Margaritas ante porcos

It is said that eyes only see what the mind is able to comprehend. The guru doesn’t appear until the disciple is ready.

There’s an anecdote of an interesting meeting between the popular anti-guru U.G. Krishnamurti, who derided everything holy & a profound yogi of recent times, Ramana Maharshi. This is from his memoirs : 

In 1939, when U.G. was 21 years of age, he went and met Sri Ramana Maharshi and asked him, "This thing called moksha [liberation], can you give it to me?" Ramana replied, "I can give it, but can you take it?" struck him like a "thunderbolt" and set him up on a relentless search for Truth that ended at the age of 49 with a totally unforeseen result.

Let me dissect this a bit. Unless one is prepared, one can’t handle the truth - the ultimate truth, that is. From a yogic standpoint, it requires a lot of preparation from an aspirant to attain the goal. It’s a lifetime of an effort. People who have gone searching for shortcuts have been beaten so badly. The symbolism of kundalini to a snake is very pertinent. Unless one knows how to handle it, one will be bitten badly and will suffer for the same.

There is one anecdote from Ancient Greece - that of philosopher Plotinus and his disciple Amelius. It’s from John Dillon’s book “Prayer and contemplation in the Neoplatonic and Sufi traditions”.

If it turns now abruptly to Plotinus, we can find from his pen or his lips scathing condemnations of what one might characterize as the ‘popular’ attitude to prayer - an attitude fully shared, it must be said, by contemporary Christians, whom he probably has in mind. First, there is his notorious response to his senior disciple Amelius, as reported by Porphyry, when Amelius invited him to accompany him on a sort of Temple-crawl, at the festival of the new moon: ‘The gods ought to come to me, not I to them’. ‘ what he meant by this exalted utterance, we could not understand and did not dare to ask’ says Porphyry. A Possible interpretation, surely, However, is that our relations with Gods should be based, Not on our going out of our way to solicit them for favors which we have not made an effort to deserve, but rather on our making ourselves ready, by the practice of spiritual exercises to receive their beneficial power. It is not the expression of impious or arrogant attitude to the gods; merely a properly Platonist one. We cannot except the gods to help us, maintains Plotinus if we are not prepared to help ourselves.

After the sacred, let’s come to the mundane: margaritas ante porcos literally translates into pearl before swine. The value of anything is apportioned by only the one who is capable of recognizing it. The entire idea of value is dependent on the beholder. This is applicable to so many things – knowledge, relationship, information, etc,.

There are two implications from this: First, we should be ready in all possible ways before wishing and realizing something; the second, we may be searching for great people but we may as well miss the great and exceptional people amongst us. 

Book Review – Aghora Trilogy

You've heard of the idiom 'packs a punch'. This one does exactly that — it packs a real punch. It's a trilogy written by Robert Svabodha, a disciple of the Aghori Vimalananda. This trilogy will shake you up no matter who you are as the science and technology of Aghora is not for the namby-pamby. It's extreme, it's intense, it's sincere — and of course a lot of room for distortion and misrepresentation, which is happening in most of the places in the name of tantra and others.

Swami Vimalananda, so goes the name of an accomplished Aghori who happens to be a normal businessman from the outside but a practicing Aghori from the inside. The author has chosen not to name the real name of Vimalanada for various reasons. This trilogy – At the left hand of God, Kundalini and the law of Karma – is a collection of various aphorisms, stories, and real-life events happened with Aghori Vimalananda. As with any sincere spiritual discipline, Aghora is a subjective science and to be learnt from a guru and cannot be learnt from a book or something. Caution has to be exercised by the readers as the subject matters discussed have a lot of gravity.

At the left hand of god

The first book introduces you to the fundamental aspects of Aghora – Shiva, Shakti, tantra, yantra, mantra and explain the concepts lucidly, faithful to the original Sanskrit words and ideas. I was impressed when I read it for the first time that a westerner had the almost seemingly thorough understanding of some of the ancient terminologies, which is otherwise very alien to a western mind.

Usually, meat, sex, and alcohol are proscribed in most of the spiritual paths considering them as the reasons for the downfall of men. But Aghora uses the same thing as stepping stones for reaching the spiritual pinnacle. This is where the catch is – very few, say one or two out of a hundred will be successful, the rest will end up as addicts or maniacs. It’s like walking on a sword, not for all. The book gives enough warnings on the fake tantriks, gurus and wrong methods and the hazards all these pose.

