Life

Dear Vidya ,

This blog is a reaction to an sms I received from you when in Tirupathi the other day. Your sms wished us and mentioned that life is hell and where we are going after life is also going to be hell.

There are four presumptions in that sms
1: that we are "living"
2: that the living is hell
3: that there is an after life for which we need to strive now
4: that the consequences of our actions here can result in a hell there as well.


I want to share my views on the first assumption


What is living ?

Is it breathing in and breathing out ... which we are never conscious of- but which we certainly conclude is the end of "life" if it stops. Not only are we unconscious of breathing we are oblivious to the body as we gorge on food a slave to the palate.

Is it the striving for a living...is there a difference between the woman carrying bricks on a construction site and someone in an air conditioned office making deals? The end results in both are the same-earning some "bread" ( my cousin Rangas word for work).For the brick carrier her efforts go to meet her biological needs , whilst for the executive, Mr Maslow would want us to believe that there is striving for "self actualization", a pursuit beyond the basic deficiency needs rising to a Metamotivation-a need for "being".

Let us dwell on this a bit.Is the metamotivation that resulted in Ratan Tata leaving behind an enterprise vastly larger than when he took over, the same kind of metamotivation that drove Swami Chinmayananda to build a Foundation for religion and education? Who is more meta motivated-. Swami Ramakrishna who lived in his own world, though an enlightened soul-a Paramahamsa equally at home in realms of matter and spirit,( like a hamsa equally at home on land and on water),or his followers who built an Institution carrying his name and known for its service orientation?

The question, the answer to which I am grappling is -"Does a human being have to be metamotivated to live a wholesome life?" If the answer is Yes  then I have a ready response to your adjective "hell" added to the verb "living". The response  is -no- living is not hell. It becomes hell to a  person with a lack of metamotivation.

What if the answer is is NO? What if all this motivation is contrary to living? How are we to know? 

A Gautama took to deep enquiry and concluded that living is stressful. It is a pain that must be endured and the Buddha thereafter formulated an eight fold path. (Is not the Enlightened one tacitly admitting that stress must be minimised?)

The Bard viewed it in equally negative terms and it is worth quoting the passage in full

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow 
Creeps in its petty pace from day to day 
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools 
the way to dusty death 

With death a certainty the Bard  mocks at our actions in the living world - Fools, he sees us, pursuing futile goals. Life is after all .... 

...a tale told by an idiot 
Full of sound and fury 
Signifying nothing !

and so we go through life with all the sound and fury ,battling the mind with the acrimony of petty prattle and the idle gossip charged with the venoms of envy and hatred. A dreadful potion that blanks us off from any remote possibility of happiness.Lady Macbeths greed to the throne, her envy of Banquo, can make her kill to calm her heated brain. Finally the mind cracks .. 

Or have we completely misunderstood "living"? 

In the next few paragraphs permit me to share my takeaways from a book from Mukunds excellent collection "The Quantum and the Lotus".

Turn to the Buddha again and reflect on his proposition that we "live" or exist only in relationship to others . Else we are not living ! Life is mutual causality. Another way of defining the idea of interdependence is summarized by the term “tantra” which stands for a notion of continuity and the “fact that everything is part of a whole , so that nothing can happen separately.”The interdependence includes consciousness. The reality of a given object depends on a subject that is aware of the object.Perhaps this understanding  of interdependence should demolish the wall of illusions that our minds have built up between “me” and the “other”.It makes a non sense of pride , jealousy, greed and malice. If all things are interconnected we should be concerned about the happiness and suffering of others.

This line of thinking I find interesting. If we were to truly appreciate and concur with the Buddha on the "interconnectedness" of everything, we suddenly view our position in this world very differently!  We are not our egos! Where did this ego come from? Einstein seems to concur 

“ A human being is part of a whole , called by us as the Universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest – a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. The delusion is a kind of prison for us , restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty   

Einsteins last statement I find appealing and perhaps giving a lead to understanding the verb "living". Is living about the pursuit of giving happiness to others as contrasted to the pursuit of happiness of the self? Perhaps in this switch top the approach of life is the transformation of living from a hell to a harmonious existence.

