this tradition has come down to us as accepted, agreeable and conformist to today's social principles. There are the other great poets and mystic writers like Sundarar, Thirugnanasambandar, Thirumular and Manikkavachakar who turned their love for Lord Shiva into divine rhythmic poetry and defined the Shaiva Siddhantas and continued to propagate worship as we know it.

Few have lived in our times, rekindling the laws of spiritualism during their lives. While Paramacharya Sri Chandrasekhar Swamigal brought back the joys of good living, humility and renunciation to the throne of the Shankara at Kanchi Mutt, Ramana Maharishi keeps the fire growing at Thiruvannamalai. And so Shaivism was defined, while Lord Shiva himself defines the truth of the self without the presence or the need of ordered society, we, who are within this system have tried to tame the wild side of Shaivism into the claws of social acceptance.

Little do we know that there was a movement of Shaivism that rocked the social landscape around the 11th century A.D. and this firey sect came to life as the Virashaivas more commonly known as the Lingayats. Few have been taught the path of spiritualism re-described by this sect for these great Kannada poets of the Virashaiva sect preached Shaivism without social rules or discrimination towards the weaker sex. Unlike the Brahmana order where women do not hold equal seat as men, in the Virashaiva order, Lord Shiva is accessible to all. Gender didn’t matter and society was always scorned for its hypocritical ways.

The Vachanas of Basavanna, Mahadeviakka and Allama Prabhu have resounded through the ages, bringing rebellion into conformist lifestyle. I am a rebel, and as I understand the suffering of these great saints in a small way, and I have come to love them for their thirst for the real truth. I remain speechless as I realize how much they have lived their lives fighting society and its many rules and finally have found freedom in the power of Shiva Bhakti.

Lord Shiva played with their minds, he was the unattainable supreme power to some and the elicit lover to some others. They lived their lives in the perennial game of hide and seek, looking for the Lord everywhere within and beyond. They defied the rules of ordered living, scorned at society for its misguided rules and even reduced the achievements of great tantriks and siddhas to ash.

This sect of great gurus, these super saints in their own right, describe spiritualism to be a lonely road beyond the powers of occult worship and warn of self destructive egoism with every candy bar of siddhis achieved. They awaken us to the fact that yoga gets us a superior body, alchemy achieves superior metal, knowledge and vedas give us superior control over a beautiful string of words, tantra achieves superior physical love but the spirit of Shiva Bhakta is scarcely available in any of these methods.

Quoting from "Speaking of Siva" translated by A.K.Ramanujan [Page 147]

The Vachana of Allama Prabhu goes as follows...

With your alchemies,
you achieve metals,
but no essence.

With all your manifold yogas,
you achieve
a body, but no spirit.

With your speeches and arguments
you build chains of words
but cannot define the spirit.

If you say
you and I are one,
you were me
but I was not you.
 

Drastic though this school of thought may sound to the ordered social environment we live in, I would believe this is meant for superior souls who have already been blessed with spiritual insight. For the lesser mortals like me who still struggle with the basics of spiritualism, siddhis and perfect yoga seem miles away in my list of spiritual achievements. Where does one like me go in search of the Lord in this vast spiritual landscape where every powerful thought I conquered only raises another question on my beliefs formed so far? 

Photo courtesy:
Talking to God in the Mother Tongue
A.K. Ramanujan