For me the chapter on Rnanubandhana captivated the most. The effect of Rna, or in simple words debt is explained in a detailed way. Once you enter the realm of Rna, you also enter the realm of Karmas of different kinds, fate, destiny etc. It’s a fascinating set of topics.

Kundalini

As I mentioned in one of my previous blogposts, anyone who has even primary knowhow on Indian spirituality would have a preliminary understanding of Kundalini. Kundalini is dormant energy present in everyone. It is dormant because unless it is evoked by continuous and conscious practice, it would be inaccessible. For a large part of the population, it would be useless because a very few people make a conscious effort of making use of it. It is often compared to sleeping serpent, as meddling with it without required knowledge could be lethal. The nadis and the main chakras and the raising of the Kundalini are explained with details. This book has enough warnings for the uninitiated who may try to test with Kundalini Shakthi.

It starts with the brief introduction to other esoteric schools similar to Aghora — Goddess Sekhmet in Egypt, the goddess Hera in Greece, the Goddess Kapo in Hawaii are similar to that of Goddess Kali in India. This part dwells deeper into various kinds of yantras, design & construction of Homa Kundas (fire pits) and their functionalities.

In terms of information, this book has more than the first installment. It is an excellent, exhaustive and captivating read.

The law of Karma

If you are a fan of horse racing, you would instantaneously fall in love with this installment wherein you can find a great deal of description on anything and everything related to it — from the different breeds of horses to jockeys, the training, betting etc. Vimalananda had a great passion for horse racing as it was briefly introduced in the previous parts.

This part beautifully explores the law of Karma and its effects on us, our inescapability from it, Rnanubandanas et al. Vimalananda explores all these by allegories, theories and live examples. I particularly liked the way in which the law of Karma is covered in all the details. It makes a fascinating read.

Conclusion

This book bursts many myths successfully. It touches the subjects which are considered ‘taboo’ and I won’t be surprised if some people are repulsed by it. It is easily one of the sensational books I have ever read. This has the necessary depth and dimension to be taken as a serious work. I admire the way subject matter – whatever it may be – is treated: raw, unabashed, without any inhibitions.

I know of the rhetoric of the greatness of Indian culture, its spiritual traditions et al. These kinds of works convince me that ‘rhetoric’ is actually true and echoes what Sadhguru once said about India: no other culture has looked into life in such depth as Indian culture has had.

No matter if you are a serious seeker or ‘just curious’, you will find this series interesting. This book is no ‘one-time read’. It’s good to be referenced for a long time. 

The real growth, the only goal...

I've often wondered what drives people to action. The driving force that makes people to perform a gamut of actions in the world ; from the grossest to the most profound. There are many explainations for this from psychology to sociology. The most famous one known to even a rookie in manangement studies is Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Although Maslow's theory tried to explain, it fell short to explain comprehensively. Then i turned my gaze to our very own system of yoga, not to be disappointed by the explaination provided.

This article in Huffington post from Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev prompted me to write this post. Yoga considers everything as energy. It's only the manipulation that we can do about it. Even fundamental physics says the same thing. So, fundamentally it's all the same energy manifesting in a zillion different forms. If that is the case, a human being is no different from the law as after all he's a microcasm in the macrocasm called universe. 

Someone who is born and brought up in India would have at least heard of the words 'Kundalini' and 'chakra' if not known anything about them in detail. Kundalini is a very vast concept in itself. To put it succinctly, it is an enormous dormant energy waiting to get awakened. Once it gets awakened, it can do phenomenal things. But if it is mishandled, it can cause a lot of physical and psychological damage. That's why it's aptly compared to a sleeping serpent.

As the above mentioned article clearly describes, chakras are the energy centers in which the energy channels called 'nadis' meet. Though they are in the form of triangle, because they symbolize growth and movement they are called chakras (wheels). When the dormant energy Kundalini begins to arise in the human system,it rises through these chakras. As the energy gets concentrated on a particular chakra, the dominant quality of the person changes accordingly. Even though there are 114 chakras in the human system, the dominant ones are 7 in number.

The seven chakras are : Mooladhara, Swadhisthana, Manipuraka, Anahata, Vishuddhi, Agna, Sahasrar. Depending on their physical locations, we can call them as higher and lower chakras but it no way denotes anything as inferior or superior in their quality. Mooladhara is the very first chakra and is located at the base of the spine. If the enegies are dominant in this chakra, food and sleep will be predominant qualities of life. Swadhisthana is the second chakra & is located just above the genital organs. If the energies become dominant here, the person will be incessant pleasure seeker and pleasure can be seeked in many different ways.