Mention the word harmony and we must recollect the Poet Wordsworth. To this philosopher poet life is worth living only if it is harmonious with nature. It is as if all our troubles are linked to this attitude of treating nature as separate from ourselves.

 "Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting."

To Wordsworth, infants  have some memory of heaven,

"Heaven lies about us in our infancy!" 

As children this connection with heaven causes us to experience nature's glory more clearly. Once we are grown, the connection is lost. As we grow , as we get to earth, everything conspires to help us forget the place we came from: heaven. 

"Forget the glories he hath known, and that imperial palace whence he came."

The Poet goes on ( Ode to Immortality) to conclude that we go through life in endless imitation.He is unable to fathom why a child so close to heaven would rush to grow into an adult. 

"Why with such earnest pains dost thou provoke / The years to bring the inevitable yoke, / Thus blindly with thy blessedness at strife?"

Why , he asks do we take pains to bring this inevitable yoke on ourselves and thereby struggle against our inherent blessedness?

To me, living  is to realise that we are separated from Nature, that we are all all part of a dependent entity and our individual happiness lies in bringing happiness to others.

Last evening I visited my favourite temple in Madhapur. As they hurried to clase the temple I enquired and was told that the founder had passed away suddenly that afternoon. I remember the gaunt tall man who having retired from AP Government Service had donated his land for the temple. His pastime was to visit the temple daily and enjoy the sight of numerous bhaktas. To me this charitable act made his "living" purposeful.   

A line from an old movie song brings to end this blog

"Tum ek paise doge woh Dus Lakh dega" Who is that "Woh"? It is nature. It all comes around !

7th December 2011 

Sunandaji and Bhagavad Gita-Chapter 7 Day 2

Whilst the "lower" comprises the eightfold division of prakriti-earth space, air,water ,fire ,intellect,mind and ego, the "higher" comprises of the "life element' , the supporter of the lower. The eightfold division arises from the life element , is supported by the life element and dissolves into the life element. Sunanda gives the example of a fish in an ocean , the ocean being the life element and the fish the prakriti.

This higher element is all pervasive concludes the Lord in verse 6.

Why are we unable to appreciate this concept?. Quite like a man on the 45th floor of an apartment in Manhattan who has never ever seen mud. An Indian tries to show mud by pointing out to three colored pots. The man now thinks that mud is the colored pot. In response to which ;the Indian crushes the three pots , and reduces the pots to the mud. Now the man thinks mud is the residue in this residue in his 45th Floor Apartment. When this man visits India, another Indian clarifies that the mud he assumes is only in the 45th floor apartment of his is actually prevalent all over the world.

Prakriti is the pot
Mud is the support
The support is everywhere

Sunandaji diverted from the text to stress on the importance of listening as opposed to hearing. The difference is well known , and its repetition in the discourse only highlighted its neglect by all of us .The path to acquisition of Knowledge too requires traversing the three stages of   listening, thinking and practice.- Shravana -Manana-Aadhyaya. The great Shankara helps us to identify when we have reached the goal- the moment when we are able to distinguish the real from the unreal.

Sunandaji and Bhagavad Gita- Chapter 7 : Day 1

The calm and beautiful face is distracting, but once Sunandaji starts her discourse it is a hypnotising 90 minutes. Parthasarathys tenor and  movements are evident- the clarity of diction , the stress on certain words, the right pauses to let the thoughts sink in, the outstretched palms on either side circling the air and descending to the ground. The years have added a different but equally scientific approach to the Gita, one the father would be justly proud of. Sunandaji is yet tolerant to the failings of mankind, unlike her Father who would respond with a force that sometimes hurt but was always true. 

