The Great Void

There is a stone slab on a hillock near the main gate. As one walked
up to it through a patch of grass and a short flight of steps, mindful
of the dangers that lay hidden under the warm rocks, a sense of peace
and quietness came unexpectedly. It was not something that could be
invited or wished for. And it came as stealthily as the flock of
birds that cut a traceless path through the sky. The sun had just set
in the west. A few clouds near the horizon turned a redish orange,
signalling the end of another day. Towards the east a large pyramid
shaped building was being illuminated for the evening. On an impulse
I lay down flat on that stone slab, facing the sky. A young neem tree
nearby gave me company as I gazed at the half moon through its
semi-bare branches. Soon the gaze shifted to the tender new leaves
that were beginning to emerge from the tips of the branches. They
were dancing merrily in the gentle breeze that was blowing from the
north east. The gazing game went on for a while, shifting between the
tree and the moon. Then a lone star appeared directly above in the
darkening sky. It must be the brightest star in the sky. Nameless, it
lay in the great void, perhaps wondering what we all are. The silence
was soon disturbed by the sound of loudspeakers, a modern nuisance,
that came from the direction of "the great pyramid". The building is
the home of a popular guru who is about to celebrate his fiftieth
birthday. Perhaps the disciples of the guru felt that the whole world
needed to know about the impending "holy event". The newspapers
carry articles about it everyday and it seems, atleast for the time
being, people will forget about the traumas inflicted upon them by the
gurus of politics, sports & theatre. The spiritual drama played out by
the star gurus of the past centuries have provided so much
entertainment, that people cant seem to have enough of it. The latest
business savvy guru claims to have perfected the art of living. All one
needs to do is breathe & all worries miraculously disappear! The rich
and the famous flock to his satsang. I dont deny that it is beneficial.
After all what he is teaching is part of an ancient tried & tested
exercise called pranayama, the science of which has been taken to
dizzying heights by the Buddha and his followers. The buddhists call it
breath-awareness (Anapana sati). In recent times Goenkaji has made
Vippassana, an exercise in mindfulness of the mind-body complex,
very popular in India and the in west. It cannot be doubted that right
through the ages, man has sought something beyond the travails of
daily existence, something beyond time - the eternal ! But in the very
seeking, he seems to forget what he is seeking! This may sound
strange, but what man has been seeking for thousands of years,
through his intellect and accumulated knowledge, may be altogether
beyond the realm of thought. Modern man does'nt seem to
understand this and so he seeks a little bit of peace, a little bit of
tranquility, tries to bring down his stress levels etc, wherever and
whichever way he can do it. And along comes a guru who says,
"Come over here, I have just the thing for you." The modern seeker
then learns some breathing technique from the guru which
momentarily reduces his stress, clears his clouded mind (& sinuses),
only to be shown the illusion of God in the blasted guru. How tragic!
Nobody ever questions why they are seeking anything - may it be
god or ice cream. Are we aware of an inner void, a sense of
incompleteness that may be propelling us to seek this or that?
Why does'nt the guru tell his disciple to go find out what he is
seeking and why he is seeking? What role does a guru have in
understanding this inner void? None whatsoever! The void can only
be understood if one cares to look within and face the psychological
challenges that are being thrown at us. Not run away from them by
escaping into some silly practice of breathing etc. The void creates
chaos in our lives if we dont understand what is causing it.

The first step is to be mindful of the causes and ending them, which
is the ending of anger, fear, desire, hurt, hatred and sorrow within
oneself. Then the mind can become silent because it is not ravaged
by these psychological tsunamis that our thoughts seems to kick up
every now and then. The body and breath then fall into their natural
states of equilibrium. Good health follows inevitably. What the guru
is trying to preach is just the opposite which is a waste of time. By
giving a pill he forever enslaves the unsuspecting disciple. Freedom
has nothing to do with the business of gurus. It is a state of discovery
of oneself by oneself.

It takes two to Tango

They moved very gracefully and silently. One following the other, hesitantly at times. One raising its head occasionally to see where the other was going. They were soon out of sight, and out of the grassy garden area altogether. There was no one around, except for a pair of bewitched eyes tracking the "intruders" like blips on a radar screen. You don't see ratsnakes here very often, and when you see a pair out in the morning sun "singing" their own version of "jaane jaan dhundtha phir raha" (an old hindi love song), you know it is a very special day. Snakes are entitled to their privacy, so we did not go chasing after them like some of those shameless camera totting Discovery mode naturalists do these days. Why not for a change, declare April 21st as the "Animal day"? Let all the zoo creatures out so they can see the human non-animal from close quarters. One is sure they would all want to get back into their cages in utter disgust after seeing the horrific things that non-animals are doing to themselves and others these days. Especially in Bangalore after one filmy hero died a natural death and other lesser non-animals went beserk, killing, burning, and looting without a care in the world. Ofcourse the pet tigers of Kanchanaburi,Thailand, will be the exception as they seem to like the company of buddhist monks. And why not? Buddhism is the most peace-loving of all religions and some practicing buddhist would go so far as to say that an ant crawling on his chin was his mother in a previous life. Do you think one of those rat snakes was your sister in a previous life? If you are an oriental who believes in reincarnation, you would think that there is a very high probability that the serpent was your sibling ages ago. What about Genghis Khan?... Right? Karma is the great equalizer! So why hate Hitler? Is he still around somewhere? For all you know he maybe one of those friendly tigers in Kanchanaburi. So like Karma, death is also a great equalizer! It is like emptying your bank account and starting afresh. A new job, with new tools and a new salary. You leave your old body behind, your old concepts, beliefs, ideals etc...Everything is finished! Totally! You need to let the old go, in order to let the new in. Years ago, when Mt St Helens in the northwestern part of USA blew up, spewing volcanic ash and fire all around, every plant, every tree within a radius of 5 miles was totally destroyed. Scientists thought it would take many decades before life could return to the land of sudden death. But they were wrong. In exactly 5 years things were back to how it was a day before the volcano erupted. Non-animals learnt a lesson that there are extremely powerful forces in nature that keep a delicate balance between life and death. The movement of time in nature is one of constant change. Indeed if change were not to happen, time would come to a stop. We humans don't want to accept that psychologically. We don't like to change deeply. We don't want to end our antagonisms, our hatred, our fears, our insecurities. Rajkumar is gone but the attachment is still there. Hitler is gone but the pain of world war-II remains if you are a jew. If you are a hindu you probably cannot forget Aurangzeb or Bhaktiyar Khilji. If you are a Talibani, your hatred for the American has only increased, perhaps. So psychologically we humans have not changed. We had fought, we are fighting, and we will fight in the future...if we dont change fundamentally, inwardly. We will remain divided as long as we dont understand the divisive process of our own thinking, in our very own brains. The dual nature of thought, which divides itself as the "thinker" and the "thought that is owned by the thinker"; the 'me' and the 'not-me'. All this is taken for granted. We never question this fundamentally errored approach to life. The first error (of duality) has led to innumerable other errors for which humanity is paying dearly now. There is every likelihood of mass destruction of the human race in the very near future. All it takes is one wrong finger on a wrong button to unleash destruction that we cannot even imagine. So why don't we change? Why don't non-animals begin to live, sanely, rationally and compassionately? Why don't we ask this question if we have a moment or two? It is far more important to enquire into this than watch some hero or a snake on TV. We will be in future, what we are now - animalistic, brutal, savage and in perpetual sorrow if we don't change. That is the law, whether you like it or not.