The next chakra is Manipuraka which is located just below the navel. When the energies move here, it pushes the person towards action. And action can be of so many types. When the energy moves towards the next chakra, Anahata which is located in the heart area, it makes the person very creative. The next chakra is Vishuddhi which is located in the throat region. If energies move towards this chakra, the person becomes extremely powerful in many ways. Political power and the likes appear to be pygmies in front of this kind of power.

If the energies move towards Agna, which is located between the eyebrows the person becomes intellectually enlightened. A new kind of peace and semblance dawns upon him. The next chakra, Sahasrar which is at the crown of the head is often described as thousand petalled lotus. The word Sahasrar also implies that its magnitude and significance is very vast; in fact, unlimited. When the energies reach Sahasrar, the person becomes extremely ecstatic.

Any spiritual seeker has to embark this journey from Mooladhara to Sahasrar in his ultimate quest towards self-knowledge. There can be a million ways to reach it. The seeker can choose any way which is appropriate to his nature and temperament. Once the seeker completes his journey, he would have known everything in this universe that is worth knowing.

Yogi :The most intelligent guy!!

All human pursuits are directed towards one thing and only one thing: happiness. The terms used to explain it might vary but the essential meaning remains the same. Some may term it as happiness, some as joy, some as bliss and some as ecstasy and so on. Ecstasy is just a more heightened state of happiness.

Some might say “not everyone is seeing their own happiness but they are working for others selflessly”. There are no selfless acts at all. All acts are selfish. If you take the self as the central point, for some the circumference might circle around themselves and their family, for some their community and for some, their nation. So the difference between one person and the other person lies in the circumference around the self. But essentially it is springing from or directed towards the self.

People have tried different ways of achieving happiness and the innovation for more methods continues. People have tried drugs; people have tried sex, yearned for success, power; all in the same pursuit. They have achieved it too. Thus achieved success is ephemeral. Else, people should have stopped looking for happiness. They are deprived of it therefore the search is always on. We search for the things which we don’t have.

All are capable of happiness but the problem is in the sustainability of it. People indulge in sex and feel great for some time and after sometime they are back to square one. People in search of happiness indulge in drugs and feel great for sometime (some drugs expands the consciousness) but again when they fall back, they return with a terrible feeling.

Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev of Isha Foundation articulates it beautifully through a story:

A pheasant and a bull were together in a meadow. The pheasant was on the bull’s back picking ticks as the bull grazed. The pheasant looked at the towering tree in front of him, sighed and said nostalgically,

“When I was young and strong, I could fly to the top of the tree.”

The bull nonchalantly said “You can still do it, just eat my dung for a week. “

The pheasant shrugged and said “what non-sense”.

The bull persisted and said “just try it, the whole humanity is on it”.

The pheasant reluctantly ate some. The very next day, much to his glee, he could fly to the first branch. A week later, as promised he was on the top of the tree. He crowed in delight, a farmer seated on the verandah of his house, saw this fat pheasant crowing, got his gun and shot him to the ground for a meal.

The moral of the story is, “sometimes even bullshit can take you to the top but it never lets you stay there.”!!

Adding to the ephemeral nature of these things, they are not good for the human system too. Indulging in alcohol or drugs can give pleasures for some time, but in a long run they are detrimental to the system (body and mind both). Now contrast this with the attitude of Yogi. A yogi is also in pursuit of happiness but more of a permanent one, the one that he can behold for a long term. The system of yoga that the yogi applies doesn’t hamper mind or body but instead enhances them.

If you look at some yogis, they will be disinterested in the things that interests most of us. There’s nothing wrong with that. They have graduated to finer states of things. As kids we treasured toys but now we never bother for them. They are nothing for us now because we have found they no more hold our interests. In the same way once someone graduates to finer things the base things appear meaningless.

The path of yoga that the yogi follows bypasses many unwanted steps for achieving permanent state of bliss. So it saves enormous amounts of time and effort. When each one of us is traveling in an Ambassador car, the yogi has learnt to use the F1 car. He’s put himself on a fast track. When the stated goal is same for all, when somebody is achieving swiftly than others without damaging others or himself, he should be a very efficient and intelligent person. These things make me to call the yogi the most intelligent person.