Todays discourse on Chapter 7 was prefaced by a strong argument as to why human beings need to confront matters spiritual. As the only living being ( as contrasted to animals and plants) able to "choose", humans need to enquire as to the purpose of life.Making a  choice of ignoring this question is the prime reason for the misery that one goes through at any material state. It is not right to blame fate or the Lord for ones misery  as Lord Krishna clarifies 

"God determines not the doership nor the doings of men, nor even their contact with the fruits of action: but it is Nature alone that functions" ( V .14)  

An enquiry within ( for where else is the spirit?),would help appreciate that vicissitudes in life are opportunities to hone ones skills. Just as physical exercise is essential for a healthy body , challenges on lifes' front improves  the mental strength. A knife is sharpened on the rough edges of a stone not on smooth marble. Even that process of sharpening requires tact and knowledge, obtained through the rigor of training and persistence.

This enquiry Sunandaji emphasises, is an "insurance" to help one in times of stress and a discipline to acquire it would be well worth it.

Chapter 7 highlights the Yoga of Knowledge and Wisdom ( Gyaana and Vigyaana). In verse 4, the summam bonum of all knowledge is addressed when Krishna clarifies that Nature comprises of five elements ( earth , water, air, space and fire) and the three subtler elements viz mind , intellect and the ego. Sunandajis exposition is eerie but there is no better example. On nearing death the "air" leaves the body. In a while the body cools as "fire" within dies out . Thence "water" oozes, The cremation or burial merges the material body with "earth" and the absence of the individual releases "space".

In verse 5 , the Lord shows a higher plane, above this lower eight fold division the "Jiva" that is the life principle.            

The Price of Water: A journey to Chickmagalur Part A

Families have many a reason to take a holiday- to unwind, to make a zillionth attempt to resolve personal differences, to utilize their LTA etc. Ours was because Madam S had to leave town on a social engagement. The prospects of managing the household comprising of me and her was too much for J, what with me not knowing where the pump switch was. I gave up a sincere attempt to reason with J, and so it was decided to visit Bangalore to avoid the risk of no water in the overhead tanks. Five days at U’s guest house facility at NIMHANS would coincide well with the Madams return.

Except that at the last minute (and not for the first time either!) , U regretted her inability to arrange the guest house. “If not Bangalore why not Chickmagalur? ..”went J’s reasoning .A century and a half earlier a certain queen in France provided a similar simple solution for her starving subjects. If they do not get bread, why don’t they eat cake?

Visit Chickmagalur for just a day? Tot up the time of travel, the change in transport and one is lucky to get a days holiday in four. My second attempt at reasoning with J, this time with the plea that an important meeting planned a month ago was falling during this period, did not carry weight.

The train journey from Hyderabad in air conditioned comfort (after many years) was pleasant. V was kind to send his car to pick us up, never mind that owing to a communication glitch; we were waiting on the wrong end of the station.

Lunch and dialogues on religion with V kept us occupied- save an embarrassment. A,the charming daughter wanted to read her poems to me, forced by J , me being introduced a Poet Laureate of the Chari clan. As I go up to welcome the girl, V’s booming voice echoes across the “Don’t go near her! She is Dooram!”  I froze in my tracks, pretended not to hear and shouted a big hello to A across the room.

Doora m? Gosh..! that took me back decades ago , when as a child I remember the few days Mother would stay away from the kitchen periodically...and we children were not to go near her. Mother threw out the custom quickly though, and now in the year of our Lord 2011 I witness the ritual once again: this on a kid , no matter how embarrassed she would have been  hearing the caution.

V is truly an enigmatic personality. A hardware specialist, successful very early in life with his first entrepreneurial venture landing him a fair treasure, V   took to Vaishavism with a vengeance, getting his Kannadiga wife and the two children interested as well. However, the sons tirunamam hidden by a crop of hair, revealed to me reluctance not expressed in deference to the temper of the Father. Likewise A’s poems on family discord seemed to reveal a soul in pain. V’s hospitality is legion and after a saatvic lunch we were on the bus to Chickmagalur.

German technology once again proved its worth when two hours into the journey the  sleepy driver jammed the brakes of the Mercedes bus and we were saved a fall into a ditch by a whisker. Save for that the five hour drive, for me was a period of stress as I reflected on the meeting that I had abandoned. A few sms exchanged with the client first hurtful, then surprised and ultimately reconciliatory, got the date shifted to the following week. Close on the completion of this exchange, we reached Chikmagalur

The taxi ride to the resort took longer than scheduled as the driver did not have the proper directions. Thanks to mobile technology and a  last bar of battery charge left in Js mobile , we made our way to the resort  past 9Pm. Reliance beats Idea hollow in its communication reach.

Bharat, the Manager of the resort received us and suggested we partake of the dinner first. A pony tailed engineer turned resort Manager, Bharat seemed far older than his age, wearied by guests of all types. His wife decided to get back to a job with Honeywell in Bangalore, leaving Bharat even lonelier. We exchanged pleasantries and after a quick bite reached the villa

Oh the villa, the villa! Set atop a hill with a clear 360 degree of mountains on one side and coffee plantations on the other three, the villa is tastefully decorated with bric a brac from across the world . It has obviously been designed by someone with an eye for things majestic in keeping with the royal background of the owners. The manicured lawns all around the villa with a helipad on one side, exhibit wealth but subdued not garish.

We were asleep in a trice.

Can I ignore this movement?

I looked up the definition of "catharsis" before starting this blog , in the hope that this was the word I was seeking. One definition in the Net defines it as "a discharge of pent-up emotions so as to result in the alleviation of symptoms or the permanent relief of the condition"  

Could the people taking to the streets in support of Anna Hazare be termed as a  catharsis? I would wager that a very large proportion of them would have abetted corruption at some time or another, like I have on numerous occasions. I would also wager that many themselves are guilty of corruption in their approach to their jobs. All too often, only the monetary aspect of corruption is highlighted. The non monetary nature of corruption is, in my opinion, far more serious. In the former the giver is assured of a result. In the latter, the loss of time , the mental agony, the hassles, the patent injustice etc are "costs" the person incurs if not in  money terms certainly in health and discomfort terms.

If , therefore, this spontaneity results in a "permanent relief of the condition"  it is a welcome step to have been taken long ago. Would it be a  relief from viewing every interaction as one that requires a "whats in it for me" approach? Way back in my convent school one of my teachers highlighted the altruistic nature of Christianity ( thou shall help thy neighbor) and the Karma approach of my religion , where my fate is largely my doing and its resolution likewise of my own initiative. Many a Hindu ( including myself) have rationalized a self centred approach to an interaction  as being blessed from above. If I get the better of the other bloke its my Karma and also his!

Could we as Indians achieve that paradigm shift whereby in our jobs  we  interact with another with a spirit of well being for the other, not for the sole benefit of oneself ? How often do we view a supplier as someone out to benefit from us rather than one who can set up a mutually beneficial transaction? Is it in the genes of a Head Constable  recording a missing document, not to see the discomfort that I am going through coming to the Station to fulfil a procedural requirement to secure a duplicate, but wonder why I am not handing out the Rs 100 norm for such transactions?

Notice the lack of any stir in our rural heartland. Blame it on the urban centric media if you will . My take is that the rural folk are far more pragmatic of the outcomes of such street demonstrations.Tomorrow,  he would need to take the time ( the whole day ) and the expense to the city headquarters for a Certificate from one of the lads presently filling up the streets. Is not this total exclusion of the rural sector by the print and visual media a corruption of sorts , a selective "reporting" if you will. Even in their reporting of the street demostrations the TV cameras were hard pressed to show the "numbers" "thronging" the street. Thousands and millions are fairly extensible words!